Batshaw bans Cree? Cree mother worried for son in youth detention

A Cree mother says Batshaw youth protection will not allow her own son to speak in their mother tongue, even when he’s speaking to her. She also says the agency has confiscated culturally significant possessions.

Jennifer (not her real name: we can’t name her due to laws against identifying youths in detention) says her son told her he was not allowed to speak Cree on the phone to her, and his drum and traditional medicines were taken away.

Her son, who was involved in a physical altercation with a worker at a treatment program in Gaspé, was moved in October to a non-locked unit at Batshaw Youth and Family Centres in Prévost, 45 minutes north of Montreal.

Jennifer says that in the most recent court hearing about her son, the court argued that the boy had “a chronic dependency on drugs.” She says his drug use has been nothing of the sort, and that though he has experimented with drugs and has been sent to treatment, the stigma of labelling him “chronically dependent” will be as damaging to his development as actual drug use.

More troubling has been her son’s report that he is not allowed to speak Cree on the phone.

“My son said, ‘Before I call you or someone else, they say you can’t speak Cree.’ The calls are monitored. But [in regular life] I speak to him in Cree all the time!” She says this rule prevents her from communicating with her son in the manner that she is most comfortable talking with him.

Meanwhile, because other kids in detention were stealing her son’s sweetgrass and sage thinking they could smoke it, Jennifer says workers took the medicines away and locked them up.

“They said ‘We have his herbs. We had to lock them up. We took his drum also.’ I know she doesn’t know the culture. Those are his medicines, and he treats them with very high respect.”

When workers take away his possessions – particularly sacred ones – her son becomes very upset, says Jennifer. As a result he is sent to lockdown and prevented from moving up through the system to a more trusted position.

“I want my son back,” she said. “I got the judge to say, ‘This kid does not belong in Batshaw.’ They wanted to keep my son until the age of majority! First they told me six months, then I heard ‘age of majority.’”

Jennifer is angry at the way the matter has been treated. She feels social services there did not provide her the support she needed.

“The Elders Council ruled out that he belongs in his culture,” she said. “I received another letter from the Justice Department about bush healing: they’re waiting for [my son] and me to come north to start on that. But I don’t know what the hell’s going on with youth protection. Since November 21, the file has been transferred – I called today and [a worker at Youth Protection] said, ‘I don’t even know who has the file.’”

Jennifer says she has been in Prévost since October 28, and had to spend her Christmas budget on hotel rooms and taxis to and from Batshaw. She has received no financial support to assist her in helping or being with her son. “This is crazy – I wouldn’t wish this on any other parent,” she said.

Batshaw Communications and Public Relations Manager Claire Roy said she is shocked to hear these allegations.

“Stories of a child not being allowed to speak on the phone in Cree – this is all completely contrary to all we believe in,” she said. “We’re very surprised.”

Though she said she couldn’t speak of specific cases, Roy underlined that she had heard no such complaints about children held within the facility.

“We have a local commissioner if a child or youth has a problem,” she added. “There’s a way of saying if he’s not satisfied. It’s really the first time we heard about that.”

Roy stressed that she had never before heard of a First Nations child having culturally important items taken away from him at Batshaw.

“The two people I talked to literally fell out of their chairs. To have traditional cultural things taken away – that’s really completely contrary to all we believe in here. I talked to the director of services for older adolescents. She said, ‘Come on, Claire, it’s not possible.’ She called up to the campus and no one was aware of that. At this point I’m very puzzled, and I’m not the only one.”

Roy added that she is not suggesting that Jennifer or her son are lying, but that the behaviour they describe is not in keeping with the organization’s policies. The purpose that unites Batshaw workers, she said, is working with the children, in order to reunite them with their families as soon as possible.

“The main thing is for this youth to be able to express himself and to be respected,” Roy said. “If there’s a problem, definitely it will be solved.”

Meanwhile, Jennifer and her son were waiting on a mid-December court date to determine what would happen to him next.

“The file should have been transferred already,” Jennifer said. “I had confirmation the file was transferred through Montérégie, but I’ve never heard anything from my community. I’ve spent all my Christmas money to be here. Even if I try to go home, I’ll have to hitchhike home, because my son isn’t under Youth Protection through Cree patient services. They haven’t paid anything.”