Friday, February 23, 2007

Drug policies make kids 'sentinel canaries' - report By The Canadian Press

Dr. Michael Rieder, MD, PhD, FRCPC, FAAP, FRCP (Glasgow)

"If you look at the adverse-drug-reaction literature, kids have been the sentinel canary for a lot of bad things in drug theory for quite a long time." - Micheal Rieder, Pediatric clinical pharmacologist.
Drug policies make kids 'sentinel canaries' - report By The Canadian Press

Tuesday, November 11, 2003

TORONTO - For too long children have been "sentinel canaries" when it comes to prescription drugs, with regulating authorities requiring little or no verification that drugs are safe for children before they are used, a group of experts is arguing.

In a commentary to be published today in the Canadian Medical Association Journal, they say it's time for the evidence-based medicine rules that are used to ensure prescription drugs are safe for adults to be applied to the pediatric population.

"We live in a world of rules. And I think parents would not unnaturally assume that the rules that apply to drug approvals for them are the same as ... for their kids. And they would be wrong," Michael Rieder, a pediatric clinical pharmacologist, said in an interview yesterday.

It is often argued that it is unethical to test pharmaceuticals in children, both because they cannot give informed consent and because there may be more risk of harm from drugs during the early stages of life.

Rieder and three colleagues from the Children's Hospital of Western Ontario turn that argument around, however, suggesting it may be unethical to prescribe drugs to children if there is no evidence the drugs are safe in this vulnerable population.

"If you look at the adverse-drug-reaction literature, kids have been the sentinel canary for a lot of bad things in drug theory for quite some time. And I would argue that's not the best segment of society who should be serving that function," he said.

Traditionally new drugs are tested first in animals, then in adult humans.

Once they are licensed for use, however, doctors can and do prescribe them to children -- but without the benefit of clinical data to show if they will be effective or what the appropriate dosage should be.

That is largely guesswork. And it isn't always right.

Rieder noted a drug called theophylline, once commonly used in the treatment of asthma, was prescribed for some time to children before it was realized that it wasn't working.

It turned out that kilogram for kilogram, children required higher doses of the drug than adults.

With other drugs, however, adult doses are unsafe for children and must be cut back.

"One of the problematic issues in efficacy is that for many drugs, we have an idea what the best dose could be. But we could be wrong. Like, totally wrong. And there's very little way of finding out," Rieder said.

The associate chief of research at the research institute of Toronto's Hospital for Sick Children agreed more pediatric drug trials need to be done.

But Denis Daneman suggested the field is evolving rapidly, with a growing numbers of trials being undertaken.

"I'm very comforted by the fact that people have increasingly talked about it," Daneman said.

"If you actually look at the number of clinical trials going on in pediatrics -- clinical trials involving medication -- it's quite substantial."

Rieder agreed, but noted the work is mainly done on new drugs companies are trying to bring to market, not existing drugs that are being prescribed for children without the support of clinical data.

In part that's because of a U.S. provision that grants drug manufacturers an extra six months of patent protection for a drug if it is tested in children.

"Six months sounds like nothing. But to a moderately expensive U.S. drug or European drug, it's hundreds of millions of dollars in patent protection," Daneman said.

The provision is helping to change the field, the commentary said.

But as yet no similar provision has been adopted here.

And the authors argue Canada shouldn't be content to simply ride on American coattails.

"Is it fair for us to let the U.S. haul the freight on this? As a policy, I think it shows less than noteworthy leadership," Rieder said.

"We're not hauling our weight as a sovereign state."

Tuesday, February 20, 2007

Government of Nova Scotia planning to privatize adult and child welfare programs to for profit company involved in Enron scandal

Nova Scotia Community Services Minister Peter Christie. The Hamm government offered a 20 per cent cut for consultants that think they can find savings by revamping welfare and housing administration.

Firms bid on welfare, housing revamp

By BRIAN FLINN

The Daily News, May 2, 2002, p. A7

Only two companies want a contract to overhaul the Community Services Department, and the NDP says one of them botched a similar project in Ontario.

IBM Canada and Accenture were the only firms to submit proposals by the Tuesday deadline. Community Services Minister Peter Christie said the government will now evaluate those bids to see if either meets the criteria.

He said the province doesn’t have to accept either bid if it doesn’t like them.

The Hamm government is offering a 20 per cent cut for a consultant that thinks it can find savings by revamping welfare and housing administration.

The Ontario government tried something similar under former Tory premier Mike Harris. A consultant billed $55 million to find $66 million in savings and came under fire for making social workers wear electronic tracking devices while they were on the job.

The company that overhauled welfare in Ontario was Andersen Consulting, which changed its name to Accenture last year.

Andersen Consulting spun off from Arthur Andersen in the 1990s and severed its last ties with the accounting giant after that company was accused of cooking the books in the Enron scandal in the U.S.

Christie said he’s aware of criticism of Accenture’s track record in Ontario, and that province’s experiences will be taken into consideration.

“We’ll evaluate all of those things,” he said.

NDP: poor will be hurt

NDP community services critic Jerry Pye said no private company can find savings in the department without hurting the poor.

“There’s no way,” he said. “It either comes through reduction of services or reduction of staff.”

Staff cuts would impact poor, abused and neglected Nova Scotians who rely on the department, he said.

Pye said the government might believe it’s saving money by having a consultant provide a new computer system to administer welfare. But the system would cost more money in the long run if it creates a perpetual reliance on the private partner.

Other savings could be found from making applications so difficult that people drop off the welfare roll. Pye said a highly automated system wouldn’t really serve the province’s poor because few have computers and Community Services refuses to pay for telephones for people collecting welfare.

bflinn@hfxnews.southam.ca



NSGEU (Nova Scotia Government Employee's Union) President's letter to the Hon. Peter Christie, Minister of Community Services

http://www.nsgrea.ca/images/TopLogo336699.jpg

http://www.nsgeu.ns.ca/index.html

May 29, 2002

Hon. Peter Christie

Minister of Community Services

P.O. Box 696

Halifax, N.S., B3J 2T7

Dear Mr. Christie:

Re: Client Services Delivery Initiative

On May 17, 2002, Deputy Minister Cramm informed staff that your Department had decided not to accept either of the two proposals received for the Client Services Delivery Initiative (CSDI). He also indicated that the Department was as committed as ever to CSDI and to improving and modernizing your service delivery approach. To help design and implement the new service delivery approaches planned under CSDI, he further explained that you were now looking at a range of new and previously considered alternatives.

In light of my April 30, 2002 letter to you, I am writing to clarify how exactly neither of the two proposals received met the requirements that you set out in the RFP and what your alternative plans now will be to carry out this initiative. If your Department is as committed as ever to CSDI, will there still be some role for a private, for-profit partner(s)? And if so, what will that role be and how will you select that partner(s)?

We think this recent development would be an excellent opportunity to follow

our principal recommendation to you that we have made on several occasions,

namely, to suspend this initiative until there has been a full opportunity for

meaningful information-sharing and consultation with our members and this

Union as well as with clients of the Department and their organizations.

We urge you again to reconsider how a business or corporate model for

making a profit fits with human services that are operated by a government

department. We hope you would now see that the experience and expertise

for improving the Department lie first and foremost with your own staff and

with the people who use your services.

…. /2


Hon. Peter Christie

Minister of Community Services

Page Two

I also want to remind you again of your government’s commitment to the Five Point Plan for Quality Public Service Protection. This Plan should be observed in any new plan to proceed with CSDI.

As stated in my earlier letter, I would like to meet with you in the near future to elaborate on our questions and concerns about this initiative and about what alternatives or options may be now be considered for it.

Yours sincerely,

Joan Jessome

NSGEU President

c. Premier John Hamm

E.G. Cramm, Deputy Minister, Department of Community Services

Jerry Pye, NDP Community Services Critic

David Wilson, Liberal Community Services Critic

Dr. David Williams, Nova Scotia Association of Social Workers and The Social Justice Network

Jeanne Fay, Community Advocates Network and Dalhousie Legal Aid




http://www.nsgrea.ca/images/TopLogo336699.jpg



The image “http://www.nupge.ca/images_2005/joan_jessome_03.jpg” cannot be displayed, because it contains errors.
Joan Jessome, President, NSGEU


Speaking Notes for Joan Jessome, President,
Nova Scotia Government and General Employees Union

At the Joint Media Conference of Concerned Organizations about the Client Services Delivery Initiative (CSDI) Of the Department of Community Services

Monday, April 29, 2002 , Uniacke Room, 11:00 a.m.



Thank you and Good Morning. I am pleased to join with representatives of several community organizations to raise serious questions and concerns about the Client Services Delivery Initiative (CSDI) of the Department of Community Services.

During the past year, we have listened to our members who work in the Department. We have participated in the so-called “vendor consultation process” of the Department about this initiative. We have read the documents provided by the Department about it. And we have talked with other organizations.

From all these efforts, our position has remained the same. We continue to believe that the whole initiative should be suspended and put on hold until there has been a full opportunity for meaningful information-sharing and consultation with our members and this Union as well as with clients of the Department and their organizations.

We have a long list of questions and concerns that the Department has yet to answer. For example, why is the Department seeking a private, for-profit partner to help it transform or modernize the operations and services of the
Department? How does a business or corporate model fit with human services operated by a government department? Why does the Department not feel the experience and the expertise for improving the Department notlie first and foremost with their own staff and with the people who use
their services. How will quality of service and effectiveness be improved with less direct contact with clients or potential clients, possibly using a call
centre?

We have outlined our questions and concerns to the Minister and Deputy Minister of the Department and they have refused to meet with us in any meaningful way to address our questions and concerns. In reply to our first
letter to the Department, the Deputy Minister committed in writing on June 12, 2001 to us: “….that before any formal request for proposal is made we
will have addressed these issues and will keep you apprised accordingly.” THIS HAS NOT HAPPENED AND THERE IS NO APPARENT
WILLINGNESS FROM THE DEPARTMENT TO DO SO.

I also want to remind the Department and the government of their supposed commitment to the Five Point Plan for Quality Public Service Protection which includes open public consultation, clear demonstrable evidence of the benefits of any proposed privatization, public tabling of any documents
about any initiative and protection of the rights and benefits of employees.

THE DEPARTMENT HAS YET TO ACKNOWLEDGE EVEN THE EXISTENCE OF THIS PLAN, LET ALONE THEIR COMMITMENT TO HONOURING IT.

There is no evidence here or elsewhere that a public-private partnership with vital community and income support services will anything but bad news for clients, workers and taxpayers. I again call upon the Department of Community Services to suspend this CSDI project and instead work with
clients and us as equal partners in truly making positive progressive changes.


Former street kid: older teens at risk


INTERNATIONAL CHILD AND YOUTH CARE NETWORK

10 MAY 2002

http://www.cyc-net.org/
Youth in three Canadian provinces fall through the legislative cracks

Former street kid: older teens at risk
Three provinces have ignored a recommendation to broaden their Family Services Acts to protect more at-risk teens, says a former street kid who worked on a Youth In Care Network study. The act doesn’t define 16- and 17-year-olds as children, which means kids are falling through the cracks and living on the streets, says Roch Longueepee.
He ended up on the street when he was 16 because, he says, the province wasn’t obligated to continue to care for him.
The National Youth In Care Network released a report this week that estimates about 3,400 teens in Nova Scotia, Newfoundland and Ontario are denied protection each year.
Longueepee was part of the Nova Scotia Council For The Family, which was asked by the province to submit a report recommending changes to the Family Services Act.
The council said in 1999 the province should change legislation to include 16- and 17-year-olds as children. The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, which Canada ratified in 1991, defines children as persons up to 18 years old.
Community Services Department spokesman Steve Bone said the province cares for 393 youth in that age group and provides income assistance to another 250. “There are services being provided,” he said, but he acknowledged the province isn’t legally obligated to provide this help.
As part of the council’s report, Longueepee, now 32, met kids who had been in the care of the province until they turned 16. Some lived in abandoned cars, while a boy named Julian lived in an alley beside Park Lane. “He was sleeping on a concrete slab and rats were crawling in there through the night,” said Longueepee. 
  
“It’s really distressing to think we have kids and youth living in conditions like this in our country. There’s no excuse for it.”
By BEVERLEY WARE
http://www.canada.com/halifax/news/story.asp?id={5FB072A8-FC85-46D0-95A6-ED9C4CC4E7EF

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Statement Delivered at the Justice Minister’s Roundtable on Justice Issues


Statement Delivered at the Justice Minister’s Roundtable on Justice Issues

May 15, 2002 – Parliament Buildings, Ottawa Matthew Geigen-Miller, Director of Education and Communications National Youth In Care Network

http://www.youthincare.ca/

Mister Minister,

Thank-you for this opportunity to participate in today’s discussion. We have followed
the advice in the invitation to attend this meeting and have identified two key issues
which we will bring to your attention.

National Youth In Care Network is a unique youth-run organization. We are driven by
young people in and from “government care”. Most of our members come from the child
protection system, but we also have members with experiences in other forms of
government care such as mental health and young offender care. Our board of directors,
volunteers, leaders, and all of our staff – save one administrator – are young people, aged
14 to 24, who are or have been in care. There are over 62,000 children and youth in the
care of Canadian child welfare authorities. National Youth In Care Network was founded
in 1986, and incorporated in 1990 as a registered charity.

#1 – Victimization and Protection Under the Law

First, protection from victimization and abuse is a significant concern. Virtually all of
our members have been seriously victimized at some point. Most experienced child
abuse and family violence in the home – in many cases that is the direct cause of their
entry into the child protection system. Sadly, many more are victimized again within the
child protection system.

There are children across Canada, right now, who are being abused in child welfare foster
homes and group homes. They were taken out of their family homes by force – by no
choice of their own – and placed in the care of government child protection authorities.
They were separated from their families, natural advocates, and support networks. They
are both traumatized by abuse, and also stigmatized by it: Many people still
misunderstand the child welfare system, and believe, mistakenly, that children in foster
homes and group homes are “bad”, or have done something wrong. Plainly: these
children and youth are exceptionally vulnerable. The Law Commission of Canada report
on institutional abuse was a promising step, but more work is urgently needed. The
Department of Justice has a role to play in assisting our organization and others across
Canada in raising awareness of these problems, and in implementing measures to
improve prevention, detection and investigation, and prosecution of institutional abuse.


#2 – Access to Justice

Access to justice is a great concern for our members. For our members, access to justice
means having a fighting chance at being heard when governments and courts make
decisions that have immediate and weighty impact on our lives.

At the individual level, children and youth need legal counsel in a variety of settings. We
are often un-represented in family court proceedings, which determine whether or not we
will become wards of the state. We are un-represented when we appeal decisions to
terminate services to us – decisions that could leave us out on the street before we reach
adulthood. And, we are un-represented when the child welfare authorities have been
abusive or negligent in their care for us. Deep cuts in many provinces’ legal aid
programs has made it more difficult than ever to secure adequate legal representation.
The right of participation in decisions for children in care is guaranteed, both in the UN
Convention on the Rights of the Child, and in each province’s child protection statute.
This right, however, is rarely invoked because legal counsel is not accessible.

At the systemic level, individual young people, youth in care groups and other
stakeholder groups are in desperate need of resources to challenge legislation and policies
that violate our basic rights. The federal government has, over the years, significantly
reduced transfer payments to the provinces for social welfare programs, and reduced
accountability measures for the funds that are now transferred. Accountability through
public reporting and transparency does not serve our members. We are a deeply
stigmatized group, and do not necessarily court public sympathy or favour. Thus, for
many of our members, justice and accountability can be achieved only through the courts.
It is the prerogative of this government to determine how much money will be transferred
to the provinces for social welfare programs, and whether or not strings will be attached.
However, we want the federal government to recognize that it has a duty to compensate
for this withdrawal of funding and accountability with a counter-weight. If this
government will not impose conditions on the provinces in return for funding, then, at the
very least, the Charter of Rights and Freedoms should act as a safeguard against rights
abuses. Federal funding, perhaps in a program similar to the current Court Challenges
Program, must be made available to ensure that disadvantaged groups have the
opportunity to participate in important court proceedings, and to ensure that charter
challenges to all laws – not just federal – are accessible to economically disadvantaged
individuals and groups.

We appreciate an opportunity to be heard and participate in this discussion. National
Youth In Care Network is hopeful that this discussion will mark the beginning, not the
end, of this dialogue.

Thank-you.

Monday, February 19, 2007

September 1rst, 2006 Statement -International Survivor Groups Vow support for Polygamist Victims


Warren Jeffs appears in Las Vegas Justice Court on Thursday morning. Jeffs, who was escorted by members of the Las Vegas Police Special Emergency Response Team, is accused of marrying a girl younger than 18 to an older man and insisting she procreate against her will. Photo by Clint (www.reviewjournal.com/.../Sep-01-Fri-2006/news/)

PUBLIC STATEMENT ISSUED ON BEHALF OF :

Restoring Dignity
Telephone: (902) 443-9341, ext # 62
Email: info@restoringdignity.org

Tapestry Against Polygamy
Tel: 801-467-2467
Email: vickyprunty@aol.com

Altering Destiny through Education
Tel: 250-428-9688 email:
Email: dlprice@uniserve.com

Stop Polygamy in Canada
Telephone: 780-768-2180 phone/fax
Email: mereska@digitalweb.net

SNAP (Survivors of Those Abused by Priests)
Tel: Phone: (314) 566-9790
Email: SNAPClohessy@aol.com

RE: The arrest of Warren Jeffs, Leader of FLDS
Friday, September 1rst, 2006.

On Tuesday, August 29th, 2006, 50-year-old fugitive Warren Jeffs, leader of Fundamentalist Latter Day Saints (FLDS) was arrested without incident. Mr. Jeffs was wanted “for the alleged sexual assault of a minor in 2002 and for one count of conspiracy to commit sexual assault with a minor that same year. The alleged offenses took place in the vicinity of Colorado City. Additionally, Jeffs is wanted In Utah as an accomplice to rape.” “The capture is the 453 rd arrest of an FBI Most Wanted figure since the program to catch fugitives was established in 1950. “ (http://www.fbi.gov/page2/aug06/jeffs082906.htm )

This is a major capture for those of us in the movement against institutional child abuse. The man in police custody here still wields a lot of control on the polygamist following; that said, the lives of the gross amount of children he is fathering (over 250 children) are already damaged and will have a lot more damages to contend with after the prosecution is over. The following of the polygamist movement which would include Warrens Jeffs groups and other polygamist groups is said to be 100,000 members.

The polygamist lifestyle is socially regressive and male dominated, where women are subservient to men. Polygamist survivors claim that while in compounds run by FLDS orders, they suffered harsh treatment and sexual abuse. Female children barely reaching their teen years are wed and are bearing children to men double and triple their age. Many boys and young men are being forced out of the polygamist compounds by the polygamist leaders in a bid of competition for young females. There are stories of the older youth that were of age to rent, were renting spaces big enough for groups of ten. The reports go on to say that the properties were trashed by these children and young men, because they had not experienced independence and were not prepared for it. There have also been reports of corruption which follows young men who leave the polygamist compounds. On August 2, 2006, William John Aldrich Green, an 18-year-old son of imprisoned polygamist Tom Green, was arrested for investigation of two counts of rape of a child for allegedly having sex with a 13-year-old girl he met on the Internet. These are learned behaviors, not the acts of an evil person. The evil is the lifestyle they were born into, not of their making or choosing. There have been also allegations of sexual abuse of male children laid against Polygamist leaders. There even rumors of a mass gravesite of children buried in unmarked graves in the state of Utah.

Beyond all this, there have been reports from polygamist members who make claims of positive experiences.

It is a salient feature in the response of many survivors from various forms of institutional child abuse to adapt various methodologies in order to deal with the impact of institutional child abuse. This does not mean that what these people experienced (whether they would agree it is or not) was not abuse. It was then; it is now and will be considered abuse in the future.

There were times in the history of our countries that practices such as racial discrimination, child labor, child exploitation, child abuse, inequality of gender, and various other violations of human rights were rampant. Our countries have since adopted constitutional rights to protect the most vulnerable of society, children, women, marginalized groups and cultures. The success of those rights will be under minded if we cannot, as a society, understand the context of history behind movements like the polygamist lifestyle. The polygamist lifestyle cannot be compared to such genres as racial equality, same sex marriage, gender equality, AIDS movement, etc.

The concept of one father and many mothers in one family bearing scores of children represents the displacement and disconnection of countless young lives. How will these children fare in society if they are to leave these compounds and come to live on the outside? How will they deal with the deficits that come with the displacement and disconnection in a new life and society? For those who survive, and are released from their dreadful existence behind those compound walls without the proper tools to fend for themselves, they will be unprepared for adult life. Who will fend for them then?

Jean Jacques Rousseau wrote in his works “The social contract”:

“To renounce liberty is to renounce being human, to surrender the rights of humanity and even its duties. For they who renounce everything no indemnity is possible. Such a renunciation is incompatible with human nature; to remove all liberty from their will is to remove all morality from their acts.” (Note: political incorrect terms have been replaced with politically correct terminology)

Any person trapped inside such a compound cannot reasonably make an informed decision as to whether or not it is a morally sound or a healthy lifestyle. The members of the polygamist compounds are cut off from all communication form the outside, television, internet, and telephones are prohibited. For so many growing up in these compounds, the polygamist lifestyle is all they know and they are taught to distrust and to fear the outside. Fear and deceit are hallmark features of oppressors.

Clearly, any practice which is so socially regressive, male dominated, where women are subservient to men is oppressive.

Polygamy has a long history as many other forms of institutional child abuses have. Such examples are the child migration and home children schemes carried out in both our countries.

“Child Migration was devised as offering underprivileged children a 'new start' in a fresh country. It was also a way for Britain to solve its social problems. It was a means of 'seeding the empire', and was pursued with missionary zeal. The children were not adopted out, nor were they, in the usual sense of the word, fostered. Though government sponsored, the sending and receiving agencies were for the most part Christian charities who shared this goal and saw their work as inherently noble.” “The receiving Countries shared Britain’s enthusiasm. The desire of the Dominions - in particular Australia, Canada, and Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) to increase their white, preferably Anglo-Saxon populations coincided with the desire of the mother country to rid itself of excess children of the lower social orders." – Alan Gill “Children of the Empire”

These practices started in the United States during the colonial period. Children were used for child labor and were brutally physically and sexually abused.

Additionally these children were shipped in from outside countries, stripped of their identities and left displaced from their families and countries. Since that period, other forms of institutional child abuse have included residential school settings for the deaf, blind, mentally challenged, , youth detention centers, sport groups, social groups such as the boys and girls clubs, medical institutions, clergy sexual abuse, group homes, foster homes, daycare centers, etc ..

We encourage the LDS church to come forward now and take responsibility for its role in the polygamist movement. While the church has stated a number of times that it s has disavowed polygamy practices by its members, it has never apologized. It is a fact that polygamy is a derivative of LDS beliefs, and it is where it was founded from. In Canada our Federal Government has apologized to the Japanese for its role in the mistreatment and discrimination of their people, Canada and even some churches have apologized to the First Nations people for their mistreatment and abhorrent human rights violations against their people, to name a couple. Criticism is not always easy, but it is necessary, it is as necessary as pain in the human body. It calls our attention to what Winston Churchill once referred to as “attention to an unhealthy state of things.”

Failure to do so encourages the practices such as polygamy to continue. The acknowledgement and an apology of that history are fundamental to change.

We are not advocating for the end of the LDS church, churches like many things in life have their place in society. However, when the beliefs or practices of institutions such as churches begin harming others, we must never be afraid to question and challenge those beliefs and practices which threaten our rights and freedoms.

So by tragic necessity we have inherited the struggle of our forbearers, those rights granted to us through them. The rights and freedoms of our constitutions will not be afforded to us so long as we are willing to witness or permit the slow undoing of those human rights to which our countries have always been committed.

A clear definition of what institutional child abuse is has never been established anywhere in the world. A legal definition is also needed to help establish public education, understanding and identifying the hallmarks of institutional child abuse. Such a definition would greatly assist in ensuring any institution which is charged with the care and/or protection of children and harms them will be held accountable. Such a definition would help to establish a standard of diligence and care for our most vulnerable.

States such as New Hampshire have already begun establishing legal definitions of institutional child abuse. This is a positive first step in dealing with the larger problem.

There are a number of concerns from the groups involved in the anti-polygamist movement. Mr. Jeffs and his membership have a history of violence. There are concerns of safety for potential witnesses who may appear before the courts against Jeffs. There is also a concern that there may be an uprising as a result of Jeffs's arrest by pro-polygamist supporters or compounds. We also foresee that because of the profile of Jeffs Case, that victims from the polygamist compounds may see this as a safer time to attempt an escape.

Additionally, with the majority of the population of state of Utah being Mormon, there are serious concerns that the justice system in that state will not be impartial. Earlier this week, police were reported by CNN reporters as supporting Warren Jeffs and the polygamist compounds in Colorado. This is a problem which will require strong leadership.

We believe that as groups who are involved in eradicating institutional abuse generally and helping victims of institutional abuse that we have a collective responsibility to inform the authorities and public of what lay ahead on this arrest and that there are support groups who are willing and able to help those who are trying to escape the lifestyle of polygamy and to ensure the authorities are working with these support groups to help move the judicial process along without incident.

On the same note we want to do so in a non-fear mongering manner to prevent it from becoming merely a forum for invective. The focus here is truly the safety of witnesses and the safety of women and children trapped in these compounds.

We hope that Mr. Jeffs will do the right thing and cooperate with the judicial process in order to spare his victims any lengthy drawn out court proceedings. Prolonging the process for his victims will not weaken our resolve in ending institutional child abuse. We are united in our support for the victims. The book of proverbs says that those who trouble their own house will inherit the wind. Justice will prevail.

We encourage the Attorney General offices in the State of Utah and in the province of British Columbia and the respective law enforcement agencies to work with us in providing support and protection to potential witnesses testifying against Warren Jeffs and victims who may be attempting an escape from the polygamist compounds. To those people in polygamist compounds struggling to break the bonds of oppression, we pledge our best efforts to help them, for whatever period is required.

This will not happen without everyone working together to ensure the strong are just and the weak safe.

May God bless the victims and their families.file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/JB/Desktop/header-log01.jpgfile:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/JB/Desktop/header_news_national.jpg

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Teen sues sect leader in effort to have contact with mom



http://www.knoxnews.com/kns/national/article/0,1406,KNS_350_5367608,00.html


Johnny Jessop was just 13 when polygamous sect leader Warren S. Jeffs allegedly expelled him from his family, home and community.

He last spoke to his mother, Elsi Jessop, two years ago and has no idea where she is.

Now, the 18-year-old Jessop has sued Jeffs in hopes a judge will order the sect leader to put the teen in contact with her. The lawsuit, filed Tuesday in 3rd District Court in Salt Lake City, also seeks damages for destroying their relationship.

The lawsuit alleges that Jeffs has "systematically" destroyed hundreds of families as leader of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints by driving out men he deems unworthy and boys he views as competition for plural wives.

The Diversity Foundation, which works with many of those teens - the so-called Lost Boys - estimates that since 2002 as many as 400 have fled or been kicked out of their homes in Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, Ariz.

The two towns are the home base of the FLDS church, which adheres to a 19th-century version of Mormonism that includes the practice of plural marriage. The mainstream Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints publicly disavowed polygamy in 1890 and now excommunicates those who espouse or practice it.

Like Jessop, many teens from the twin towns have been cut off from their families, but others say they have some contact with their parents.

Jessop has written two letters to Jeffs, who is incarcerated at the Purgatory Correctional Facility in Hurricane, Utah, pleading for information about his mother's whereabouts.

There has been no response, said Roger Hoole, Jessop's attorney.

"There is only one person in the world who can authorize this mother to contact her son, and that is Warren Jeffs," Hoole said. "We're asking him to do it and, absent that, we'll ask the court to order him to do it because there is a pattern of minor children being cut off from their parents and that is untenable."

Jeffs instructs the FLDS to cut off ties to family members who apostatize from the faith.

Jessop was 10 when Jeffs expelled his father from the faith and reassigned his mother to then-FLDS bishop Fred Jessop. At 13, Jessop ran away for several days, joining older friends in Hurricane to party; an older brother tracked him down and told the boy Jeffs wanted him out of the community.

For the next two years, Jessop bounced between homes of friends and relatives, landing in juvenile court at least three times. Each time, he was ordered to rejoin his mother, but, the suit claims, Jeffs would not allow it and Jessop ended up staying with relatives.

In an interview with The Salt Lake Tribune in December, Jessop said his behavior caused ongoing friction; he smoked, drank and wore short-sleeved T-shirts, which are taboo among the FLDS. He was pegged as a troublemaker and "evil."

When Jessop was 15, he left the FLDS community and turned to the Diversity Foundation for help.

The foundation, based in South Jordan, Utah, is the creation of Dan Fischer, a successful dentist and entrepreneur who left the FLDS church about 15 years ago.

Jessop insists that, despite his wayward behavior, his mother loves him and wants to have contact with him - if only Jeffs would permit it.

Jeffs is scheduled to stand trial on April 23 on two felony charges of being an accomplice to rape for conducting an arranged marriage between a 14-year-old girl and a 19-year-old man.

(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)

Get Copyright Permissions Copyright 2007, Knoxville News Sentinel Co.



Help for children being abandoned in Colorado City


http://www.abc4.com/news/local/story.aspx?content_id=3a613deb-b9e0-42dc-92f6-05d20a101e35

There's a new exodus from the polygamous communities along the Utah Arizona border. It's smaller than the exodus of a few years ago when Warren Jeffs transplanted some of his people to Texas to build a new community and temple on the YFZ Ranch.

This time just over a dozen of his most faithful including some relatives have been moved out.

One other wrinkle to this exodus: Jeffs apparently ordered a handful of children abandoned. Parents allegedly left kids (usually young boys in their teens) not only in their communities, but also in Hurricane, St. George and even Las Vegas.

Stefanie Colgrove said these teens are ill equipped to survive in the outside world, "They don't even know how to take care of themselves."

As others left Hildale, Colgrove moved back. She's took over a large house recently occupied by John Gilbert Jeffs and invited all those left behind to come and stay with her. Its a place where she said, "somebody can love you, make sure you get your laundry washed, and have a family again. That's the essence of it right there. If you're raised in a family and then all of a sudden it's removed, you've lost something serious not just a mom and dad, but a whole family."

Explaining why she's undertaking such a daunting task, Stefanie Colgrove said, "This is my community. These are my people."

In fact she is the great-granddaughter of Leroy S. Johnson, the man who founded Colorado City and became the leader of the largest polygamist group in North America.

She moved away when she was 20 but always knew she would return.

Now she is sickened by what she sees. Colgrove said she was raised in a community where neighbors talked to each other and trusted each other.

Now she said, Jeffs has turned neighbors and even families against one another. Where the town was once open, there are now walls, fences, "no trespassing" signs and even surveillance cameras. She is especially angry that so many families have been torn apart.

Colgrove is calling her shelter "Affinity Home" -- a place that will restore hope to children who have been discarded by their own.








Sunday, February 18, 2007

Justice elusive for survivors of institutional abuse in Canada

Justice elusive for survivors of institutional abuse in Canada

JAMES MCCARTEN

TORONTO (CP) - Survivors of institutional abuse in Canada have for years been thwarted in the quest for true justice by a legal system plagued with prejudice and inexperience, experts say. The civil and criminal justice systems in Canada are learning at glacial speed how to fairly treat cases of systemic sexual and physical abuse, said Loretta Merritt, a lawyer and specialist in institutional abuse cases. "The law is inherently
backward-looking, because it's based on the common law system of precedents - you look at old cases to determine what you should do in the present case," Merritt said. "It evolves very, very slowly." Merritt represents dozens of men who allege being beaten, brutalized and sexually abused during their time at government-run training schools in Ontario between the early 1960s and early 1980s. More than 30 have already filed lawsuits against the Ontario government, with several more in the process of preparing their cases, Merritt said. The allegations are also the subject of a lengthy provincial police probe; more than 3,000 former training school residents across Canada have been interviewed to date.

But regardless of whether charges are laid - and even that's far from certain at this point, investigators warn - victims are likely to be less than satisfied with the results of their pursuit of justice. In Quebec, victims and their advocates have been struggling for more than a decade to win justice for the Duplessis orphans - poor or illegitimate children who were abused in the 1940s and 1950s after being declared mentally disabled by the province and placed in church-run institutions. "In the justice system, there was no awareness of this, no experience, no precedents," said Yves Manseau, co-ordinator of the victims' rights group Mouvement Action
Justice. "It was like a wasteland."

Courts in Canada are also struggling with the issue of causation: accurately determining to what extent historical sex abuse affected the life of a victim, said Merritt - especially, as is the case with training school victims, if they were having a hard time before they arrived. As a result, it's next to impossible to determine what constitutes a fair settlement, she added. "You can't say they had perfect lives and that every problem they've had since training school is attributable solely to training school."

Merritt and others who specialize in institutional abuse are awaiting a ruling from the Supreme Court of Canada that they hope will clarify the causation issue and clear the way for fairer settlements. Prior to 1990,
when the true extent of the systemic sex abuse that went on at institutions across Canada was just becoming known, settlements were often a pittance: anywhere from $500 to $2,000.

Today, damages for pain and suffering are capped in Canada, Merritt said: the most anyone who suffers the worst kind of "catastrophic injury" can get is $292,000. "Sex assaults rarely reach that cap," she said. "They get to $200,000, maybe." The courts also struggle to deal fairly with criminal charges that are based on allegations from victims who end up as career criminals, drug addicts or both - people whose credibility on the witness stand is easy to destroy. Often, it turns into a cruel Catch-22: the abuse itself leads to a life of crime or a drug or alcohol problem, the very things that end up hurting a victim's chances of being believed in court.

"If you take the typical test for establishing a witness's credibility, and apply it to an abuse survivor, it doesn't work," Merritt said. "Take the traditional legal principles and tests and apply them to sexual abuse cases, and they don't result in fair and just results."

Manseau tells a similar story of victims, many of whom come from society's lowest strata, complaining of being mistreated by both police investigators and prosecutors alike. "The way they've been treated by the police and the Crown attorneys is really terrible," he said. "You see a lot of comments - and I still see it - that the victims were all uneducated persons, they had some personal problems, some were almost illiterate - you could see a lot of prejudice against the victims."

Dwight Wadel, 63, who worked as a housemaster at White Oaks Village, a training school for boys aged eight to 12 near Hagersville, Ont., in the 1960s and 1970s, was acquitted in August 2001 on 15 sex-related charges. In his 194-page ruling, Justice Walter Stayshyn said he simply couldn't accept the stories of abuse told by five former White Oaks residents who testified as Crown witnesses.

One of them had a criminal record with more than 200 different convictions; another was serving a life sentence for two murders. "Has such an unsavoury witness or witnesses invented or stretched their evidence for personal gain, or are they motivated by more ethical persuasions?" Stayshyn wrote. "I am not satisfied to the degree necessary that I can accept the evidence of the complainants."

One of those complainants, Paul Waltenberry, had difficulty getting his own family to believe his tales of abuse. In a recent interview, Waltenberry's mother, Sandra, said her son was 11 or 12 and a chronic troublemaker when he was shipped off to White Oaks in the late 1960s. Shortly thereafter, she said, he began to complain that he'd been sexually abused - an allegation she admitted she had a hard time believing. "Do you want me to be honest with you? No," she said when asked whether she believed her own son. Then: "Of course, he could be telling the truth ... I don't know."

Canada's justice system needs to figure out how to deal with cases of institutional abuse, because they're not going to go away, Merritt warned. "We're still in the infancy of these cases coming out in large numbers."

Friday, February 16, 2007

Systems of Control – The Global Legacy of Institutional Child Abuse


Roch Longueépée - Founder & CEO, Restoring Dignity (Formerly Internations' Justice Federation)
Public address on Child abuse in institutions
Ottawa Marriott, Otawa, Ontario
Canada
Friday, September 10, 2004

Download audio here: http://restoringdignity.org/systems.mp3

Distinguished Guests, members of Reach Canada, Ladies and Gentlemen. I want to express my gratitude to each of you for joining me today. My name is Roch Longueépée, Founder and President of Internations' Justice Federation based in Halifax , Nova Scotia , Canada . The organization, currently being developed, advocates change in the standards of restitution respecting institutional child abuse and in the child protection standards involving current and future generations of children.
My passion for this work is deeply rooted in my own personal experience. Though I am an advocate for change on this issue, I am also a survivor.
I am not alone. I am one of the many survivors worldwide. We are the victims of childhood exploitation and abuse. We are the former street children. We are the former children of war. We are orphans and victims of institutional child abuse. Our childhoods have been taken from us by those entrusted to protect and care for us. In the wake of that abuse, came poverty, homelessness, corruption, cultural eradication, mutilations, genocide and death. These institutions have built their future on our misfortunes.
While the mental health and deafness issue is necessarily and properly the chief topic here this week, I want to emphasize from the outset that I believe that we have far more critical issues, which now face us. As an advocate on the issue of institutional child abuse, I work with a wide range of groups and cultures. Among them is the deaf culture. The issue of institutional child abuse involves, in all respects, marginalized groups and individuals. I want to first tell you today that I am not deaf. Nor am I versed on the issues of deaf culture. It is, however, my hope that I will help each of you to understand how the cause I represent affects the community of which you are a part.
It is in this context that I wish to address you today. I speak to you not as a victim of institutional child abuse but as a survivor who is trying to move past these experiences.
It is only fitting today that I begin with a story of one of the most notorious cases involving the deaf community. It was 1991, when a scandal of child abuse at British Columbia 's Jericho Hill School for the deaf and blind made headlines across Canada . Jericho Hill School , a residential school, based in Vancouver , British Columbia , Canada , would become the first case of intuitional child abuse involving deaf children and one of Canada 's most infamous.
Over the first few years of its operation, Jericho Hill School was rumored to be one of the best residential schools in the world for deaf children.
Jericho Hill School : its mission was to provide the best education to deaf and blind children anywhere. Over the decades of its operation it would see children from all over North America . Sadly, those who constructed the physical structure did not see the isolation the children of Jericho would face, the isolation of deafness. For many deaf children leaving their families and familiar surroundings, their new home would only add to that isolation.
Behind the walls of Jericho lay a dark secret history of physical and sexual abuse the sexual abuse of young children ignored by the government ministries until the abused would become abusers and the abuse that would infect students at Jericho for decades. Victims would go on to abuse other children until the abuse became a right of passage and thus became normal. The inaction of governments responsible for the school would once again see new horrors surface in newer realities. Outside the walls of Jericho , former students would go on to offend as adults. The cycles of abuse would find its way into victims' family homes and communities. While living in a group home, one former male resident stabbed and killed another over sex. The waves of pain would continue for new students at Jericho , their families and communities. By the time the cycles of abuse had reached the communities at large, rape charges against former Jericho Hill Students would bring police investigations back to Jericho Hill School . Police investigators would find incidents of abuse at Jericho as far back as 1945.
Fintan O'Toole, an Irish reporter for the Irish times, said it best when he wrote;
"The state to put it crudely had been remarkably good at taking vulnerable, neglected and abused children and turning them into drug addicts, prostitutes, and criminals."
Society, sadly, has a tendency to label those victims who became abusers as ‘evil'. I do not believe in evil, at least not in the conventional sense of the word. If there is any evil here, it is the omissions and commissions of government and organizations responsible for these horrors. In a recent landmark case involving the Roman Catholic Church clergy sexual abuse scandal, Ontario Superior Court Justice John Kerr summed this issue up best. In this particular case, the diocese attempted to counter sue a victim who had abused his younger brothers. The diocese claimed the victim turned abuser was partly responsible for the suffering of his siblings when he sexually abused them, but Kerr said he found no merit in that argument. He said "Blaming John for his assaults would be similar to blaming Frankenstein's monster for his actions, rather than attributing its behavior to the scientist who created it."
The deaf community is not the only group identified in these abuse scandals. Matters of institutional child abuse also affect other groups in this country and around the world. Yet when we think of this term we often think of institutions like Jericho Hill School for the deaf and blind. However, the meaning of institutional child abuse does not simply refer to ‘residential schools'.
Child abuse itself is nothing new in society. In fact, research shows issues of child abuse as far back as 2000 BC. The word abuse in and of itself refers to a point of measure. Abuse can be seen as anything, which is in excess and/or causes harm as a result of that excess. Even well known poets wrote of the disgraceful societal value placed on children. William Blake once wrote in his work piece entitled “ Jerusalem ”: ” And did the Countenance Divine
Shine forth upon our clouded hills? /And was Jerusalem builded here / Among these dark satanic mills?”
What Blake is referring to here is the child labor in industrialized pulp mills during his times. Dictionaries define the word ‘institution' as “ That which institutes or instructs; a textbook; a system of elements or rules; an institute.
An established or organized society or corporation; an establishment, especially of a public character, or affecting a community; a foundation; as, a literary institution; a charitable institution; also, a building or the buildings occupied or used by such organization.” When referring to an institution, we should also think of any government, religious, secular, or charitable body charged with the care of children. The meaning of the term has been misinterpreted for many years for takes on a more literal meaning as society begins to grapple with the impacts of institutional child abuse.
In March 2000, the Law Commission of Canada produced a Report to Parliament entitled “Restoring Dignity: Responding to Child Abuse in Canadian Institutions”. The Report provides recommendations for redressing child abuse in Canadian Institutions. This report, while good, is not thorough. Little research has been conducted on institutional child abuse, in part, due to the lack of an accurate definition.
From a proper context of definition comes a history, which spans over four centuries. It marked a time of the British Empire , a time when marginalized groups like children were defined as ‘the lower social orders'. During the late 1600's, Christian charities, governments, and groups sought out a means of ‘seeding the empire' of the ‘undesirables'. Among the schemes introduced were the child migration schemes involving the dominion countries under the rule of the British Empire . Australia 's Alan Gill, author of "Orphans of the Empire, writes:
"Child Migration was devised as offering underprivileged children a 'new start' in a fresh country. It was also a way for Britain to solve its social problems. It was a means of 'seeding the empire', and was pursued with missionary zeal. The children were not adopted out, nor were they, in the usual sense of the word, fostered. Though government sponsored, the sending and receiving agencies were for the most part Christian charities who shared this goal and saw their work as inherently noble. “The receiving Countries shared Britain 's enthusiasm. The desire of the Dominions - in particular Australia , Canada , and Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe ) to increase their white, preferably Anglo-Saxon populations coincided with the desire of the mother country to rid itself of excess children of the lower social orders." Evidentially, Canada is predominately Anglo-Saxon. The values that flowed from that time period are very much inherent in Canadian Society. The rippling effect of these values represents our governing political systems. Most people are so hopelessly dependant on that system that they will fight to protect it.
As Western civilization evolved, the value systems of these times laid the foundation for human rights abuses around the world. The centuries that followed would see those value systems inflict abuses upon minority groups, children and marginalized groups.
As of the date of the Law Commission of Canada's report to Parliament, entitled “Restoring Dignity: Responding to Child Abuse in Canadian Institutions”, Canada, during the decade prior to March 2000, over 5,210 victims filed claims of physical and sexual abuse, cultural eradication, sterilizations, and genocide, involving over 72 residential institutions. Many children also died due to the severe negligence and physical abuse they received at the hands of their caregivers.
During World War two, the world saw some of the most horrific crimes against humanity committed by Adolph Hitler and members of his German Nazi party who commonly practiced human experiments, such as eugenics. It is of particular interest to note that before we came to be at war with Nazi Germany, Canada did not criticize the Nazi party for these crimes. Why not?
Worldwide there are mass gravesites of children buried in unmarked graves, their identities unknown. In Ireland , the industrial schools are embroiled in scandals of physical and sexual abuse and the mysterious deaths of children. On the grounds of the Artane Industrial School , located in the county of Artane , Dublin , Ireland , lay a mass gravesite of children buried one on top of another in unmarked graves. It is estimated that around 120 children died in these institutions between the 1930s and 1970s.
Children would also become pawns for governments, agencies, and law enforcement collaborating with groups like Germany 's notorious Nazi Party who would use them as study subjects for scientific research. One example in Canada is the case of the Duplessis orphans based in Quebec , Canada . The Duplessis' Orphans case is widely recognized as the largest case of institution-based youth abuse in Canadian history. ( http://members.tripod.com/~rootsunknown/intro1.htm ) There are about 6000 survivors, who as children were put into orphanages and psychiatric institutions.
“The premier of the province during that time was Maurice Duplessis, thus the name. The survivors claim that while in institutions run by Catholic religious orders, they suffered harsh treatment and sexual abuse. It is believed that most of the "orphans" were in fact children born to unmarried parents. Since this was during the 1930's, '40s and '50s they were left in the care of religious orders that operated orphanages. In some cases those establishments were transformed into health-care facilities and in other cases the children were shipped from orphanages to existing hospitals. At these hospitals that were also run by religious orders, the Duplessis' Orphans claim doctors wrongfully labelled many children as mentally deficient. The reason for all this was that Quebec could obtain more federal funds for health-care facilities than for schools and orphanages. More money for Quebec meant more money for the religious orders. “By being labelled mentally deficient the children were given treatments such as being strapped into straightjackets, electroshock therapy, excessive medication, detainment in cells and even lobotomies. Their stories of physical and sexual abuse are frightful. ( http://members.tripod.com/~rootsunknown/intro1.htm )
The victims also claim to have witnessed the murders of other residents. In some cases child victims were so severely neglected they died as a result. The child witnesses live to this day with the horror of these last images. Many of the victims have never been found.
For those orphans who survived, when no more financial gain could be achieved by keeping them, they are (sic) released from their dreadful existence behind those institution walls. With no education and false medical records they were unprepared for adult life. Even traces of their families have been snatched from them. ( http://members.tripod.com/~rootsunknown/intro1.htm )
While cases like the Duplessis orphans were contained within one province, other offending groups were globalized. The Christian Brother movement under the Roman Catholic Church ran orphanages throughout the world. This movement was among one of the worst offending groups involved in institutional child abuse matters in history. The Christian Brother movement's offending history spanned over four centuries and inflicted abuse upon victims by the thousands. Fortunately, the Christian Brother movement is now defunct.
In the wake of cases like these, have been findings of mass gravesites of children, their identities unknown. In Canada and worldwide, many cases remain unaccounted for, and those responsible go untried for their crimes.
In Canada other forms of human rights violations against children often called ‘eugenics' were carried out as recently as the 1970's and 80's. Eugenics is defined as ‘ the study of hereditary improvement of the human race by controlled selective breeding.' Among the qualifying candidates identified for the movement were the deaf. The history of deaf culture itself has been a long and arduous struggle for many generations.
Two weeks ago, I received a report from an unnamed individual on eugenics in Nova Scotia , Canada . To date, there has been no public knowledge of the scandal. The report is scathing and based on well-founded evidence. The mere fact that such a practice would exist as recently as the late 1980's should say something to all of us here. The problems of the past are not over. Governments and society often make comments like “That was a long time ago.” “That does not happen anymore.” “Or how does institutional child abuse relate to the present?” Many of you here today are no doubt familiar with the apartheid of South Africa . You are all, as well, familiar with the Canadian reservation schemes. What you may not know is that the apartheid of South Africa was modeled from the Canadian reservation schemes.
Society is commonly noted for believing that violence of this extreme does not exist. Violence does not end. It only assumes new forms. It is the violence of inaction, indifference and slow decay.
When you teach one person to hate and fear another, when you teach that an individual or group is lesser because of their race, beliefs or the rights they pursue, when you teach that those who disagree with you threaten your freedom or your livelihood or your family, then you also learn to see others not as equal citizens but as enemies, only to be conquered and ruled. This is the reality of the Canadian connection to the Apartheid of South Africa.
Offending institutions are indifferent to institutional child abuse victims. When those of us around the world first cried out for what we had lost, our adversaries responded by reducing our pain and suffering to statistical trends and numbers.
Offending institutions have often erected 'feel good' memorials to conceal the true measure of their crimes against vulnerable, neglected and abused children, denying their victims a dignified burial. They have authored apologies only to reduce their liability .
Offending groups stigmatized their victims with labels. This is a façade to protect dishonorable institutions. Governments expend more resources defending themselves than they do addressing the problem. For decades, government, religious, and secular institutions around the globe have possessed the ability, but not the will, to redress the omissions and commissions they have committed against society's marginalized groups. In a recent case this summer, eighty eight year old Flora Merrick, an aboriginal living in a hospital in Portage la Prairie , Manitoba , Canada was awarded $1,500.00 in the Federal Indian Residential Schools Resolution Department's alternative dispute resolution Program. Ms. Merrick was physically assaulted at a government run residential school. The Canadian Federal government appealed her abuse case. Subsequently, the government was criticized for its hypocrisy.
The Law Commission of Canada in its report states that the redress or healing process must be both qualitative and quantitative. Many victims, who file actions against institutions via civil law suits or criminal, often complain that the experience was like being abused and exploited all over again.
In many of the institutional abuse cases, the alleged institutions frequently conducted ‘internal investigations'. The results of these internal investigations did, in almost every case; result in the alleged being exonerated. In the cases where governments are accused, a criminal investigation is launched by police agencies, only after considerable pressure from victims. The result is usually the same: no perpetrators charged or prosecuted.
In the cases of the police conducting criminal investigations, we have to remember who their employer is, the alleged perpetrator, the government. It is also important to note that police agencies are required by statute to report their findings to the alleged perpetrator, the government. Additionally in many cases police and other professionals have not had the proper training or experience to investigate institutional child abuse matters. The Jericho Hill school case was a prime example of this. Police investigators did not understand the culture of the deaf language. Nor did the investigators understand the impact of the abuse, which infected all the children at Jericho Hill School . Police investigators in a number of interviews would be interviewing students as a victim one day and interviewing the same student as an offender the next. Always, investigators were approaching the case from an adversarial standpoint. This is what they call democracy.
To date there have been no studies done on the results of these redress programs, whether they are civil settlements or government alternative dispute resolution programs. There is also no accurate record of the victim numbers in this country. This is in part due to the fact that we are barely into the preliminary stages of case numbers. As a survivor of institutional child abuse, I can offer you some insight, from my own experience. The lawyers I speak with around Canada who have represented victims say that to date, the redress process is failing. The victims I speak with concur. I concur. The compensation programs do not adequately address the issues of survivors.
In the end, governments spend considerably higher amounts of money defending themselves when in almost every case they are clearly found guilty. It is hard to expect justice when the offending party makes all the rules, controls all the evidence, and has infinitely more resources. What is also at issue is that we are applying common laws to a problem, which does not equate fairly or justly to these laws. Class actions in Canada only first began in 1978. The lack of experience in this area again slows the legal process.
In the Jericho Hill school case, we lose two percent of the population per year while we pursue justice for the victims. They die. The Jericho Hill case has been active for over fifteen years. This again is also a government tactic, delay to compromise redress for victims. Ultimately, victims give up, settle for pennies or die.
Governments, who do not settle these cases with adequate redress, do injustice to us all. What good will come if after a few years these plaintiffs end up back in the system, via welfare, mental health services, or the criminal Justice System? If Governments are to spend tax dollars on these cases, they must be accountable to the average Canadian. It is only logical.
Governments too often in these cases refuse to address the problem. They manufacture statutes of limitations that prevent victims from having their day in court. They refuse to make mandatory reporting an issue. They do not create a national registry for those in the helping professions caring for vulnerable groups. They author poor public policy and starve good agencies of resources and money. They advocate cover-ups and internal procedures to discourage future claims of abuse. Government paid and funded lawyers terrify abuse victims from coming forward. Then, there are the spineless people in bureaucracy and health sectors who have not done their job.
In all good conscience, governments must recognize that the laws and values of present governing systems have contributed to the detriment of vulnerable, neglected children and marginalized groups. The appropriate and right thing for governments to do is to begin drafting legislation with victims, which will deal with institutional abuse both for the principles of prevention, and to redress the wrongs of the past.
United Nations' Secretary-General Kofi Annan, in his opening statement to the General Assembly, addressing the children of the world said,
``We, the grown-ups, have failed you deplorably,'' he said, noting that 33 percent of youngsters suffer from malnutrition before the age of five, 25 percent are not immunized, nearly 20 percent don't attend school and far too many ``have seen violence that no child should ever see. We the adults, must reverse this.''
Governments and society must likewise recognize that the current political and justice systems have only served to perpetuate the problems of the past. Too often helping professions of those groups and experts charged with the care of vulnerable groups and individuals label people unjustly. They seek punitive measures to address behaviours their systems have created. Human beings are debased in the beginning stages of their development and then sent into society without the means to integrate into society.
Our whole nation is continually degraded by these policies and practices, which ignore our common humanity.
Many of the victims I speak with in this country and around the world all live in abject poverty. Many have mental health disorders. Many who are functional still suffer a long road of relationship after relationship because their behaviours often alienate people. Many do not have family or support bases. Many are homeless.
In 1969 the Professor of Australia's Psychological Medicine at Monash University , Dr. Ironside, stated at a child abuse seminar:
"Future social historians will look back on this age as one in which, in the affluent societies at least, children were paradoxically deprived of their birthright in spite of increasing knowledge of the developmental requirements for healthy emotional, mental and personality growth. The future social historian will also note that legislation aimed at improving services for young children in need not only failed its praiseworthy objective but, paradoxically, contributed to the further deprivation for vulnerable children."
While we seek to enact just measures of restitution, how shall we price someone's childhood? The reality is, we cannot. However, if we are to move in the direction of redressing wrongs, we can begin only, by engendering a social conscience.
There is redemption which can still be found. If governments were to admit and account for their wrong doings in institutional child abuse, then we could look to other countries where there is war, economic slow downs, famine and aids. These countries will, without doubt, erect institutions to care for neglected, orphaned and vulnerable children. Canada could turn to these countries and say, “Here are the mistakes we made. Learn from them.”
The message I bring to you today is this. We are not just dealing with problems of the past; we are dealing with problems of the present and future. Those problems do not just affect the victims. They affect us all.
Now, more than ever these victims of abuse need all the help we can give them. And it is the responsibility of all of us involved with them, and others of similar circumstances; to do all we can to support their personal growth.
Great harm has been done to victims and survivors. We have suffered great losses. In our grief and anger we have found our cause and our wish for future generations. This wretched course of history must never happen again. We are at war with offending institutions. As in any war, there are real life casualties. In any age it is said change is often met with great resistance.
There are two types of people in this world – those who make history and those who read about it. This I tell you with all certainty – these victims have already begun to make history. Worldwide, these survivors are fast becoming the makers of change on this issue. They deserve nothing less than our profound respect and gratitude. Would you please stand with me now and join me in acknowledging their contributions?
Let us seek to exercise our freedoms:
- The freedom of speech
- The right to express and communicate ideas
- The right to recall governments to their duties and obligations
- The right to affirm our membership and allegiance to the body politic, to society
- The power to be heard
The power to share in the decisions of government, which shape our lives, everything that makes our lives worthwhile: family, work, education, and home.
Let us endorse, both in word and in deed, the United Nations' Conventions on the Rights of the Child, now ratified by more than 190 countries. More countries have ratified the Convention than any other human rights treaty in history.
Let us resolve never to yield to the cruelties and obstacles of obsolete dogmas and outworn slogans, nor cling to illusions of security. Friend and foe alike, we each share in the investment of peaceful progress. With a good conscience as our guide, may all our endeavors make way for a world where the strong are just and the weak safe.