My husband and I live in rural Manitoba. We have recently become…

There is likely little that you can do aside from notifying social services immediately if you have any concrete suspicions of ongoing abuse.

There are typically two courses of action to try and protect a child in such circumstances. One is involving social services. The other is seeking custody of the child.

Social services has wide powers to intervene and apprehend the child out of the care of a parenting the child is at risk of harm. That can of course occur if the risk comes from another family member and he parent does not take steps to remove that family member from the home. So here, if social services were to intervene, they may still allow the child to return to the mother provided that the mother sign an agreement hat she will not allow any contact with the brother and that the daughter will be subject to apprehension should that occur.

So here social services does have a mandate to act to protect the child. If they determine that there is no ongoing risk and they allow the daughter back in the home, the has long as you have given them all information relevant to that decision, there is nothing else you can do. You would not have he legal ability to challenge that decision in court. You would not have legal standing to do so.

You could apply for custody of the child yourself. To succeed, you would first need to show that you have some substantial connection to the child. If you could not do so, the court will not consider your request further. And just being a neighbour may not be enough. Usually it is someone with an dry long attachment to the child, such as a grandparent or step parent, that can satisfy the court in this regard. But it is possible. If you convince the court you have such a connection, then you would need to demonstrate why it is in the child's best interests for you to have custody or visitation.

Aside from these measures, you would not have the ability to petition the court over someone else's child.

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