Aids to Children in Need
They're the most valuable assets any society has. Yet, paradoxically, they're the most at risk, the most vulnerable in any society. Which is why, thank heavens, most societies are collectively sufficiently responsible to ensure that the needs of children whom circumstance and misfortune have left bereft of the social and emotional and practical assistance they require will be taken care of. With great sensitivity to the needs of these children.
We have the many faces of various types of societies, associations, groups, all under the respected auspices of the provincial governments tasked to care for these children. They're social orphans created by the incidence of uncaring or incapable parents, of a society which has abandoned the needs of minorities and the working poor which often results in the victimization of children. The same society which has, somehow, failed the parents often fails their offspring as well.
So what have we here? In Ontario the Children's Aid Society whose dedicated work it is to ensure the safety and support of children at risk has come under closer scrutiny as the result of findings of the provincial auditor. And what she has high-lighted for public and government review is a litany of irresponsibly criminal behaviour on the part of those very bureaucrats charged with the care of the most vulnerable among us.
Gross mis-spending on personal trainers, luxury SUVs valued in excess of $50K each, vacations at Caribbean resorts by society officials. Trips to international conferences in Beijing and Buenos Aires. A week-long $4,000 visit to St.Lucia by a caseworker. Personal trips charged to the Children's Aid Society. Gym memberships paid for. A fleet of 50 vehicles, half of which logged fewer than 10,000 kilometres a year, being leased or purchased by one agency while at the same time an employee collected a $600 bonus for use of his own car.
Everyone hastens to separate themselves from the wrong-doers. The Ontario minister of children and youth services is tight-lipped, saying she is unable, at the moment, to respond to the charges. She must be aware of a three-week lag in caseworker response time for children in at-risk situations. The facts appear to point at uncaring bureaucrats in the commission of their duties lavishing funds on themselves rather than on assistance to children in need.
A three-week lag time in caseworker response can be critical in the instance of children at high risk for abuse. There have been instances of children in care having been killed while supposedly in protection. A society that values its children, that sets up special organizations to ensure that skilled workers can respond in a timely manner to safeguard children has been proven to be so lax that the system has failed utterly.
Hard to believe that such criminal behaviour could go undetected; hard to believe that highly educated adult professionals could fall so low.
We have the many faces of various types of societies, associations, groups, all under the respected auspices of the provincial governments tasked to care for these children. They're social orphans created by the incidence of uncaring or incapable parents, of a society which has abandoned the needs of minorities and the working poor which often results in the victimization of children. The same society which has, somehow, failed the parents often fails their offspring as well.
So what have we here? In Ontario the Children's Aid Society whose dedicated work it is to ensure the safety and support of children at risk has come under closer scrutiny as the result of findings of the provincial auditor. And what she has high-lighted for public and government review is a litany of irresponsibly criminal behaviour on the part of those very bureaucrats charged with the care of the most vulnerable among us.
Gross mis-spending on personal trainers, luxury SUVs valued in excess of $50K each, vacations at Caribbean resorts by society officials. Trips to international conferences in Beijing and Buenos Aires. A week-long $4,000 visit to St.Lucia by a caseworker. Personal trips charged to the Children's Aid Society. Gym memberships paid for. A fleet of 50 vehicles, half of which logged fewer than 10,000 kilometres a year, being leased or purchased by one agency while at the same time an employee collected a $600 bonus for use of his own car.
Everyone hastens to separate themselves from the wrong-doers. The Ontario minister of children and youth services is tight-lipped, saying she is unable, at the moment, to respond to the charges. She must be aware of a three-week lag in caseworker response time for children in at-risk situations. The facts appear to point at uncaring bureaucrats in the commission of their duties lavishing funds on themselves rather than on assistance to children in need.
A three-week lag time in caseworker response can be critical in the instance of children at high risk for abuse. There have been instances of children in care having been killed while supposedly in protection. A society that values its children, that sets up special organizations to ensure that skilled workers can respond in a timely manner to safeguard children has been proven to be so lax that the system has failed utterly.
Hard to believe that such criminal behaviour could go undetected; hard to believe that highly educated adult professionals could fall so low.
posted by Pieface | 5:21 PM
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