Independent investigation launched into case of P.E.I. boy sent to live in Alberta

Prince Edward Island's child and youth advocate is launching an independent investigation into how provincial officials handled the case of an Island boy who was sent to live with his father in Alberta, after meeting the man just a few months earlier.

The case ended up before the Supreme Court of Canada, generating a ruling that was highly critical of P.E.I.'s child protection services. 

CBC News is not naming any member of the family in order to protect the identity of the child. 

Marv Bernstein, P.E.I.'s child and youth advocate, says his investigation will focus on circumstances leading up to the removal of the four-year-old boy from the care of his maternal grandmother in Prince Edward Island, and on why he was placed in the care of his father in Alberta. 

The Supreme Court of Canada ultimately restored the decision of a trial judge and the child was eventually returned to the care of his grandmother in P.E.I. 

"While the courts at all levels have a judicial oversight role in relation to the conduct of child protection officials, I too have a statutory oversight role to scrutinize and review the actions... particularly where, as in this case, the Supreme Court of Canada has found that the Director of Child Protection had tipped the scales unfairly and created a custodial status quo in favour of the father," Bernstein said in a news release Thursday.

"This is a decision of the highest court in our land. The Supreme Court of Canada sets the bar in child protection matters across the country and we have an opportunity to learn from this decision to make sure children's rights are upheld."

In 2019, Prince Edward Island's Director of Child Protection ordered the young boy removed from the care of his grandmother in Charlottetown. He was placed with foster parents he didn't know for four weeks, then sent to Alberta to live with the biological father he had only recently met. 

A Supreme Court of Canada ruling last December said it was in the boy's best interest to live with the maternal grandmother who had been his caregiver for most of his life.

The boy, who is now nine years old, was returned to his grandmother last year. 

The grandmother said she's pleased to hear the child and youth advocate will be launching an independent investigation, something she said should have happened a long time ago. She hopes it helps other families.

"I think there was a lot of wrongs done by the Department of Social Services, their director and some of their staff. And I feel justice wasn't done for this child," she said in a telephone interview.

"He was removed from his mom with no court order, he was removed from me and taken to Alberta without a court order, so justice was not done to this child." 

Bernstein said the office will take whatever amount of time is required to "conduct a thorough, informed and confidential investigation" and said the findings of his review will be made public.