Who cares about the children?

Part I

There is just cause to worry about the children in our country and the fact they have very little protection of their rights and wellbeing.

For children in care who die under suspicious circumstances, or after children in bad homes are seriously injured or killed, most of the intervention happens afterwards because the authorities have to wait for something to happen first.

The child welfare system is in crisis with 49 critical injuries and 30 deaths of children in provincial care in a four month period. Gross underfunding means not enough staff on the front lines to protect our children.

In our criminal justice system, it is okay to leave little ones to bake in hot cars while you enjoy a cold one at the bar, and it is okay to molest young girls if you marry them first and call it religious freedom. Winston Blackmore, 52, and James Oler, 44, were charged with sexual exploitation, statutory rape and the trafficking of young girls across international borders for sexual purposes. But, the charges were dropped as were the best interests and safety of their child wives.

Child poverty, vowed by provincial and federal governments to be eradicated by 2000, has thrived, and B.C. leads the country for the sixth year in a row with one in five children suffering in poverty stricken circumstances due to chronic under-funding and cuts to social programs since the Liberals came into power in 2001. Over half of children in poverty live with working parents.

Things are about to get worse. It is very difficult to provide a comprehensive review of all the cuts children are about to receive. Policy analysts, service providers, and media are frustrated and the government is being smug and refusing to provide a list. If they did, the list would be long enough to have to spill over into two of my columns. And it will.

First, there will be no additional funds for childcare for the latch key kids whose parent(s) cannot afford or get space in local daycare facilities. There will be no additional funding for BC Housing, so children can continue to live in unsafe and unhealthy conditions, often alone before and after school because there is no childcare for them.

Children will go to schools that are falling apart because maintenance for schools has been cut, and there will be a pathetic display of broken and outdated books in school libraries and public libraries because, along with literacy programs, funding is gone. If a child is interested in sports, he or she will probably not be traveling for competitions, wearing a team uniform, or even having a team to join, because BC School sports funding is no more. The minister defends it by saying these kids can “dance and play in the park.” If a student is hungry, they can join the food bank line-ups along with the other 60 per cent of families with children. B.C. school lunch programs took a hit too. While the students are playing in the park, they should know that playground grants have been cut along with half the money to Parent Advisory Councils. Maybe they can find some dirty needles to play with since so many of our homeless and addicted cannot get into housing or treatment.

In end-of-2008 interviews, Premier Gordon Campbell said his time in office was “all about the kids.” On the CBC in 2008 he said “I think all of us in elected life, all of us in life, look at our grandkids and say ‘we want you to have the best possible life.’ I think if that means we have to make some tough choices where we have to make the right decisions now for them we should do it. Because I want to look to my grandkids in 15 years and say ‘I did everything I could to make sure you had the province I enjoyed and I just didn’t keep taking and taking and taking away. I actually gave back so you had a better province to live in.”

Stay tuned for more of the same.