By Greg Nikkel
Saskatchewan’s Advocate for Children and Youth aims to be pro-active to prevent tragedies, rather than being reactive after a child or youth has died or been severely injured, the board of the Holy Family Roman Catholic Separate School Division heard at their monthly meeting.
The provincial advocate, Corey O’Soup, spoke to the board along with one of his deputy advocates, and explained what his role is as an independent officer of the Saskatchewan Legislative Assembly.
“I take that independence very seriously when it comes to the protection of children and youth in Saskatchewan,” said O’Soup, explaining one of his office’s roles is to investigate the death of a child or youth, such as of the kindergarten student who died on the first day of school in Saskatoon, or when the shooting tragedy occurred in La Loche in Northern Saskatchewan.
He noted that up until now, this was the public face of the Children’s Advocate office, when a tragedy occurs with a child or youth, but he said he’s determined to be pro-active and work to prevent these tragedies from occurring.
When a death does occur, the advocate’s office is required by legislation to investigate, added O’Soup. “Those families need answers, and we fill in the gaps about what happened. A lot of these deaths are preventable, and we want to support those kids and their families,” he said.
He is the fourth advocate appointed by the province to this role since the office was established 22 years ago, and he is the first Indigenous advocate.
The office has a team of advocates who help cover the province, including two early resolution advocates who work mainly at the office. They are able to resolve roughly 80 per cent of the cases referred to their office, while the rest of the cases are looked after by regional advocates, two of which work directly with First Nations in the province.
One activity the regional advocates have begun is going into classrooms to talk to children and youth, and teach them about the Children’s Rights charter that was drawn up by the United Nations and has been adopted by every country except for the United States. They also educate children about how they can speak up and be their own voice in a school or community.
They also visit youth correctional facilities and act as advocates for youth in custody, “and give them a voice where seemingly they have no voice,” said O’Soup.
The United Nations charter of Children’s Rights is one of the foundational documents for their office, and from this they have created their own children-youth principles that guide the office in their work.
After O’Soup was appointed to this role, he at first watched how the office operated and worked, and found that the majority of cases they take on involve Indigenous children and youth, so he has asked the advocate staff to view situations with an Indigenous lens. He wants the regional advocates to build relationships with communities to take the office beyond where legislation takes them to.
“We’re being invited to places we’ve never been invited to before. The first thing we needed to do was to build a capacity for understanding within the office. The second thing is to recognize that education is the key to breaking cycles,” said O’Soup, noting that people often get into cycles of poverty and alcohol and drug abuse. “I believe as an educator that education is key to breaking that cycle. We create Bandaid solutions, but we’re just treating the symptoms.”
When the advocate’s office publishes their next annual report, he added, he wants to include stories about how they’ve prevented tragedies from occurring, and provide positive stories about how education has changed the lives of people, not just of Indigenous people but all children and youth of the province. The importance of mental health is also a central principle for the advocate, as it affects all children and youth throughout the province. O’Soup noted they visited a program in Alberta where they practice mental health capacity building by having one or two mental health professionals in a school.
“They are creating pathways to success within the community,” he said, pointing out as an example, if a child or youth has an appointment for physical or mental health, they follow up to make sure that youth in fact makes the appointment and is looked after in accessing any services that they need. The last principle for the advocates is “empowering children and youth to be change-makers within the community,” said O’Soup, as they encourage children and youth to take leadership on issues they believe in.
Education director Gwen Keith said his approach and belief in education as the key to help “is absolutely the way to go.”
