Engaged research about child welfare and Indigenous parents

Robert Leckey
Faculty of Law, McGill University

This project emerged from discussions with alumni of mine who were volunteers at the Native Women’s Shelter of Montreal. Workers at the shelter were troubled by the negative experiences of First Nations and other Indigenous parents dealing with the child welfare system. They wondered if there was potential to improve the experience by using judicial mediation, or adapting procedure and practice. They wanted to know the views of state workers with experience in the child welfare system, namely, social workers, lawyers, and judges, so we interviewed a sample of them.