{"id":16601,"date":"2016-01-15T00:15:13","date_gmt":"2016-01-15T08:15:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/?p=16601"},"modified":"2016-01-15T11:51:11","modified_gmt":"2016-01-15T19:51:11","slug":"best-interest-of-child","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/2016\/01\/15\/best-interest-of-child\/","title":{"rendered":"Best interest of child"},"content":{"rendered":"

Keynote speaker Senator Anne Cools with Janusz Korczak Association of Canada president Jerry Nussbaum. (photo from JKAC)<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

The third session of the six-part Janusz Korczak Lecture Series \u201cHow to Love a Child\u201d took place Nov. 25 at the Robert H. Lee Alumni Centre. Co-sponsored by the University of British Columbia faculty of education and the Janusz Korczak Association of Canada, this well-attended lecture \u2013 The Evolution, Current Status and Future of the \u201cBest Interests of the Child\u201d Principle in the Protection of Children\u2019s Rights \u2013 drew people from all walks of life. Among the attendees were teachers, children\u2019s rights activists, Janusz Korczak association members, the general public and students.<\/p>\n

The lecture\u2019s moderator, Dr. Edward Kruk, associate professor of social work at UBC, who specializes in child and family policy, opened the evening\u2019s program, while I brought Dr. Janusz Korczak into focus by briefly discussing the fate of children in war zones, relating the topic to Korczak\u2019s care of children during the Second World War.<\/p>\n

The Hon. Anne Cools, senator for Toronto Centre-York and Canada\u2019s longest serving senator, was the keynote speaker. Among her many accomplishments in social services, she founded one of Canada\u2019s first battered women\u2019s shelters. Her talk centred on what has been done in the best interest of the child. She spoke about the ramifications in her areas of expertise \u2013 domestic violence, divorce, child custody and shared parenting \u2013 and how the interaction of politics, government and the law provide a complex arena in which the child\u2019s fate is often lost.<\/p>\n

The three panelists that followed Cools each shed light on a different aspect of children\u2019s well-being.<\/p>\n

Beverley Smith, representing the field of child care, is a longtime women\u2019s and children\u2019s activist from Calgary. Among many honors, she received the Queen\u2019s Golden Jubilee Award for her work. She spoke about working parents and daycare, including how this separates children from their loved ones and how the worth of a stay-at-home parent\u2019s work (usually the mother) is undervalued by the government. In this context, she referred to Korczak, who, among other things, acted in the best interest of the child by advocating that children\u2019s voices need to be heard on the subject of their own care and needs.<\/p>\n

The second panelist, Cecilia Reekie, a member of the Haisla First Nation, is an adoptee. Sitting on many boards, her expertise is in the areas of aboriginal culture, truth and reconciliation. She represented the field of child protection, speaking from the heart and sharing her story with the audience. She said that she was lucky to eventually have been adopted by people who became caring and supportive parents, thus enabling her to grow and succeed in life. However, she said, many other aboriginal children have not had such luck. In fact, she said, \u201cindigenous children are disproportionately represented in the child protection\/welfare system across Canada.\u201d<\/p>\n

The final panelist, Eugenea Couture, is an author, mentor and advocate for child custody law reform. She is the recipient of the 2014 YMCA Power of Peace Medal and the 2014 Foster Children\u2019s Day Award. Because of her own experience of having gone through divorce and child custody trials, she knows how divorce can become a war zone, the children its casualties. \u201cHow can we expect a child who is ripped from their family environment to feel worthy of love and belonging?\u201d she asked. \u201cIt will not matter what they hear, because the backlash of taking them into care already speaks volumes of trauma.\u201d<\/p>\n

To register for the next lecture in the Janusz Korczak series \u2013 The Human Rights of Aboriginal\u00a0Children, with keynote speakers Dr. Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond, B.C. representative for children and youth, and Dr. Michael DeGagn\u00e9, president and vice-chancellor of Nipissing University \u2013 visit jklectures.educ.ubc.ca<\/a>. There is no cost to attend. The lecture takes place on Jan. 21, 7 p.m., at the alumni centre.<\/p>\n

Lillian Boraks-Nemetz<\/strong> is a Vancouver-based author and a board member of the Janusz Korczak Association of Canada.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Keynote speaker Senator Anne Cools with Janusz Korczak Association of Canada president Jerry Nussbaum. (photo from JKAC) The third session of the six-part Janusz Korczak Lecture Series \u201cHow to Love a Child\u201d took place Nov. 25 at the Robert H. Lee Alumni Centre. Co-sponsored by the University of British Columbia faculty of education and the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":16587,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[5165,5166,5167,5168,3477],"class_list":["post-16601","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local","tag-anne-cools","tag-beverley-smith","tag-cecilia-reekie","tag-eugenea-couture","tag-janusz-korczak-association"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16601","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16601"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16601\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16587"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16601"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16601"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16601"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}