THE SECRET SHAME - A BIT MORE / 537

Tim Korol, "The Secret Shame" - CBC photo

Yesterday I wrote about Tim Korol’s written report called “The Secret Shame.” That was a month of May story. Korol, back in December 2010 went public with his criticisms of the Social Services of Saskatchewan for which he served as an assistant deputy minister. He had 16 years experience as a Saskatoon policeman and 10 years experience with the Saskatchewan Human Rights Commission before being hired to provide advice to the province’s child welfare system with regard to family interventions and placement of children in foster homes.

What he experienced was resistance to his recommended and required changes because he was deemed an outsider. 

Please recall that two days ago I distinguished between leadership and management. I pointed out that too frequently our organizations are satisfied to promote people with on the job experience believing that they have earned the right to lead and in so doing we assume they have developed as leaders. In fact, many times they have not become leaders, merely practiced managers and their promotions to top spots will only perpetuate the system practices with which they are accustomed. The true leader on the other hand identifies shortcomings and opportunities for change and improvement and proceeds with these. 

Korol did not last long. His tenure was brief. He said in his December interview, "The bureaucracy eventually got their way and had me terminated." He claimed that the Ministry did not follow up on examples which he cited of social workers and civil servants who were not following proper policy with regard to child welfare cases. He maintains that there is no accountability for people who break policy. He is not alone in his criticisms of child welfare in the province because both the provincial auditor and the provincial Children’s Advocate have been highly critical of the social service ministry.

Listen to his assertion and tell me whether we are not saying something similar here in B.C. "The emphasis is on apprehension," Korol said of the mind-set of social workers. "And then warehousing the children. It's absolutely wrong. It's out of control." And that my readers, is what so many disenfranchised parents have been saying in British Columbia as well. Knock me down and call me Susan, they are saying this in all civilized English speaking countries. Who is listening? Are you caseworker? Are you MP? Are you Ms. McNeil? 

Korol believes that he has a moral responsibility to speak to the problems of which he is aware. In fact he desires to do more than that. He said in December that he wants to create an advocacy group to push for changes in the ministry, a group to be comprised of people with a keen interest in child welfare. He said that this organization will use good investigation, documentation, good child psychology, good child welfare, and then ultimately the courts, the power of the courts to force change in the system. He said it might be possible for some child placement issues to be taken to the courts, for judicial review.

Are there some of you who are reading this blog post today who have the passion, commitment and leadership skills to accomplish something similar here in British Columbia.

He talks with CBC's Sheila Cole here. If you have trouble accessing the video portion, try the audio immediately above.