ManitobaA child is in a Winnipeg hospital in critical condition with life-altering injuries, and a 25-year-old foster mom has been charged with aggravated assault, assault and failing to provide the necessaries of life.4 children taken from home, 1 with critical injuries, Winnipeg police sayBryce Hoye · CBC News · Posted: Sep 23, 2025 10:19 AM EDT | Last Updated: 5 hours agoPolice removed four children from a home in Winnipeg’s Riverbend neighbourhood, two of whom were suffering injuries. (Gary Solilak/CBC)Manitoba’s child advocate promises to do a thorough review of the circumstances surrounding the life-altering injuries a child allegedly suffered at the hands of her foster mother.The child is in critical condition in a Winnipeg hospital, and a 25-year-old foster mom has been charged with aggravated assault, assault and failing to provide the necessaries of life.”It’s a sad day,” said Sherry Gott, Manitoba’s advocate for children and youth, about the child and three others who were in the home.”I hope the best for this child, and the other children that have been taken into care and moved to another place. I hope that this child survives and thrives.”A 26-year-old man, identified by police as the foster dad, faces a charge of failing to provide the necessaries of life, Winnipeg police said in a news release on Tuesday.Police were called Sept. 19 to a home in the Riverbend neighbourhood in north Winnipeg about a child with serious injuries.Foster mom in custodyThe child was rushed to hospital and three other children in the home were also sent to hospital for medical assessment.Another child showed signs of having been assaulted and was in stable condition.The Winnipeg Police Service’s child abuse unit says the critically injured child was hurt between Sept. 17-18 and did not receive medical attention.The foster mom remains in custody, while the dad has been released under conditions.They are not being named in order to protect the identity of the children, whose ages and sexes have not been released by police.Anyone wishing to speak to an investigator can call the child abuse unit at 204-986-3296.’This child is vulnerable’Gott said her office is notified any time there’s a report of a child being injured, and the office will do a thorough review of the circumstances in this case.”These foster parents are entrusted with a child in care, and they should be providing that utmost support to those children,” Gott said during a news conference on Tuesday.Sherry Gott, Manitoba’s Advocate for Children and Youth, after speaking with media on Sept. 23, 2025. (CBC)The Child Welfare Act stipulates agencies must check up on children in care every 30 days, Gott said. She could not say whether that standard was met in this case and would not reveal the name of the agency involved.”I can’t due to confidentiality matters.… I would love to, because I am very upset,” she said. “This child is vulnerable.”She said she has concerns about the system of licensing requirements for foster homes and questioned whether this home in particular met standards.Last year, changes to the act passed by the former Progressive Conservative government came into effect. At the time, NDP Families Minister Nahanni Fontaine said the aim was to keep more families together.The change enabled CFS agencies to explore a variety of different support options for children in care, including placing them with family through kinship care arrangements.Gott suggested licensing requirements for foster parents seem to vary across agencies and some “legislation needs to be looked at.” “We have situations where there is kinship care, children go into care with their families, but I think there still needs to be a due diligence process when we’re placing children with our own families, and I think that needs to be looked at,” Gott said.”We support kinship care in our office, but the due diligence piece of it, all the requirements still need to be met. These are vulnerable children.”Minister Fontaine declined to comment on the specifics of the case as the investigation is ongoing.”Right now, we’re focused on making sure that those children get the supports that they need and that the WPS have the information that they need to be able to do the investigation,” Fontaine told reporters at an unrelated event outside the legislature Tuesday.Foster parents arrested in child abuse investigationTwo foster parents in Winnipeg are facing charges after a school-age child in their care was found in critical condition with life-altering injuries. An advocate for children and youth in Manitoba says she wonders if foster care standards were being met when the parents were vetted.More news from CBC Manitoba:ABOUT THE AUTHORBryce Hoye is a multi-platform journalist with a background in wildlife biology. He has worked for CBC Manitoba for over a decade with stints producing at CBC’s Quirks & Quarks and Front Burner. He was a 2024-25 Knight Science Journalism Fellow at MIT. He is also Prairie rep for outCBC. He has won a national Radio Television Digital News Association award for a 2017 feature on the history of the fur trade, and a 2023 Prairie region award for an audio documentary about a Chinese-Canadian father passing down his love for hockey to the next generation of Asian Canadians.Selected storiesEmail: bryce.hoye@cbc.caFacebookMore by Bryce HoyeWith files from Darren Bernhardt and Mike Arsenault
Advocate pledges thorough review after child left in critical condition, foster parents arrested
