First Nations family advocate says children, families need to be election priorities

Cora Morgan, Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs’ First Nations family advocate, says families and children will be pushed as a priority leading up to next month’s federal election and the upcoming provincial election in spring. “We’re going to be doing a campaign where we ask people to vote for children and to have the political parties have the issue of children welfare in their province at the forefront of their minds when they’re going to polls and we’re hoping that will be part of the platforms for the three parities we have provincially,” said Morgan. Of 11,000 children in care in the province, 87 per cent are Aboriginal. To put that figure another way, says Morgan, Manitoba, with a population of 1.2 million, saw 388 newborn babies taken into care last year, while Alberta with a population of 4.4 million, had 155 newborns taken. Said Morgan, “Somehow we’re a quarter the size but we have more than double the amount of newborn children apprehended.”