To the Expositor:
A good question for people to consider in Ontario, as well as other provinces is, “How do we deal with obesity in children in Ontario?” Absolutely no one is arguing that it is not a monumental problem.
The solution, as suggested by social services agencies such as the Children’s Aid Society (CAS), in my humble opinion is “off the end of the scale” dumb. Their solution is to take the children from the parents.
Did the government consider the real problem may be parents’ inability to sustain and afford nourishing foods, fruits, and vegetables on a daily basis while junk food is within their means? Government mishandling of the economy, cumbersome rules and regulations, inspectors inspecting inspectors puts the costs of food out of sight.
With all the Ontario government cutbacks and slashing of expenditures and the new income from the HST, would it be too much to ask the government what are they doing with all our money? I mean, other than the raise they gave themselves, taking more time off, building fake lakes, arenas that were fine—just a nice thing to build and other hidden foolish expenditures. Again, I do not care if it is federal or provincial. Dalton McGuinty has proven he has somewhat of a mind and a mouth. He could speak up for the federal waste and Mr. Brown could remind Mr. McGuinty that people do live past Parry Sound.
What a solution! Take children away from their loving parents, most of whom are basically innocent of purposely harming their children and placing them in a system run by social services agencies such as the CAS. This is the same secretive CAS, where newspaper reports claim every year children die in agency care. Eight in one year in various foster homes, one year in Hamilton.
In February 2009, Ontario’s child advocate Irwin Elman reported that 90 children had died in the care of Ontario’s Children’s Aid Societies in one year. Criticism originating with the Ontario Association of Children’s Aid Societies soon claimed that in 36 cases, the CAS only got involved after the death of the child, reducing the number of CAS fatalities to only 54. Spread over Ontario’s 18,800 foster children (September 30, 2004 figure from OACAS), the two alternatives give death rates of 479 or 287 per 100 thousand child years; 17.1 or 10.2 times the parental care rate.
May I be so bold as to suggest that children are starving in our own country/neighborhoods and a real hard fact is that, in our democratic, free society our children do not have parents that can afford the nourishing foods they need? Please remember this when you are unselfishly donating monies to Oxfam, United Way, and Save the Children fund globally when our own “home” is not looked after, least of all by our government. Also remember that only a small portion of every dollar you donate is helping the person you intended to help.
Take children away from parents who allow them to be obese? No, let’s educate our parents and help them afford nourishing foods and above all keep the government out of the mix and look to our non-profit helping organizations. If an obese child isn’t mentally distraught with being obese, that child will certainly be when he/she is removed from the parents.
I have a saying: you cannot fix stupid, not even with duct tape. So there is no shock and horror at my statement, I am referring to government bureaucracy.
Larry Killens
South Baymouth
