Manitoba Liberals are calling for the PC Government to review all foster parents after child welfare authorities left two girls in the custody of a foster father who allegedly has a history of sexually exploiting children in his care.
Manitoba Liberal Families Critic and MLA for Kewatinook, Judy Klassen, has repeatedly called on the government to do a better job of vetting foster parents. She said the latest failure is shocking and horrifying.
"It is not enough to say 'we are monitoring the situation', the government needs to take meaningful action," said Klassen. "There are over 10,000 children in care, and authorities left these children in the hands of a known abuser. We know there have been other cases of abuse."
In December, the Manitoba Children's Advocate released a report that warned that hundreds of children in care in Manitoba are being sexually exploited.
Dougald Lamont, Manitoba Liberal Leader and MLA for St. Boniface said that the recently released report into sexually exploited youth, "Collaboration and Best Practices to End Sexual Exploitation and Sex Trafficking in Manitoba" is an indictment of years of failure by the Manitoba Government to even measure whether any of the governments' programs were working.
"This is a serious problem that the Province has known about for years and it requires participation from all three levels of government. We need more training, safe spaces, and enforcement to make a meaningful change," said Lamont.