Two Nunavut mothers outline issues with Family Services' foster system

Two mothers from the same Nunavut community say the Department of Family Services have been rude and disrespectful to them.

Lily and Sophia, whose names have been changed for this story to protect the identities of their children, both told CBC News similar stories of being dismissed or kept in the dark by Child and Family Services workers, with one alleging the workers were rude and disrespectful to Inuit clients.

"We're not being treated the way a human should be treated," said Lily. "When you're not treated like a human being and you're just being sent left, right and centre, it's very traumatic."

Multiple interview requests made to Family Services regarding the mothers' stories were denied. CBC News also submitted a series of generic questions about the foster system, which were not responded to.

This comes after a 2023 report by the Auditor General of Canada issued a scathing review of child and family services in Nunavut. Regarding foster care, it found that Child and Family Services didn't know about the well-being of the children they included in their sample size.

In addition, the report found that of the foster homes surveyed, "the department did not thoroughly screen these new homes or carry out required reviews of the established ones."

"We concluded that the Department of Family Services consistently failed to take action to protect and support the wellbeing of vulnerable children, youth, and their families in accordance with legislation, policy, and program requirements," the report stated in its conclusion.

Lily said she initially called Child and Family Services when she was struggling with postpartum and post-trauma depression in 2016, which led to harmful thoughts about her kids and herself. However, the department only intervened once an acquaintance of hers called RCMP.

Her children were placed in foster care for three months, she said.

"They came home with scars; they came home with missing hair," Lily said, adding one child told her they were forced to eat different food than their host family.

It wouldn't be the last time they would be put in the system. In 2018, they were taken away again for several years.

Lily said when she tried to get answers, two Department of Family Services employees blamed her instead for the situation.

She said she had a meeting with deputy minister Jonathan Ellsworth over it, but hasn't seen any improvement.

"I've spoken about how it had affected my children and my family," Lily said. "It's unfortunate that I still have to deal with the same system; that systemic racism."

Sophia, who has struggled with alcohol, said she has had her own issues with the foster care system. Some of her children went into the system in 2020.

She hasn't heard from her children since then because, she says, Family Services is still figuring out how to put them in touch. 

In the meantime, Sophia heard from members of her former partner's family that one of her children was sexually abused — a revelation that upset her so much she went to the Family Services office and screamed at the worker on site.

"I started screaming at her and asking her why she didn't tell me and why did I have to hear it from my friend," Sophia said.

"I smashed up her desk and threw her garbage."

Sophia said Family Services workers also told her one of her children didn't want to be returned to her home.

"I don't believe that," she said. "I believe she wants to go home to her mother and family."

Both women say they want things to change at Family Services.

Lily said she has tried to be part of that change — she was accepted into the social service worker program at Nunavut Arctic College and hopes to one day be able to support families herself.

In the meantime, she is still trying to get answers from Family Services about what her children went through.

"I don't know where else to go," she said.