{"id":1723,"date":"2024-12-10T20:34:47","date_gmt":"2024-12-11T01:34:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/theelman.com\/index.php\/2024\/12\/10\/bringing-ukraines-children-home\/"},"modified":"2024-12-10T20:34:47","modified_gmt":"2024-12-11T01:34:47","slug":"bringing-ukraines-children-home","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theelman.com\/index.php\/2024\/12\/10\/bringing-ukraines-children-home\/","title":{"rendered":"Bringing Ukraine\u2019s Children Home"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
A young woman from Ukraine\u2019s orphanages finds her voice in Ukraine\u2019s Legislature in 2015<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

December 2024<\/strong> My comments to the Ireland – Canada International Forum On Bringing Ukraine\u2019s Stolen Children Home<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thank you to the organizers of this event and particularly Global Affairs Canada for the invitation to participate.  I am truly sorry I could not be there in person with you.  It is an honour to be in the space with such august individuals. Thank you to Daria for all she has done and will continue to do for the children she serves.  We are with you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I am speaking to  you in the early morning from my home in Toronto, Ontario.  It is important I acknowledge I am a guest on this land.  It is the territory of the Mississauga of the Credit, the Annishnabeg, the Chippewa, the Haudenosaunee and Wendat peoples and is now home to many diverse First Nation, Inuit and Metis peoples.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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This land acknowledgement is something we are learning to do as Canadians,  Sometimes it can be seen as performative but it is a small change in our culture that is an outcome of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.  The Commission held hearings from 2008-2015 around Canada\u2019s Residential Schools and the attempted cultural genocide of First Nations peoples of our country by the Canadian government <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The Residential Schools policy in Canada was fully implemented in 1883 and lingered into the mid 1990s when the last Residential School was closed.  At least 150,000 children were removed from their families, communities, their culture and language , <\/p>\n\n\n\n

therefore from themselves, with the expressed goal of \u201ckilling the Indian inside\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This attempted \u201ccultural genocide\u201d as the Truth and Reconciliation Commission reported was \u201cundertaken to divest government of legal and financial obligations and to gain control of land and resources while absorbing children into the body politic\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Canada, through it\u2019s government, was not successful. The legacy of residential schools is, however ,horrific.  Survivors of the schools came forward courageously to speak of the trauma they endured  and how it affected their lives , unmarked grave sites of children who did not survive on church and former school grounds continue to be found and the trauma is renewed.  Moreover the inter-generational trauma passed down across time  from parent to child to parent to child is pernicious.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I tell you all this not to draw a straight line parallel between what took place in Canada and the actions of the Russian government as that is not a comparison for me to make.  I can say , that is clear to Canadians now,  that removing children from their families and communities in order to erase their identity in the guise that it is in the childrens\u2019 best interest is a form of child abuse.  We know.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Two days ago a young woman named Alisha Brooks was gunned down by her partner outside the partner\u2019s home in inner city Toronto.  Alisha was just over 30 years old.  She was a Mom to a 16 year old daughter.  I knew Alisha.  Alisha was a former youth in care \u2013 a person who as a child was taken from her home for her own protection and lived within an unforgiving child protection system until she was dumped out at 18 years of age.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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 From the time she was an early  teen  Alisha was a fierce advocate for children living in out of home care.  She did so with unrelenting hope,  She was an irrepressible character with a spirit and laugh that filled any room. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Alisha had overcome.  She had gone to college, She was working at the time of her death assisting those young people in out of home care who were living on their own.  She was a mentor to many young leaders in the generation of youth in care who came after her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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In a newspaper article yesterday about Alisha, one of her friends said \u201c Alisha was always torn between the caring, talented woman she had become and the child who suffered from the trauma she experienced in her early life and her life in care.  She was drawn at times to partners who were not her equal\u201d. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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What would my friend Alisha want me to say to you.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I think she would want me to remind you that children are not objects.  As Janusz Korczak, the father of children\u2019s rights stated \u201cChildren are not the people of tomorrow but the people of today\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alisha might have said. \u201c children are not chairs, pieces of furniture, that can be carried across a border and refinished.  Children are not chairs or pieces of furniture that simply can be found, repossessed , and returned home\u201d.  It is this objectification of children  , that I imagine Alisha would refer to , that resulted in Ukraine\u2019s children being removed by Russia from Ukraine.  This objectification can not be the framework through which Ukrainian children are rescued and returned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alisha is a stark example for me this morning of the deep, deep trauma that children suffer in their removal from family, community and culture.  I implore those decision makers, and lets face it funders, working to repatriate Ukraine\u2019s children to do so by ensuring that once they are returned those children and their  families have what they need, when they need it, in order to heal and thrive. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The practical resources of every kind.  The connection\/belonging to a \u201cfamily\u201d, to community, to culture and identity . A sense of \u201cvoice\u201d in the form of personal agency. All of this is needed in combination and forms that meets the needs of each individual child and family over time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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There is nothing more difficult for decision makers and politicians to achieve than to have their good intentions and fine words, reach in real terms the lives of  those on the ground.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Government is built in risk and liability.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Often this means that those working closest with children, those organizations that are nimble enough to do what is needed when it is needed for a child or family, do not receive support from decision makers and funders.  Too risky it is thought. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

What if government replaced the framework of risk and liability with a framework of care, understanding,  and dare I say love?  Its true they cant legislate love but they can legislate the conditions in which love can flourish.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I challenge us all to work to bring Ukraine\u2019s children home in this way. It is this possibility I think we should be speaking about today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

December 2024 My comments to the Ireland – Canada International Forum On Bringing Ukraine\u2019s Stolen Children Home Thank you to the organizers of this event and particularly Global Affairs Canada for the invitation to participate.  I am truly sorry I could not be there in person with you.  It is an honour […]<\/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-1723","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\/1723","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=1723"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/theelman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1723\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theelman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1723"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theelman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1723"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theelman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1723"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}