A recent investigation carried out by SALONE TIMES has indicated that many schools don’t have an adequate number of books and teaching materials for all the students they have enrolled.

“It’s difficult, very difficult. You can’t teach without books,” a teacher at a Government Assisted School tells us.

He goes on to say that many of the children in his class must share the books they have.

“Not all us of have textbooks so we read together in class. I am lucky because my grand-mother bought one for me,” a student in the same school tells us, “they should supply more books to us.”

Most of the books in many school libraries are provided for by various NGOs like, Plan International. There aren’t any Government teaching materials in the Government Assisted schools we investigated.

The teacher SALONE TIMES spoke to admits that when it comes to examinations, many of the students may have poor results because they don’t have access to books outside of school to study. He says he has heard from several people that books are either being stolen from the Ministry of Education, or people involved with the Ministry are selling them, therefore a smaller number of books are ending up in schools.

The Head of the English Department at St. Joseph’s Secondary School, Miss M. Smith-Turner, tells us the situation has been like this for decades now.

“You must not wait for the Government. It’s a matter of priority and it is negligence on the part of parents. Books should be a priority,” she says.

She goes on to say that a big problem is that the previous Minister of Education made buying textbooks optional for students. According to her, it’s impossible for children to learn without books.

“Government doesn’t supply us with any books at all,” she says.

The school has a book store, where they sell books to the children.

A bit further down the road is the Municipal School Dr. June Holst Roness This School received books from Government during the last academic year. They distribute them when they have classes and then gather them up at the end of the class.

“We have enough for a class at a time, but if we allow the books to go home with the children, most of them will go missing,” says Mr. Abu Bakarr Kamara, Vice-Principal of the School.

He says they do not receive reference books from the Government, and the school must buy those themselves. He admits results could be less on examinations because of the lack of teaching materials. He shows SALONE TIMES the books they receive, which are stamped with their school logo, and that of the Ministry’s to ensure if they are found being sold on the streets, they will be able to trace the books back.

In Waterloo District, the Western Area Rural District Council is currently in the process of distributing books to all the schools.

“We make sure all teachers sign, stamp, and date them so we can track them and not have the books end up being sold on the street,” says J.J. Blacki, Head of the Education Committee.

He admits that in the past thieves have broken into schools in the district and stolen books.

“The police also need to help us monitor the books being sold in the streets,” he says.

He also calls on members of the press to give information of any books they see on the streets to the authorities.

Education Officer for Freetown City Council Henry Fyfe, tells SALONE TIMES about the ongoing exercise of distributing teaching materials to the schools.

“All books must be stamped by FCC and the school itself,” he says.

He went on to say they are making announcements on the radio saying that books should be kept in the schools. They also communicate this practice to the councilors.

“If we see the books in the streets, we know where they came from,” Fyfe says.

——–

Author: Ibrahim Joenal Sessay
Photography: Ibrahim Joenal Sessay
Source: jhr
Original Publication Date: Nov. 20, 2009

A dozen street children living and working around the King Jimmy market in the central part of Freetown have expressed dissatisfaction over their current conditions.

“I was in Class 6 when I lost my dad and my mother refused to pay for my school,” says Mohammed, an11-year-old selling water.

His mother is currently in the northern part of the country and he ended up in Freetown working for an aunt. He no longer attends school and is living in Kroo Bay.

“I would really like to continue school if somebody can help,” he says.

Many of the children in the area spend their time gambling, smoking and drinking to pass the day. But not all of them. Ibrahim is a boy of about 11-years-old who lost both of his parents last year. He spends his days making toys and radios out of materials that he finds in the surrounding area. Quiet, and shy, the other children tell us he is different than most. He doesn’t spend his time engaging in bad activities.

“I find it difficult to survive. If anybody can help me I’ll go to school,” he says.

Sheku, a boy from Lungi, left his parents and came to Freetown with the hope that he can be a good child by going to school but he let his sister down and came to the streets.

He was arrested by a Metropolitan police officer in front of Central Police Station due to a new bye-law proposed by City Council trying to stop children from selling in the streets during school hours.

“I was released immediately because they knew me from the King Jimmy area,” he says.

They did not press any charges.

None of the children are aware that there is a proposed new bye-law by Freetown City Council that states any children caught selling during school hours should be arrested.

According to the Deputy Education Officer for the Freetown City Council, there is a high-influx of children coming to the city from the provinces.

“We caught them for a while and sent them to education facilities but there are still many children on the streets. We aren’t sure if they are the same ones or if more children are coming from the provinces,” says Reverend Cooper, Deputy Education Officer.

He goes on to say they have not fined the parents for having their children working. He says they have children coming in every day that have been apprehended and they make sure they are given money for school.

“Yesterday alone we had five children come in,” he says.

The Council is also offering grants from primary to tertiary for schoolchildren.

According to Henry Fyfe, Education Officer for the Council, the bye-law still needs to be sanctioned by the Attorney General after which it can be implemented.

“We currently aren’t forcing the children using aggressive methods, we are simply trying to put them in school,” he says.

He says they try to find guardians for children who are without parents in addition to enrolling them in school.

“We want to get children off the streets whether they have parents or not,” he says.

According to UNICEF, more than 30 per cent of children of primary-school-age in Sierra Leone are not enrolled in school. There are also moderate transition rates from primary to secondary and tertiary education.

Child labour is an area of concern for UNICEF’s Child Protection Department.

“As an institution we frown on child labour. We try to educate communities to stop child labour, especially the worst abuses of it,” says David Lamin, Child Protection Program Officer for UNICEF.

UNICEF looks at all children trying to access education and the factors preventing them from accessing it. They work through partners, child welfare committees and community structures recognized by the government.

“In a country like Sierra Leone, where poverty is rife, child labour is a big problem,” says Lamin.

UNICEF also supports the roll out of the Child Rights Act. Sierra Leone ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child in June 1990 and its two Optional Protocols in September 2001 and May 2002. These commitments to international standards were all enshrined in national legislation through the 2007 Child Rights Act. This act supersedes all other national laws and is also compatible with the Convention on Rights of the Child and the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child.

—–

Author: Ibrahim Joenal Sesay
Source: jhr
Original publication date: Nov. 23, 2009
Photography: Nikki Whaites

The prolonged civil war in Liberia over the years has disrupted the process for a generation of youth, and caused a low net enrollment of students in Liberian school.

Since the launch of UNICEF, back to school programs some years back and the pronouncement of free and compulsory education by the UP government, there has been some level of improvement in the enrollment process.

The MDGs report 2008 has enshrined that the gross enrolment of primary education stands at 86.3 % for the year 2007 which is much encouraging as compare to 200 to 2002 school year raging to 56.2%. Nevertheless, the report also indicates that there has been considerable improvement in the enrolment process since the launch of free and compulsory education.

The free and compulsory education however has its own side effect which needs to be concentrated upon by the government: too many children in the classrooms. The over-crowdedness of public schools and even the University of Liberia  are all drowning in the sea of denseness.

“The over-crowdedness of public schools is an age-old phenomena and the inheritance of the Madame Sirleaf’s Government,” Mr. Abraham Nyounway, Secretary General of the Teachers’ Association of Monrovia consolidated School System and registrar of Newport Jr. High School revealed.

Despite the compactness of schools, many students are seen every day roaming the streets selling for their parents as bread winners, while some said that they are selling to complete the payment of their school fees before returning to school.

However, Mr. Nyounway blamed the denseness on the unavailability of structures to contain the number of students.

To date, students opting to attend private schools can be turned down by many public schools due to space problem. This causes some parents to have to choose to send their kids to private school – which is too exorbitant – or leave them alone without school. This is also contributing to the roaming of school aged children on the streets.

Some years ago, some 64 countries converged to Dakar, Senegal in an effort to improve learning standards in their respective countries. At the conference, a specific target was reached in a consensus that each country’s representative should encourage a free and compulsory education back home; that by 2015 every citizen in that country must at least complete primary school. This same target has been set by the MDG 2008 report, “ensuring that by 2015 children everywhere boys and girls alike, will be able  to  complete a full course of primary education.”

Even so, the 2008 MDGs report indicates that Liberia is far from achieving the goal of providing the level of school enrolment agreed on: this is not an encouraging sign. According to the report the level of enrolment to meet the target is actually deteriorating. “Based on current trends, the net primary enrolment ratio will be approximately 40% by 2015. Hence, it is likely that Liberia will achieve the MDGs of 100% net primary enrolment by 2015. Similarly, while the gross enrolment rate is impressive, it must be placed in the proper context,”  MDG’s report states.

The realities of these statistics are being felt by the people of Liberia.

“I hardly find food for my children to eat; sending them to school is a problem. I can’t even get money to give them for recess so it is better for them to be with me and help me sell to met our daily supply of food,” Rebecca Garley, Chicken Soup Factory.

Many parents and teachers agreed that school feeding would be necessary to encourage some poor parents to enroll their kids to school where they will not bother them enough for breakfast.

The executive Director of LETCOM, an educational advocacy organization that was organized following the end of the Dakar conference to make education a priority or a human right issue said the monitoring, evaluation and compulsory aspect of educational performance to promote and sustain the quality of educational system is very poor.

Photography by Myles Estey.

Drug abuse in Sierra Leone is robbing children of their right to a childhood and adults of their right to live a productive life. Starting with the National Drugs Enforcement Act 2008, the government of Sierra Leone not only recognised this issue but is now trying their best to sensitise the public on the adverse effects of drug abuse.

This situation is currently a major hindrance to the development of youth as they are the most vulnerable to drugs and the highest affected group. Jonathan Spencer, director of the Just Say No To Drugs campaign says there are no statistics on drug abuse available in the country but assures that the numbers are sure to be quite alarming

The causes of drug abuse are many. One is the lack of employment. Some also take drugs to ease their mind and kill out the worries. Others feel neglected by family and decide to belong to the ghetto. Some take drugs because of the experience and some girls also follow their loved one. Cultism is another major cause of drugs and they take it on oath.

According to Mr Kandeh Bangura, director of National Drugs Enforcement Agency government is involving all members of society in the fight against drugs by expanding its activities to all provinces instead of just Freetown. The involvement of religious leaders and village elders into this fight is also one measure to sensitise the public. Some civil society organisations like the NDEA have embarked on a massive awareness and sensitisation campaign to help in their fights and also formed a football team called Anti Drugs Striker.

Drug Abuse poses a security threat in society as there is increase in corruption and violence including prostitution and gangs. It also makes way for low output in adults as they are not able to work because of sleep and drowsiness. Drug abuses also make youth more ineffective and talk unnecessarily. It can also cause impotency in men and miscarriage or still birth among pregnant women. Changes in behaviour and physical appearance are also effects of drug abuse. Forced drug abuse was also used to encourage children to fight in the civil war.

Since the landing of a plane full of cocaine in 2008 the government has decided to strengthen its laws on drug abuse and trafficking. But according to Pastor Gobeh, head counselor at the City of Rest Church, “it is not what is on paper but how we implement them.”

High penalty on drug abuse and drug peddlers should be enforced. The rehabilitation of addicts is critical. Sensitisation and preventive education and awareness-raising campaigns are already underway.

Along with this, the criminal justice system also needs to be revisited so that youths are sent to rehabilitation centres instead of prison. The government should also provide adequate counseling services. The hurdles to cross are many, but awareness is the first step.

For more information contact the Drug Awareness Campaign on 076 630 539

“It’s 8 o’clock in the morning and Rebecca Churchill is starting her rounds of the malarial ward here at the General Hospital in Accra. Churchill is a senior staff nurse and a midwife. She says hundred of people walk through the doors of the hospital each day. The most common problem they present is Malaria and she says the numbers are growing…”

Click on the link below to listen to the full broadcast:

Malaria taking toll on children. Joy FM (Ghana)

Photography credits:
Vivian

Kids wait to be reunited with relatives

The sun beats down on the small huts in the fishing village of Immuna in southern Ghana. A dozen men chant as they haul a wooden fishing boat onto the wide, sandy beach. Women in colourful dresses line one side of a dirt field, smiling and jostling each other. Men sit quietly under a canopy to the side.

About 90 children in white T-shirts sit under an orange tent on the other side of the field, listless and fidgeting. They’re as young as six, and up to 14 years old, and many are traumatized from years of hard labour and disease.

This is a family reunion of a different sort: children sent away to work in fishing communities across the country are being reunited with their relatives. Some were sold for about $200. The trafficking of children in Ghana is still not a crime.

Kwabena and his mother

Kwabena Mensah was given over to fishermen in Yeji, a town on the Volta River about 500 km away. The 14-year-old stands with his hands behind his back, eyes vacant. He’s already spent half his life working 15-hour days.

“Over there, the working conditions were terrible, even getting food to eat was a problem. It was very tough on us,” he says.

Now, the young man is being returned to the mother who let him go. Her name – Ama Eduaba – is tattooed on her arm. She’s illiterate. To make ends meet, the mother of five sells kenkey (fermented corn dough).

“I’m a widow so I’m financially disadvantaged,” she says. When my husband died, his family refused to support me. That was the reason why I gave my son away to work and bring home money. The people who came for him told me he’d return after two years. But he was gone for seven years.”

Eduaba adds that, in the end, she didn’t get any money. She’s not alone. For the past 60 years, families here have been selling their children for labour, seeking extra money to keep themselves afloat. Many people rely on fishing for income. But it’s seasonal work, so poverty is rampant.

The International Organization for Migration is orchestrating this reunion. It’s saved more than 500 children through the Yeji Trafficked Children Project. Fishermen receive training and micro-credits to help improve fishing techniques, or go into another field of work. School uniforms and supplies are given to the children, and their school fees are paid for. Families get vocational training and loans to support small businesses.

IOM’s Solomon Asare says they’re also educated about the rights of the child.

“They don’t see it being an offence or against the law, because sometimes they are taken away by family members to go and live with them. Sometimes they might be strangers but they usually know the person one way or the other,” he says. So that makes it very, very complicated to draw the line between a trafficked child as somebody who’s been abducted and a trafficked child who’s just been given away willingly by the parents.”

To make sure families don’t resell their children, officials monitor them for two years. But there are reports some trafficked children return to their former work.

Joseph Rispoli is the project’s manager. He says the same 10 to 12 communities in Ghana’s central region are sending children away. Child trafficking, he says, won’t stop until they figure out why that is.

“We have an idea of the root causes – the push and pull factor – but we don’t have any credible or accurate estimates of the magnitude of child trafficking in Ghana in any sector. We’d like to get it in all sectors by next year so that it can culminate in a national plan of action.”

Mothers waiting for their children

Meanwhile, local police officers are stepping in to protect the community’s children. They’ve imposed a curfew: no one under 18 can go out after 8 p.m. District crime officer Patrick Yeboah says police are now also arresting men who impregnate girls under the age of 12. He says it encourages child trafficking.

“She wouldn’t go to school anymore, she would stay at home. She wouldn’t take care of her child, or what she’d do is sell the baby into this slavery. We are doing this to deter them from so doing,” he says, punching his hand for emphasis.

The Child Trafficking Bill is expected to become law this year. Yeboah says it will make his job easier. Then, he won’t just be slapping the wrists of people guilty of buying and selling children – he’ll be arresting them.

Back at the ceremony, an IOM official calls out the names of the children, then their relatives. Kwabena Mensah’s name is called out: once, twice. He stands up and saunters over to receive his plastic package of school supplies. His grinning mother embraces him for the requisite photo. He admits he’s not so sure about this new life.

“The hardship I experienced was so great. I’m glad to be back home, but I don’t know much about my mother since I haven’t lived with her most of my life. So, we’ll just see how it goes,” he says.

The young man looks at the white waves crashing onto the shore. If nothing else, he’s determined to break from the past seven years on the water. He wants to study to become … a pilot.

Colleen Ross is a national news producer for CBC Radio in Toronto. She lived in Ghana in 2005, working with Journalists for Human Rights and freelancing for the CBC and BBC. She has an M.A. in both English Literature and Journalism, winning a scholarship to CBC Newsworld. Colleen is trilingual, and taught at a German university before entering journalism. She is originally from Fruitvale, B.C.

Photography credits: Emilee Irwin (top), CBC news (all other photos)

In Small Bo chiefdom Kenema district, as in much of Sierra Leone, women are still deprived of inheriting property left behind by their husbands.

It is a burning issue even though the Devolution of Estate Act, which was passed in 2007, criminalizes the act of depriving a woman from inheriting her husband’s property after his death. The act further states that it is an offense to eject a surviving spouse or child from the matrimonial home before the formal distribution of the estate.

A woman in the streets of Freetown.

Chapter three of the 1991 Constitution of Sierra Leone states that the fundamental human rights and freedom of every individual in Sierra Leone must be recognized and protected.

Article 23 of the International Convention on Civil and Political Rights recognizes the right to equality in marriage. This means that men and women have the same rights and responsibilities during the marriage and at its dissolution.

Despite this, none of the women in Wiama village in the Small Bo chiefdom in Kenema district own land.

When Jatu Lansana’s husband died some years back, her own family wanted to take her to another community. But her husband’s family refused on the grounds that she has given birth to children in the family and it would be unfair to take all the children to another family.

“I was here for five years without a husband,” Lansana said. “All the property my husband left behind was taken away from me. I was abandoned by both my husband’s family and even my children.”

One of her husband’s brothers decided to marry her. She denied because of the difficulties she had undergone, but was forced to agree.

Mamie Kamoh said the vast cocoa and coffee plantations left behind by their father were claimed by her three younger brothers on the pretext that they are the head of the family and they take care of the home while she is away with her husband.

It is stated in the Devolution of Estate Act that where there are only children left, each child should get an equal share of the estate.

“Since my brothers started working in I have not received anything from them. I requested for Le 50,000 to pay the school feels for my son but there was no money,” Kamoh said.

“The other time I attempted to enter the plantation I was sued to a native court in which I was fined Le 100,000. I felt dejected because the property by right belongs to all of us.”

A Sierra Leonean woman.

Tajoh Mamoh wanted to construct a two-room building on her family land, and told her family and the town chiefs about it.

“It was at that moment that my brother informed that chiefs that he wanted to construct a house on the same land,” she said. “I was deprived because the land was given to my brother. Up till now he has not started the construction.”

Being able to inherit and own property means women can be self reliant and provide for their children on their own.

Part of the problem is that many people do not know about the new Devolution of Estate Act, which was passed in 2007. To help address this, the Lawyer’s Center for Legal Action (LAWCLA) has put the new laws into clear language that is easier to understand.

Doris Kalle, the regional coordinator for the Coalition of Women’s Movement, said her organization has also embarked on a massive sensitization campaign in the district. They are educating women and traditional authorities on the new laws.

“A lot of women have been mainly complaining about the distribution of property especially plantations left behind by their husbands,” she said.

“We are still faced with the situation where men feel their wives are property to them. We don’t have proper bylaws that clearly define the rights of women in this community,” she said, adding that it is imperative to explain the gender acts in local languages so that people will understand.

The Movement for the Restoration of Democracy (MRD), a non-governmental organization based in Kenema, is using radio programmes to educate people about the new laws.

Patrick Adu, who works with the MRD, said in the case of property devolution, the general practice in remote communities is that the widow herself is regarded as a property to be inherited together with the deceased husband’s property.

If she does marry one of her late husband’s brothers, she may enjoy whatever benefit he derives from the estate. In the event the wife refuses to be “inherited” by one of the husband’s relations, only her personal belongings will be given her.

Young Sierra Leoneans.

Adu said that when a woman decides not marry her husband’s relations, traditional divorce laws may be invoked, keeping her from getting the property. “This is responsible for most of the problems in our villages,” he said.

Generally under the customary law, the widow is not entitled to take out letters of administration; such rights are given to the eldest surviving male in the deceased’s family. If the wife succeeds to get any property at all, she will only be given one-third of it.

Local bylaws are used in most parts of the country.

According to David Kallon, a court clerk of native administrative Court No. 4 in Kenema, the chiefdom committee drafts the laws and passes it on to the local chief administrator for approval.

But the bylaws currently in use were drafted in 1963 and have not been updated with any new laws, such as the gender acts.

He said the court only gets involved with disputes when someone makes a complaint. That means that people must understand the laws.

“We don’t call on cases from either the woman or her husband’s family but if there is any conflict among them it is the responsibility of the aggrieved to report to the court so that the court can make a ruling,” he explained.

Another problem, he said, is that the local courts lack the support to adjudicate cases properly. This leads to delays.

“Court officers are not paid. Our bylaws are not properly written. These are all compounded in the delay in of justices in our communities,” Kallon said.

Jennah Kandeh, the deputy minister of Social Welfare Gender and Children’s Affairs, expressed the government’s commitment to ensure that the gender laws are properly implemented in the interest of women and society.

She said the law was instituted to put an end to impunity against women and children.

Kandeh said her ministry has established a committee that is devoted to the sensitization campaign so that women at grassroots communities and their local authorities understand the new laws.

“We know that women are going through a lot of difficulties but with the concerted efforts by women’s organizations like the 50-50 Group and other partners in the fight, much will be achieved though community sensitization,” she said.

This essay, by Nicole Stradiotto from Barrie, Ontario was the winning submission from jhr’s Write the Wrong 2009 essay competition. Excellent work Nicole! Click here to go to jhr’s Write the Wrong 2009 page where you can find all of the finalists essays!

Prime Minister Steven Harper had the rapt attention of the nation last June as he issued an official apology for the abuse of the Residential School system. “The government now recognizes that the consequences of the Indian residential schools policy were profoundly negative and that this policy has had a lasting and damaging impact on aboriginal culture…[positive experiences of the system] are far overshadowed by tragic accounts of the… neglect of helpless children, and their separation from powerless families and communities.”

Residential Schools

Flashbulbs lit up, cameras rolled and newsstands overflowed with coverage as mainstream news sources detailed the event. Yet, as Harper spoke, a new “policy” which will ultimately have a “lasting and damaging impact on aboriginal culture” was being endured by Canadian aboriginal children of the 21st century. This is the real headliner: once again, a generation of aboriginal youth is suffering badly at the hand of government institution and inaction. History is repeating itself, if journalists – our nation’s eyes and ears – would care to take notice. Many of the injustices of the Residential School system have been reincarnated in Canada’s First Nations Child and Family Services to the extent that our nation is in gross violation of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child2 (UN CRC) . The plight of aboriginal children in Canada’s foster care system is an issue that deserves far more attention from the nation’s media.

The UN CRC dictates that “states should always ensure that the principle of the best interests of the child is the paramount consideration in any alternative care placement of indigenous children”. Now, separating a child from their family is widely recognized as a measure of last resort amoung childcare professionals. Instead, “least disruptive measures” programs are favoured as in the child’s best interest. For all other foster care programs in Canada, all such methods of prevention and alternative arrangement must be exhausted before a child is removed from their home. Not so for aboriginal families. Cindy Blackstock, in her 2007 report to the Senate, explains, “Many of the First Nations agencies will tell you that it is not a problem to get $300 a day to put a child into foster care, but try to give $25 to a family so they can afford to feed the child and keep him or her safely in their home, and it is not possible under the current formula”. Where these programs exist, they are grossly underfunded. This methodology is in large reason why aboriginal children are overrepresented in the nation’s child protection services; while only comprising 3.8 percent of the Canadian population, they make up a staggering 30 percent of children in foster care.

Perhaps the most tragic aspect of this situation is that the vast majority of children are taken into care because of ‘neglect’. When one closely examines the definition of the term and its key drivers – poverty, inadequate housing and addiction — it is debatable whose ‘neglect’ that is: in the words of the National Children’s Alliance, “It is important to note that two of the three factors are largely outside of parental control”. The National Council of Welfare last year pointed out that the rates of physical, sexual and emotional abuse, as well as domestic violence, are no higher in aboriginal homes than in non-native homes. In effect, aboriginal children are being removed from their families and communities en mass because of the neglect of the government.

Even more disturbingly, this system amounts to assimilation. For the most part, aboriginal children are not being placed in homes of their culture; that is, three out of four are placed in non-aboriginal resources. In many cases, the cultural legacy of these youth is not even considered. According to Dexter Kinequon of Indian Child and Family Services, “Rarely does the continuity of the child’s culture influence the placement of the children in care”. This is in direct violation of the UN CRC, which states that when placing indigenous children in childcare, states must “pay due regard to the desirability of continuity in the child’s upbringing and to the child’s ethnic, religious, cultural and linguistic background”.

Undeniably, a major underlying cause of the system’s ineffectiveness is a lack of funding. In a 2005 report, The First Nations Child and Family Caring Society exposed that the Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development supplies 22 percent less funding per child to the aboriginal branch of foster care than the average province1516. The First Nations Child and Family Caring Society of Canada and the Assembly of First Nations have also recognized this injustice. In 2007, these groups filed a complaint with the Canadian Human Rights Commission which alleged that the federal government’s “conscience under funding of child welfare amounted to racial discrimination within meaning of the Canadian human rights act”.

It is the role of the media to elucidate issues which require in-depth analysis and a broad perspective. The journalist also shoulders the responsibility of speaking for those who cannot speak for themselves. There is no issue in recent Canadian history that cries out for these services such as this one: the aboriginal foster care system is a twisted web of mismanagement whose sufferers have traditionally had no voice in our society.

In light of the aforementioned statistics and testimonies, it is easy to envision the coming of another apology much like Stephen Harper’s. Reporters will flock as the future Prime Minister announces that “the government now recognizes that the consequences of the [Canadian child welfare system] were profoundly negative and that this policy has had a lasting and damaging impact on aboriginal culture”. On TV, radio and in print, our leader will lament the “…neglect of helpless children, and their separation from powerless families and communities”.

The Canadian media has a choice. It can immediately investigate and make public the injustice of the child protection system, provoking debate, activism, government action and perhaps even change. Alternatively, journalists can simply wait a generation or two, and cover this speech.