An alienated government is balancing the budget and forgetting the foster children |
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Nipawin - April 19, 2000 - By: Mario deSantis | |
rhetorical political positioning |
On Monday, April 17, I read the article "Wards of state deserve better(1)" and I had a sigh of |
contentment; finally, journalists bypassed all the rhetorical political positioning of our parties | |
and became passionate about their disbelief that this government has been failing in nurturing | |
the growth of the weakest of our citizens, the foster children. | |
majority of these children |
A recent report by the Children's Advocate Deborah Parker-Loewen has stated that some foster |
children who say they are neglected or abused never have their complaints investigated because | |
social workers are too busy(2). Also, the report states that Social Services is either unwilling or | |
unable to follow its own regulations in placing and monitoring the majority of these children. | |
Instead to take responsibility for the care of the foster children, Minister of Social Services Harry | |
Van Mulligen has attacked the veracity of the Parker-Loewen's report. The attitude of Van Mulligen | |
is typical of a government which is alienated from today's social realities and which continues to | |
spread the propaganda of their GNP economic successes(3), including the statistic that | |
Saskatchewan is the best province in fighting children poverty(4). | |
children are more important than numbers |
Congratulations to our journalists who have condemned the government for our children |
predicament, and who have stated that our children are our future and that they are more | |
important than balancing the budget. We want to remind our Minister of Finance Eric Cline | |
that a budget is not only a double entry bookkeeping exercise(5) and that social concerns for | |
our children are more important than numbers(6). | |
--------------Endnotes: | |
Quote by Donella Meadows "challenging a paradigm is not a part-time job. It is not sufficient to make your point once and then blame the world for not getting it. The world has a vested interest in, a commitment to, not getting it. The point has to be made patiently and repeatedly, day after day after day" ftp://sysdyn.mit.edu/ftp/sdep/Roadmaps/RM1/D-4143-1.pdf http://iisd1.iisd.ca/pcdf/meadows/default.htm | |
General reference: Articles by Mario deSantis published by Ensign http://www.ftlcomm.com/ensign/authors/desantis.html | |
Wards of state deserve better, SP Opinions, April 17, The StarPhoenix, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. Steven Gibb, Les MacPherson, Sarath Peiris, and Lawrence Thoner collaborate in writing SP editorials. | |
Foster children in peril: review, by Jason Warick, The StarPhoenix, April 13, 2000, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan | |
Honourable Janice MacKinnon: debating the economic underdevelopment of Saskatchewan, by Mario deSantis, February 9, 2000 | |
Honourable Janice MacKinnon and the NDP Government: Spin-doctoring the Truth, by Mario deSantis, February 21, 2000 | |
Honourable Eric Cline has not balanced the budget yet, he forgot our school-children, by Mario deSantis, April 2, 2000 | |
The greatest challenge for Saskatchewan: Education and Learning for our troubled children, by Mario deSantis, March 5, 2000 |
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