Foster child dies during sleepover

Foster child dies during sleepover
By The Canadian Press





SPRUCE GROVE, Alta. - RCMP are now saying that a 13-year-old foster child was actually on a sleepover at a friend's house when he died.

The boy's death in Stony Plain, Alta., on Friday - the third Alberta child in foster care to have died in the last year - prompted calls from opposition politicians for an inquiry.

But Children's Services Minister Yvonne Fritz says this boy was in a "stable, loving home" for years.

She says the foster family is devastated by the boy's death and are grieving his loss.

Const. Barbara Roy says police are trying to figure out what the boy was doing before they received the call at 9 a.m. on Friday that he was in distress and was having trouble breathing.

She says as far as police know, he had been in bed asleep.

"We're trying to track back to see what he had been doing and speak to people that had been around him, see what was going on," said Roy.

Nonetheless, critics say the recent deaths have them very concerned about the system.

"Too many children have died in the so-called care and custody of the province," said Liberal MLA Harry Chase.

"If the government makes the major decision to pull them out of the custody of their birth parents, then they have to ensure their quality of life and that has not been the case."

Fritz said there will be no public inquiry.

"This situation is one that is very intimate with this family about what has happened with the loss of this young man," said Fritz.

The cause of death will be determined following an autopsy which is scheduled early next week.

RCMP say no arrests have been made and they have no suspects, adding they don't even know yet whether the death was the result of foul play or natural causes.

http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Canada/2010/05/02/13796006-cp.html