VICTORIA— The last four years of violent incidents at the Maples adolescent treatment centre aren’t just evidence of a failure to protect staff, they are evidence of a failure to protect the children in the government’s care, say the New Democrats.

“In the last four years the B.C. Liberals have been ordered to stop breaking health and safety laws at Maples 15 times,” said New Democrat health critic Judy Darcy. “Workers have suffered head injuries, broken bones and post-traumatic stress syndrome from near daily violence. Yet basic safety precautions such as panic buttons are still not in place.”

The minister of children and family development said that workers were given panic alarms in 2012, but a WorkSafe B.C. order from February 2014 shows that isn’t the case.

“First the B.C. Liberals failed to protect and nurture the most vulnerable youth in their care, then they failed to protect the staff tasked with working with these children with extreme challenges,” said New Democrat children and families critic Carole James.

She noted that if the B.C. Liberal government is unwilling to provide basic safety measures for staff it’s hard to believe that youth in the facility are being properly protected.

“Maples is the only provincial adolescent treatment facility in the province, and far from being a safe haven for children and youth, we see it’s plagued by violence and the callous neglect that is a hallmark of the B.C. Liberal government,” said James.