REGINA - The Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations (FSIN) is calling on high-ranking workers of the Street Culture Project (SCP) to resign after a First Nations girl died by suicide at their shelter.
The occurrence stemmed from Dec. 2023, when a 17-year-old, Serenity Severight, was housed at the Tuhk Sih Nowin Youth Shelter, operated by the SCP.
Serenity, who was dealing with suicidal thoughts, notified SCP of her condition and requested counselling and a psychiatric unit. Even though the SCP has both of these available, Serenity's calls had gone unanswered for days, leading to her taking her own life.
Her father, David Severight, was in attendance at a media event held by the FSIN at the First Nations University of Canada on Tuesday.
As he started getting emotional, David said his daughter was a good person. His family is seeking answers from the SCP, hoping to bring Serenity’s death to a close.
Along with David, current and former workers of the SCP spoke out against the organization.
Many of these workers were fired or suspended from their actions of bringing forward information/concerns to light.
Kaylita Faval, a former SCP employee, called out the group as one of the staff in the initial 2020 sexual assault allegation scandal is still working for them while other workers are getting fired.
"How do we as a community build trust and protect certain individuals while pushing out these individuals that are seeking to provide safe spaces for the youth," she said.
Faval said staff are expected to work in dangerous conditions and are told everything is fine.
She also went on to say that SPC is using fabrications of ages to receive Indigenous grant funding.
Breanna Desnomie, another former SPC employee, said while she was on educational leave, the group used her name to receive a $200,000 grant and lied about her birth date on it.
Not only have employees felt unsafe and used, but others have also been harassed by current SPC staff.
Damara Juneau, who is currently on suspension with SPC, said she was bullied by two of her supervisors.
"After that, my mental health was not great because I had given them that power over me to ruin my life," said Juneau.
Despite these concerns, Annie Ewenin, a former director of quality care and truth & reconciliation at SPC, called out the lack of concern raised by multiple different parties regarding these issues.
"We went to [SPC] senior leadership, nothing was done. We went to the board [and] nothing was done. We went to MSS [and] nothing was done."
She called out SPC for using workers to receive grants instead of making it a priority to provide good care for youth in need.
Betty Nippi-Albright, MLA for Saskatoon Centre, said she was speechless from the issues raised.
"I'm watching relatives suffer with mental health issues and not getting the support they need," she said.
FSIN chief Bobby Cameron took the podium last, saying Jeff Dudar, SPC CEO, and four other board members, Cassandra Klassen, Michael Marschal, Neal Fense and Leta Seiferling, have all failed the organization.
He called on all of them to resign immediately. If they don’t, Cameron said all of the families have agreed to take legal action and sue SPC based on discrimination and violating human rights.
By resigning, Cameron believes SPC can hit a reset button and get more input from First Nations people.
SPC CEO speaks out
In a statement sent to SaskToday, Dudar said the SPC takes these matters very seriously.
The statement acknowledged the tragic passing of Serenity Severight. The SPC said, "we make great efforts to provide a safe, caring, professional and culturally inclusive environment for our youth and for our staff. Any recommendations that have been made or will be made with respect to this incident will be considered and implemented."
As the CEO, Dudar said he would welcome a conversation with Cameron to discuss their agency, programs and services.
"[This allows us] to learn from him how we might strengthen the work that we do. As a proud Métis person myself, this matter is very important to me."
