Latest news with #ChildandFamilyServices
CBC
08-07-2025
- CBC
Man charged after allegedly dangling child over 3rd-storey balcony, Charlottetown police say
A 41-year-old man faces several charges, including child endangerment, after a weekend incident, police say. Charlottetown police said they received a call from a concerned citizen reporting an assault at a downtown residence on July 5 around 5:15 p.m. AT. The caller also reported that a man was seen dangling a child over a third-storey balcony, according to a news release. Officers arrived at the residence and conducted an investigation that led to the man's arrest. Police said two children were also removed from the home. "They are both safe and are now being supported through Child and Family Services," the release notes. The 41-year-old man was charged with child endangerment under section 218 of the Criminal Code of Canada, which relates to unlawfully abandoning or exposing a child under the age of 10 "so that its life is or is likely to be endangered or its health is or is likely to be permanently injured." He was also charged with two counts each of assault and uttering threats, along with a single count of disturbing the peace. The accused was taken into custody, where he will remain until his next court appearance.
CTV News
08-07-2025
- CTV News
Man charged with endangerment after dangling child from balcony: Charlottetown police
A Charlottetown Police Services sign is pictured in this file photo. A 41-year-old man is facing assault and child endangerment charges after he allegedly dangled a child over a balcony in Charlottetown. Charlottetown Police Services received a call around 5:15 p.m. Saturday from a concerned citizen who reported an assault at a residence on Upper Prince Street. The caller also told police they had also seen a man dangling a child over a third-storey balcony. Officers arrested a man at the scene and removed two children from the residence. Police say the children are both safe and receiving support through Child and Family Services. The man is facing the following charges: child endangerment two counts of assault two counts of uttering threats disturbing the peace He was remanded into custody and appeared in court on Monday. Police say he will remain in custody until his next court appearance on Thursday. For more P.E.I. news, visit our dedicated provincial page.
CBC
12-06-2025
- CBC
No charges for Manitoba officer accused of using derogatory language, punching person's face: IIU
Manitoba's police watchdog is not pressing charges against a Brandon police officer who was accused of throwing a person onto the ground, punching her face and referring to her with derogatory language during an arrest. In October 2023, the chair of Community Mobilization Westman, a Brandon-based initiative for community safety, met with Brandon police after a Child and Family Services case worker told her a police officer called a person a "rez dog" and a "neechie" several times during an arrest. The officer was also accused of slamming the person against a wall of the house, throwing her to the ground and hitting her face several times during the interaction. The Independent Investigation Unit of Manitoba (IIU) — responsible for investigating all serious matters involving police — assumed the investigation after the person suffered injuries during the arrest. In its final report on the incident, completed on May 23 and published on Wednesday, the IIU said it reviewed audio from the patrol vehicle where the person and two officers were travelling. During the recording, someone is heard saying, "You're a neechie that's why," to which the person responded, "What the f--k, did you just really say that, that I'm a neechie?" The IIU said it "cannot condone such language as appropriate or necessary" but it is not possible to attribute the initial comment to anyone specifically. "Efforts must be made to do better, and education must occur to ensure that such language is not used in a derogatory context," the IIU said in its report. Police say person was resisting arrest The interaction with police began hours after the female had started drinking with someone else at her house. She told the IIU they then went to smoke weed at someone else's house. One of the three officers who were dispatched to the area for a disturbance call told the IIU they found a group of young people who appeared to be quite intoxicated. Police tried to establish who the young people were, but one of them became belligerent, the officer told the IIU. While that person was being handcuffed, the female who's the focus of the report told the IIU she started walking toward them when another officer grabbed her by the arm and threw her against a spiky wall. The person said the officer tripped her to the ground. With her arms laid in front of her, she asked the officer to get off her, but he punched her in the face with an open and closed fist while telling her to stop resisting, she told the IIU. The officer declined to speak with the IIU in accordance with his rights. Instead, he provided an incident of force report where he said he pushed the female on her back after she attempted to run toward the person who was being arrested, despite being told not to. After stumbling against the house, the female got up and started to assault the officer, punching and scratching his face, the officer's report said. The officer pulled the person to the ground where he said she continued to resist. The report said the officer tried to apply pressure to two points on her jaw and ear to keep her under control, but the person continued to kick and flail so he delivered "three high-level mechanical stuns" to her head. The person denied she was resisting and said another officer grabbed her arms and handcuffed her. The officer who was trying to arrest the first person told the IIU he believed he would have been assaulted by the female if the accused officer hadn't stepped between them. Crown not recommending charges The IIU report says the person was seen at the emergency room in Brandon's hospital, where medical staff advised they didn't observe any significant injuries or concerns. In her original statement to the Child and Family Services case worker, the person said there had been a significant assault while she was in police custody in the hospital. However, the IIU said they reviewed hospital surveillance and there was no evidence that a physical altercation occurred there. The IIU sent their investigation for review to the Manitoba Prosecution Service to determine whether any charges should be authorized against the officer. The Crown said it is not recommending charges because there is no reasonable likelihood of conviction for the officer based on the evidence obtained by the IIU.
CBC
29-05-2025
- Health
- CBC
Hundreds of serious injuries reported involving kids in care 'tip of the iceberg': Manitoba youth advocate
Social Sharing WARNING: This article contains discussion of sexual abuse and self-harm. Hundreds of children in the care of Manitoba government services were seriously injured over an 18-month period — including dozens of instances of sexual assault — according to a newly released report by the province's advocate for children and youth. Children's advocate Sherry Gott says those numbers are likely "only the tip of the iceberg," because of underreporting in the system. "Serious injuries impacting young people are regrettably not a new phenomenon," Gott said at a Thursday press conference announcing the findings of her office's serious injury reviews and investigation program. "However, the legislative responsibility to aggregate and disseminate findings related to these horrific incidents is." The 78-page report is the first time the Manitoba Advocate for Children and Youth has publicly released comprehensive information on the number and cause of serious injuries related to children in care. Provincial legislation came into effect in 2023 that requires serious injuries to any youth receiving reviewable services to be reported to the advocate. That would include injuries to youth in the care of Child and Family Services and youth receiving mental health, addiction or justice services. Creating a serious injury reviews and investigations program for the advocate was one of the recommendations made in the inquiry into the death of Phoenix Sinclair, a five-year-old girl who had spent time in foster care before she was abused and killed by her mother and stepfather in 2005. The program gives the advocate the ability to identify issues and gaps in the system, Gott said Thursday. "Serious injury reviews are a new and unique opportunity in Manitoba to ensure children's rights are protected," she said. Numbers 'an incomplete representation' The advocate was notified of 367 serious injuries during the first 18 months of the program's inception, according to the report released Thursday. More than half of those notifications — 218 — came from Child and Family Services authorities. A serious injury is defined as anything that is life-threatening, requires admission to the hospital and is expected to cause serious long-term impairment, or is the result of a sexual assault. But confusion over what constitutes a serious injury, a lack of motivation to report and insufficient staff training are some of the barriers that make the advocate believe serious injuries are going unreported, said the report. "These numbers should be viewed as an incomplete representation of serious injuries sustained by young people," the report said. Some organizations did not submit a single referral during the reporting period, it noted. Over 220 of the reported injuries met the criteria to be reviewed by the advocate, and 140 of those assessments were completed in time for the report. Of those, close to half — 58 — were the result of a sexual assault. Another 25 injuries were from a weapon (21 of which were stabbings), 19 were suicide attempts and 14 involved assaults. There were also nine accidental injuries, eight that were the result of an overdose, four that involved self-harm and three that were from severe neglect. In total, 94 per cent of the injuries were connected with a youth in CFS care, and 91 per cent involved a youth of Indigenous ancestry. The majority of sexual assault victims were cisgender females, one-third of whom had a neurodevelopment disability or a fetal alcohol spectrum disorder, the report said. More than 20 of the sexual assaults involved young people between the ages of 11 and 17 who were sexually exploited, sometimes by multiple different people. The report said that figure only scratches the surface of the "real degree of sexual exploitation occurring across Manitoba." Two of the youth were sexually assaulted by a person they were placed with by CFS, "serving as a horrific indication that some youth are being harmed by those entrusted by the province to care for them," the report stated. Gott said the province's response to sexual assault is "outdated," and prevention — through legislation or programming — must be a priority. The advocate's office found there were not enough resources to protect youth from sexual exploitation, and there was not enough emphasis on preventing them from being exploited in the first place. Finding missing youth who are experiencing exploitation also needs to be prioritized, the report said. Systemic issues The 19 suicide attempts revealed problems with the province's current mental health system, the report said, noting lengthy wait lists for treatment, and a lack of mental health and addictions services in rural and remote communities. The report identified other systemic issues for government organizations to address, including: The need for specialized placements to support youth with complex needs. A lack of involuntary treatment options for young people at serious risk of harm. A shortage of services for youth who are being sexually exploited. Overall resource scarcity for youth experiencing both mental health and harmful substance-use challenges. The hope is that the report will encourage more government bodies to report serious injuries so gaps can be identified and more can be done to prevent the injuries, its conclusion states. If you or someone you know is struggling, here's where to look for help:
CBC
20-05-2025
- CBC
P.E.I. truck driver to continue working with ankle monitor after sexually assaulting child
Social Sharing A Charlottetown man will spend the next two years under house arrest after sexually assaulting a child, but the terms of the sentence will let him continue working as a truck driver around the Maritimes to support his family. Mitchell John Millar, 35, was sentenced earlier this month in Summerside. That's after the judge took an adjournment to contemplate her decision on the joint sentencing recommendation put forward by Millar's lawyer and the Crown prosecutor. "A joint submission should not be rejected lightly," Judge Krista MacKay told the court. CBC News is withholding details including the timing, location and circumstances of the crime to protect the identity of the victim, who was under the age of 12 at the time of the assault. The incident is not connected to Millar's work as a truck driver. Reported to social worker According to the agreed statement of facts read in court on April 23, the child was known to Millar and the crime happened when they were alone. The victim told police Millar put his hand up the child's shorts. Millar then moved the child's underwear and began rubbing their genitals. The child later told police they were too young to understand what was happening to them at the time, so they "just sat there" while Millar touched them. The victim and another minor later reported the sexual assault to a Child and Family Services social worker. That person relayed the allegation to the RCMP for investigation. Millar was originally charged with both sexual interference and sexual assault, but the interference charge was stayed in exchange for his guilty plea to the sexual assault. Joint submission for 'abhorrent' crime At the sentencing hearing on April 23, Crown prosecutor Colin Trewin called Millar's sexual assault of the child "abhorrent" and "deeply offensive to the public conscience." Millar's lawyer, Simon Frizzell, spoke about Millar's upbringing, which he characterized as "short of pleasant" — an absent father, an abusive stepfather and past struggles with mental health and addictions. The court also heard Millar responded well to therapy and treatment programs in the past, having served eight months on a drug trafficking charge without going on to use the substances involved since then. Frizzell and Trewin put forward a joint recommendation of two years less a day of house arrest. That would allow Millar to continue working to support his spouse and her five children; he is the father of three of them. Frizzell said the family would surely slip into poverty without Millar's income. Millar will be wearing an electronic ankle monitor that tracks his movements, and will have to stay at home when not working. A joint submission should not be rejected lightly. — Provincial court Judge Krista MacKay He told the court he works as a truck driver and goes to Halifax at least five days a week, as well as making an occasional trip to New Brunswick. He leaves his home early in the morning and arrives back late in the evening. That schedule is what gave MacKay pause. She pondered whether the sentence was truly punitive if Millar was off travelling the region in a truck. MacKay also asked the Crown prosecutor if he had known the extent of Millar's daily off-Island travel when signing onto the joint recommendation for house arrest. Trewin told Judge MacKay he had not been aware of those specifics, but he still believed the circumstances made it appropriate for Millar to serve his time in the community rather than behind bars. Under Canadian law, judges are asked to accept joint submissions unless doing so would bring the justice system into disrepute or be against the public interest. MacKay told the court that sets a high bar for rejecting a joint proposal, and she needed some time before making a decision. 'Not contrary to public interest' The judge returned on May 2 to say that rejecting joint submissions is rare, and the circumstances under which a judge can do so have been laid out by the Supreme Court of Canada. MacKay said it's not about whether she personally believes the sentence is fit. "I was quite concerned … there were facts unknown to counsel and not considered," she told the court, but ultimately, she said she had decided to accept the recommendation. "I am satisfied that the joint recommendation is consistent with and not contrary to the public interest," she said. MacKay pointed out that the length of the house arrest sentence — two years less a day — is more time than Millar would be sentenced to if a jail sentence were imposed. Millar will have to provide a sample of his DNA, he can't own weapons for 10 years, and he will be a registered sex offender for 20 years.
