Kim and Jordan Joseph are walking across the province to raise awareness for children under the care of the Ministry of Children and Family Development

By Tommy Osborne

Walk for children

Northern B.C. couple walking across province to raise awareness for children under ministry care

Aug 22, 2024 | 4:50 PM

PRINCE GEORGE – Kim and Jordan Joseph have spent the last three weeks walking across the province to raise awareness for children under the care of the Ministry of Children and Family Development (MCFD). With an end goal of Vancouver, their journey recently took them through Prince George, where they were greeted by many who have been following their journey on social media.

Kim and Jordan started the walk because their four children were taken into MCFD care one Friday afternoon, and ever since then they have not been able to see them.

“Just look at your children and imagine them not being there, and within minutes it happens. Within minutes they come and take our children away from us,” Kim said, when recalling what happened.

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Having lived through MCFD care as a child, and now being a parent with her children under care, Kim wants to raise awareness about not just her situation, but a situation she and Jordan say many Indigenous people find themselves in. Jordan says he’s been going through everything the MCFD asks of him, including things like counseling, anger management courses, parenting programs, and more, but he says MCFD keeps changing the requirements on what it will take to see his kids again.

“We did everything that they told us to do. We jumped through every hoop that they told us we basically needed to do for a while. And I did them all and they still say that’s not enough. And I say that should be enough because I did everything they asked,” Jordan said.

“It’s very difficult, they just kept changing their demands from us,” Kim added.

Ruby Prince sits on the Board of Directors of Nezul be Hunuyeh, and she says this story is unfortunately too common among Indigenous communities.

“MCFD continues to come into our communities. They continue to take our children. They continue to have no real plan for when the children return home. And if you don’t fit into their plan, then their plan just keeps adding on,” Prince said.

The Minister of the MCFD Grace Lore said she can’t comment on specific situations due to confidentiality, but says keeping children safe at home is its top priority and always has the children’s wellbeing top of mind.

“It is absolutely, last resort for the ministry, because we know that kids benefit from connection to family, community, culture. and that’s, part of the reason that we’re in the process of hiring an Indigenous director of child welfare,” Lore said.

“As both a minister and a mom, it’s a priority for me, that kids are being treated with kindness. And they’ve got that safety and connection, regardless of where they are,” Lore added.

However, Kim doesn’t believe the MCFD has Indigenous children’s best interests at heart. Having lived through the MCFD herself, Kim’s experience makes her worry about what her children may be going through.

“They (MCFD) said that my mother is not good enough. She doesn’t love us, that there’s nobody here. ‘Look, where are your people lining up to come visit you? There’s nobody there to visit you.’ So when people grow out of MCFD, it’s hard,” Kim said.

“You sort of go out of MCFD going, ‘am I even worth living here? Do I belong on this earth? Do I really belong if everyone thinks that I’m not good enough? If everyone thinks that I’m just going to become some drunk and some drug addict? I haven’t touched any drugs in my life,” Kim said.

Kim added MCFD said she could see her children again if she were to split with Jordan, but she says an ultimatum of sacrificing your family to see your family isn’t right.

“I want to become a mother and I want to have a family. And now I finally got it. They ripped it away,” she said.

Another aspect of raising awareness for children in ministry care is Bill C-92, an Act respecting Indigenous communities and their jurisdiction over child and family services. Prince says the government frequently oversteps its boundaries in allowing Indigenous communities to handle its children on its own, but Lore says the MCFD and B.C. government is working to improve this.

“We just recently signed an agreement with Canada and the Cowichan nation, recognizing Cowichan jurisdiction, and that collaboration and coordination is happening with many nations right across British Columbia,” Lore said.

Prince George was just one of many stops for Kim and Jordan’s walk, as they plan on going to Vancouver to continue raising awareness about Indigenous children in ministry care, and eventually challenging the ministry itself.

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