A Place Where it Feels Like Home

The Manitoba Advocate holds the legal responsibility to assess each death and the discretion to further review or investigate the public services that were, or which should have been, providing support to the young person or their family.1 The Office of the Children’s Advocate (now the Manitoba Advocate for Children and Youth) was notified by the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner of Tina’s deat [...] In addition to reaching out to Tina’s grandma and grandpa, our team also contacted Tina’s mother to invite her participation in this review and a sibling of Tina’s to extend a the same invitation to participation. [...] In late February 2019, in the interest of report accuracy and administrative fairness, agencies and departments that provided file material and other information for this investigation were given an opportunity to meet with the Manitoba Advocate to review the findings, analysis, and recommendations specific to their service domain area in order to verify the accuracy of the information contained h [...] In acknowledgement of the essential voice and value of Indigenous political leaders and governance systems, the Manitoba Advocate extended invitations to the Chief of Tina’s home community of Sagkeeng, the Grand Chiefs of the Southern Chiefs Organization, the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs, and Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak, plus the Regional Chief of the Assembly of First Nations. [...] Meetings were held with these leaders and members of their offices to discuss the Manitoba Advocate’s findings, the pending recommendations being made, and to discuss the release of the report to ensure our office was approaching our responsibility in a good and respectful way.