46 F E B R U A R Y 2 0 1 9 w w w . c a n a d i a n l a w y e r m a g . c o m
W
hen Ontario's Child, Youth and Family Services Act came
into force this past April, it was with the express aim "to be
consistent with and build upon the principles expressed in
the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child."
Canada ratified that convention in 1991.
"The Government of Ontario acknowledges that children are individuals
with rights to be respected and voices to be heard," reads the opening line of
the Act's preamble. It was praised as promoting the right of children to be lis-
tened to, consulted and connections maintained to their communities.
In November, a new provincial government announced that the Provincial
Advocate for Children and Youth Act, 2007 would be repealed and the Office
of the Provincial Advocate for Children and Youth, first opened in 2008,
would be closed.
The move left Ontario as one of the few jurisdictions in the country with-
out an official child advocate.
A look at child protection across the country shows a system that is strug-
gling to better protect children and youth. An
estimated 90 per cent of Manitoban children in
care are Indigenous. And a coalition of Ontario
family lawyers are decrying the use of summary
judgments in child protection cases, saying they
deprive parents of the right to be heard at trial in
cases where a children's aid society has moved to
apprehend the children.
But recent or pending legislation seeks
to strengthen the rights of the child, includ-
ing the benefits of keeping Indigenous chil-
dren in their own communities. In addition
to Ontario's child-centric Child, Youth and
Family Services Act, changes to the Divorce
Act in Bill C-78, which also are expected to
be passed into law in 2019, are child-focused.
And the federal government has recently pro-
posed legislation that would let Indigenous
governments in Canada have control over
child welfare.
"In Canada we've kind of lagged on chil-
dren's rights issues," says Mary Ellen Turpel-
Lafond, a professor of law at the University of
British Columbia and B.C.'s first Representa-
tive for Children and Youth, an independent
position reporting to the Legislative Assem-
bly that she held for 10 years. "There's lots of
work to be done."
Child protection advocates say cost cutting and slow
reforms are putting kids at risk
By Elizabeth Raymer
PROTECTING THE
MOST VULNERABLE
F A M I LY L A W
L E G A L R E P O R T
FAYE
ROGERS
