Canada's most visited website supporting Canadian children's rights and responsibilities.

The Canadian Children's Rights Council, is a non-profit, non-governmental educational and advocacy organization concerned with Canadian children's human rights and responsibilities.

Since the beginning of 2004, over 9,650,000 unique Internet visitors from 156 countries have visited this site to learn about child rights in Canada.

The two days with the most visitors in 2008 were February 12 with over 40,000 visitors and July 13 with 18,110 visitors. The July 13 visitors were the result of a link into our website from the Washington Post.

Many thanks to all the volunteers from Goulds, NF to Comox, BC who made our website a success.

---

Surrogate mothers: Outsourcing pregnancy in India

The practice of renting a womb and getting a child is like outsourcing pregnancy. This trade's business volume is estimated to be around $ 500 million and the numbers of cases of surrogacy are believed to be increasing at galloping rate in India.

MeriNews, By Joseph Gathia, June 23, 2008

India - THE MINISTRY of Women and Child Development is examining the issue of ‘surrogate motherhood’ in India for bringing up a comprehensive legislation. But surrogate motherhood - as an arrangement, in which a woman carries and bears a child for another person or persons, but takes no ownership of the child born - has also raised moral, ethical, social and legal questions about both the woman and the ‘commissioned baby’.

To understand the issues involved, let us see the case of Surekha. She is seven-months pregnant like any other expecting mothers, except that the child she is carrying isn’t her own. When Surekha gives birth to this child in India, the newborn will be immediately be handed over to its biological parents, Non Resident Indians (NRIs) who live in Canada and who have been unable to bear a child on their own. In return for renting her womb, Surekha will be paid one lakh rupees.

This practice of renting a womb and getting a child is like outsourcing pregnancy. The business volume of this trade is estimated to be around $ 500 million and the numbers of cases of surrogacy are believed to be increasing at galloping rate.   More..

---

International Spank Out Day - April 30th

Spanking Doesn't Work

Spanking is not an effective form of discipline, even though some people may think it is.

Spanking can lead to anger and resentment and can cause children to lose trust in their parents.

Spanking teaches that hitting others is okay. In the long run, spanking makes children's behaviour worse, not better.

If you want to be a victim of Elder Abuse ..... just keep on hitting your child.

See our webpage about it. More..

---

No Spank Day a hit

The Windsor Star, Trevor Wilhelm, Saturday, April 26, 2008

When you're trying to convince people not to hit their kids, it's sometimes best to use a gentle hand, or even some crayons.

That was the philosophy behind the No Spank Day Family Event on the weekend at Devonshire Mall.

The Windsor Essex Children's Aid Society put it on in the lead up to International No Spank Day on April 30.  More..

---

Parental Alienation Awareness Day - April 25th

The president of the Hospital for Sick Children "SickKids" refuses to assist child victims of Parental Alienation or increase public awareness

Parental Alienation is a major issue in family law situations in which a parent can brainwash a child causing the child to hate the other parent with manufactured reasons. In one dramatic USA case, a ten year old boy was brainwashed by his mother to such an extent that he took his mother's handgun and killed his father at change-over time in their parenting time schedule.

In another case, a child that was examined by some highly qualified mental health professionals and deemed NOT to have been sexually abused by either parent was subjected to continued mental therapy treatment for sexual abuse at the instance of the parent making the false allegations. Surrounding the child with legitimate child victims of sexual abuse and the authority of mental health professionals was used to indoctrinate the child into believing that she was sexually abused.

The Ontario Bar Association past president, a family law lawyer, advised us that "Parental Alienation Syndrome (PAS)" is fully recognized by the family courts of Ontario, Canada's most populous province.

This mental health issue is recognized by the family courts throughout Canada but most cases aren't fought in family court because of the lack of funds by parents to fight in court and the expense of lawyers and experts used to determine PAS and order treatment.

Our request to Mary Jo Haddad, president, of  The Hospital for Sick Children often called "SickKids" resulted in a letter void of any recognition of this mental health issue and any willingness for anyone at that hospital to participate in any program to assist children suffering from "Parental Alienation". They refused to even add their name to literature planned for distribution through a major Ontario government owned corporation for the purpose of public education . This same program of public information and awareness is being supported by the Canadian Children's Rights Council, The Kids Help Phone Line and was initiated by the world known Parental Alienation Awareness Organization, founders of the "Parental Alienation Awareness Day - April 25th" whose base of operation is Canada although they have members around the world.

The website of the the Parental Alienation Awareness Organization is www.PAAwareness.org  .They are a true Canadian success story.

We were referred by the president of the The Hospital for Sick Children to their website www.AboutKidsHealth.ca for information about the child mental health issue of "Parental Alienation", the education of, and treatment by , doctors at this teaching hospital . Our researchers couldn't find anything on their website regarding this mental health condition.

The position of the Canadian Children's Rights Council is that SickKids hospital is grossly negligent in providing recognition of Parental Alienation and providing treatment by , and training for, both student family doctors in training and those specializing in treating children such as paediatricians and child psychiatrists in training and on staff at the hospital. Further, our position is that, since the Special Joint Committee on Custody and Access of 1998 toured this country, heard from over 500 witnesses of both genders in every major city in Canada, and submitted their report to the parliament of Canada, nothing has been done to recognize and treat child victims of parental alienation an important child mental health issue.  We estimate that since 1998, over 1 million Canadian children are victims of parental alienation and yet the largest children's hospital in Canada and one of the largest in the world, doesn't train their own staff about this issue and are not willing to promote education and treatment of child victims or increase public awareness at NO COST to them.

---

Canadian Symposium on Parental Alienation Syndrome - Expects 1,500 attendees in September '08 International Conference to be held in Toronto

A parental alienation consultant from the Toronto, Ontario area, has organized one of the largest conferences ever held anywhere on the child mental health condition of  "Parental Alienation" in family law situations. Attendees will mainly be lawyers and the medical professionals at the conference to be held at the Toronto Convention Centre in downtown Toronto, September 5-7, 2008 .

The Controversy
From the perspective of the Canadian Children's Rights Council, we wish to increase public awareness of the issue of parental alienation as a mental health issue perpetrated against children and to stop this damage done to children in family law situations. Our position calls for increased awareness among provincial health ministries and funding for mental health treatment of children suffering from parental alienation with early intervention by mental health professionals paid for by the provincial health insurance plans. We need much greater public awareness of this important issue.

With 90% of those involved with family court being self represented ( the lawyers call them "unrepresented") , parents generally can't afford expensive consultants and lawyers or the time it takes to prove such a case in a court of law and start treatment even when and if it is available and ordered by the courts. Kids can't wait.

Something has to be done
It is the position of the Canadian Children's Rights Council that these important issues should be raised with the legal and medical communities and our president will one of the speakers at the symposium.

Press seeking comments on parental alienation and the consulting industry can contact www.cspas.ca and the Canadian Children's Rights Council.

---

Highlights of Press Conference by United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights On the Launch of a Year-Long Commemoration of the 60th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights

December 10, 2008

United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour, speaking in a press conference on Human Rights Day (10 December) at the Palais des Nations, called on all national actors, governments, civil society and human rights institutions to take every opportunity during a year-long commemoration campaign to reaffirm their commitment to the values and principles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today launched a year-long campaign that leads on 10 December 2008 to the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration. The initiative by the Secretary-General will see all United Nations departments, agencies, funds and programmes commemorate this important milestone of human rights throughout the year.

In a press conference, the High Commissioner said the theme of the year-long campaign, Dignity and Justice for All of Us, highlights the principles of universality and justice which are at the heart of the ideals enshrined in the Universal Declaration.

“We heard this morning … a resounding reaffirmation of the commitment of all Member States to the values, the indivisibility and universality of all rights contained in the Declaration.

“So I hope that today is really the beginning of a year that will have a lot of echoes where the human rights agenda of the United Nations will be very broadly discussed, endorsed, and, more importantly, I hope, implemented,” said the High Commissioner.

---

The International Day of Disabled Persons -  December 3

The International Day of Disabled Persons, which is held every year on 3 December, aims to promote an understanding of disability issues and mobilise support for the dignity, rights and well-being of persons with disabilities. The 2007 theme was 'Decent work for persons with disabilities.'

Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities - the first major human rights treaty of the 21st century

This year's International Day of Disabled Persons had special significance as a new international Convention for the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which was adopted by the UN General Assembly in 2006, has become the fastest ever signed Convention, with 118 signatures so far.

Two countries - Spain and South Africa - took the opportunity of the International Day to ratify the new Convention; Bangladesh also ratified last week.

However, the Convention has yet to come into force as only 10 countries – Bangladesh, Croatia, Cuba, Gabon, Hungary, India, Jamaica, Panama, South Africa and Spain - out of a required 20 have ratified the Convention.

Children with disabilities

Some 150-200 million out of two billion children worldwide - or ten per cent of children - live with disabilities. Children with disabilities experience widespread violations of their rights, many of which are common to those faced by adults – poverty, social exclusion, lack of accessible environments, violence.

They face abuses including abandonment as babies, institutionalisation, exclusion from education, lack of birth registration, lack of respect for their evolving capacities, inappropriate child protection systems. Estimates indicate that over 90 per cent of all children with disabilities are unlikely to receive any formal education.

Children and the new Convention

The new Convention marks a shift from seeing children with disabilities as objects of charity, and addressing their 'special needs' - the approach set out in Article 23 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child - to subjects of rights.

All the Articles in the text apply to children with disabilities; in addition, Article 7 sets out specific obligations to ensure children with disabilities enjoy of all human rights and fundamental freedoms on an equal basis with other children, to ensure that the best interests of the child is a primary consideration, and to provide disability and age appropriate assistance to ensure that children with disabilities are able to realise the right to their express views on all matters of concern to them and have them taken seriously in accordance with age and maturity.

Read more in Gerison Lansdown's paper: The New Disability Convention and the Protection of Children.

---

Proposed change to Manitoba child protection law a witch hunt at best.

Priority should be stopping the abuse of over 50,000 children in Manitoba that suffer from Parental Alienation Syndrome

Canadian Children's Rights Council website shut down by false allegations of child pornography  More..

On November 28, 2007 the governing party of the province of Manitoba introduced the Child and Family Services Amendment Act which calls for jailing or fining anyone who knows about child pornography but doesn't report it to authorities.

Manitoba law already has penalties for anyone not reporting child abuse. The information stated in the media is that no person has ever been charged with failing to provide information about child abuse to authorities and that the Minister introducing the legislation doesn't anticipate that arrests or fined will result because of the inclusion of child sexual exploitation in the amended law.  ....Then why waste time on such a meaningless amendment?

We are sure that some perverted person will find some innocent picture of a baby in a bathtub sexual. The media has reported that no person in Manitoba has ever been charged with not reporting child abuse that they reasonably believe occurred or witnessed but we know that hundreds of parents have reported to police that their ex-spouses who have  violated parenting time orders made by family law courts or as part of separation agreements made between 2 parents in family law cases. Such violations are child abuse. Often they involve parental alienation which is also child abuse.

Comments in the media attributed to the Minister stated that we should do everything possible to stop child pornography no matter what it take to save just 1 child from sexual exploitation.  This is dangerous to parents that take innocent non-sexual pictures that some pervert may see as sexual. A picture of baby not wearing a diaper while walking on a beach could result an investigation of the family and a stigma that can ruin their lives.

It is our position at the Canadian Children's Rights Council that people will report child abuse, in all its forms, including child porn without threats that if they don't, they will go to jail or at least spend thousands of dollars on defence lawyers and face the stigma associated with such charges.

It is our position that if the Government of Manitoba wants to stop child abuse en masse, they should enforce parenting time orders made by their own family law courts and provide much need mental health services specifically to help children that are victims of parental alienation syndrome in family law cases.

The Internet is international and so is the problem of child porn and the child sex trade

The International Criminal Police Organization – INTERPOL, an agency of the United Nations, is the logical police service that should be battling international child porn in conjunction with the sex tourism business. They should report widely on offences being committed in all countries that use disobey their own laws against child sex workers/slaves  while hotels and others profit from the child sex tourism business.

Each of INTERPOL’s member countries maintains a National Central Bureau (NCB) staffed by police officers. In Canada, it is INTERPOL Ottawa run by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police ( RCMP), Canada's national Police service.

INTERPOL's world head office is located in France and is staffed by police officers from around the world. Its staff is relatively small. In our opinion, it should be quadruple its size and really fulfill the need for a truly international police force.

If you really want to stop child porn on the Internet, suggest to your Member of the Parliament of Canada that you want your tax dollars spent on more International police including an expanded role for INTERPOL both in Canada and around the world.

---

Child Porn - An international issue. The Internet knows no national boundaries. Many Countries don't even have child porn laws. Let's go after them.

Read about how other countries that feed child porn into Canada over the Internet  don't even have their own criminal laws and how they fail to protect their own children while their citizens such as hotel owners make money in the sex tourism trade. More..

The damage  to families when false allegations are made.

In Toronto, Ontario, a few years ago, a medical doctor was accused of being a child pornographer. His medical practice was ruined. He was found not guilty in criminal court but committed suicide because of the stress.  His reputation was ruined and there was no way to retract the damage done to him by the media coverage made when he was charged. He had subscribed to adult pornography on the internet and his credit card had been charged. The same company providing the adult porn had been providing child porn to others and used the same company to charge credit cards.

---

Canada's National Child Day - November 20th

National Child Day is held November 20th each year as enacted in Bill C-371, otherwise known as the Child Day Act, by the Parliament of Canada in 1993.

It commemorates the United Nations adoption of two landmark documents concerned with the human rights of all children and youths.

On National Child Day, Canadians honour our children and The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of The Child on November 20th, 1959, and the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child on November 20th, 1989.

The Convention spells out the basic human rights to which children ( under the age of 18 ) everywhere are entitled.

National Child Day's purpose is to promote awareness in Canada of the Convention. More..

Write us and tell us what you did to promote National Child Day and the implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child in Canadian domestic laws.

---

Children: The Silenced Citizens EFFECTIVE IMPLEMENTATION OF CANADA'S INTERNATIONAL OBLIGATIONS WITH RESPECT TO THE RIGHTS OF CHILDREN Final Report of the Standing Senate Committee on Human Rights April 2007 view / download in pdf (324 pages) 1.3 mb click here

Les enfants: des citoyens sans voix MISE EN OEUVRE EFFICACE DES OBLIGATIONS INTERNATIONALES DU CANADA RELATIVES AUX DROITS DES ENFANTS Rapport final du Comité sénatorial permanent des Droits de la personne avril 2007 pdf 1.3 MB  clique ici

---

Parents win right to grow babies for 'spare parts'

November 11, 2007, London UK

PARENTS of sick children in Britain will be allowed to use IVF to create "spare-part babies" under controversial laws published yesterday.

The legislation will dramatically relax rules on IVF clinics creating "saviour siblings" who can help cure their older brothers and sisters of medical conditions such as leukemia. More..

---

Canadian Governments failing native children, report says

14 August 2007 - Hundreds of aboriginal children with severe medical problems in Canada are being moved to institutions in big cities because health authorities cannot agree on who should pay for their care, according to a new report.

Yet if these children lived 'off-reserve' (not on indigenous land), they would virtually be guaranteed the care they need at home, according to the latest edition of the Canadian Medical Association Journal.

"That is discrimination, pure and simple," Noni MacDonald, a professor of paediatrics and a senior CMAJ editor, said in an editorial.

Amir Attaran, the Canada Research Chair in Law, Population Health and Global Development Policy, said the practice is screamingly illegal, and a clear violation of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.

The editorial, co-written by the two academics, says that the governments deserve to be sued for such a failure.

The pair reject arguments that services for complex medical needs, such as those of ventilator-dependent children, cannot be provided on reserves because communities are too remote.

"Geography is no excuse for the pusillanimous, inequitable distribution of wealth, such that advanced care exists only in the south and first nations children, parents and communities endure psychological and cultural stress to access it, " Dr. MacDonald and Dr. Attaran wrote.

Cindy Blackstock, executive director of the First Nations Child and Family Caring Society, said that in fact native children are being discriminated against both in remote communities and reserves located close to big cities.

Attempt to rationalise

"This is an attempt to rationalise pretty blatant discrimination," she said.

At the root of the problem is an age-old dispute about who pays for the medical care of Indian, Inuit and Métis people. Generally speaking, care provided on reserves is paid by Health Canada (or Indian Affairs, if it is a social service) and by the province off-reserve.

But the situation gets complicated when someone travels away for care and then wants to return to the community and receive continuing care.

The situation came to a head a few years back with the tragic case of a boy named Jordan from the Norway House Cree Nation in northern Manitoba.

Jordan whose family asked that his last name not be published to protect their privacy  was born in 1999 with a severe neuromuscular disorder. He was referred for care in Winnipeg, where he became wheelchair-bound and ventilator-dependent. But his health stabilised and he was discharged in 2001.

He was placed in a specialised home near his home reserve but Ottawa and Winnipeg could not agree on who would pay.

For two years, bureaucrats warred over the most mundane details of Jordan's care, right down to who would pay for a showerhead required for a wheelchair-accessible shower.

Jordan ended up back in a Winnipeg hospital where he died at age of four.

Patient's interests second

"Jordan's interests fell a distant second; intergovernmental squabbling over the duty to pay came first," Dr. MacDonald and Dr. Attaran write in their editorial.

"Many of the services Jordan needed would be paid for without question for a white Manitoban, or off-reserve aboriginal. It was Jordan's living on-reserve that caused the bureaucracy to choke."

The boy's case became a cause célèbre in social welfare and child health circles. The term "Jordan's principle" was coined“ the principle being that the needs of a child should supersede bickering over who pays the bills.

---

Senate committee chastises Canada for its treatment of aboriginal children

Ottawa Citizen, CanWest News Service,  by Juliet O'Neill, Friday, April 27, 2007

OTTAWA - Canada's treatment of its aboriginal children is "a national total disgrace," Senator Romeo Dallaire said Thursday as a Senate committee issued a report on the government's failure to comply with an international treaty on children's rights.

"They're living in the Third World," said Dallaire, a retired general who led a UN mission during the genocide in Rwanda in the mid-1990s. "You wonder if you're a colonial white man in black Africa," he said, recalling testimony that while Canada ranked among the top-five countries on a UN human development index, Canada's aboriginal population lagged in 78th place.   More..

---

NETHERLANDS: Seventeenth European State to ban corporal punishment by parents

On 6 March 2007, a new law prohibiting all corporal punishment by parents and carers was passed in the Senate. The law amends the provisions in the Civil Code on parental authority so that article 1:247 now states (unofficial translation):

(1) Parental authority includes the duty and the right of the parent to care for and raise his or her minor child. (2) Caring for and raising ones child includes the care and the responsibility for the emotional and physical wellbeing of the child and for his or her safety as well as for the promotion of the development of his or her personality. In the care and upbringing of the child the parents will not use emotional or physical violence or any other humiliating treatment. More..

Article 1:248 of the Code applies article 1:247 to all other persons acting in loco parentis.

The Cabinet agreed to proceed with prohibition in February 2005, following a government-commissioned study on the experiences of abolition in other European countries. Department of Justice press releases at the time the Bill to contribute to the prevention of emotional and physical abuse of children or any other humiliating treatment of children in care and upbringing was introduced to the Cabinet stressed that the primary purpose of the new law is to set a standard. It emphasised that the law would bring the Netherlands into compliance with the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and article 17 of the European Social Charter, and address the recommendations made to the Netherlands government by the Committee on the Rights of the Child and the European Committee of Social Rights.

Now that the law has been passed, a government Communication Plan to inform parents and the general public about the ban is being prepared. The law is expected to come into force by the summer.

At least 16 countries in Europe have enacted bans on corporal punishment by parents and all other carers: Sweden (1979); Finland (1983); Norway (1987); Austria (1989); Cyprus (1994); Denmark (1997); Latvia (1998); Croatia (1999); Germany (2000); Bulgaria (2000), Iceland (2003); Romania (2004); Ukraine (2004), Hungary (2004), Greece (2006); Netherlands (2007). In addition, a Supreme Court judgment in Italy (1996) declared all corporal punishment to be unlawful, but this has not yet been confirmed in legislation. At least six more states have committed themselves to full law reform in the near future: Lithuania, Luxembourg, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain.

The pace of reform is gathering momentum in light of the UN Secretary Generals Study on Violence against Children, which recommended in its final report prohibition in law of all corporal punishment of children by 2009. Many more governments across the world have committed themselves to full prohibition, including at least a further six in Europe.

---

Australia's High Court Judgment in Magill v. Magill

Paternity Fraud ok according to highest court in Australia.

Children's identity rights not supported by High Court of Australia More..

---

UK: Doctors call for debate on mercy killing of disabled babies

BBC - 6 November 2006

UK - Doctors are calling for a debate over proposals for the "mercy killing" of severely disabled babies. The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists wants a discussion over whether "deliberate intervention" to cause death should be legalised. Withdrawing treatment is already permitted in some cases.

The college said it was not necessarily in favour of the move, but felt it should be debated. However, some are angry it has even been suggested. Simone Aspis, of the British Council of Disabled People, said: "We really do not know how long babies and young people will live for. "We should not deny people the opportunity to live for as long as they are able to."

And Matthew O'Gorman, a spokesman for the Life charity, said it was "extremely worrying". "There is a huge difference between withdrawing invasive treatment that has become futile, and taking action to intentionally end a child's life because treatment is considered to be too expensive or time-consuming."

The college made its comments in a submission to the Nuffield Council on Bioethics, which is carrying out an inquiry into the viability of life. Nuffield will publish its report on critical care decisions in foetal and neonatal medicine next week.

A working party has been consulting on the issue on the back of improvements in medical technology which means very premature and ill babies can survive, although some with severe disabilities.

The college said: "We would like the working party to think more radically about non-resuscitation, withdrawal of treatment decisions... and active euthanasia, as they are ways of widening the management options available to the sickest of newborns."

Maggie Blott, a member of the college, said these were "very difficult decisions" that would be taken over days, weeks and even months in consultation with the parents. She added it was a debate that needed to happen.

Doctors have mixed views over the suggestions.

John Wyatt, professor of neonatal paediatrics at University College Hospital London, said: "It changes the nature of medicine... into some kind of social engineering."

But John Harris, professor of bioethics at the University of Manchester, said it was not a question of whether or not these decisions were taken - as they already were through withdrawing treatment - but how to take them in the most humane way.

---

Minister responsible for Ontario's Family Responsibility Office admits liability and will pay damages

October 25, 2006

Transcripts from the Hansard - Legislative Assembly of Ontario - Question period More ..

---

Dalton McGuinty, Premiere of Ontario, fails the children of Ontario. Dalton McGuinty plays cheap politics involving crying mothers in front of legislature - Will "Kevin and Jared's Law", a law calling for mandatory coroner's inquests into the deaths of children killed by their parent, ever become law?

Liberal and Conservative governments of Ontario have failed to enforce protection of children from prostitution in the Rescuing Children from Sexual Exploitation Act, 2002

This bill fights child prostitution by allowing police to seize underage hookers -- i.e., hold them in custody -- for  up to 30 days, instead of the normal practice, which generally sees them right back out on the street after an arrest, with no hope of getting free of their pimps and the seedy lure of street life.

The idea is to protect these children by holding them long enough to get them care and support -- it's about giving them a chance to return to a normal life, not about jailing or punishing them. (In case that's not clear, it's called the Rescuing Children from Sexual Exploitation Act, 2002.

YEARS OF LOBBYING
Other provinces, notably Alberta, have had such a law for years, and it has proven effective. In Ontario, where we have an estimated 1,200 child prostitutes, it took years of work and lobbying, but in 2002, the then-Conservative government endorsed and passed the private member's bill originated by MPP Rick Bartolucci, a Liberal.

The trouble is, it was never proclaimed -- not by the Tories and not by the Liberals since they came to power, even though it was the brainchild of one of their own. Amazingly, some youth outreach groups oppose the law as too "draconian"; -- because, hey, why shouldn't a 14-year-old have the right to sell her body for cash? A 14-year-old is obviously not mature enough to make such a decision which is why the act was passed. But will it become law or More ..

---

Some mothers have had enough hugs

The Globe and Mail (Canada's largest national newspaper) , By CHRISTIE BLATCHFORD, Friday, October 6, 2006 Page A1

Toronto - As a female friend of Frances Elaine Campione put it, this after Ms. Campione was charged on Wednesday with murder in the death of her two young children, "That mother needs a hug."

In that line, widely repeated in Toronto and national media outlets, is a telling clue to what is so wrong with much of what happens both in the nation's family courts and in its child-protection system -- the pervasive view of the female of the species as constantly nurturing (except, you know, when she allegedly kills) and as in need of constant nurture (hugs all 'round, no matter what).

For the record, Ms. Campione was arrested two days ago after she phoned 911 to report that there were two dead children inside her Barrie, Ont., apartment, and shortly after, didn't police arrive to find the bodies of her own little girls, one-year-old Sophia and three-year-old Serena.

She and her estranged husband Leo were reportedly in the throes of a nasty custody battle, with Mr. Campione accused of assaulting his wife and the older child, and Ms. Campione allegedly alarmed, and/or depressed, at the prospect of losing that fight.

And The Globe has confirmed that involved with the family was the Children's Aid Society of Simcoe County. At the moment, the nature of that involvement is unknown -- except as it has been reported by neighbours who saw social workers at the apartment and say that, for a time recently, the girls lived with their paternal grandparents. More ..

---

Overdue support to disabled just first step

The Toronto Star, (Canada's largest daily newspaper ) by HELEN HENDERSON, Aug. 29, 2006.

Kudos to Sudbury community legal worker Marie Lalande for setting in motion the action that led to Ontario finally agreeing to pay $25 million in overdue support to some 19,000 people with disabilities.

As reported by the Star's Rob Ferguson, cabinet approved the payout last week in response to a blistering attack by Ontario Ombudsman Andr Marin. Marin called it "morally repugnant" that the province was taking an average of eight months to process disability support applications but would pay only four months of retroactive benefits to those whose applications were accepted.

The four-month cut-off was cancelled May 31, the day Marin released his report, but the system was so backlogged, there was no immediate relief.

The province is to be commended for acknowledging its responsibility and moving quickly to correct an inequity that has created so much unnecessary hardship. But as Lalande and other advocates point out, this is by no means the only flaw in the Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP).

With a surplus in its coffers, Queen's Park should move to help people with disabilities rise above subsistence levels. It would pay off big time and long term, improving general health and helping them reach their full potential. More ..     ODSP Action Coalition

---

In rich Canada, welfare worsens
Recipients get less than 20 years ago
Public is turning a blind eye to issue

The Toronto Star, ( Canada's largest daily newspaper) THOMAS WALKOM, NATIONAL AFFAIRS COLUMNIST, Aug. 25, 2006

Here in Canada, in one of the richest countries of the world, the very poorest are getting poorer. This is not the result of some external or unforeseen crisis. It is happening in the midst of a long-running economic boom and reflects the deliberate decisions of elected governments presumably supported by the Canadian public at large to purge the roughly 1.7 million people consigned to welfare from our collective consciousness.

It is shameful. It is pretty much criminal. And, as the National Council on Welfare, an advisory body to the federal government, warned in a report released yesterday, it is remarkably short-sighted. In particular, it is short-sighted for those of us in the broader middle classes who assume wrongly that we could never end up on the dole.

It's a cruel world out there now. Successive governments have gutted or eliminated much of Canada's vaunted social safety net. For most workers, employment insurance doesn't exist. Increasingly, employers prefer part-time or contract workers who can be fired at will and who are owed neither benefits nor pensions.

If the economy falters and unemployment spikes as it is almost sure to do again there is not much between a comfortable middle-class life and welfare.

So just hope it doesn't happen to you. As the council points out, for the vast majority of those on welfare, things are bad and getting worse.

The figures are depressing and distressing. In Ontario, for example, the incomes of most welfare recipients, after adjustment for inflation, are lower now than they were 20 years ago. More ..

---

The most popular section of our website in 2005 and 2006 was our Female Sexual Predator Awareness section.

Part of the increase in visitors to this section of our website was a result of public concern about the release from prison of Canada's most notorious female sexual predator, Karla Homolka. Another reason was public interest resulting from more media coverage of female sexual predators, in particular a few beautiful female teachers that sexually assaulted male children.

A movie was made concerning the murders committed by Karla Homolka and her husband, Paul Bernardo, which initially was titled "Deadly The Movie". The title was changed to "KARLA" the movie. On the "KARLA" movie website, the film maker expressed concern over the lack of public knowledge of female sexual predators.

The best research that we have indicates that 75% of sexual predators are male and 25% are female. Of those victims of female sexual predators, 86% are not initially believed.

Link to Female Sexual Predator Awareness web pages click here

---

Zellers fires poor dad for taking chocolate from trash for his kids

The Canadian Press,  various newspapers across Canada, The Chronicle Herald, Halifax, Nova Scotia, December 21, 2005

ST-HYACINTHE, Quebec A single father of three fired for taking chocolate bars from a garbage bin at a Zellers store will get some Christmas cheer from a charitable organization.

Guy Masse, 47, had planned to give the discarded chocolate to his children, ages six, nine and 15, for Christmas.

Masse, who was on welfare and had been working at the store only for a couple of months, was first suspended and then fired.

"I think its inhuman," Masse told CJAD radio station in Montreal of his dismissal. More ..

---

Painless Paternity Tests, but the Truth May Hurt

New York Times, U.S.A., October 2, 2005, By MIREYA NAVARRO

JOSEPH DIXON said he was not exactly thrilled when his girlfriend of one and a half years told him she was pregnant. But, Mr. Dixon said, he did not want her to have an abortion and was determined to do the right thing.

"I told her I'd definitely be there" for her, said Mr. Dixon, 29, a hotel doorman in Chicago. And he was. The two didn't marry but settled into the common rhythm of separate but shared parenthood, he said, allowing him to see his daughter whenever he wanted.

But when Mr. Dixon arranged to purchase a life insurance policy to give his 4-year-old daughter financial security last January, the results of a required DNA test delivered stunning news. More ..

---

Two opposite judgements from The Ontario Court of Justice concerning Paternity Fraud in the Canada's most populous province.

This is an article containing analysis by an experienced, well published, Ontario lawyer whose practice is restricted to family law.

These 2 recent paternity fraud cases were in the Ontario Court of Justice. The article was also published in The Law Times, a Canadian publication.

Take a look at the judgments by Madam Justice June Maresca versus Mr Justice Peter R. W. Isaacs

More ..

Visit our complete section on paternity fraud More ..

---

Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada doesn't support children's rights

"An illustration of the lack of appreciation of the importance of Canada's commitment to children's rights was seen in the comments made by Chief Justice McLachlin during the Supreme Court deliberations on the constitutionality of section 43 of the Criminal Code.  She not only disregarded the consistent recommendations of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, but also went on to say that the best interest of the child "is not vital or fundamental to our social notion of justice."

- Professor Katherine Covell, CBU Children's Right Centre (Cape Breton University) testimony before the Senate Standing Committee on Human Rights Feb. 7, 2005 More..

---

More married women are cheating on their spouses than ever before and the infidelity gender gap is almost certainly closing,

NEW YORK, July 4 /PRNewswire/ --  report Contributing Editor Lorraine Ali and Senior Editor Lisa Miller in the July 12, 2004, Newsweek cover story

The Canadian Children's Rights Council has an extensive section on paternity fraud / children's identity rights (human rights) web pages...see our left side navigation bar  More ..

---

Problems plague provincial child financial support agency, forcing families onto welfare

Ontario's Family Responsibility Office has many problems

Quote from Ontario Government Ombudsman -"an equal opportunity error-prone program,."'

Support recipients not getting their money.
Men who've been meeting their court-ordered obligations have trouble getting the FRO to stop taking payments when it's supposed to.  More..

Social Behavior Among Monkeys May Be More Nature Than Nurture University Of Chicago Medical Center, Science Daily, December 12, 2003 An unusual experiment with monkeys who were switched between mothers shortly after birth has demonstrated the importance of nature over nurture in behavior. Young monkeys reared by a mother other than their own are more likely to exhibit the aggressive or friendly behavior of their birth mothers rather than the behavior of their foster mothers, a University of Chicago researcher has shown for the first time. The discovery of inheritability of social behavior traits among non-human primates has important implications for people as it reinforces other research that suggests that such characteristics as sociability and impulsive aggressiveness among humans may have a genetic basis, said Dario Maestripieri, Associate Professor in Human Development at the University. The work with monkeys may help other researchers understand the biological origins of characteristics that promote socialization among humans, he said. More ..