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Birth Alert Class Action Lawsuit Overview:
- Who: Nikita Steel filed a class action lawsuit against Her Majesty the Queen in Right of British Columbia.
- Why: Steel claims birth alerts issued to hospitals by social workers or other agents acting on behalf of the defendants are discriminatory and unlawful.
- Where: The class action lawsuit was filed in the Supreme Court of British Columbia.
“Birth alerts” issued to hospitals across Canada about potentially unfit mothers are racist, discriminatory, and have no legal justification or jurisdiction, a new class action lawsuit alleges.
Birth alerts, also sometimes referred to as “hospital alerts,” are notifications sent — typically by social workers — to hospitals that require them to contact provincial and territorial child protection services if it is believed the birth mother is in poor condition to care for the child.
Being the subject of a birth alert often means your baby will be taken away once it is born, according to the class action lawsuit.
Plaintiff Nikida Steel, an indigenous woman who says she was subject to the alerts before the births of each of her five children, claims the alerts are “speculative,” done without any supporting evidence, don’t take into account the feelings of hospital staff, and are ultimately rooted in racism.
Steel says she does not have custody of any of her five children and she only became aware she was the subject of birth alerts after seeing news coverage about the practice this year. She wants to represent a Class of formerly pregnant women in British Columbia who had a birth alert issued against them, as well as a subclass of any indigenous, racialized, and/or disabled Class Members.
The plaintiff claims birth alerts are disproportionately filed against indigineous, racialized, and/or disabled pregnant women. British Columbia issued 423 birth alerts between Jan. 1, 2018 and Sept. 26, 2019, with 228 of them going towards indigineous mothers, according to the class action lawsuit.
“The Birth Alerts Scheme is a product of the state’s colonialist and paternalistic attitude towards these historically disadvantaged and vulnerable communities,” states the class action lawsuit
Racist and Discriminatory Birth Alerts are ‘Emotionally Damaging’ for Both the Parent and Child, the Class Action Lawsuit Claims
Birth alerts are issued often without the pregnant woman’s knowledge and on the sole discretion of social workers or other agents working on behalf of the defendant, according to Steel, who said the agents’ decisions are neither reviewed nor reconsidered.
Pregnant women with a birth alert are also under constant surveillance and have their personal information and medical records shared with a third-party without their consent, the class action lawsuit alleges.
Steel claims that a parent is often only able to get their child back by going through legal channels, but, even then, the experience is emotionally damaging for both parent and child.
“Although the child of a parent subject to a birth alert may eventually be returned to parental care, the accompanying stress and emotional violation inflict significant trauma on the mother, the child, their family, and community,” states the class action lawsuit.
Steel claims the defendant is guilty of breach of privacy, breach of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, and of causing pain and suffering, injury to dignity, feelings and self-worth, serious and prolonged emotional and physical harm, and loss of parental relationship with a newborn child.
The plaintiff is seeking general damages, aggravated damages, special damages, and punitive damages for herself and all Class Members.
Have you been subject to a birth alert in a British Columbia hospital? Let us know in the comments!
The plaintiff is represented by Reidar Mogerman QC, Jen Winstanley, and Naomi Kovak of Camp Fiorante Matthews Mogerman LLP.
The Birth Alert Class Action Lawsuit is Steel v. Her Majesty the Queen in Right of British Columbia, Case No. unknown, in the Supreme Court of British Columbia.
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5 thoughts onBirth Alerts are Discriminatory and Target Babies of Indigenous, Disabled or Racialized Women, a Class Action Lawsuit Claims
My children have been stolen twice now by the ministry and mcfd separated my family where my two eldest children were separated from my two youngest children and put into two different towns from me their mother
They had no right to do this and they also planted evidence in my home so they had a reason to steal my four youngest children .
i EXPERIANCED TOURCHER INHAMANITY RACISM AND SEPERATION ANXIETY , AND DEPRISSION FROM NEVER KNOWING MY DAUGHTER , ITS SO SAD MY ENTIRE BODY RIPPED AND TORE ALL MY MUSCLES 750 Smust say I’m conflicted by the news that five current or former inmates of a Maple Ridge women’s jail want the courts to force Victoria to let them care for their newborns in the mediumsecurity prison.
On the one hand, I have just become a granddad and know how awful it would be for my little granddaughter not to be nursed and nurtured by my daughter-inlaw.
I also know that it is essential for the health of any baby that he or she bond fully with the mother in the early years — and that anything that seriously interrupts this goes against nature in some fundamental way.
The mother-baby program at the Alouette Correctional Centre for Women, which ran successfully for four years, was cancelled this April, allegedly as a result of safety concerns. And certainly a provincial correctional facility is not the best place for a child. But it sure beats the alternative. Besides, if you read the suit filed Nov. 10 by the women, you sense the inherent inhumanity in the state heartlessly stripping babies from their mothers and putting them in foster care or with relatives. It’s like something out of Dickens.
For example, the moms’ writ recounts how Natasha Lesopoy, a 22-year-old Cree, gave birth to her daughter, Nataya, this August, while in custody in Alouette jail. For the delivery itself, she was taken to Surrey Memorial Hospital.
“A male guard was present in the room throughout the delivery,” the statement of claim says. “Following her delivery, she was shackled to the bed.” Twenty-four hours after the birth, Lesopoy was told the Children’s Ministry was apprehending the baby: “Ms. Lesopoy did not know the name of the foster family and was not consulted about the possibility of placing the baby with family.” One can only imagine how devastating that was. SHE WAS SCREAMIMG IN PAIN SHAKLES ALL FOURS , 72 HRS OF LAUBOUR STITCHES . WAS IN TWO WEEKS IN SEGREGATION IN LABOUR NO PAIN KILLERS,TOLD SHE WAS LYING AND WAS TRYING TO ESCAPE CUSTODY BUT REALLY WAS IN LAUBOUR AND BABY WAS BREACHED, NO ONE TOLD HER THEY WERE CANCELLING PROGRAM AND SHE WAS IN SHOCK THEY GRABBED HER DAUGHTER AND WALKED AWAY THAN THREW HER BACK INTO JAIL. EMOTIONALLY PHYSICALLY HURT.
Is this for all mothers across Canada and if so how far back can they can go?…in 1964,My Mother gave birth to my Brother and Social Worker was pressuring my Mother to give up the baby,she kept bringing adoption papers to my Mother and with held my Mother from seeing the baby for 4 days until a Nurse brought the baby to my Mother,it was traumatizing for my Mother.
My daughter I was forced to give up as a teenager. I had an aultamadum of giving her up and I can tell her what happened. Or she is taken away and they tell her what happened in there eyes. I was forced to give her up. I was 16..
My baby son was taken from me at a deserted gas station, by a social worker, he was only 10 days old. This was in June of 1966. Yes a long time ago, but now they have a name for it. Birth Alerts