The Challenge of Children’s Rights for Canada

CHAPTER 1 The Challenge of Children’s Rights

1The Challenge of Children’s Rights In September 1993, in the city of Hamilton, Ontario, a group of children broke into an abandoned scrap metal recycling plant where they found mercury. They took the mercury home and played with it, spilling it and throwing it at each other. An emergency response was quickly effected. Approximately 6,000 children were screened, of whom 269 were identified as exposed, or at risk of exposure, to the mercury. A hotline was established with the help of the media to alert children, and their parents, of the need to avoid exposure, and of the need to report exposure. Public Health inspectors actively sought spilled mercury in the community, and referred children as necessary to public health nurses. The story has a happy ending. No child showed any health effects from the exposure.1 In fact, it was unlikely that any child would show effects of such brief exposure to mercury, since its toxicity is limited unless there is chronic environmental exposure. The Hamilton-Wentworth Department of Public Health Services’ response to the mercury incident was consistent with Canada’s concern for protecting children from environmental toxins. Canada ranks second in the world (the United States is first) in the reduction of lead levels in children’s blood as a result of reduction of lead levels in gasoline and removal of lead from solder in food cans. Legislation to lower lead levels was enacted when it was learned that even low levels of exposure to lead were associated with learning disabilities and behaviour problems. Similarly, according to the World Health Organization, Canada ranks at or close to the top of the list of all nations in protecting children from communicable diseases such as polio and measles, through widespread immunization policies.2 In sharp contrast stands Canada’s record on protecting children from social toxins. Canada’s policies and practices with regard to social toxins in children’s environments are generally inadequate. Children in Canada Notes to chapter 1 start on p. 187. / 1 today are frequently being raised in social contexts that may be as poisonous to their development as are the physical toxins, such as lead. In this book, our argument is that under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, children have a right to be reared free of any toxins, social or physical, that threaten their healthy development. We believe that taking children’s rights seriously requires two fundamental shifts. First, it is essential that society acknowledge much more than it does that children are not the property of parents, but are individuals with inherent rights. Second, we need to change our laws, policies, and practices regarding children from being reactive to being proactive, in which the primary principle is the best interests of the child. The Socially Toxic Environment This term was coined by the American child psychologist James Garbarino to describe rearing conditions such as poverty and violence.3 Social toxins are any social-environmental conditions that are known to threaten the child’s healthy development. They are like physical toxins because their impact can be predicted, and because children are more susceptible to their effects than are adults. Social toxins can reside within the family, for example, in the presence of alcoholic or abusive parents. Social toxins can be found in the community, for example, in unsafe play areas, inadequate housing, lack of quality daycare, and overcrowded schools. And social toxins can be the product of public policies and societal practices, such as employment policies that leave parents underemployed or unemployed, and social policies that provide families with inadequate parental leave or child care. In later chapters, we examine Canada’s policy commitment to children ’s rights and the developmental impact of specific social toxins. Here, we provide a brief illustration of how social toxins affect the child’s development. We use two common social toxins, abuse and poverty. In 1994, it was estimated that there were 12,000 children (those under the age of eighteen) living on the streets of Toronto. Since then, the number of street children in cities across Canada has been increasing . How street children survive varies. Some street children are panhandlers , some are ‘‘squeegee kids’’ (they wash car windshields at stoplights in exchange for money), some sell drugs, and some are prostitutes. What they have in common is their family background. Almost all are from homes characterized by childhood abuse or neglect.4 2 / The Challenge of Children’s Rights for...