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Alberta child advocate bemoans lack of government action as he reports on 3 children who died

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Del Graff concerned government not hearing his recommendations

Show more Alberta's child and youth advocate Del Graff talks about the latest report into the deaths of three children in care, and his recommendations for changes to the child intervention system. 1:28

Alberta's child and youth advocate says he's becoming more critical of the government's child intervention system because he's not seeing action on his recommendations.

Del Graff made the remarks Tuesday in releasing results of another investigative review, this time into the deaths of three First Nations children who died within a 14-month period in 2014 and 2015.

"My references are becoming a bit harsher," Graff said. "In many ways I'm not feeling like the government is hearing the recommendations and acting on them in the way that I'd hoped."

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Graff's latest report, titled Three Young Children, examines the deaths of five-year-old Sarah, two-year-old-Anthony and one-year-old Mikwan.

Two mothers convicted, third awaiting trial

All three children died after being returned to their parents following time in government care. All suffered traumatic injuries. In all three cases, the children's mothers were charged in connection with their deaths.

The mothers of Anthony and Mikwan have since pleaded guilty to manslaughter and are incarcerated. Sarah's mother is charged with second-degree murder, said a member of Graff's staff.

All of the children's siblings are now in foster care or kinship care.

The names used in Graff's report are pseudonyms to protect the privacy of their families.

Breakdown in supports after kids came home

The child advocate's findings point to a breakdown in specialized supports the children had been receiving in care. The supports ended after they returned home to their families.

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Their parents had all taken strides to battle addictions in order to get their children back but things unravelled once the kids were in the home again.

"The services provided when the children were returned to their parents were family-focused and risks that were specific to each child were lost," Graff writes in the report. "The children became isolated from relatives and community services that were previously supporting them."

In referring to three new recommendations in his report, Graff pointed to a 2016 review surrounding the death of a nine-month-old baby he named Sharon.

He made similar recommendations in that review but on Tuesday said the Ministry of Children's Services has not explained how they will be implemented.

"There is a commitment to act upon them but then we don't see an update that comes back to us," he said. "It is concerning."

Graff said he would be meeting with provincial government officials in the next few weeks to discuss his frustration.

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"We feel quite confident the recommendations we are making are doable and achievable," he said.

Graff has been Alberta's child and youth advocate for six years. In that time his office has issued 24 investigative reviews and two special reports.

Government launching its own review

Alberta's Children's Services Minister Danielle Larivee is away but deputy premier Sarah Hoffman issued a statement responding to Graff's report.

The government has started its own internal review into the three children's deaths, Hoffmann said in the statement.

"We need to do a better job of working with families to ensure complex needs are acknowledged, the right supports are in place and that children are kept safe," the statement said.

Hoffman said the government accepts Graff's latest recommendations and will work with his office to put them in place.

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As for Graff's previous recommendations, a government spokesperson said implementing them is not an easy task with a number of complex factors at play.

'These are complex systems and they don't change overnight.' - Aaron Manton

"While of course we want to ensure change happens as quickly as possible, we want to ensure that it's the right change — these are complex systems and they don't change overnight," Aaron Manton, Larivee's press secretary, told CBC News.

He said Graff has made 87 recommendations in total and that the government has responded to about 30 per cent of them, "with work underway to implement all remaining recommendations."

Wildrose finds latest report 'troubling'

The official Opposition Wildrose said Graff's latest report is "deeply troubling" in that the details are so similar to those in the case of nine-month-old Sharon.

"The government has accepted but not planned to implement recommendations from that report, and has also not shared the results of any internal reviews covering this period," Wildrose children's services critic Jason Nixon said in a statement.

Nixon pointed out there is no binding legislation to make sure recommendations are implemented.

Graff said he hoped his latest report would not lead to a knee-jerk reaction leading to fewer children being reunited with their families.

"I believe that children belong with families," he said.