Sheshatshiu mother details growing up in Ontario foster care to Inquiry
CBC
WARNING: This story contains distressing details. All stories were shared with consent of participants.
A Sheshatshiu mother says she still struggles with the trauma caused when child protective services placed her in foster care in the North Bay region of Ontario, thousands of kilometres from her home and culture.
On Tuesday, Chelsea Penashue addressed the commissioners of the Inquiry Respecting the Treatment, Experiences and Outcomes of Innu children in care.
The 31-year-old Sheshatshiu woman told Commissioners Anastasia Qupee, Dr. Mike Devine and James Igloliorte that she grew up surrounded by addictions as her parents were dealing with their own traumas.
Penashue said she was close with her grandparents and placed into her grandparents' care often, but would run away because she wanted her parents. When she was eight-years-old, child protection services took her from a friend's house and removed her from Sheshatshiu Innu First Nation.
"They told me that I had to go and stay at the hotel for two days and I was going to be sent out.... They didn't tell me where I was going and I didn't even see my family," Penashue said.
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A worker flew with her to North Bay, Ontario before she was driven to the foster home in a small town, Penashue said.
"My foster parents were really excited to have me. But I was so scared. I didn't know where I was. I didn't even know them," Penashue said. "I was wondering all the time, like every time I would go to bed, if my parents knew where I was."
Penashue said she lived there for five and a half years and was allowed to visit home twice in that time.
Penashue said her foster home had an alarm that would go off if she left her room. The alarm would ring if she went to use the washroom in the middle of the night, and the foster parents would come up and wait until she was back in her room, she said.
"I feel like something like I did was wrong, like how I lived," Penashue said.
When Penashue was old enough to choose to return to Sheshatshiu, she said it was really hard to adjust as she was used to living in Ontario.
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