Failures laid bare by deaths in Manitoba child welfare system, advocates warn

Advocates are warning Manitoba’s most vulnerable children are being failed by a system meant to protect them – failures they say have been laid bare by recent deaths in the province.

Advocates are warning Manitoba’s most vulnerable children are being failed by a system meant to protect them – failures they say have been laid bare by recent deaths in the province.

The last time Natalie Anderson said she saw Xavia Butler alive was when she was nine-months old.

“Her eyes used to smile when she was with me. She knew what love was. She was very loved,” Anderson told CTV News in an interview last week.

Anderson said she raised Xavia from birth for the first nine months of her life through an informal kinship agreement with the baby’s biological mother.

“She was a beautiful, innocent, amazing child. She was very smart,” Anderson said.

Butler’s remains were discovered in a barn near Gypsumville this summer. Manitoba RCMP are investigating her death as a homicide, but told CTV News there was no CFS involvement in her case at the time of her death. They would not comment further.