Indigenous members calling for change after Inuk child forcefully taken from home
Posted April 25, 2022 3:15 pm.
Last Updated April 25, 2022 6:21 pm.
The Indigenous community is calling for a change in Quebec’s Youth Protection System after a video on social media shows an Inuk child being forcefully taken away from a visit with his mother by police in Northern Quebec. Advocates are saying the incident is not isolated and has happened time and time again and will continue to happen if nothing changes.
“I don’t think that would have happened if the child had not been Inuk. I don’t,” says Lance Lamore, an indigenous social worker that has worked in the system for over a decade.”
In the video – you can hear the boy screaming – and being pulled away bare feet and without a jacket, carried by two police officers by his arms and ankles.
“Indigenous folks on average see apprehensions look more like that in their homes than in white homes,” says Lamore.
CityNews does not know the context of the video before the filming started, it was shared by the child’s mother, on Facebook.
Nakuset the Executive Director Of The Native Women’s Shelter Of Montreal called the video “mind-boggling” but says she is not shocked, but “disheartened”.
#WATCH: “Heavy handed and traumatized the boy,” says @NakusetS, describing a video on social media that shows an Inuk child screaming and being forcibly taken away from a visit with his mother by police in northern Quebec.
For more news: https://t.co/Mkgse1PlDd pic.twitter.com/2pCuOtQIfQ
— CityNews Montreal (@CityNewsMTL) April 25, 2022
“Instead of, you know, allowing the mom to sort of have a conversation with him and to get him ready, they just came in really heavy-handed and traumatized the boy and the mom,” she says.
The mom wrote on Facebook that “if I tried stopping them I was gonna be arrested so I stayed calm and recorded”
“That’s why we don’t react. The fact that we are not outraged and freaking out is because they have the power to take us to jail. So you have to just sort of stand down,” says Nakuset.
CityNews reached out to Quebec’s Youth Protection System which has a branch overseen by Nunavik Social Services as well as Sûreté Du Québec to comment on the incident, but they did not respond back
In a statement to CityNews, the ministry of health and social services says they have requested more information on the event and cannot take a position based on the video they say does not show what happened before and after – as they need more context. “This is not a standard procedure. The use of police forces should be a measure of last resort when all other options have been considered and ruled out. At all times, the well-being of the child must be the priority.”
And the regional health services for Nunavik says, “what is witnessed in the video is not standard procedure, however, in some rare instances when all else has been attempted to no avail, the support of police officers may be requested. It should be noted that before reaching such a point, a wide range of methods and steps are taken, Police involvement is definitely not the first.”
“The bigger issue is I did not see another Inuit person in the video. Who was there representing that child’s community from a government agency?” questioned Lamore.
Many were shocked and angered by the incident – commenting on the Facebook post:
“Inhuman heartless… DYP… is the new residential school.”
“I don’t care what you did or what he did! This is not okay.”
“I think this could have been dealt with appropriately, not in this traumatizing matter.”
Nakuset saying, “the comparison of youth protection being the new residential school is the truth and now we have the visuals.”
Lamore adds, “There needs to be a questioning of why, why we’re doing what we’re doing. Is it helping?”
