Baby reunited with parents after public outcry from apparent CFS apprehension video

A Winnipeg mother and father are reunited with their baby, following days of public outcry after their baby was apprehended by Child and Family Services.

A Winnipeg mother and father are reunited with their baby following days of public outcry after their baby was apprehended by Child and Family Services.

A video circulating on social media this week appears to show a Child and Family Services worker arriving in a hospital room at the Health Sciences Centre to apprehend an infant from an Indigenous family on Monday. The baby was born on last Friday.

In the video, you can hear family members saying they have a safe, after-birth plan in place for the baby, whose mother is underage, and asking for an explanation on why the baby is being apprehended. In the video, they don’t receive a clear answer.

“It’s quite disturbing and wrong that he’s done that, especially when he knows all the things we had in place for baby,” the aunt, who filmed the video, told Global News outside a Child and Family Services office on Thursday. Global News is hiding the identity of the family members to protect the identity of the child.

Family, friends and advocates protested and rallied outside CFS offices for days following the apprehension of the infant on Monday. On Thursday, after a two-and-a-half hour meeting with Child and Family Services, the father reported the baby would be returning to its parents.

“(I felt) relief,” the father told Global News. “I was excited. Still am excited that I get to see my baby again, because what they did was not right, it’s not right at all.”

The father says he still feels hurt over the incident. The family says CFS has apologized for the miscommunication, but they still intend on pursuing legal action.

“Of course, it still hurts that it happened,” he said. “Like, they took everything from us, that’s how it feels because she’s my flesh and blood. To me, she’s not just a daughter, she’s the whole future.”