Ford’s Conservative government failing vulnerable Indigenous youth: Ontario NDP

The Deputy Leader of the Ontario NDP, Sol Mamakwa, blasted the Ford government Tuesday, suggesting it is failing to protect vulnerable Indigenous youth in the province.

But the Minister of Children, Community and Social Services Michael Parsa dismissed the claim, arguing that his Tory government is already working to better protect all children and youth in the province.

The exchanges took place during question period at Queen’s Park, as Ontario lawmakers reacted to a year-long Global News investigation into the child-welfare system that revealed allegations of targeting and mistreatment of Indigenous youth by for-profit group homes.

NDP MPP Mamakwa demanded immediate action from Premier Doug Ford’s Progressive Conservatives to better care for kids that enter the child welfare protection system, citing the targeting and mistreatment allegations Global revealed.

The Global News investigation uncovered how northern First Nations youths from remote communities are allegedly targeted by some for-profit group home companies because their owners can charge more for Indigenous children or because the kids provide a steady source of revenue, according to interviews with more than 50 former group home workers, former children’s aid employees and child-welfare experts.

The results are experiences some likened to the abuse that took place during the residential schools era, according to some workers, child-welfare experts and youths.

“These companies see our children and youth as a steady source of revenue, as cash cows,” said Mamakwa, the MPP for Kiiwetinoong in northwestern Ontario, and a residential school survivor.

He has been an outspoken critic on many issues facing First Nations communities like the overrepresentation of Indigenous