{"id":1705,"date":"2024-09-21T11:19:55","date_gmt":"2024-09-21T16:19:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/theelman.com\/index.php\/2024\/09\/21\/what-is-to-be-done-the-case-for-a-select-committee-on-child-protection-and-family-support\/"},"modified":"2024-09-21T11:19:55","modified_gmt":"2024-09-21T16:19:55","slug":"what-is-to-be-done-the-case-for-a-select-committee-on-child-protection-and-family-support","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theelman.com\/index.php\/2024\/09\/21\/what-is-to-be-done-the-case-for-a-select-committee-on-child-protection-and-family-support\/","title":{"rendered":"What Is To Be Done? The Case For A Select Committee On Child Protection and Family Support"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

What Is To Be Done?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Can it be any more clear that our children and families in Ontario are in crisis? This due to the collapse of the systems of care, including child protection, meant to support them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Children as young as three years old brought into care, deemed in need of protection, \u201cplaced\u201d in trailers, office spaces, hotels, air bnbs meant to serve as \u201chomes\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A record 136 deaths of children connected to the child protection system in some way in 2022-23<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parents having to surrender to a Children\u2019s Aid Society , their children with complex special needs, because they can not find resources to support them or their child in the community<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Waitlists continuing to grow for services.  Autism service waitlist now at least at 50,000.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The deaths of children like Neveah, found dead wrapped in a blanket in a dumpster in Toronto, coming to light through dogged work of reporters functioning in part as child advocates raising the voices of children and parents<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

At least half of all Children\u2019s Aid Societies , legally mandated to protect children,  in deficit<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

No one is denying the crisis.  Not the child protection system. Not the community based service system. Not the residential care system Not CUPE and OPSEU the Unions representing the front line workers.  Privately not the Ministry bureaucrats. Not the general public. Certainly not the parents nor the young people caught up in this perfect storm battering them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Perhaps not no one.  That is hyperbole.  The government it is true is the one body looking away. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what is to be done.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

First the government must stabilize the systems of care.  End the waitlists. Shore up child protection.  Immediately.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I think an Inquest must be held to examine the circumstances that led to Naveah\u2019s death and the subsequent search for her identity once her body was discovered.  Surely there were errors in judgement, mistakes of omission and commission, made  by personnel in three different child welfare agencies involved in her life. .Mistakes made by lawyers, judges, caregivers and others.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

An Inquest can assist in making sense of what took place.  An Inquest can speak for the dead to protect the living. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

 We know if an Inquest is to take place it is a long way off.  An Inquest cannot take place until the criminal investigation and any legal matters resulting from that investigation are complete.  The Toronto Police Services are yet to close the case and it seems unlikely they will in the near future.  If charges are ever laid, a trial will need to take place.  We are months, years away.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Inquests tend to have limited scope as determined by the presiding Coroner.  I have been involved in many and its always a battle to have an Inquest examine systemic issues that may have led to the death of the child at issue.  While important, and while Neveah deserves to be honoured, to be seen in her death when she was not seen in life, an Inquest into her death will be no panacea. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Therefore the government t must join with the three opposition Parties in the Legislature and strike a Select Committee on Children, Youth and Families.  We have seen that Select Committees can work in a non-partisan manner, particularly if they are tasked with coming around vulnerable populations.  Such a Committee is not a unicorn, they exist in many other Provinces in Canada and have previously existed in Ontario.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Select Committee once struck could immediately in camera examine details of the Province\u2019s failure to protect Nevaeh,  and the details of the deaths of the other 136 children who died in 2022-23. The Committee should hear from the Ombudsman, the Coroner and the Minister of Children, Community and Social Services.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rather than a \u201cnothing to see here, move along\u201d attitude, a Standing Committee could take a \u201cwe must do better approach\u201d to the death of our children and  make recommendations publicly about what changes might prevent and reduce the number of deaths.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is no need to wait for an Inquest to begin the process of learning and change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Examining the deaths of children would be just a starting point for the Select Committee.  The circumstances that children who die have faced are the tip of the iceberg.  It is logical to assume that many thousands of children survive, but are traumatized by those same circumstances.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Select  Committee on Children, Youth  and Families could immediately begin charting a path in a non-partisan way to a new system for the well-being of our children.  This task, again,  is not unusual.  It follows the commitment of the Government of British Columbia responding to a report from the Representative for Children and Youth in British Columbia.  The report , \u201cDon\u2019t Look Away\u201d,  https:\/\/rcybc.ca\/hfaq\/dont-look-away\/<\/a> ,  called for the creation of a new \u201cChild Well Being\u201d system that would complement and perhaps one day replace the Province\u2019s child protection system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Select Committee\u2019s overarching goals could be to act as the Legislative arm of a process to create a Province where;<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2013             Every child is safe<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2013             Every child has what they need when they need it in order to thrive<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2013             Every family, regardless how constituted, has what they need when they need it in order to do right by their children<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2013             All of the above rooted in \u201cbelonging\u201d in every glorious form of the word<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In absence of a Child Advocate in Ontario, whose job was to ensure our most vulnerable children were seen and heard it is absolutely essential a Select Committee on Children and Youth Is established.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is time our Members of Provincial Parliament stepped up, found a way to work together, and became child advocates themselves.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What Is To Be Done? Can it be any more clear that our children and families in Ontario are in crisis? This due to the collapse of the systems of care, including child protection, meant to support them.   Children as young as three years old brought into care, deemed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1705","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theelman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1705","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theelman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theelman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theelman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theelman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1705"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/theelman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1705\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theelman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1705"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theelman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1705"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theelman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1705"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}