First Nations children

The editorial “Every child deserves a home”1 does not mention that First Nations children are six to eight times more likely to be in child welfare care. The factors driving the over-represen-tation of First Nations children in care (poverty, poor housing, substance mis-use by caregivers) are responsive to services, but equitable funding is needed to address the problem.2 There is growing evidence that successful adoption placements must fully respect a child’s cultural and linguistic iden-tity. Despite this, the federal govern-ment provides no funding to First Nations on reserve for adoption pro-grams, even though pilot adoption pro-grams created by First Nations have won numerous international awards of excellence. Residential schools have closed, but sadly, many of the federal government’s policies undermining First Nations children continue to flourish