Why would an organization that is designed to help children systematically put indigenous families at a disadvantage? That’s what we, Kathleen and Robert Raskin, would like to know. The system should be supporting families, and instead they are stealing their children away, with some families having all of their children stolen away for five or even six generations.

During an inquiry into missing and murdered indigenous women, a spokeswoman for the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs said, “Any challenges that our families are faced with, it’s used against them instead of them being offered support. It victimizes our families.”

This Manitoba inquiry will focus on child welfare, which is an issue that is directly related to the snatching of indigenous children, which strips them of their identity. These children lose their self-worth by being removed from their tribe, and they grow into damaged adults, which contributes to the rates of violence in their communities.

Manitoba has the highest per-capita rate of children caught in the system, and a shocking near-90% are indigenous. With over 10,000 children in care at this time, that means nearly 9,000 indigenous children have been removed from their families. Believe it or not, this is the lowest the rate has been in over a decade.

The main reason these children are being stripped from their parents, often at birth, is poverty. The government claims seizing these children is a last-resort measure, but the reality is it is typically the first thing that happens. Think of what could happen for these communities if the money they spent stealing children was instead used to help communities in crisis?

Missing and murdered women are a huge problem in Manitoba. Mothers are murdered, they fall victim to domestic violence, they lose their homes and financial support when they no longer have children in the household, and they often must resort to sex work just to survive, putting them at increased risk. It’s a huge problem, and taking generations of children is not the solution.