Children caught in crossfire
24 HOURS
Jan 7, 2009
By SEAN HOLMAN

In April 2006, an independent review judged the Campbell administration as having mismanaged the ministry of children and family development - which some said contributed to the deaths of two toddlers.

"I don't think there's any doubt" government cutbacks "took the knife too far," concluded former judge Ted Hughes…

But 33 months later, the status of the 62 recommendations included in Hughes's review of B.C.'s child protection system is in doubt.

And Premier Gordon Campbell is again to blame.

Campbell needed to create a clear process and chain of command to right this badly listing ministry.

Instead, the two powerful child protection officials put in place by his government - Lesley du Toit, the deputy minister of children and family development, and Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond, the province's children and youth representative - have become rivals.

So what happened?

…. The Hughes Review, which his government had expected would be "accomplished in the space of a few weeks," took four-and-a-half months….

But du Toit, who would later be named the deputy minister of children and family development, seems to have had her own vision for the future of the ministry.

Hughes wanted to repair the ministry - stressing a need for "equilibrium and stability."

Du Toit wants to remake it - changing its culture and structure.

As a result, implementing the Hughes recommendations appears to have become, at best, a secondary consideration for her.

But that might not have become apparent if government hadn't followed Hughes's first and foremost recommendation, appointing a children and youth representative to oversee the ministry.

HERE COMES THE JUDGE

Saskatchewan provincial court judge Turpel-Lafond assumed that responsibility on April 1, 2007.

Within three months she was privately expressing concern about the future of the Hughes Review recommendations.

After all, the deputy minister, according to Turpel-Lafond, told her many of those recommendations couldn't be achieved because the review was "informed by ideas which are entrenched in an old system."

In November 2007, Turpel-Lafond went public with her concerns, stating there was little evidence of a "co-ordinated effort" to implement the Hughes Review.

And, last month, she made a similar statement following the release of her second Hughes Review progress report.

…. But, recently, the government has become dismissive of Turpel-Lafond's criticisms and even, arguably, the review itself.

In response to the representative's latest progress report, Christensen told reporters the government isn't taking an approach "where - to the letter of each recommendation - we must be able to satisfy it completely."…

TWO'S A CROWD

The representative is convinced "there is still no co-ordinated effort" within the ministry to implement the review.

Meanwhile, the government seems just as convinced du Toit's vision will meet the overall objective of that review - improving the "safety and well-being of B.C.'s children, youth and families" - even if it doesn't specifically respond to all of its recommendations.

An impasse of the premier's own creation has been reached.

The Campbell administration was wrong to have appointed both Hughes and du Toit to do what became the same task - envisioning a future for the ministry of children and family development.

… But to date, their representative has found little evidence that's the case - perhaps because there is none, perhaps because of her own belief in the Hughes Review.

Meanwhile, many of the review's recommendations have gone unfulfilled - perhaps because they are unnecessary, perhaps because of the deputy minister's equally strong belief in her own vision.

And, in the end, it is the children who will suffer as a result of this infighting.