An Alberta woman is mourning the loss of her eight-year-old daughter who died on Sunday – just over a year after being put into government care.
The mother, who can’t be identified, says her daughter passed away in her sleep at a group home.
“There was nothing wrong with her heart, why it just stopped is an answer we want to know,” the girl’s mother said.
Her daughter was medically fragile; she had a mild eating disorder, and was said to be at a high risk of depression if taken away from strong relationships.
Social workers reportedly considered the mother’s housing situation to be unstable and unhealthy for her daughter – something the mother adamantly disputes.
“They believed I was unstable because I was living with family and I didn’t have a lease of my own. Not everybody has the ability or the money…to live on their own.
“I don’t believe for a second that I deserved to have her taken away from me. And sometimes I wonder,” she said with her voice breaking, “if she were here with me, she might still be here. And that breaks my heart.”
After her little girl was removed from her care, she was shuffled between group homes and disability service coordinators, according to the mother.
“And with all the yanking away that they had caused her, it ended up in severe depression, and that’s what started the whole medication thing.”
Her mother says she began to show signs of aggression and depression and was put on several strong medications.
By the time of their last visit on Saturday, during which they went swimming (something that was once one of her daughter’s favourite activities), the young girl seemed to be a shell of her former self. For one, her mom says her weight had whittled down to 37 pounds, exposing bones across her body.
“She was drooling a lot, very zombie-like, very shivery, tremoring. So it makes me wonder what were these medications doing to that little body, and why didn’t anybody notice?”
As she awaits toxicology results from her daughter’s autopsy, something she’s been told may take up to six weeks, the mother’s mission has shifted from fighting to get her daughter back to finding out why she died.
“Why all these children, why my daughter, why other people’s children? And why the need for secrecy? Why the need to hide it?”
Her questions come one day after the province released data on the deaths of 592 children who had received government aid since 1999, but were not wards of the province when they died.
That admission follows the results of an investigation into foster care deaths in Alberta that was published by the Edmonton Journal and the Calgary Herald in late November. It found 145 children had died in government care between 1999 and the fall of 2013. Only 56 of the deaths had been made public.
The government revealed Wednesday that another four children died in care during the latter half of 2013.
READ MORE: Alberta minister responds to investigation on foster care deaths
In regards to the latest death, Minister of Human Services Manmeet Bhullar says for privacy reasons he could only confirm a death in care had occurred. It is number 150.
But he stresses that he’s committed to changing laws so more information can be released on the deaths of children in foster care.
That’s something the grieving mother is determined to see happen.
“I refuse to allow my daughter’s passing to be covered up,” she said. “I want the world to know that something is wrong within our government, and I want things changed.”
“We need to get to the bottom of this. And I want to be the voice for all the families out there that just may not be strong enough to be their own voice.”
Bhullar will be speaking about the state of foster care in Alberta and his plans for reform during Thursday’s Early News.
With files from Tom Vernon, Global News and The Canadian Press
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