The B.C. Teachers Federation is calling for the resignation of Stephanie Cadieux, minister of children and family development, after another young aboriginal person died months after her 19th birthday and the loss of government support.

Patricia Lee Evoy, also known as Indigo, died last week. She was not in foster care, but was on a youth agreement, which is a form of financial support for people under 19 whose families cannot care for them, said Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond, B.C.’s representative for children and youth.

Evoy turned 19 in October and her youth agreement expired, Turpel-Lafond said.

“I’m still gathering information, but at this point what I can say is that after she turned 19, things pretty much fell apart,” Turpel-Lafond said. “I’m very sad about this death and deeply concerned.”

Cadieux said she did not have a response to the teachers’ call for her resignation.

“It’s individuals and they have a right to express whatever it is they feel the need to express, but as the minister of children and families I have a job to do and that’s what I’m focused on,” Cadieux said Wednesday.

The emergency motion was passed by about 700 teachers at the BCTF’s annual general meeting “in response to the growing crisis facing vulnerable children and youth in care,” the federation said in a news release.

“Teachers across B.C. are heartbroken and fed up with the government’s lack of action and support for vulnerable and at-risk children, youth, and young adults,” said BCTF president Jim Iker. “As teachers, we see the impact of this government’s damaging policies every single day in our classrooms. Too many children in this province are living in a state of crisis and the ministry, led by Minister Cadieux, has failed to respond for too long.”

“B.C. teachers are demanding accountability for the government’s failure to protect the lives of so many children and youth. It’s time to invest significant new resources and funding to end the crisis facing children in care and the young adults who have, or are about to, age out of care.” Evoy appears to have died from a drug overdose, Turpel-Lafond said. A male and a female were found dead in an apartment in Burnaby on Willingdon Avenue on March 10 and the coroner is investigating, said coroner Barbara McLintock. Turpel-Lafond said it’s possible that Evoy, like many young aboriginal women, was pressured to make money through dancing or working as an escort.

On social media, friends remembered Evoy as a sweet and beautiful girl who loved dancing.

“She lived up to her nickname. I just wish her spark had the chance to become the inferno she was meant to be,” Dan Reimer posted on Facebook. “She had the personality, heart, and fire to change the world. She affected everyone she met, and ignited the embers in others. She was filled with an incandescence I’ve never seen in anyone else before. Burn bright, Indigo, your legacy continues to illuminate.”

Other friends took issue with stories in the media.

“They described Indigo as a troubled, lost soul discussing how she started stripping at age 18 and had problems with addiction taking away from who she really was, a brilliant creative and open minded girl who had so much to offer the world,” Jessie Read posted on Facebook.

Turpel-Lafond said she was aware of Evoy and thought she had a lot of potential.

“Patty was a young woman I was following because I felt she was a young person who had a really good chance of success. ... She was very bright and she wanted help. She was trying to engage. She was a pretty special person who was very connected to other youth. ... She was experiencing some very harsh things in her life over the years, but she also had shown remarkable resilience.”

A special rapid response team was also aware of Evoy, Turpel-Lafond said. The rapid response team was formed on Turpel-Lafond’s recommendation after the high-profile death in 2013 of Paige Gauchier, who overdosed at age 19, just months after having to leave her foster home and get dropped off at a shelter with her belongings in a garbage bag.

Evoy was receiving services from the Broadway Youth Resource Centre and had accessed a number of other youth resources, but those agencies and services are piecemeal and do not have the funding or staff to keep these young people safe, Turpel-Lafond said.

“My view is pretty strong — we need to not only have a solid child welfare foster care system, but we also need to extend it with social workers assigned to the file and a lot of stable attachments as opposed to a bunch of referrals to agencies and other things,” Turpel-Lafond said.

“Whether or not these agencies can respond to these situations is a major concern to me. I feel very much for the agencies because they’re struggling to help a group of very vulnerable young people.”

Cadieux said the government has increased supports for young people and that it is “challenging” to figure out how best to support youth transitioning to independence.

Turpel-Lafond said Indigo had been missing several times in the months since she turned 19 — for a time she was in the hospital and at other times it is unknown where she was.

There have been several high-profile deaths in B.C. of young people who have received government services, often within months of, or just before, turning 19 and losing their supports. Gauchier was one example and Turpel-Lafond made many recommendations for improved services for young people aging out of care in a report about that death.

Carly Fraser turned 19 just hours before she took her own life in 2014 — she had been in foster care, but later received only support services from the government. Alex Gervais, 18, fell to his death in 2015 from an Abbotsford hotel, where he had been living for months in violation of ministry policies.

A recent Vancouver Foundation and Insights West poll found that more than 70 per cent of 2,000 B.C. residents polled said they would favour the provincial government providing support to young people who age out of foster care at age 19 to help with living expenses, such as housing, food, education and health care, until they turn 25.

The Vancouver Sun wrote a series of stories in 2014 that found youth leaving care face many challenges, such as homelessness, when their support is cut off at 19. A cost-benefit analysis done by The Sun found extending support beyond 19 would save money in the long run by improving youths’ chances of getting educated and finding a job, and reducing reliance on welfare, shelters, hospitals and the justice system.

Last November, the First Nations Leadership Council called for the province to raise the age of foster care to 24 in response to the report into Gauchier’s death which was released by Turpel-Lafond in May, 2015.

With a file from Rob Shaw

Sun Education Reporter

tsherlock@vancouversun.com

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