Agency to be permanent guardian of girl, 17, left with brain injury after beating while in care

A 17-year-old girl who was beaten, raped and left with a permanent brain injury while in the care of Anishinaabe Child and Family Services two years ago is now under the permanent guardianship of the agency until her 18th birthday, a Manitoba judge has ruled.

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On Jan. 12, Associate Chief Justice Marianne Rivoalen of the province's Court of Queen's Bench ruled the agency will become the teen's permanent guardian.

She also ruled against requests from the teen's counsel and family that the agency be required to provide regular status updates on the teen's living conditions to the court.

The ruling comes as the conclusion to court proceedings to determine the teen's guardian. Theybegan when she was released from hospital in April 2016, one year after she was brutally assaulted in a parkade on Hargrave Street.

At the time of the attack, the teen was under the custody of the agency and had been placed in a downtown hotel near the parkade.

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The physical and sexual assaults left her with a severe and permanent brain injury.

"[The victim's] young life was changed forever that evening," Rivoalen wrote in her ruling.

"She remained in hospital for one year. She now requires the maximum level of funding available to meet all of her physical and mental needs. Her comprehension level is compared to that of a beginner Grade 1."

Her case prompted then-family services minister Kerri Irvin-Ross to order child care authorities to remove children in care from Winnipeg hotels.

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Brought back to hotel

In February 2015, the teen's grandmother her legal guardian at the time asked Anishinaabe Child and Family Services to take custody of the teen. The grandmother was "unable to control [the teen's] unruly behaviour," the ruling states.

"[The teen] would leave her grandmother's home, sometimes for days, without notifying her," Rivoalen writes.

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At that point, the agency placed the teen with Macdonald Youth Services on a temporary basis, before moving her to the Charter House Hotel in downtown Winnipeg in early March.

But the teen never went to the hotel. Instead, she went missing until she was found by police a week later and brought back to MYS. She left the youth service's care immediately, but police found and returned her four days later.

The teen stayed at MYS until the end of the month, when the agency found a new placement for her. But on March 31, the teen refused the placement and was returned to the hotel.

Late that night and in the early hours of April 1, she was seriously physically and sexually assaulted.

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Her attacker, who was 15 at the time, would later plead guilty to aggravated sexual assault.

In August 2016, he received a three-year sentence, including a rare intensive rehabilitative custody and supervisionsentence used in the case of violent offences where the perpetrator suffers from a mental illness or disorder, or a psychological or emotional disturbance.

Manitoba courts handed out 22 such sentences between 2003 and 2016.

No legal authority to impose conditions

Rivoalen called the facts of the case horrific, but said the teen's case didn't merit the "extraordinary power" of imposing conditions the status updates on the agency as her guardian.

No civil suit has been filed against the agency for "potential negligence," the judge said, but should one commence, the agency would be in a conflict of interest that could jeopardize her placement.

But Rivoalen wrote in her ruling that no evidence of potential negligence was provided during court proceedings.

"That is a question left to be explored for another day," she wrote.

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Since being released from hospital, the teen has lived in a long-term foster home arranged by Anishinaabe Child and Family Services and receives care from two support workers on a weekly basis.

In April 2016, court proceedingsto have the agency legally designated as the teen's permanent guardian began. The teen's mother and grandmother both told the pre-trial judge they supported the plan, but supported a request by the teen's council for status updates at regular intervals.

Concernteen will 'slip through the cracks'

In her ruling, Rivoalen cited the family's concerns the teen would "slip through the cracks" of care.

After she turns 18, the agency can't make decisions for the teen anymore, but the girl hasn't yet been assigned a substitute decision maker, which she will likely be entitled to under Manitoba's Vulnerable Persons Act because of her brain injury.

"They worry that there will be a lapse of time between her turning 18 and the appointment of an SDM, leaving her vulnerable and without an advocate authorized to look after her best interests," Rivoalen wrote.

But Rivoalen ruled existing Manitoba law doesn't grant the court statutory authority to impose conditions on the agency as a guardian unless the judge can identify a gap in legislation, which she didn't.

Rivoalen ruled the teen would be sufficiently protected by existing Manitoba law, including the Vulnerable Persons Act, and argued the public trustee would likely be appointed as substitute decision maker in time for the girl's 18th birthday.