B.C. Conservatives call on government to investigate death of Indigenous teen

B.C.'s Opposition Conservatives are calling on the province to launch an investigation into the death of Indigenous teen Chantelle Williams who died in Port Alberni in January while under government care.

In a release, the party claims there is a "crisis of accountability" in the child and youth welfare system, and "broader systemic failures that continue to put Indigenous children at risk."

As CBC News first reported, 18-year-old Williams died in hospital on Jan. 28 after being found unresponsive on a sidewalk in sub-zero temperatures only a few blocks from her group home.

Members of Williams's family believe she may have froze to death. 

The teen was in the guardianship care of Usma Nuu-chah-nulth Family and Child Services, a delegated agency of the Ministry of Children and Family Development, and living in a contracted group home operated by Inside Out Care Corporation. 

The B.C. Coroners Service is investigating the cause of death. Family say they were told by an Usma representative that Williams died of natural causes.  

"How can the sudden death of a young woman — barely into adulthood, still under provincial care — be considered natural," said Amelia Boultbee, Conservative critic for Children and Family Development. "How many of these so-called natural or undetermined deaths are occurring within the system?"

Advocacy group Justice for Girls said stories like Williams's are all too familiar.

"We know that teenage girls that come from Indigenous communities are disproportionately failed by the foster care system," said Sue Brown, Justice for Girls director of advocacy. "In our work with girls over 25 years — and this is backed up by the data — outcomes of girls in care are bleak."

Justice for Girls acts on behalf of teenage girls who are failed by the institutions responsible for protecting them. 

Brown said group homes operating within B.C.'s foster care system need better regulation.  

"We have a for-profit group home system throughout the province where for-profit group home providers are operating on a profit model, which means they are reducing their cost in order to maximize their profits," said Brown. "The result is it's the kids who are harmed in that model."

B.C.'s Representative for Children and Youth, Jennifer Charlesworth, told CBC in an earlier email that her office would be releasing a report in May "focused on how systems of care are failing girls specifically."

Charlesworth also said her office will be doing a "comprehensive review of government-funded staffed group homes to illuminate where gaps in practice and quality of care exist."

Boultbee said more reports won't help, though.

"We need accountability and immediate reform," she said. "One death is a tragedy. But when the system allows it to happen again and again, it becomes a crisis of accountability."