14-year-old Sask. girl's family demands accountability after fatal overdose

The family of a 14-year-old girl who died of a drug overdose says Saskatchewan's social services ministry failed in its duty to help her.

The girl's mother, Angela Severight, joined NDP MLA Meara Conway at the Saskatchewan Legislature on Thursday to share her daughter’s story — one she feels was cut tragically short because of the ministry’s lack of help.

"What I went through isn’t going to bring her back. I would like some accountability," she said, speaking to reporters.

Severight's daughter Stellayna died of a drug overdose last year, after getting caught up with drugs and gangs. Severight asked the government for support and had Stellayna taken into care.

Bonnie Ford, Stellayna’s outreach worker, said she found the girl in a drug house and notified the Ministry of Social Services that she was in danger. However, no one from the ministry went to look for her for 29 days, according to Ford. Stellayna later died of a drug overdose on May 29.

Ford, who has been a caseworker for 25 years, described the day she found Stellayna. Two other young girls were in the house and high on fentanyl, and she had to make sure they were still breathing.

Ford said Stellayna was in another room and was also high.

"Instead of calling the worker, I went directly into social services,” Ford said.

“I stood right there when the receptionist called up for Stellayna’s worker."

Ford said she overheard the social worker tell the receptionist, "Tell her I’m not here."

“This was an emergency. This was probably the worst-case scenario I’ve ever had to deal with," Ford said.

Severight said there are gaps in the social service system that need to be addressed.

“We need people who know what they’re doing, we need people that are going to be pounding the pavement, 29 days it took, people didn’t listen,” Severight said.

By asking for help and giving her daughter up to the ministry for care, Severight thought she was getting the help that was going to save her.

“In the end, it destroyed me, it destroyed my daughter, I have no daughter,” Severight said.

Severight recalled the day a police officer came to her door on the afternoon of May 29 to tell her Stellayna had died.

“That cop came to my house … and the look on that cop’s face, and I still see it every time I close my eyes, every month around the 29th, it’s like clockwork,” she said.

"I asked for help repeatedly, and [was] not given any answers, except a [business] card in the door, or, 'Oh I’m sorry, we’re busy right now,'" Severight said, holding a photo of her daughter.

“I feel my biggest failure is holding this picture and not my baby," Severight said.

Stellayna was 14-years-old when she died of a drug overdose in 2022. (Wayne Mantyka / CTV News)

"You have kids, you have daughters, tell them you love them, if someone asks you for help, sit and listen."

Ford said the ministry needs to change, noting that the provinces children’s advocate can make recommendations, but the ministry doesn’t have to follow them.

“That should be definitely changed,” she said. “You’re going to have a lot of dead kids if nothing’s done.”

“When I had made suggestions on where to place her, they didn’t have a clue what I was talking about,” Ford said.

“Every time I would tell them where she was, they wouldn’t go and get her.”

Conway, who had once been the family's legal aid lawyer, said part of the challenge is that they don’t know everything that happened on the ministry’s end because of the lack of transparency.

“That’s a problem because it’s hard to kind of pinpoint the system fails and really figure out what all went wrong,” she said.

Speaking to reporters, social services minister Gene Makowsky offered his condolences to the family and friends of Stellayna.

He said while he is limited on what he can say about certain cases, he said that every time there’s serious incident, there is an investigation that takes place within the ministry, which is shared with the advocate and the coroner’s service, as well as the family.

“If the advocate, and or the coroner wants to look into it further, do an investigation, that can happen,” he said.

Makowsky said the ministry takes matters such as this very seriously and has staff who have dedicated their lives to looking after children.

Pointing to the most recent provincial budget, Makowsky said much has been done to provide additional support.

“In terms of prevention programs, more caseworkers and more oversight of group homes,” he said.

He said he is willing to meet with Stellayna’s family if that is something they wish to do.

The minister later met with the family for about an hour at the legislative building.

The family says it didn’t receive any additional information during its meeting with government. There was agreement to meet again next week.

- With files from CTV News Regina's Wayne Mantyka