Question: How can this committee encourage more strongly positive collaboration and engagement between the ministry and the children's representative?
Answer, from Lesley du Toit, deputy minister, Children and Families.
I can only reiterate that it has been our intention from the day that the representative arrived here, and it will continue to be our intention, and it is certainly built into our practice. We have built in systems, processes and various other mechanisms. I will ask Mark Sieben to talk to some of this, but it is our fundamental commitment to work together with anybody else who is committed to the children and families of this province. I will not accept that we will not do that.
What I was saying earlier on does not take away from the fact…. In fact, I was trying to emphasize that our job as two professional organizations committed to children across this province is to put our heads down — and sometimes, hopefully, together — and focus on the children of this province and figure out ways in which we can do that together.
I'm committed to doing that. My team is committed to doing that. We could spend probably the next hour or two explaining every possible process and mechanism that we've put into place to make sure that we honour that, including an interface unit which you, I think, have a report on in the package. It is fundamentally there to do nothing else but make sure that the representative gets what she needs to be successful in doing her job.
I want to make sure that everybody understands that that is our commitment, and I would like to ask Mark if he can add to that.
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3 comments:
Hi Paul. I find it almost laughable that in The Best Place on Earth, our citizens can be so easily fooled by the bread-and-circuses events like the Olympics, while our society is being eroded, gutted actually, by Gordon Campbell's "leadership."
Such odious and incredible double-speak is permitted, encouraged, even enforced by our leaders (e.g. Leslie du Toit and Mary Polak, and the federal justice minister's flagrant breaking of the law with respect to provision of Afghan detainee documents, falsely claiming that the ruling party is beholden to provide only "legally available" documents). Here's a comparison of leadership between Gordon Campbell and his pal Arnold Schwarzenegger governor of the "bankrupt state of California" that I think exposes the sham that is "The Best Place on Earth."
Schwarzenegger Replaces Most of State Nursing Board
http://www.propublica.org/feature/why-were-giving-away-our-reporting-recipe-304
In July 2009 we published the results of a joint investigation with the Los Angeles Times that uncovered broad breakdowns in California’s regulation of registered nurses. We found that the board took more than three years, on average, to investigate and discipline errant nurses. Positive drug tests, criminal convictions and discipline by other states didn’t trigger immediate consequences. An attempted murderer renewed his license for years while he was in prison. In some cases, even when nurses were convicted of sex offenses, the board never acted at all.
Our investigation of California’s nursing board took us 18 months. But the results were worth it. Within 48 hours, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger replaced the majority of the nursing board and the board’s longtime executive officer resigned. Schwarzenegger also pledged wholesale reform of all health-licensing boards in the state after determining that they, too, suffered from the same problems.
ProPublica is an independent, non-profit newsroom that produces investigative journalism in the public interest. We strive to foster change through exposing exploitation of the weak by the strong and the failures of those with power to vindicate the trust placed in them.
In BC, we can only wish. The various colleges of health care professionals and the health authorities operate with impunity (as do lawyers, both groups being "self-regulated professions" (what an oxymoron that is).)
Only when a person has the bad fortune to enter that world of medical/care mistreatment, or encounter any mistreatment in the various realms (protection of children, seniors, etc.) does one see that the reality is a parallel universe, a form of Twilight Zone of horror. Intimidation and duplicity are the two constants.
When the governor of the Bankrupt State of California can somehow manage to rein in corrupt powerful agents of government such as health boards, why can't or won't his pal Gordon Campbell do the same? Where, for example, is the ombudsman's report on seniors in care, expected last October, then last March, then...? All we got was a limp "interim report" and a splashy new name change to "ombudsperson." Lots of press on the name change... Something smells, and it's not the coffee.
Instead it's just been announced that Campbell has ordered a "quickie" 4-week panel review of all watchdog agencies. Look for more deceit flowing from Mr. Campbell soon on that matter, using the faux panel review as a cover of legitimacy for whatever he already has planned to do.
Leadership? Decency? Competence? It doesn't exist in BC's government, top to bottom, and in all its guises (regulatory agencies, watchdogs, etc. etc. etc.).
Paul, we don't have a collection of "low points," we've hit rock bottom. After that comes disintegration of our society altogether. Watch.
Bill, the steady erosion _is_ part of the "disintegration of our society altogether." Breaking down the systems, breaking the unions, brainwashing the masses and new generations to become ever more narcissistic and consumer driven detracts from the reality of people's own meaningless and disconnected lives.
We are in a time where the dots can be connected, but those connecting them, or blowing the whistle receive great harm for doing so. And they are made a lesson of - coercion, intimidation, violence... and worse.
It is impolite to many to openly discuss the catastrophic and disastrous breakdown of society that is occurring and the pain that this is causing many citizens. Most simply want to bury their heads in TV, buying more crap no-one really needs. We also happen to live in a province that has seen our government purposefully breaking down our society at a breakneck, Machiavellian and fully strategic way. Who benefits from this?
People have come to tolerate the abuses of the BC Liberal and Harper's Conservative government.
And don't forget, the Libs got voted in again AFTER many abuses and mismanagement actually was out there for the public to see. And all of those self-righteous and smug who stayed home and couldn't find themselves voting NDP, elected the BC Liberals with their actions. In this next election, the NDP could run a monkey for leader (and don't me wrong, I like Carol J. but know she has to go) and if people still think voting Liberal or not voting at all are their choices, then maybe society deserves to disintegrate because if people can't see the forest for the trees, there is no help, or hope for them and they deserve what they get. Maybe this is Darwin's theory at work - the strongest and smartest survive, no matter their moral integrity and the rest are doomed to die off.
If most people are too stupid to realize that our very survival is at-risk in BC then perhaps this flawed gene pool needs to come to an end. Whereas those of us who recognize, plan and prepare for the future will survive and will join together in our communities.
Anon, nice chatting. I like Carol J. too, but think she has to go. Wrong personality, simple as that. Left of centre parties need stronger/saltier people at the helm (e.g. Dave Barrett) in order to gain the confidence of the voting public in sufficient numbers to win.
While I share many of your sentiments, I still hold out that maybe something will come along that will be big enough to alter the course of our demise in this province. Something that will shake the cobwebs of apathy and ignorance out of the public's brain.
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