Stay with me. There will be a moral in here. But first
something anecdotal to set it up.
This past week has been eventful for Christine and for me.
It is sold. That is, our home has been sold. We will now for certain within
hours.
Following the signed contract, we purchased our next home, a
downsized condo/carriage home with less than half the square footage but
something that reduces our maintenance responsibilities and affords us a
lifestyle that we desire. All of this within the week. Emotion and stress have
been woven throughout these processes.
We listed our home for sale in early January. This is the
home in which the past twenty years of our home lives have been lived. These
rooms have resounded with the chatter of hundreds of friends in celebrations
and parties and the laughter and conversations of small dinner parties. In
successive years both of our children at the age of twenty-nine left this place
dressed in the wedding apparel to exchange vows with their sweethearts. Both of
them brought their newborns to this home to see Papa and Nana. All five
grandchildren have known Christine and me associated only with this home. Here
is where they have learned to strike golf balls in the back yard, play soccer
matches and swim. Here is where five years ago, they listened to Christine and I
renew our wedding vows on our fortieth wedding anniversary and then all of us
released forty red helium-filled balloons. Here every Christmas has known an
extravagant amount of joy and happiness. It is a reliable, solid and
substantial property.
This past week, an offer was placed on our home. We
countered and the purchasers accepted. SOLD.
A building inspection is not mandatory in British
Columbia. This is an optional action and purchasers
generally initiate and pay for this inspection to protect themselves. That of
course opens a door for potential shifty business dealings. More than one
person has informed Christine and me with stories of inspection outcomes done to
assist the purchaser to get a price reduction from the vendor. So today, five
days after both parties signed the contract to purchase; an inspector will be
coming for what may be a three-hour inspection of our home. We are told that
the inspector will be in the attic, in the crawlspace, taking off electrical
faceplates, turning on and off every switch and tap in the house, checking for
moisture, for insulation values, for foundation cracks, for who knows what
else. And we are supposed to get lost for the afternoon while this inspection
is carried out in our home.
If you have gone through this, then you know the anxiety
that this verdict creates. It is actually more worrying than waiting for word
about housing sale negotiations.
Our realtor assures us that he will only let this inspector
in the door if he/she is a bonded and certified inspector.
There is a certified inspector assigned to scrutinize the
Ministry of Children and Family Development and that is the Representative of
Children and Youth, who is Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond. She was retained this year
for a second five-year term. Child Welfare in British
Columbia and child protection did not have such a
watchdog until recently. It was 2005 that the Honourable Ted Hughes was
appointed to conduct an independent review of British
Columbia’s child protection system. He submitted
to the provincial government his “B.C. Children and Youth Review" in April 2006. Among
his 61 recommendations was one to create a new watchdog of the child protection
system. In May 2006 the Legislature passed the Representative
for Children and Youth Act authorizing the appointment of a
RCY. Then on Nov 27, 2006 Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond was
appointed to a five-year term. Within
the mandate of her job the Representative is authorized to hold the system of
care to account by conducting independent audits, and monitoring and reviewing
government services.
She issues periodic reports but I am among the many people
in our province who believe that a comprehensive inspection of the Ministry of
Children is needed, one that is so scrupulous, so rigorous that the entire
management sector of the Ministry should become panicky about the outcome. Far
too many families and far too many parents are being bureaucratically molested
by callous social work that has lost sight of its objectives. Hon. Mary Ellen
Turpel-Lafond, you must go into the MCFD house and do a full-scale inspection,
lifting up every rug and removing every faceplate in order to bring this
Ministry up to the code that satisfies a population that is incensed by the
extent of cruelty inflicted upon children and families in the name of service
that is in the best interests of the child.
Ron's Twitter
Ron's Twitter
Indeed! Let's do it! Non political, non sectarian - the idea that one political party or another is better or worse in this area is outrageous in my view. This bureaucracy has been handling the public with a mindset of invasiveness and biases and superiority no matter what political leadership does. This Ministry overrules the govt. legislation repeatedly and has done so for generations. This Ministry misuses the court system sucking up every resource of families fighting them. As you have stated so aptly, they have been cruelly inflicting punishment and abuse on families. Some people in the system have to stand up to their peers and superiors and, perhaps, go public if necessary instead of cowering or quitting.
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