On Aug. 21, 2013, a little boy named Lee Bonneau was given money to buy food at a recreation centre on the Kahkewistahaw First Nation. In a community of only 600, Bonneau’s foster mother most likely felt it was safe to let the six-year-old wander off on his own. It was a mistake she soon regretted. A search ensued when Bonneau didn’t return after 15 minutes and after an hour and a half, he was found severely injured behind the centre. He had suffered blunt force trauma to the head and soon died.
In the wake of his death a year later, the accusations have flowed hard and fast. Who’s to blame, the public all asked. Was it the foster mother, who made the fatal error of letting a six-year-old child run off on his own? Was it the 10-year-old boy -- named Derek to protect his identity – who murdered young Bonneau? Or was it the authorities, because they failed to notice the disturbing behaviour Derek had been previously displaying? In this situation, there’s no shortage of blame going around. It seems that’s the only way people can accept the awful reality without considering the one other terrifying possibility: perhaps this was just a tragic accident. Perhaps this was just a horrible series of unfortunate events that culminated into one terrible result. Perhaps no one is to blame and perhaps everyone is to blame.
When one takes a step back and tries to look past the blame at a solution, one can clearly see there is no easy answer. Everything that happened on that day two years ago was because in a society as large as Canada, there will be cracks in the system. It’s an inescapable fact. In this case, there just isn’t enough money to pay enough social workers and caseworkers to handle the 41,000 foster kids in the country. Saskatchewan alone has over 2,100 and it isn’t even the most populated.
Not only are workers expected to handle all of these cases, they also have to contend with children who are very young, have emotional attachment needs, behavioural problems, developmental needs, special care needs, etc. They have to deal with the actual separation of children from unsuitable homes and find new foster homes in which to place them. Foster families go through their own screening process, but how strict can authorities be expected to be when an overflow of foster kids is resulting in them ending up in hotel rooms while they wait?
It’s because of these kinds of problems that Derek’s situation was overlooked. Bob Pringle, Saskatchewan’s children’s advocate, called it a “double tragedy” that could have been prevented. Derek was a troubled child. His school wrote at least three letters to Yorkton Tribal Council Child and Family Services, all of which had little follow up. When he was eight, RCMP suspected Derek was involved in a break-in with another boy where a pregnant dog and her pups were killed. A year later, Derek’s father was convicted of assaulting the boy and RCMP again warned child services another three times about Derek.
Looking at all of these red flags, it’s so easy to point fingers at child services and ask, ‘why didn’t you do something sooner? How could you let it get to this point?’ But here’s another question: how many cases like this or more serious than this are caseworkers being forced to deal with on a daily basis? If a child is in foster care, it’s because there were serious reasons he or she could no longer stay at home with his or her parents. It wouldn’t be unreasonable to assume that nearly all of the kids in foster care might have behavioural issues that need to be dealt with.
Pringle’s report, Two Tragedies: Holding Systems Accountable, analyzed the situation, the barriers to effective casework, and provided 18 recommendations. The question shouldn’t be who’s to blame. It should be how do we implement change?
