Murder, By Policy, In Gordon Campbell's B.C. Ministry Of Children And Families

Les Leyne, a columnist for the Victoria Times Colonist, took up the matter (Nov. 8, A12), raised a few points about obstruction in Ms. Turpel-Lafond’s work without explaining them, and repeated the pap served up by CanWest. Just over seven months ago Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond left a position as judge in Saskatchewan to take the highly paid job as “Representative for [B.C.] Children and Youth”. The Ministry involved has been, and is, a sinkhole of corruption – corrupt policies, corrupt behaviour, corrupt reporting – surrounding maltreatment and deaths of children “in the care of the Province”. Ms. Turpel-Lafond is highly paid, we know that. Is she, also, “bought”? Her press conference at the end of the first week of November suggests she isn’t. Why would a person such as she hold a press conference seven months into a four or five year contract job? She would do so, quite simply, because the Campbell government is faking, doesn’t intend to give her what she needs to work effectively, and wants to continue its “murder, by policy” program involving the care of vulnerable children and families. The scandals in the Ministry involve a relation of Gordon Campbell’s in sleazy dealing with money, the firing of the Deputy Minister and the resignation of the Minister. The scandals involve “lost” records, unnecessary deaths, reported allegations of mistreatment, personnel slipping away just before investigation, and much, much more…. The stench from the Ministry of Children and Family Development became so rank, the Gordon Campbell cabinet called in the staid, mature, reasonable, experienced, even-handed, objective person I call “government’s favourite cover-up appointee” – Ted Hughes, former judge, former government advisor, etc. etc. etc. If B.C.’s history is ever well written, Ted Hughes will be recorded as the man who white-washed RCMP criminal behaviour at the APEC (UBC) summit in 1997 opening the door wide for a culture of continuing RCMP wrong-doing. Just for instance, in his 500-plus page Report, Hughes admits RCMP plainclothes officers assaulted and, in fact, kidnapped an innocent person on UBC campus. The RCMP then involved Court Officers in what may have been criminal coercion of the innocent person. Something – obviously - that required close investigation. Not to Ted Hughes. He was not going to, he wrote – nor could he – investigate those matters. Except the terms of his appointment not only permitted him to investigate but, I believe, obliged him to do so. Dependable Ted Hughes. When the stench from the Ministry of Children and Family Development became so rank something had to be done, someone said – “Get Ted Hughes”. Of course. His work to “investigate” was remarkable. A few people apparently slipped away from the Ministry just before he began his investigation, and he doesn’t seem to have sought them out. He stumbled and admitted the system the NDP had in place (which Gordon Campbell destroyed) was juster, fairer, and more effective. Hughes left his work unfinished, closing the investigation weeks before the due date. And (strangely) he recommended there be no further investigation in the Ministry. He did not complete investigation and he recommended no further investigation take place. CanWest writer Lindsay Kines calls that behaviour “a scathing review of the province’s child-welfare system….” (Province, Nov. 8, A6). Les Leyne (Times Colonist, Nov. 8, A12) refers to “Ted Hughes’ comprehensive report”. What was the “fix” that came out of the little work Ted Hughes did “investigating”? Did he realize that to continue investigation would bring down the Campbell government? Did he convey that kind of information to the Campbell cabinet? Did he – staid, mature, reasonable, objective, even-handed, experienced person that he is – say something like: “I’ll go now and bury the past if you appoint a credible “Representative for [B.C.’s] Children and Youth” to oversee, investigate, and police child care in the future?” We cannot answer those questions, but investigation into wrong-doing stopped, Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond was appointed, and Ted Hughes was so pleased he burbled and cavorted for B.C.’s press and media. Did he think he was off the hook? We would be fools to think that the Gordon Campbell government intended to create an effective position to end its “murder, by policy” in the activities of the Ministry of Children and Family Development. As Les Leyne points out the terms of Ms. Turpel-Lafond’s appointment muzzle her, preventing her from normal public communication! She is prevented from even knowing about some 5000 children in the care of relations. Needless to say, Children and Families Minister Tom Christenson burbles nonsense about that situation and “motor-mouth” Attorney General Wally Oppal says anything at all that will fill the space of interview time. Neither intends to move a millimeter. Turpel-Lafond is short-staffed. Surprise. A key way in which the Campbell cabinet knee-caps public watch-dogs is to slash their budgets or refuse to provide needed supplies so the watch-dogs can watch. Welcome to employment by the B.C. government Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond. We would be fools to think the Gordon Campbell government wishes to end its “murder, by policy” in the Ministry of Children and Family Development and elsewhere. Why did Gordon Campbell erase the better NDP structure there? Why has scandal after scandal – involving the deaths of children – followed one upon the other? The answer is that the Gordon Campbell cabinet wants nothing to do with B.C.’s vulnerable children. Let them pick garbage. Let them die in the gutters. Let angry, under-staffed, underpaid care-givers kill them. Let them rot…. There are probably fourteen or fifteen thousand B.C. children in the “care of the Province”. Wouldn’t it be better to put them into gas chambers or erase them by some other method so that Campbell could have big fat cheques to hand to private corporations and his friends? The Ministry of Children and Families is one ministry he can’t privatize. Just let murder and mistreatment happen by “selling” child care to private corporations and British Columbians would rise in wrath. British Columbians don’t want vulnerable children in the hands of CN Rail, or ING, or CGI, or Thyssen Krupp or the 2010 Olympic Committee or any of Gordon Campbell’s relations, friends, or political backers. Those last have already made the Ministry of Children and Family Development a disgrace to Canadian society. Unable to privatize vulnerable child care in B.C., forced to accept the burden and cost of a humane industry in his cabinet, Gordon Campbell is taking revenge. The Ministry will be starved, inadequately structured, parsimoniously supplied, and even urged to neglect B.C.’s vulnerable children and families. Poor Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond. Grieve for the vulnerable children “in the care of the Province”. Gordon Campbell will destroy them if he can. [Proofreader’s note: this article was edited for spelling and typos on November 26, 2007]