‘The system has fallen apart’: A child dies every 3 days under Ontario’s care network

Every three days, a child who has been involved with Ontario’s care system dies.

That’s according to provincial data obtained by Global News using freedom of information laws that tracked the deaths of 354 children between 2020 and 2022 who were under the care of the government in some form.

The information captures children who died while living in care or with social work files that are either open or closed within 12 months of their death.

The stark figures are causing alarm among advocates who say the government is failing in its most basic duty.

“I’m mortified, I had no idea that this many kids were dying who have been in care, involved in care or somewhat around the system,” Ontario NDP MPP Monique Taylor told Global News after seeing the data.

“I think this number is absolutely terrifying and it just really confirms the lack of belief that I have in the government to be able to take care of our most vulnerable kids.”

In 2020, the Ontario government’s Child Welfare Operations Branch began to collect and summarize the pile of death notifications it received through “contentious issue reports.”

For the past three years, the number of contentious issue reports dealing with the death of a child was rolled up into a presentation showing how children had died, where they had died and how old they were, among other details.

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The first three years of data, the only figures currently available using freedom of information laws, paint a troubling picture.

It shows that in 2020, 104 children associated with care died. In 2021 that number spiked to 129, while 121 deaths were recorded in 2022. The three-year average of 118 child deaths in the report works out as roughly one every three days.

The report accessed by Global News is one of several ways Ontario measures child deaths. The reporting process has changed over time, with the coroner’s office among those involved in tracking the issue.

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Irwin Elman worked as Ontario’s advocate for children and youth for more than a decade before his office was dissolved in 2019 and said it had always been tough to track exactly how many children had died.

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“There is a grey area of a number but the bottom line for me, when I think about it, was the children,” Elman told Global News.

“They’re children who are being cared for, whose responsibility for their welfare was a system we created in Ontario… to make sure that they’re loved, cared for, nurtured, have a good life. And every three days… one of those children dies.”

The data shows that for all three years the government has tracked, the majority of deaths were among children who welfare agencies were monitoring but not actively housing themselves.

In 2020, 13 children died in care, while 28 died within 12 months of their child welfare file being closed. The vast majority — 63 — died with open cases investigating and helping with their living situation, including 34 children who died still at home with their families but under the watch of child welfare.

“I think what’s most alarming to me is the number of children who are dying who have an open case file,” Sara Austin, founder and CEO of Children First Canada, told Global News.

“So, they’re on the radar of the child welfare system, there may be an investigation underway, they may be receiving supports in some form. They should be within a safety net if you will, under care and protection, yet we’re seeing clearly these are the children who are the highest risk.”

The 2020 pattern repeated in both 2021 and 2022, the data shows. Ninety-five of the 129 deaths reported in 2021 were for kids with open files, while 75 of the 121 deaths in 2021 fit the same criteria.

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The largest cause of death in all three years was listed as undetermined, with roughly one-third of deaths in all three years unclear. Medical deaths made up the next largest category in all three years, followed by accidental deaths. Suicides accounted for between seven and 11 per cent of the deaths recorded in 2020, 2021 and 2022.

When someone dies under the care of the state in a correctional facility, a coroner’s inquest is triggered. Advocates say the same guardrails are simply not in place when a child dies — leaving the circumstances around many deaths a tragic mystery.

“We don’t have capacity to hold inquests for that many people,” Elman explained.

“The coroner could not hold 100, 120, 126 inquests (in a year), we don’t have the capacity, we’re not willing to spend the money to do it, so we don’t.”

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Taylor said the lack of investigations was part of the issue, with a need to shine an intense light on the situation.

“We know that our systems are broken, so we need to ensure that we have these public inquests and that we look and see where exactly the system has fallen apart and allowed this young person to not get what they need,” she said.

“I think the system is wrong and I’d like to see full public disclosure every time a child dies within care or that is within the care system.”

Advocates say the data lays bare the sheer number of children being failed by the government’s care systems, and call for Ontario to take drastic action to address the situation.

“We have ample data to show that we are failing our children. There is clear evidence that children are not cared for and protected, that the system is failing them and that we need to do better,” Austin, the founder of Children First Canada, said.

“This is a crisis. We have been saying for years that the child welfare system is failing to protect our children.”

Global News requested an interview with Minister of Children, Community and Social Services Michael Parsa. His office rejected the ask, despite being offered an open timeline to sit down and discuss the data, which was also sent to his team.

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In a prewritten statement, the ministry said the “death of any child is a tragedy” and that it is committed to improving both data collection and redesigning the child welfare system overall.

Elman, whose office advocating for children was scrapped by the Ford government in 2019, said he had experienced a sense of indifference from many of the official organizations involved in the reporting of child deaths.

“I would say there’s a matter of fact sense among the institutions — the children’s aid society, the coroner’s office, the ombudsman — sort of a matter of fact, business as usual, nothing to see here, move along folks,” he said.

Each death, Elman pointed out, is the state failing to clear the lowest bar that can be set.

“These children should live through our attempts to protect them,” he said. “I mean what lower bar do we have to measure our system of prevention? And they don’t (live) and it’s not okay.”

The government is currently in the midst of a review and “redesign” of the province’s children’s aid system. How that is proceeding and how it will look when it is complete remain broadly unclear.

“The redesign is focused on the delivery of high-quality services and prioritizing the safety, protection and needs of children, youth and families,” the government said in response to questions from Global News.

In the three years since that review process began, at least 354 children have died who were either in the care of a children’s aid society or on the radar of its staff. That figure, Taylor said, is a cry for urgent action.

“One child is too many; 354 in three years is completely unacceptable,” she said.

“Nobody can hide from the truth of what’s happening, the numbers are clear in front of us and it’s time to get together, roll our sleeves up and make sure we’re doing the hard work and building a system that people and families can count on.”