The province has taken the unusual step of quickly inspecting and shutting down three Thunder Bay foster homes after the death last month of Indigenous teen Tammy Keeash, the Star has learned.Keeash, 17, disappeared from her foster care residence on May 6. The teen, from the North Caribou Lake First Nation, was reported to be living in a Johnson Children’s Services residence when she failed to make her curfew, said Nishnawbe Aski Nation deputy grand chief Anna Betty Achneepineskum. Keeash was seeking mental health services in Thunder Bay because those services weren’t available in her community 500 kilometres away. Her body was found in the Neebing-McIntyre Floodway on May 7.The Ministry of Children and Youth Services conducted the surprise inspections after Keeash’s death. “Based on information collected from those inspections, the ministry imposed terms and conditions on the operator which required that all three homes in Thunder Bay be closed,” Trell Heuther, of the ministry said in a statement.No other details were released about why or when the homes were shut, and it’s not known where its residents were relocated and how many were affected.Johnson Children’s Services operates for-profit homes under contract by Tikinagan Child and Family Services, a child welfare agency that works with 30 First Nations in northwestern Ontario. The agency contracts group homes in Thunder Bay so kids from remote First Nations have safe shelter.The Johnson program is designed to work with children with serious emotional and behavioural problems, according to its website, “including chronic delinquency, aggression, substance abuse, and chronic AWOL. JCS has high adult to child support ratios, high structure and supervision, and evidence based treatment. For these reasons JCS is able to care for children and youth that are commonly placed in group homes.”Johnson Children’s Services declined to make any comment ...
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