Former Innu chief wants transition plan for children returning from care

The public inquiry into the treatment, experiences and outcomes of Innu in the child protection system resumed Monday, this time holding hearings in Natuashish, where a former chief of the community says children are returned from foster families disconnected from their culture and unable to feel at home.

The fifth formal hearing, held at the Labrador community's healing lodge, turned the spotlight toward former Innu Nation grand chief Gregory Rich.

"I want to see things change in [the Department of Children, Seniors and Social Development]," Rich told inquiry commissioners James Igloliorte, Mike Devine, and Anastasia Qupee.

Rich says he wants the child protection system to stop removing children from their Innu communities, language and culture when they are placed in foster care.

He also believes that Innu need to be involved in the child protection system, arguing they too often face policy roadblocks from the provincial government.

"I think if there's going to be [an] effective department ... Innu people need to be involved, because we Innu experience these damaging effects," he told the commissioners. 

When children are taken from their families and placed in foster care in non-Indigenous homes in Newfoundland or other parts of the county, Rich said, the damage begins: those children start losing touch with their identity, language and culture.

Rich testified that when children return to their home communities after being in foster care they're often different, distant and disconnected.

To combat that, he's calling for a transition plan to help youth who are returning home after spending time in the child protection system.

Rich, who grew up in Davis Inlet, also told the inquiry about the community's history and relocation to Natuashish.

He says his father started drinking in Davis Inlet, when the nomadic Mushuaua Innu were settled there, and he sometimes became violent when he was drunk. Over the course of his childhood, his mother also started drinking.

In Davis Inet, Rich says living conditions were poor, with no running water, proper sewage system, and only a wood stove for heat despite harsh winters.

Rich told the commissioners he turned to substances to cope. In 1992, a house fire killed five of Rich's children and another child while he wasn't home, which deepened his pain.

"There was a lot of guilt, there was a lot of shame and there was a lot of regret," Rich said.

The fire, substance use and other social issues thrust the community into the spotlight and precipitated its relocation to Natuashish, closer to traditional Innu hunting grounds.

Two deaths under scrutiny

For the remainder of this week, the inquiry will hold its first circle hearing investigating the death of 17-year-old James Poker.

He spent much of his life in the child protection system, and for a time lived in a foster home in Ontario.

After an 11-day search in 2015, Poker was found frozen on the ice between Nautashish and Hopedale.

The circle hearings will involve Poker's family and those engaged with the care system.

Next week, the inquiry will turn its attention to Jacob Collins of Natuashish, who died from suicide in the Labrador Correctional Centre in 2020.

Inquiry lead counsel Caitlin Urquhart says families in the community requested the investigations because they believe the children's time in the protection system contributed to their deaths.

"We need to know better to do better, and so these hearing circles are intended to help us understand what has happened, so that we can create a better future for Innu children," Urquhart said.

The next hearings are slated for September and will continue throughout the year. The commissioners will submit a report to the provincial government in October 2026.

Inquiry hearings first started in February 2023. Officials last heard from community members in April in Sheshatshiu.

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