Baby reunited with parents after public outcry from apparent CFS apprehension video – Winnipeg

A Winnipeg mother and father are reunited with their baby following days of public outcry after their baby was apprehended by Child and Family Services.

A video circulating on social media this week appears to show a Child and Family Services worker arriving in a hospital room at the Health Sciences Centre to apprehend an infant from an Indigenous family on Monday. The baby was born on last Friday.

In the video, you can hear family members saying they have a safe, after-birth plan in place for the baby, whose mother is underage, and asking for an explanation on why the baby is being apprehended. In the video, they don’t receive a clear answer.

“It’s quite disturbing and wrong that he’s done that, especially when he knows all the things we had in place for baby,” the aunt, who filmed the video, told Global News outside a Child and Family Services office on Thursday. Global News is hiding the identity of the family members to protect the identity of the child.

Family, friends and advocates protested and rallied outside CFS offices for days following the apprehension of the infant on Monday. On Thursday, after a two-and-a-half hour meeting with Child and Family Services, the father reported the baby would be returning to its parents.

“(I felt) relief,” the father told Global News. “I was excited. Still am excited that I get to see my baby again, because what they did was not right, it’s not right at all.”

The father says he still feels hurt over the incident. The family says CFS has apologized for the miscommunication, but they still intend on pursuing legal action.

“Of course, it still hurts that it happened,” he said. “Like, they took everything from us, that’s how it feels because she’s my flesh and blood. To me, she’s not just a daughter, she’s the whole future.”

Some advocates are voicing concerns over how the incident happened, as the province officially ended the practice of birth alerts as of June 30, 2020.

“What happened on Monday was a birth alert,” said Tara Martinez, a public education coordinator with the Children First Society.

“And they’re going to sit there and call it voluntary prevention work. But it’s a birth alert with a different name, literally.”

Birth alerts were used to notify hospitals and child-welfare agencies that a more thorough assessment was needed before a newborn was discharged to a parent deemed high-risk.

The practice had long been criticized by Indigenous leaders and other people of colour. The final report of the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls said they were “racist and discriminatory, and are a gross violation of the rights of the child, the mother and the community.”

“I think it’s a stark reminder that we have a long way to go, and that we have to start working together and taking a more First Nations-led approach when it comes to our children in care,” said Chief Cindy Woodhouse, the Manitoba regional chief for Assembly of First Nations.

“I think that we need to try to keep our families together as much as we can, and I think there is a different way of doing things, rather than birth alerts.”

In an emailed statement to Global News, a provincial spokesperson said it cannot comment on any specific case due to privacy concerns. It also noted Manitoba was one of the first provinces to officially end birth alerts.

“A birth alert meant that Child and Family Services (CFS) needed to assess the safety of the child at birth. It did not necessarily result in a newborn being apprehended. The end of birth alerts should not be interpreted to mean the end of newborn apprehensions,” the emailed statement read.

“Infant safety will always be paramount. If it is determined an infant is not safe or cannot be made safe, CFS must become involved. This may include the need for intervention when an infant is in the hospital. Sometimes this may result in apprehension, however apprehension is always the last resort.”

The province also says the number over newborn apprehensions have dropped off by 70 per cent in the last four years. In the 2018-19 fiscal year, there were 289 newborn apprehensions in the province. The year the province dropped birth alerts there were 101 apprehensions, which was a 46-per cent decrease from the year prior.

In the most recent year, there were 84 newborn apprehensions.

— with files from the Canadian Press.

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