Waterhen Lake man plans to sue government over alleged mishandling of son’s death while in foster care
- Fraser Needham | June 13, 2015
Chris Martell is raising money to sue the Ministry of Social Services.
Martell’s 22-month old son Evander Lee Daniels died while in foster care in 2010.
His foster mother Eunice Wudrich was initially charged with criminal negligence causing death, after the toddler drowned in a bathtub in her home, but was later acquitted of these charges in a 2013 trial.
Last month, Saskatchewan’s Children’s Advocate Bob Pringle released a scathing report on the circumstances surrounding Daniels’ death.
He says social services failed to provided the necessary supports to both the young boy’s biological and foster families and put him at risk by placing him in a small and overcrowded home.
Pringle says overall the foster care system lacks any real accountability in terms of the families it serves and recommends the government issue a letter of apology to Daniels’ parents.
Chris Martell has long been critical of the provincial government and how the death of his son has been handled.
He says he was not properly consulted by social services when Daniels was taken into custody and during his short time in foster care.
Martell also says he suffers from post traumatic stress disorder as a result his son’s death and the department has provided little in the way of supports to help him in the past five years.
As a result, he says he plans on launching a civil suit against the province and on Monday June 8 began a fundraising walk to raise money for legal fees.
Martell is walking the approximately 220 kilometres from Saskatoon to where his son is buried on the Sturgeon Lake First Nation.
Reached while on the road, he says he has grown tired of waiting for the government to pay attention to him.
“They took five years to actually acknowledge me,” he says. “They kept me quiet for five years and they never acknowledged me or got back to me or anything for five whole years.”
Like Pringle, Martell says social services has never really taken adequate responsibility for the death of his son.
“They have to be held accountable for what happened,” he says. “It was a preventable death. I know that now and it just shocks me how they handled it and putting cases on the back burner type of thing.”
Martell is doing the walk with Darla Greyeyes of Muskeg Lake Cree Nation, who also spent time in the foster care system.
He plans to cover about 45 kilometres a day on the walk and reach Sturgeon Lake on Friday June 12, after a short stop in Prince Albert.
Martell will then attend a special feast in Sturgeon Lake, also on Friday, in memory of Evander Lee Daniels where officials from social services are expected to attend.
He says he hopes to raise about $10,000 through the walk.
Related story: Foster care system in serious need of fixing, says children's advocate
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