National conference builds momentum for change in Canada's child welfare system

The numbers basically speak for themselves. Indigenous children, under the age of 14 make up over half  — 52.2 per cent — of foster children in Canada. Considering that Indigenous children make up just seven per cent of Canadian children, the numbers can rightly be called staggering, even alarming.

Arlen Dumas, grand chief of the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs, characterized the situation by saying, “It’s truly looking more and more like a second generation of residential school.” Last November, Jane Philpott Canada’s minister responsible for Indigenous Services referred to Indigenous children in care as a “humanitarian crisis.”

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