This National Children’s Day What Can Only Be Called A Stark Tragedy Unfolding In Ontario

Published by Irwin on


This National Children’s Day we must acknowledge what our children are facing in Ontario. 


We are in free fall placing our most vulnerable children and families in crisis. 


Sector after sector here is a sample snapshot;

– 50,000 plus autistic children languishing on wait lists for service 
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/ontario-autism-program-waitlist-services-1.7319778




– children waiting 1-3 years for mental health service 
https://www.thestar.com/interactives/wait-lists-and-120-trips-to-the-er-what-its-like-to-be-a-child/article_2a4cb9d2-693f-11ee-86b6-b3720d2bbc19.html




– 60% of Elementary School Principals in the Province report sending a child home or preventing them from attending school because they had no special education supports for the child in their school. 
https://peopleforeducation.ca/report/access-to-special-education-in-ontario-schools/




– youth justice facilities in the Province closing due to a lack of staff 
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/london/workers-worry-parents-sound-alarm-as-craigwood-youth-services-in-ailsa-craig-ships-out-kids-1.7382463




– parents traumatized and exhausted surrendering in heartbreak their complex care children to child protection because there are no supports available for their families 
https://www.thetrillium.ca/news/social-services-and-society/ottawa-cas-warns-child-welfare-at-tipping-point-over-shortfall-in-supports-for-youth-with-complex-needs-9026931




– a record 1 million families using food banks in Ontario
https://www.dailybread.ca/blog/over-1-million-people-in-ontario-visited-a-food-bank-in-the-last-year/ 
– wait times for children requiring surgery continue to exist as do bottlenecks in ERs 
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/ontario-emergency-room-wait-times-1.7075415




– a record number of femicides in Ontario with 1 in 7 deaths being young girls 
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/ontario-femicide-young-victims-1.7302542




– Ontario has highest increase in child poverty in last 12 months of any Province or Territory in the country. 


– 99% of young people living away from home due to family strife including those leaving care live in poverty. 
https://campaign2000.ca/ending-child-poverty-the-time-is-now/




– A record 136 deaths of children connected to the child protection system in 2022-23. 
https://globalnews.ca/news/10735101/ontario-child-care-system-deaths/




– children as young as 3 years old being housed by the child protection system for months in “unlicensed placements”  
ie trailers in parking lots, office space , hotels , air bnbs…
https://www.thestar.com/news/ontario/sharp-increase-in-ontario-kids-in-child-protection-being-housed-in-hotels-offices-and-airbnbs/article_95a912ea-7a7b-11ef-b324-ebb71dbfa7e4.html




– closure of services due to cuts in funding 
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/london/workers-worry-parents-sound-alarm-as-craigwood-youth-services-in-ailsa-craig-ships-out-kids-1.7382463




– Child protection agencies across the Province carrying a combined deficit of $115 million 
https://peterboroughcurrents.ca/news/province-installs-supervisor-at-khcas/




It is also important to acknowledge the moral distress faced by so many on the front line trying to support those in harms way. 


National Children’s Day is the day we are to celebrate the creation of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. Today in Ontario so many , so many, children are struggling for the rights that come so easily to others. 


We are in an unprecedented moment. I have journeyed with children of the Province for over 40 years. I have never witnessed anything like what we are facing.  


It is a stark, clear tragedy that can not continue.  
Categories: Blog Categories

0 Comments

Leave a Reply

Avatar placeholder

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Related Posts

Blog Categories

Bringing Ukraine’s Children Home

December 2024 My comments to the Ireland – Canada International Forum On Bringing Ukraine’s Stolen Children Home Thank you to the organizers of this event and particularly Global Affairs Canada for the invitation to participate.  I Read more…

Blog Categories

My Testimony To The Senate Human Rights Committee On Youth In Care

Comments To Senate Human Rights Committee –             I am grateful for the opportunity and invitation.  More than grateful to sit with on this panel my friend and mentor Jennifer Charlesworth and her colleagues –             I don’t want to Read more…

Blog Categories

Rescuing Ukraine’s Stolen Children

We, indeed, are a unique pair.  We met when we were ChildAdvocates. Irwin was Ontario’s Provincial Advocate forChildren and Youth (2008-2019). Mykola was Ukraine’sChildren’s Ombudsman (2013-2021). When we met, wesigned a Memorandum of Understanding linking ourrespective Offices, seeking to support and learn from eachother. We have been colleagues ever since. Mykola founded a charitable organization, Save Ukraine, striving to saveUkrainian children from the war and build a community-based, trauma-informed service for children and families, reforming Ukraine’s immense orphanage system. Theorphanage system is the last vestige of the legacy of Sovietrule. Irwin created Save Ukraine-Canada to continue tosupport the effort from Canada.  And then the invasion of Ukraine by Russia, an invasion that, in truth, began over ten years ago, escalated with an all-outattack by Russia in 2022, culminating in the bloody war thatrages today. Save Ukraine pivoted to evacuate children inconflict zones and moved them to safe havens in the country.  It was always clear that Russia was waging a war upon thechildren of Ukraine. In 2014, nearly one million children livedin the Russian-occupied territories of Crimea, Donetsk, andLuhansk. Then, the Russian children’s “ombudsman” statedabout 744,000 registered in Russia after the beginning of thefull-scale invasion. How many Ukrainian children were deported to Russia intotal remains unknown. What we do know is that an estimated19,500 children were forcibly deported from Ukraine toRussia in the escalation of the war. Russia has claimed thatthey did it as a humanitarian gesture. The fact that Ukrainianchildren apprehended by Russia are often fast-tracked forRussian citizenship and then immediately “adopted out” tellsa different story. As does the fact that Ukraine’s stolenchildren are forbidden to speak their language or acknowledgetheir culture, They are “re-educated“ to believe that Ukrainedoes not want them or convinced that Ukraine does not evenexist. Some are forcibly conscripted into the Russian army.  Russia is attempting to erase the Ukrainians in the childrenthey have taken. It is horrifically wrong. The International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant forRussia’s President Vladimir Putin and Russia’s Commissionerfor Children’s Rights, Maria Lvova-Belova, for the forciblerelocation of Ukrainian children. Save Ukraine has joined Ukraine’s President Zelenskyi’s“Bring Kids Back” initiative. Through determined, nimble, dangerous work Save Ukraine has returned 523 children fromRussia and occupied territories and reunited them with family, wrapping service around them to help them heal from thetrauma and rebuild their lives. 119 of them, who are orphans, found support in loving foster families, and none ended up inan orphanage. We know that the trauma children haveexperienced will have lasting consequences, and weunderstand we must begin confronting it with them to preventgenerational trauma in the future.  This week, Canada’s Minister of Global Affairs will hold a conference in Montreal on the return of “prisoners andforcibly detained Ukrainians in Russia”.  Much of thediscussion will center on children. The Minister’s counterpartsfrom across the globe will attend to develop plans andapproaches to bringing the children home. Mykola Kulebawill attend as part of Ukraine’s delegation. This internationalcooperation is crucial in our collective mission to protect andreunite these children with their families. We are grateful forCanada’s leadership. We write this column together because we do not believe thatCanadians fully comprehend the state of the children inUkraine and to let Canadians know that children are casualtiesof the war in Ukraine.  We write knowing that in every wartaking place around the globe, children are suffering. Thousands upon thousands of children are. We write knowingeach child is precious.  “In times of war, you plan for peace”, stated one of Mykola’scolleagues in Kyiv. There is no better plan for peace thancentering our efforts on the well-being of our childrentoday. How often have we heard that “children are ourfuture”? In Ukraine, this old maxim resonates so strongly. And we must help them survive in these inhumane conditions. Yes, we are a unique pair. We both hold Ukraine’s children inour hearts. We ask Canadians to join Ukrainians in doing so aswell.   Mykola Kuleba Founder Save Ukraine   Irwin Elman President Save Ukraine-Canada