Poste - Canadian Coalition for the Rights of Children

articles 13, 14 and
15 (cont’d)
• Children in care may be
unaware of their rights
and many report that their
views are often not heard.
• The state has assumed the
role of parent for children
in care and is directly
responsible for the
protection of their rights.
• Some provinces and
territories do not have an
independent advocate to
hear complaints of
children in care.
NEEDS ACTION: All
children should be aware of
their fundamental freedoms,
the rights of others and the
responsibilities that
accompany freedom.
Children’s rights education
should be a mandatory part
of school curricula.
• It appears that many
children are not taught
about rights and freedoms
in Canada.
NEEDS DISCUSSION:
There is little consensus and
awareness about children’s
fundamental freedoms.
Some areas requiring
discussion include:
• What constitutes
unreasonable infringement
on fundamental freedoms?
• How should environments
in which children develop,
such as schools, regulate
freedom of expression?
• How should these
environments respect
freedom of religion?
C A N A D I A N C O A L I T I O N F O R T H E R I G H T S O F C H I L D R E N
UN Reporting Category:
Family Environment and Alternative Care
convention article 19
10
Abuse and Neglect
Article 19 requires countries to take broad measures to protect children from
maltreatment, including violence, abuse and neglect. In Canada, provincial and
territorial child welfare systems are responsible for child protection.
Child welfare legislation recognizes that families are primarily responsible for the care,
supervision and protection of their children but when a child is at risk, the government
has the duty to intervene to protect the child. Child protection services investigate
cases of suspected abuse and neglect and, depending on the circumstances, can elect
to provide support services to a family or remove the child from the family home.
Removing a child from the family home is referred to as “taking a child into care.”
Canadian legislation allows parents, teachers and persons “standing in the place of a
parent” to use corporal punishment against children, even though physical punishment
has been strongly linked to physical abuse. In fact, one Ontario study found problems
with punishment or discipline to be a factor in 72 percent of substantiated physical
abuse cases. Section 43 of the Criminal Code allows “reasonable force” to be used
against children and this provision has been used to justify a child being punched in
the face or pushed down a flight of stairs. In Canada, children are the only category
of persons who can be subject to physical assault without due process.
Canada has no national statistics on the number of children who are reported to
child protection authorities because provincial and territorial child welfare systems
collect and report data in different ways. The federal government is working with the
provinces and territories to begin collecting and analyzing data on reported cases of
child abuse and neglect.
Recent inquests and child death reviews have publicized tragic failures of child welfare
systems and hundreds of recommendations for improvement have been made over the
past few years. As a result, some Canadian child protection systems are broadening the
grounds for finding a child in need of protection and developing tools to systematically
assess levels of risk. Systems are also trying to improve case management and
information sharing within and across jurisdictions. Other ongoing child welfare
reforms include workload standards and better training for child protection workers
and the education of professionals and the public about the obligation to report
suspected child maltreatment.