Canada at a Crossroads

2011

Permission is hereby granted to the University of Alberta Libraries to reproduce single copies of this thesis and to lend or sell such copies for private, scholarly or scientific research purposes only. Where the thesis is converted to, or otherwise made available in digital form, the University of Alberta will advise potential users of the thesis of these terms.

In 1973, British Columbia (B.C.) became the first province in Canada to forbid corporal punishment in public schools (B.C. School Act), followed by the majority of the other provinces. Alberta and Manitoba however, still have no provincially enacted legal prohibition, although many school boards have updated their policies to state that corporal punishment should be prohibited. The spotlight on efforts to repeal Section 43 of the Criminal Code may have dimmed over time on the national stage, but the recent Canadian Truth and Reconciliation report has ignited this issue once again. My article explores the existing laws with a comparative approach (Reimann & Zimmermann, 2008; Orucu & Nelken, 2007), in terms of where Canada stands in relation to other nations’ legislative standards and practices. It also addresses the severe behavioural and psychological implications on impacted children. As a developed nation, Canada needs to reconsider its current state of "progress" by inspecting and reviewing existing discourses and legislatives to ensure successful prevention of corporal punishment in schools. This paper intends not only to contribute to the advancement of Canadian legislative standards, but also to practices in local and international education.

This chapter comprises a commentary on a rewritten judgment of the Supreme Court of Canada in Canadian Foundation for Children, Youth and the Law v Canada (Attorney General) 2004 SCC 4. That decision concerned the constitutionality of the 'reasonable punishment' defence to the physical punishment of children. After outlining the original judgment, I critique the rewritten judgment, and ask whether reframing the legal issue in terms of children's rights might be more likely to invert the premise of the s43 debate than a human rights perspective. It will be published in Helen Stalford, Kathryn Hollingsworth, Stephen Gilmore, eds, Children's Rights Judgments (Hart, 2017)

2019

To live free from violence is a human right, yet new estimates tell us that globally at least three of every four children have experienced some form of violence in the last year (Know Violence in Childhood, 2017). Around the world, children from all socioeconomic backgrounds, across all ages, religions and cultures, suffer violence, exploitation, and abuse. Violence suffered by children most often occurs at the hands of familiar adults and peers, rather than strangers. Such violence takes place in homes and within families, in schools and educational settings, in institutions, online, and on city streets. Ending violence against children is a global imperative. In 2015, world leaders acknowledged epidemic levels of violence against children and committed to end all forms of violence against children by 2030 to address the 16 th Sustainable Development Goal (SDG). It is crucial for all States to honour their commitments to achieve this goal and take concrete steps at the country level to strengthen social protection systems and to increase child-related budgeting, amongst other measures. Although many independent and government agencies collect information on violence against children in Canada, it is difficult to find unified statistics, and there is substantial variability in the frequency with which data are collected and the disaggregation of the data to specific groups of children. In this review we have attempted to consolidate available data to depict as accurate and comprehensive a picture as the available data allow of the current risks of violence faced by children and youth in Canada. In Canada's efforts to achieve children's human rights and the standards set out by Sustainable Development Goal 16 (SDG 16), it is crucial that we understand: (1) how well we are protecting all children and youth from all forms of violence and (2) where we are falling short. With these data, Canada can mobilize and refine its efforts to promote children's well-being across the nation. For this report, we focused on children and youth under age 18, consistent with the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, using definitions of violence provided by the World Health Organization (WHO; WHO, 2002) and UNICEF (2017) with four separate categories of violence. Physical violence comprises fatal and non-fatal physical violence including corporal punishment, physical bullying, violent crime, and child homicide. Sexual violence comprises children's experiences of sexual activity that they do not comprehend and cannot consent to, often between a child and an adult or another person in a position of power; this includes coercion to participate in sexual acts, unwanted touching or advances, sexual exploitation, and sexual harassment. Emotional/psychological violence comprises psychological maltreatment and verbal abuse, such as threatening, terrorizing, humiliating, bullying, isolating, and rejecting experiences. Finally, neglect comprises the "deliberate failure to meet children's physical and psychological needs, protect them from danger, or obtain medical, birth registration, or other services when those responsible for their care have the means, knowledge and access to do so" (UNICEF, 2017). When an act of violence is directed against children because of their biological sex or gender identity, any of these types of violence can also constitute gender-based violence. Another important definition for the field of child and youth violence prevention is that of family violence: any form of abuse, mistreatment or neglect that a child or adult experiences from a family member, or from someone with whom they have an intimate relationship (Department of Justice, Government of Canada, 2017). Statistics Canada, the Canadian Red Cross, UNICEF, and the World Health Organization Health Behaviours in School-Aged Children Reports were all valuable resources for the current review. Overarching themes emerged through our review of these and other sources, which we have used to organize this report. We conclude by reviewing the Global End Violence Against Children INSPIRE framework and providing some initial recommendations aligned with these for Canada's efforts. Causes of Violence Against Children The causes of violence against children are multi-layered and are best understood from an ecologicalsystems and biopsychosocial developmental perspectives. Bronfenbrenner (1979) introduced the ecological systems theory, which contends that children's development is embedded in and influenced by the family, school, community, and broader societal systems in which they are growing up. It is children's experiences within and between these systems and the systems' capacities to meet children's needs and scaffold their positive development that shape development. When systems are unable to protect children and ensure they are free from violence, it impacts all aspects of children's development. Children's first system of development is the family context. Parents who themselves lacked nurture and protection in their own childhoods often struggle into adulthood with financial concerns, conflicts, mental health problems, and other stresses. Without a strong foundation in their own development, struggling parents often lack the experience and resources to nurture their children. With the weight of their burdens and lack of support, these parents are more likely to maltreat their own children, but are also more likely to fall short in supporting their children in developing social-emotional capacities Pepler et al., 2014). At school entry, there is a group of children who are unprepared for the academic, behavioral, and social demands in the school setting. They are, therefore, vulnerable to experiencing problems, being both aggressive and victimized, and not engaging with school. Based on inadequate socialization within the family and/or daycare context, these children enter the school system with an inability to regulate their behaviors and emotions, poorly developed executive functions, a lack of social skills, weak moral understanding and attitudes, and mental health problems (e.g., anxiety, oppositional behavior). For children with these initial vulnerabilities, society depends on schools to be the protective and socializing institution and to pick up where parents left off or were unable to establish a foundation for adaptive regulation and learning. School should be the place where all children are safe, protected from violence in any form, accepted and included by both adults and peers, and supported to develop optimally. As Dodge and colleagues (2009) note, the combination of difficult child factors and adverse social contexts sets up a developmental cascade of failure in family, peer, and school contexts and risk of movement into antisocial and illegal behaviors, where alternate reinforcement processes attract the youth into violence and crime. Children are sensitive to conditions in the communities in which they live. Children who grow up in up in poor communities with a lack of social cohesion are often exposed to high levels of community violence. These children who witness violence are more likely to increase in their own levels of aggression and depression (Gorman-Smith & Tolan, 1998). Conversely, our analyses of Canadian HBSC data showed that positive neighbourhood relationships were protective against injuries, psychosomatic symptoms, behaviour problems, and drinking and driving (Pepler et al., 201X). At a broader level, societal factors also relate to children's experiences of violence including racism,

McGill Law Journal, 2005

The International Journal of Children s Rights

Ending the physical punishment of children remains an enormous challenge. In societies which tolerate even limited physical punishment as discipline or control, it is a response to children that adults may unthinkingly adopt simply because they can. This paper primarily focuses on the language, traditions and law prevailing in English-speaking, common law countries -Australia, Canada, and the United Kingdom -that have ratified the CRC but have not yet fully outlawed physical punishment. New Zealand, the first English-speaking country to ban physical punishment, and the United States which has neither ratified the CRC nor fully outlawed physical punishment, are also discussed. Separately, language, traditional attitudes and practices, and laws impacting children's lives are considered, with a view to envisioning a status quo where adults and children are accorded equal respect as human beings and any degree of physical violence towards children is regarded as an aberration.

Blogpost submitted to Robson Crim on March 27th, 2017. Robson Crim is a criminal legal blog ('blawg'). Located at Robson Hall Law School in Winnipeg, Canada, this exciting blawg is dedicated to research in criminal law and criminal justice, both in Canada and around the world. For more information, visit http://robsoncrim.com.

2013

The Children’s Institute (CI) was established in 2001 as a multi-disciplinary policy research unit located in the Faculty of Health Sciences of the University of Cape Town built on the foundation of its predecessor the Child Health Policy Institute (CHPI). The founding goal of the CI was to “promote effective development of policies and interventions” that address the major needs of children and to realise rights for all children in South Africa. The CI was established with the specific intention to conduct child focused policy research, teaching and advocacy aimed at improving the situation of children and adolescents. Of major concern to the Children's Institute is the high level of violence experienced by children in South Africa. The United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child (CROC) has called on “all States parties to move quickly to prohibit and eliminate all corporal punishment...as a key strategy for reducing and preventing all forms of violence in societies”. T...

2014

2009

"This report recalls the recommendations made by the Committee on the Rights of the Child and by Canada’s Senate Standing Committee on Human Rights to bolster Canada’s legal and institutional arrangements to build a truly protective and rights-enabling framework for all children. This study was conducted by Landon Pearson, O.C. and Tara M. Collins, and prepared as a collaborative effort of the Landon Pearson Resource Centre for the Study of Childhood and Children’s Rights, Carleton University, Ottawa. The publication was jointly promoted by the UNICEF Canada and the UNICEF Innocenti Research Centre." Also available on the website of UNICEF Office of Research - Innocenti http://www.unicef-irc.org/publications/569and the Landon Pearson Resource Centre for the Study of Children's Rights and Childhood http://www.landonpearson.ca/publications.html