Ottawa was the legal guardian of two Indigenous brothers whose case has ended in a murder conviction in a Milton courtroom, and advocates say it shows how badly the child welfare system failed them.
An Ontario Superior Court judge found Burlington, Ont. couple Becky Hamber and Brandy Cooney guilty of first-degree murder in the death of 12-year-old L.L., and of torture-related charges involving his younger brother J.L. Justice Clayton Conlan delivered the verdict at the Milton courthouse. Crown attorney Monica MacKenzie told the court the case involved "a child's life was taken and another child suffered significant abuse over a number of years."
The Ottawa connection
The two Indigenous brothers were moved from Ottawa to live with Cooney and Hamber in Burlington in 2017, but they remained wards of the Ottawa Children's Aid Society throughout. Halton CAS was responsible for supervising the family's day-to-day care under that arrangement, a split of responsibility that advocates say is now under scrutiny.
The trial heard that Halton CAS received numerous reports from people concerned about how Hamber and Cooney were treating the boys. Despite that, workers never conducted unannounced home visits, nor did they interview the boys without Cooney or Hamber present, even though that is required practice.
Advocates call it a systemic failure
Sherry Saevil of Circle of Beads, a group connected to Mistawasis First Nation, said the Children's Aid Society's failures included not intervening and not supervising appropriately. Irwin Elman, Ontario's former child welfare watchdog, described the boy's death as resulting from "a series of catastrophic failures" of the child protection system.
Grandmother's Voice, a Halton Indigenous organization co-founded by advocate Jody Harbour, published a statement arguing that systems must stop harm, not just document it. "Children do not need systems that simply document harm," the group wrote. "They need systems that stop it." The organization pointed to national data showing the scale of the problem: Indigenous children made up 7.7% of children under 15 in Canada in the 2021 census, but represented 53.8% of children in foster care.
In a follow-up statement, Grandmother's Voice argued the convictions alone don't explain why verified concerns about the boys never led to decisive protective action, and the group is calling for an independent review of Halton CAS.
What it means for Ottawa
No information has been made public about whether the Ottawa Children's Aid Society has responded directly to the verdict or to calls for a review of how the inter-agency supervision arrangement worked.
Sources: Milton Now, The Canadian Press (via Yahoo News Canada), Grandmother's Voice
