‘Anonymous Calgary’ rally against abuse of children in child protective services

WATCH ABOVE: The hacktivist group “Anonymous” organized a rally at City Hall in Calgary demanding action over the mounting number of children who have died in the custody of child protective services. Doug Vaessen has more.

CALGARY  – It’s an  international day of protest in Canada, the U.S., Mexico and the United Kingdom.

At City Hall Saturday, the hacker group ‘Anonymous Calgary’ organized a rally demanding action against chronic abuse of children that plague child protective services.

“These kids don’t have a voice without us.”

Anonymous Calgary said they are speaking out on behalf of thousands of silent and anonymous children  seized each year by provincial authorities.

“Lets just apprehend them and sort out the problem later.”

Marianne Moll, a child advocate, says it’s systemic abuse of power with little or no regard for the importance of families in raising children.

“15,000 under interim or initial or temporary guardianships and 8,000 in permanent guardianship in government custody.”

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An anonymous woman spoke out and says she has seen the abuse through the eyes of a child, as well as a parent and our child protection services have gone horribly wrong.

“We are here today because the system is broken. For example, here in Alberta 685 deaths were hidden from the public.”

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Shockingly, the first nations community accounts for  over 70 percent of those deaths.

“From an indigenous point of view it’s hard not to see this as the continued genocide of our children when our children are institutionalized and murdered so we need to have accountability and transparency so people are held in account of those deaths because if we are going to take the children away from the parents we need to show that there is a reason why and we also need to show why they died in care,” said Michelle Robinson, president of the Aboriginal Peoples Commission of Alberta.

A small group that spent hours getting their message across, say it’s not just a problem for Alberta but one for all of the country.

“$400 million annually is spent on child welfare in Canada and that should be used to help build families together rather than tear them apart.”

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Anonymous Calgary says it’s too soon to tell if the NDP government will initiate real change.

This spring, before taking office, the NDP  raised the issue in the legislature after a record 31 children died in CPS care between April 1, 2014 and around the same time a year later. The hacker group Anonymous organized the rally.

Anonymous Calgary posted online organizing a series of rallies throughout Calgary regarding Changing our Alberta Child and protection services. The first was on August 20th at various MLA offices, asking people to bring a short letter narrating their families experience with Children’s services unlawfully oppressing their family and neglecting a child’s needs.