Children need own advocate

He is the current Children's Commissioner for England, an office created in 2004 to be an independent voice for the children of England.

It is fitting because former astronaut and current MP Marc Garneau has introduced a private member's bill in Parliament, calling for the creation of a national Children's Commissioner for Canada. Independent from government, its job would be to monitor government and champion the voices and rights of children.

The bill deserves serious consideration. If adults can have an independent auditor-general, a privacy commissioner, an official languages commissioner, and a federal human rights commission to defend their financial interests, privacy concerns, language interests, and human rights, it is hard to deny children -- who make up a quarter of Canada's population -- an agency to defend and promote their rights.

Children do have some official protection at the provincial level. Official child advocacy offices exist in all provinces except for PEI. All are independent (except for the one in Alberta) and all do a decent job in advocating for children.

But even if they all did a fantastic job, without a national children's commissioner at the federal level, many children would be left out in the cold.

We need only consider aboriginal children living on reserves -- a federal responsibility -- who are twice as likely to live in poverty, twice as likely to commit suicide, over three times as likely to drop out of school, and over three times likely to die in infancy. In the words of Senator Romeo Dallaire, "they're living in the Third World".

In ratifying the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1991, the Government of Canada (with the approval of the provinces) committed itself to a course of implementing the rights of children, including their rights to basic economic well-bring, health care, protection from abuse and violence, and participation in decisions affecting the child.

But Canada's record has been a mixed bag. In UNICEF's 2007 report on child well-being in the world's richest countries, Canada ranked in the mediocre middle -- 12th out of 21 countries. Canada did reasonably well in the field of education but faltered badly in areas such as child health and safety, child poverty, teenage births, and child substance abuse.

As a way of spurring improvement, the UN agency responsible for monitoring compliance with the convention -- the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child -- has urged Canada to establish a national children's commissioner. This recommendation has been echoed by the Senate Standing Committee on Human Rights and, most recently, by Marc Garneau.

The logic is compelling. Children lack money and they lack power. Therefore, as a vulnerable group in society, they need advocates who will champion their basic rights. Governments typically respond to pressure. To help make up for their lack of power and to build pressure for implementing their rights, children need an official independent office -- a children's commissioner -- who will go to bat for them.

The international record shows children's commissioners (or ombudsmen) to be effective vehicles for the rights of children. It is no accident that in UNICEF's report, the countries that ranked at the top -- Norway, Sweden, the Netherlands -- were also ones with independent children's agencies. Acting as critical watchdogs and raising the profile of children's issues, these offices contributed to progress in children's rights.

In Canada, child advocacy offices exist only at the provincial level. This means that children under federal jurisdiction -- many aboriginal children, immigrant and refugee children, children of divorce -- are without an official advocate to address their concerns. It also means that when jurisdiction is unclear or in dispute, children caught in the middle are also without an advocate.

In the tragic case of Jordan River Anderson, a young Cree boy in Manitoba with a neuromuscular disorder, a dispute between the Manitoba and federal governments over the costs of home care prevented Jordan from returning home from hospital. He died from his illness in hospital at age five without having lived at home with his family.

A national children's commissioner might have prevented this tragedy. The mandate of the commissioner would be to advocate for children in the federal jurisdiction or where jurisdiction is unclear, to raise public awareness about the rights of the child, to monitor Canada's progress in implementing the convention, and to work with provincial advocacy offices in advocating for Canadian children.

It would, of course, be a mistake to think that a children's commissioner would be a magic bullet for children's rights in Canada.

By itself, the office would not suddenly lift Canada out of its mediocrity and into the top tier of children's rights.

But by keeping children's issues alive and raising awareness, a children's commissioner would make a contribution to building a culture that is more demanding of high standards on children's rights.

Brian Howe is director of the Children's Rights Centre and professor of political science at Cape Breton University.

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition October 30, 2009 A15