Executive Summary:

During the past 10 years, the Representative for Children and Youth has repeatedly raised deep concerns about the treatment of young people who are in the care of the British Columbia government and, in particular, the treatment of Aboriginal children and youth, who continue to be over-represented in the province’s care system. Those concerns are reflected on the pages of this report, which examines the prevalence and nature of sexualized violence committed against children and youth in the government’s care during a three-year period.

No child or youth should ever experience sexual abuse, but such assaults are more egregious when they happen to already-vulnerable young people who, for reasons beyond their control, cannot live with their families and whose protection is the responsibility of the government. The numbers from this review alone – 145 incidents of sexualized violence against 121 children and youth in care – should be troubling to every British Columbian. And the true total of such incidents committed against children in care during that time period is likely far higher as reporting is often delayed by these young, traumatized victims or never completed at all.

One number produced by this review is particularly staggering to the Representative. Of the 121 youth who reported being the victim of sexualized violence while in government care, a total of 74 – or 61 per cent – were Aboriginal girls, despite the fact that Aboriginal girls comprised, on average, only 25 per cent of the total children in care in B.C. during the time period covered by this review. Female victims in this review who were age 12 or younger at the time of the incident of sexualized violence were four times more likely to be Aboriginal than non-Aboriginal, while girls between the ages of 13 and 18 were twice as likely to be Aboriginal.

And, while this review looks at sexualized violence against children and youth in care over a threeyear period ending in 2014, recent statistics are just as troubling. Of the victims of reported sexualized violence in 2015/16, nearly twice as many were Aboriginal girls than non-Aboriginal. The Representative hopes that these findings, which demonstrate just how vulnerable Aboriginal girls can be to sexualized violence, will prompt a more concerted effort by government to change the trajectory of this cohort in B.C., to better protect them and to ensure they are given the tools and services to be as resilient as possible. Nothing less should be expected. These cases need careful examination and learning and this aggregate review is an opening, far from a satisfactory treatment of the issue.