After years of legal battles, a Gitxsan family has finally been granted permanent custody over an eight-year old girl.
Their fight began in 2015, when the child was taken from her mother and placed in the care of a Caucasian family in Prince George.
Her single mother, who was also Gitxsan and struggling at the time, had reached a temporary voluntary placement agreement with the Province.
Despite the Gitanmaax Band’s efforts to bring the child home, the Ministry of Child and Family Services decided to move her to Ontario in 2021.
She returned home that October at the request of family, and when social workers attempted to take her back, Gitxsan members came together to block them.
A judge would later deny requests to have the child apprehended and returned, and open an application to keep her on Gitxsan territory.
But that application would be blocked by the Métis Commission for Children and Families of BC last May, due to her paternal ties to the Eastern Woodland Métis Nation.
They had argued that the child’s aunt, who was to gain custody, should sign a cultural safety agreement to foster her Métis heritage.
Lawyers would challenge that, as the Eastern Woodland Métis are not recognized by most Métis bodies, or the Federal Government.
In a surprise move, the Commission would drop their request on March 16th, and the courts would grant the girl a permanent placement with her maternal aunt.
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