Former B.C. children’s representative says she warned province about lack of case visits

A former B.C. children’s representative says she repeatedly warned the province that government social workers were failing to visit vulnerable children — a problem underscored this week in a report about an Indigenous boy with autism who went years without ever meeting a ministry social worker despite numerous complaints.

Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond, who left the position she’d held for a decade two years ago and now teaches law at the University of British Columbia, authored three reports dating back to 2011 raising concerns that children who were the subject of child protection complaints were never seen by ministry social workers. All three related to children with complex needs, and two were Indigenous.

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