It’s been over three years since 16-year-old Eishia Hudson was shot and killed by a Winnipeg police officer. And while an investigation cleared the officer involved, Hudson’s family continues to bring attention to a system that could have saved her life.
The Memengwaa Wiidoodaagewin, or Butterfly Project report, provided recommendations on establishing the necessary resources that would improve care services for children, especially Black, Indigenous, and other racialized youth.
Published on Thursday by the office of the Manitoba Advocate for Children and Youth, the report dives into Hudson’s life leading up to her death. It also highlights the impact that police interactions have on youth, advocating for a change in how officers respond to various incidents.
“Eishia’s life ended tragically as a result of a police shooting, completing her journey far before her time,” reads the report. “(W)e have to inspire action, expansion, and application of necessary resources that can assist families in meeting the universal needs of children and youth so they may thrive.”
Sherry Gott, the Manitoba Advocate, writes in the report that while wraparound supports and public services were present throughout much of Hudson’s early life, constant change in her living arrangements and the steady decline in such support contributed to a hostile interaction between her and the police.
The negative consequences of police contact must be mitigated, Gott noted. She compiled several recommendations as a way to outline solutions:
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- ensuring no one else is involved in fatal police shootings
- developing a youth model of the Alternative Response to Citizens in Crisis program
- engaging in appropriate community consultation to ensure the Public Safety Training Strategy is set through a “youth-central, anti-oppressive, and trauma-informed” lens
- resources are made public to be able to evaluate programs like the Coach Expansion Site
Such recommendations are built on the circumstances leading to the fatal shooting of Hudson. On April 8, 2020, Hudson was shot by an officer after allegedly partaking in the armed robbery of a liquor store, with a group of individuals. Soon after, officials said she was part of a police chase in a stolen vehicle.
The Independent Investigation Unit of Manitoba, in its report on Jan. 28, 2021, found the WPS officer who shot Hudson should not be held criminally liable. The IIU went on to say that such use of force on the officer’s part was justified due to perceived, imminent danger to his life and other officers.
The advocate report states that while it can’t evaluate the actions of WPS officers, it recommends improvements to public services for those youth in need. Intergenerational experience over the effects of residential schools, day schools, and the fostering into non-Indigenous families, all contributed to difficulties that Hudson and her family faced, according to the report. But services, like the COACH program, support to transition into mainstream schooling, and therapy all assisted in ensuring Hudson’s early childhood wasn’t negatively affected through constant change. Such services, however, waned off in the latter years leading up to her death.
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The report alludes to this, stating: “There were other times… where she did not receive the support she required and to which she was entitled, pursuant to her rights as laid out in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC).”
Calls for an inquest into Hudson’s death have since been granted by a provincial court judge last year. A date, however, hasn’t been set yet.
According to the province, a judge presiding over an inquest may “recommend changes in the programs, policies, and practices of government that in his or her opinion would reduce the likelihood of a death in circumstances similar to those that resulted in the death that is the subject of an inquest.”
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