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Families deserve better Yellowknifer - Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Last week Glen Abernethy, MLA for Great Slave, said a comprehensive review of the act is necessary. He said there are some cases in which children can be taken away permanently and unnecessarily if a social worker has a bias against a parent.
For this reason, not only is a review needed immediately, but an ombudsman needs to be put in place to take parents' complaints.
An independent third party who would be able to fairly investigate complaints against child and family services is needed, even if social workers make the right call in the majority of cases.
An individual who is qualified but not part of Health and Social Services is better suited to fairly decide if parents are being treated unfairly or have had their children taken away unnecessarily.
Social work is a difficult job and it's fair to say most social workers are trying to keep parents and children together. There are, however, also situations in which parents are not given fair treatment and have no way to get justice other than through the courts. The courts, of course, pose a lengthy process and the children are, sometimes unjustly, kept separated from a parent for a lengthy period of time. Getting a top-notch lawyer is not within the financial means of many parents. They are therefore put at a disadvantage.
Taking children away from their mom and dad is a critical decision, one that parents should be able to appeal quickly. There has to be a level of oversight between the bureaucracy and the courts.
This is an ideal opportunity for MLAs to create a role for an ombudsman.
If you've noticed a spring in Yellowknife's step in recent days it should hardly come as a surprise.
It's not just the better weather, although after a less than balmy start to spring the suddenly green leaves and sunnier weather is an added bonus. No, if the city feels a little pluckier of late much can be attributed to the influx of visitors and returnees to celebrate Yellowknife's 75th anniversary.
That hundreds of past Yellowknifers and their families were willing to make the trip for the two-week party - many coming from far-flung corners of Canada and elsewhere - shows how fondly people remember their time here, even if for some it was for just a little while.
Yellowknifers feel they share a particular common bond for a variety of reasons: Having lived through long, cold winters, the summer's endless sunshine, the mosquitoes, and the isolation from the rest of the country.
Whether in Vancouver or Montreal, when two Yellowknifers meet for the first time and discover they share this bond, they can't help but feel excited about it.
For all those involved in organizing this year's homecoming, our hats are off to you. For all those returning, it's good to see you back.
Many folks were, understandably, quite upset by a story and photos of a bloody mess making the rounds this past week out of Denmark's Dantesque, in the Faroe Islands.
Less than a month after a number of Europeans voiced their displeasure over the Inuit way of life concerning seals, along comes the story of this age-old ritual. The annual gore-fest is a communal activity to store food for the winter, not a celebration of youth entering adulthood as some activists would have you believe. At least no more so than the pride felt by Northerners when their sons or daughters get their first wolf, bear, etc.
It involves packs of Faroese turning the water red with blood in the slaughter of pilot whales, which are a member of the dolphin family.
The circulated photos show them hacking away at the mammals with almost all manner of bladed instrument and sharp, pointed hooks.
And these are the same people who call Canadians barbaric?
There is no doubt the vast majority of Nunavummiut who saw the images this past week were seething over Europe's hypocrisy.
As much as we would rather not mention the East Coast and seal hunting in Nunavut in the same column, this whale slaughter puts the East Coast seal hunt to shame with its barbarism.
So much stupid venom was spread over the fairly innocuous images that came out of Rankin of our Governor General trying a piece of seal meat, we shudder to think what would have happened if local behaviour was anywhere near the same universe as these disgusting images from Dantesque.
Where are all the animal-rights condemnations now? How about a few images of a Faroese icon driving a hook in a whale's head for the next Olympics?
It would appear some areas of Europe have a distinct attitude of don't do as we do, do as we say!
The Faroese say the area involved needs the healthy country food, almost the entire carcass is used with little waste, and the hunt has very little impact on the whale's overall numbers.
Sound familiar?
We are not alone with our way of life in Nunavut.
The problem is we prefer to live and let live, while others prefer to dictate how we should all live our lives!
Well, valued readers, it's that time of year again.
I'm on vacation as you're reading this, relaxing my summer away by chasing after my two grandsons.
And, this year, my wife and I have the added bonus of meeting our first granddaughter for the very first time. How cool is that?
I leave the Kivalliq News in the capable hands of Kassina Ryder in my absence, who comes over from Nunavut News/North in Iqaluit.
A number of Rankin residents may know Kassina all ready, as she lived a number of years in our fair community.
In an effort to quell the rumour that seems to surface every year at this time, I am returning and will be back at my desk on Aug. 3.
I love Rankin and the Kivalliq News, so you're not getting rid of me quite yet. See you soon.
These stories are not unique to aboriginal politics, and the frequency of the issues popping up does not reflect poorly on aboriginal leaders. It is merely a product of an evolving democratic process.
For centuries First Nation peoples had their own style of community governance.
Today, First Nation governments are blending traditional government models with western-style democracy for a system that works for them.
Most encouraging is the amount of interest First Nation politics receive from members of the various bands and tribal councils.
Lately, garnering the most publicity have been the Tlicho, Deninu Ku'e and Salt River First Nations.
All three have been embroiled in lawsuits for various reasons. Although the situations have generated criticism from the public and our editorials, there is a silver lining.
The fact that people care enough to become involved is evidence there is a real desire to create a stable and representative system of government and that self-government is a priority for First Nation communities.
It is important to remember advancement and greater stability can only be achieved if a government learns from its mistakes.
Democracy has been thousands of years in the making and what worked for the ancient Greeks obviously isn't suited to today's realities.
The same goes for First Nations democracy. Although First Nations have a solid system of government to build on, it is obvious that European-style democracy is based on different cultural values and evolved from an entirely different set of historic events.
With that in mind, it is naive to expect a democratic structure tailored to First Nation groups would completely mimic a European-governance model.
First Nations must be allowed to create a model of government that works for them and matches aboriginal cultural, traditional and spiritual values.
Although it doesn't have to match Canada's idea of democracy directly - Canadian democracy is far from perfect - First Nations government must be seen as functional if it is to be taken seriously and if it wants the federal government to relinquish more powers and responsibilities.
A rocky start can be expected, but if people continue to take an interest and leaders are willing to admit when something is not working and make changes, the result will be a successful transition to self-government.
The Iroquois were widely believed to be one of the oldest participatory democracies on Earth. Many ideas that helped form American policy and law may have come from the Six Nation model of government.
Perhaps lessons from the past can help First Nations people make the transition to self-government.
Aboriginal groups governed themselves for centuries, and although a more contemporary government model is necessary, many past practices may still be relevant.
No one likes getting sick. So it's understandable that some people get cranky when the government tells them to do all they can to prevent the spread of a new flu but won't tell them where exactly it already exists.
After several days of wondering, we know now it's mostly in the Kitikmeot. And there's some in the Kivalliq. Oh, and now on Baffin Island.
One case. Six cases. Twenty-five. One hundred forty-five. Two hundred and three.
Some argue that if they knew swine flu was going around their community, they would take more precautions.
But swine flu, or H1N1, spreads like any other kind of flu. The only precautions you can take are to wash your hands frequently, sanitize frequently-touched surfaces and avoid touching your eyes, nose or mouth. There's no flu shot available yet to give you immunity to H1N1 because the virus is so new.
Only fear spreads faster than flu, and had the Department of Health and Social Services publicly identified the communities where a few people were sick with swine flu, those communities would have faced ostracism.
Places with swine flu would have been avoided and people from those communities travelling to other communities may have been treated like they had the plague, even if they were perfectly healthy. Children from the communities travelling with sports teams or on school trips would have been taunted by their peers.
These are things that have happened during disease outbreaks, including the current pandemic, in this country and others.
Communities fighting swine flu outbreaks deserve our aid and moral support. If they have to remain unidentified for this to happen, then so be it.
Respiratory ailments haunt Nunavut. The territory has the highest rates of tuberculosis in Canada, a disease mostly eradicated from the modern world. Respiratory synctitial virus (RSV) sends children to hospital every winter. Flu outbreaks shut down whole communities.
And there are lots of reasons why. Being cooped up indoors much of the year in overcrowded houses lets sickness spread. Smoking makes respiratory illnesses worse, and last longer. So does poor nutrition, when healthy food costs more than empty calories. Rationing trucked water, or no running water at all, may mean less frequent hand washing.
Every update issued by the Department of Health and Social Services stresses the illness caused by the H1N1 flu strain is mild for most people. That's the same as any flu.
And all flus can kill. Health Canada says 4,000 people a year die from common seasonal flus in Canada. That's why we should be practising flu precautions everywhere, all year round, regardless of whether there's an outbreak or not.
The reason for stoppage wasn't clear as of press time, but skepticism abounds over this fishy mega-project. Part of the reason for nagging doubts is the lack of information about the status of the bridge. News of the work stoppage, on a project already behind schedule, comes as the primary builder of the bridge over the Mackenzie River, the ATCON Group, was just granted $50 million in business assistance from the New Brunswick government.
But if things fall apart financially with this $165 million project, can we be sure that taxpayers won’t be left holding the bag?
The territorial government and the Deh Cho Bridge Corporation – the Dene and Metis of Fort Providence – have long insisted the one kilometre span is to be built at a fixed price. In other words, the materials and labour are not to exceed $165 million. So if there are cost overruns, the additional funds should be picked up by builders. That’s how it was explained as recently as March.
"Our prices were fixed at the time of the award," said Andrew Gamble, project manager for the Deh Cho Bridge Corporation. "They (the contractors) assume the risk on any price change."
And yet the tune was different coming from Department of Transportation spokesperson Earl Blacklock just last week. In an interview with Yellowknifer, Blacklock said the territorial government, as the guarantor of the project, would pick up extra costs if the price climbs above $165 million. In turn, the government would seek to recover those costs from the Deh Cho Bridge Corporation, Blacklock said.
So the bridge corporation and the government would indeed be on the hook.
Providing that the Deh Cho Bridge Corporation can withstand the possibility of prices escalating, it intends to repay the GNWT through its share of profits from tolls applied to commercial traffic crossing the bridge, according to corporation president Michael Vandell.
Should the corporation dissolve, the government – and taxpayers, by extension – would be left to put up the extra cash.
One could argue that tolls can be adjusted accordingly, but let’s remember that retailers and the trucking industry have forewarned us that tolls will largely or completely be recouped through higher prices passed on to customers.
Will there be any benefits from this project, agreed upon in the back rooms of the legislature literally days before former premier Joe Handley left office in September 2007? By that time the cost had risen to $165 million, but the GNWT didn’t even know it yet as a 2003 economic analysis on the project hadn’t even been updated at the time.
In 2003 the project had been expected to cost no more than $55 million and was scheduled to be complete by summer 2005.
How things change.
One thing has remained consistent, however: the deal to build the Deh Cho Bridge as well as the future of this NWT mega-project is as murky as the silty waters of the Mackenzie River running beneath it.
This too must change. There's been too much dodging the truth and hiding behind corporate walls. That's acceptable for private companies but when government money is involved, transparency and accountability are part of the lending conditions.
Taxpayers have a right to know exactly what's going on at all times.
Last October Minister Michael Miltenberger, the cabinet minister in charge of the territorial government's refocusing committee, announced that 70 health, education and housing boards would be merged into six regional boards by 2011. The response across the territory was almost overwhelmingly negative.
Although many organizations and people oppose change solely on the basis that they don't want to disturb the comfortable patterns they've build for themselves, this wasn't the primary factor in the reaction. Board members and residents alike were surprised at the manner the board merges had been sprung on them.
In the Deh Cho, members of many of the affected organizations said they'd had very little notice of the plan prior to its announcement and even less consultation. Boards were left to scramble after details and to speculate on what mergers would mean for them. How would six regional boards function?
In response to the reactions and their own concerns, MLAs passed a motion in February at the legislative assembly asking for the mergers to be put off. In the motion they requested a more consultative method be used so affective parties could have a say.
The product was presented to members of the Dehcho Divisional Education Council and a few other Deh Cho organizations on June 12.
Gone are the bold statements of board merges. Instead "board reform" is the catch phrase of the day. The plan, while a little short on details, includes looking at ways other than board merges to achieve the original goals of improving service delivery and the effectiveness and efficiency of the boards.
What is astounding in all of this isn't the outcry against the original plan, but rather that Miltenberger and the other committee members thought that the boards and residents of the NWT would accept it. The fact that they apparently thought the first plan would work, why else would they have revealed it, defies logic.
Members of a government based on consensus should realize consensus and the consultation between members who comes with it is something residents expect.
All members of the territorial government and its associated committees, and anyone hoping to move into one of those positions, need to file the board merger plan away as an example of how not to pitch an idea to constituents.
Board mergers might be something the territory needs but the angle at which they were approached was all wrong.
Through their public reaction residents have proven that they are a powerful force and expect nothing less than consultation on important initiatives.
I innately knew that me and my Newfoundlander buddies with their artistic Irish bloodlines would thrive, if only given some disciplined artistic outlet.
So I felt cheated that I never had the opportunity to enrol in a music class.
I got my chance later in life to indulge my artistic side. I bought a guitar and took some time to learn how to play. Turns out I don't have much talent for playing. But hey, I can hold a note.
So I was tickled last week to find Sir Alexander Mackenzie School was among 13 schools in the country to win the prestigious Kodaly Society of Canada's Music Education Excellence Award. There were several criteria involved. For example, ensuring every student got specialized musical instruction while getting at least 60 minutes of training each week.
Next week's Inuvik Drum will contain a story about the program as well as the school's music teacher Cynthia Maynard's approach to tapping into the children's talent.
Anyone who attended SAMS Christmas and spring concerts would probably agree that whatever she's doing, it seems to be working.
In her first year here, she comes to Inuvik with top-notch credentials and a passion for children and education to match.
It's encouraging that someone within Beaufort Delta Education Council saw the importance of harnessing the obvious artistic talent that exists here, and it's refreshing, given that education programs are so often the first to be cut under most governments.
The benefits of music programs in schools are well documented. Studies show intellectual development comes more quickly to kids exposed to stimulating musical education, as opposed to those who aren't. I could reference some scientific studies but I won't bother because that's not entirely my point here.
It comes down to what I believe is fundamental truth: that music is essential to being human. Why else would it be at the forefront of nearly every culture or religion? But that's not reflected in many schools where programs are being cut.
Most, if not all of the children I know have a natural inclination to sing or to express themselves through dancing. Too often mainstream education stifles children with a focus on language, math and science, which leaves little room to harness creative expression through music or art.
I agree with Maynard when she says every child has a singing voice. The challenge is to work with kids to find that inner instrument. It appears she has that knack. Then the natural progression into other instruments happens.
No doubt in some cases it's a painfully challenging process, but indeed one worth investing in.
Hopefully the powers that be continue to invest in that challenge.
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