Manitoba youth in care allowed to go to homes where they were sexually exploited: search warrant
Sources tell CBC several people connected to Spirit Rising House arrested, but no charges laid
Children in the care of a for-profit private foster home provider were given cannabis daily, allowed to go to homes where they were sexually exploited, and taken to see known drug dealers by staff, according to newly unsealed search warrant documents obtained by CBC News.
Spirit Rising House has been under police investigation since February, after a social media post raised allegations the company was providing marijuana to youth in its care as a form of harm reduction.
Sources told CBC several people connected with Spirit Rising House have been arrested, but charges have not yet been laid.
In a sworn affidavit, Winnipeg police said the evidence they collected shows that people who were involved in Spirit Rising House were "criminally negligent" and caused numerous children in care to suffer bodily harm.
"I am not a doctor or therapist but I do believe that SRH [Spirit Rising House] providing numerous at-risk CIC [children in care] with marijuana has led to harm both mentally and physically," Winnipeg police Const. Phillip Cole in an April 10, 2024, affidavit to a judge.
The Winnipeg-based company ran nine foster homes and two specialized group homes for high-risk youth in Child and Family Services care before the province cut ties with the provider at the end of February, pledging to remove all 34 youth in their care.
The foster homes were in charge of Level 5 CFS children in care — youth with complex care needs who were deemed at risk of sexual exploitation, drug use and self-harm.
CBC first reported in April that several group homes were searched by police as part of their investigation into Spirit Rising House.
Documents show police got warrants to search 14 homes for a number of items including log sheets, cannabis prescriptions, drug paraphernalia and documentation.
They were also searching for financial records of funds received by Spirit Rising House from Southeast Child and Family Services — which licensed Spirit Rising House — and records of the money spent on the children in care, the search warrant documents show.
The financial records would give the child abuse unit "some idea" how much the company "was profiting when it provided marijuana to the CIC and 'subsidized' it with the CIC's allowance," Const. Cole wrote.
Youth driven to store to buy weed
The Winnipeg Police Service's child abuse unit interviewed numerous former employees as part of the investigation.
Details from these interviews are included in the affidavit obtained by CBC.
The workers said youth at some homes were given marijuana as a reward for doing chores.
They told detectives that after the social media post that first raised the allegations, a policy was put in place that staff couldn't provide cannabis to kids in care — so instead, they drove them to an unlicensed grocery store to buy the drugs themselves, paid for out of their allowance.
Spirit Rising staff also worked around the prohibition on giving kids cannabis by purchasing it and putting it on the ground outside the door, the search warrant says.
An employee said daily logs were altered, and when staff drove the youth to a "safe" drug dealer's house, they would say they were buying "groceries."
During this same time, a staff member told police the house manager of one of the foster homes stopped giving workers money, and the workers had to use their own funds to feed the kids and provide feminine hygiene products.
Another worker said the foster parents at one home let the youth go to homes where they were sexually exploited, and that the kids were selling themselves for drugs and alcohol.
Those incidents weren't reported to police or Child and Family Services, the staff member said.
Foster parents would change logs to say the youth in their care were sleeping, when "they had been out of the house doing drugs," according to the worker.
At the group home deemed "the most concerning," the search warrant documents said staff allowed boyfriends to sleep over, youth in care were taken to see known drug dealers, and youth breached court-ordered curfews.
One staff member told police they were "scared" for the well-being of the kids, "as some are about to age out of care and all they do is smoke marijuana and sleep."
A director with Southeast Child and Family Services told police that none of the children in the care of Spirit Rising House had a medical marijuana prescription.
The ownership group of Spirit Rising House declined to comment on the search warrant documents.
In a prepared statement, Manitoba Families Minister Nahanni Fontaine said her department is aware of the ongoing police investigation and directed all questions to Winnipeg police.
Spirit Rising House defends policies
In a report released by the company in May, Spirit Rising House defended the care it provided to the youth, arguing it was looking to develop new solutions for "existing problems in child welfare in relation to vulnerable youth afflicted with the illness of addiction."
It wrote that kids were coming into Spirit Rising homes with substance use issues to begin with, sometimes facing criminal charges from drug use and were susceptible to exploitation.
"This government does not have the luxury of placing blame on one group or organization. Exploitation and hard drug use cannot be ignored for Manitoba's youth in care or for youth living in their natural homes," the report stated.
"Shame and stigma must end for these young people suffering and the people who dedicate their resources and lives to helping them."
Winnipeg police declined to comment, citing the ongoing investigation.
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