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The article discusses the criticism of the Indigenous child welfare legislation tabled at Canadian House of Commons. Topics include the federal government's proposal for Indigenous legislation instead for First Nations laws, the financing of child and family service agencies in Canada, and the issue of self-determination in First Nations laws. The difference in child welfare laws of First Nations, Métis, and Inuit indigenous regions is also discussed.

This paper documents an advocacy campaign for children, youth and families in the Capital Health Region of British Columbia using the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) framework while informing policy makers, practitioners, and the general public. The work also represents a practical, local model for implementing this globally recognized and implemented human rights document for children and youth by focusing on the development of stakeholder partnerships, public promotion and child and youth participation. The CRC is the most widely accepted human rights document in history, as of October 2000, 191 from the United Nations' 193 member states have signed and ratified. Data analysis showed that children and youth on the Capital Health Region Steering Committee, and in the larger community, actually engaged in important initiatives implementing CRC principles. These community-based actions are the first in Canada to interpret CRC principles and provisions from the standpoint of child health care providers interested in developing a local model for health promotion within civil society. These partnerships promoting the child rights perspective also provided for institutional advocacy for children and youth to be enhanced in times of fiscal restraint. These results are optimistic and significant, showing that children and youth can actually be engaged as free agents in the discourse on their human rights.

Canada's laws regarding children and families can be examined on the basis of the balance they strike among the rights and obligations of the child, the family, and the state. In the past, the legislation and policies have traditionally adopted what may be called a paternalistic and reactive stance towards ensuring the well-being of Canadian children. The emphasis has been on apportioning power over children between parental figures and the state, on the weighing of family (parental) autonomy versus state intrusion into the family. Government intervention has generally followed a residual or safety net model, in which the authorities react to rescue or protect children, and only after specified problems have occurred in the families. A shift does, however, appear to be beginning in the field of child and family law. The earlier focus on parental and state rights is now being tempered with a growing concern for the rights of the children themselves, a movement which may lead to laws and policies that are more proactive or preventive in character. Following a brief description of the historical context for current child and family law in Canada, this paper outlines the important principles which underly the legislation and which reflect the continuing attempt to balance con attempted balance: first the field of "child protection," and second the field of what used to be termed "juvenile delinquents" but which is now referred to as "young offenders." The paper closes with an indication of future directions for the shifting balance of the child's, the family's, and the state's riots within the process of seeking the welfare of Canada's children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mediation is being increasingly advocated in child protection cases. The merits of child protection mediation (CPM) have been debated by both scholars and practitioners. Governments also see in CPM a means to control burgeoning child welfare costs. The practice of CPM, particularly in Canada, has fallen for short of the promise. No province has a working CPM model in place and there is considerable uncertainty about how best to proceed. Drawing on both the US and Canadian experiences with CPM, this paper highlights the actual and potential pitfalls and obstacles that confront the designers of a CPM program. Future programs need to take cognizance of the mistakes of the past, if Canada is to make a substantive break with its poor record to date of CPM planning and implementation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author discusses the disparities in social determinants of health in Canada and its impact on the rural and indigenous patients and communities. Topics include the request of the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal for the government to compensate indigenous children who were taken into care unnecessarily, disparities in funding for indigenous children, and a formal human rights complaint by the Assembly of First Nations and the First Nations Child and Family Caring Society of Canada.

This study focuses on the evolution of a philanthropic movement in the second half of 19th Century Canada that gave particular attention to a population of children and youth in Toronto known as newsboys and newsgirls. The plight of these children, who were largely living on the streets although in many instances still connected in varying degrees to their families, attracted growing attention in Toronto as the city emerged as a major commercial and industrial hub in Canada in the closing decades of the century. Mounting public concern about these wayward young people was fueled by alarmist (though sometimes sympathetic) newspaper accounts of an expanding population of children and youth who were plying their trade from a very young age on the streets selling newspapers, shoelaces, pencils and later working as what were called bootblacks. In establishment circles, these children and youth came to be viewed as a threat to public order whose rough apprenticeship on the streets, so it was speculated, left them vulnerable to a life of crime and prostitution later in life. However, in time, the attention that this population garnered did help usher in a new era that began giving recognition to some fundamental rights of all children. From this, we witness the begrudging acceptance in those early days of a more activist role that government might play in the development of policies that allowed for greater state intervention in protecting vulnerable and marginalized children and youth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The most effective way to provide support to caregivers with infants in order to promote good health, social, emotional and developmental outcomes is the subject of numerous debates in the literature. In Canada, each province adopts a different approach which range from universal to targeted programs. Nonetheless, each year a group of vulnerable infants is identified to the child welfare system with concerns about their wellbeing and safety. This study examines maltreatment-related investigations in Canada involving children under the age of one year to identify which factors determine service provision at the conclusion of the investigation. Methods: A secondary analysis of the Canadian Incidence Study of Reported Child Abuse and Neglect CIS-2008 (PHAC, 2010) dataset was conducted. Multivariate analyses were conducted to understand the profile of investigations involving infants (n=1,203) and which predictors were significant in the decision to transfer a case to ongoing services at the conclusion of the investigation. Logistic Regression and Classification and Regression Trees (CART) were conducted to examine the relationship between the outcome and predictors. Results: The results suggest that there are three main sources that refer infants to the Canadian child welfare system: hospital, police, and non-professionals. Infant maltreatment-related investigations involve young caregivers who struggle with poverty, single-parenthood, drug/solvent and alcohol abuse, mental health issues, lack of social supports, and intimate partner violence. Across the three referral sources, primary caregiver risk factors are the strongest predictor of the decision to transfer a case to ongoing services. Conclusions: Multivariate analyses indicate that the presence of infant concerns does not predict ongoing service provision, except when the infant is identified with positive toxicology at birth. The opportunity for early intervention and the need to tailor interventions for specific caregiver risk factors is discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]