Gods rule or kidnapping?

The Associated Press

Date: Fri. Feb. 5 2010 6:19 AM ET

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — Ten Baptist missionaries are facing kidnapping charges in Haiti for trying to take 33 children out of the country, and the lawyer for all the defendants is putting the blame on the group's leader.

Attorney Edwin Coq said Laura Silsby knew the group couldn't remove the youngsters without proper paperwork, while he characterized the other nine missionaries as unknowingly being caught up in actions they didn't understand.

Read more go HERE

But at least two-thirds of the children involved in the case, ranging in age from 2 to 12, have parents, although the parents of some told The Associated Press they gave them up willingly because the missionaries promised the children a better life.


Personal Note:

They may have believed it was the right thing to do, but from this side of the world it sure as hell sounds like kidnapping to me.

The parents gave up the children willingly to give them a better life, therefore the baptist group coerced the parents by offering the kids candy (more or less).
Did the Baptist group not even try to include the parents, or was the self righteous attitude just to take the children?

There are many orphans in Haiti, and I feel for every one of them but jumping the gun trying to adopt them or take them out of the country when they still have family alive is not a move of compassion or heroism.

It is called stealing children.

Ignatieff wants to give choice in childcare, but not to you.

Child care is 'No. 1 social priority': Ignatieff
Norma Greenaway, Canwest News Service: Monday, February 1, 2010
In this file photo, child-care worker Floyd Arcand reads to kids in the head-start program at the Alexander First Nation.
In this file photo, child-care worker Floyd Arcand reads to kids in the head-start program at the Alexander First Nation.
Photo Credit: Bruce Edwards, Edmonton Journal


OTTAWA — A federal Liberal government will not let the ballooning deficit get in the way of implementing a national early learning and child-care program, Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff vowed Monday.

"I am not going to allow the deficit discussion to shut down discussion in this country about social justice," Ignatieff told reporters on Parliament Hill. "We will find the money because it seems to me an excellent investment."

He described a national early learning system as a way to give young people an "equal start" in life and also the "best anti-poverty program" on offer.

Read it on Global News: Child care is 'No. 1 social priority': Ignatieff



Personal note:

Just one question to Ignatieff,

I do not want to put my kids in daycare, and I cannot afford to stay home. Where is my choice?

Coyotes in Ottawa parks, and all they do is discuss what to think about doing!

Ottawa Sun
Multiple sightings of a lone coyote on the prowl in a residential neighbourhood just metres away from a children’s park have one Greenboro family worried the animal is hungry — and diseased.




Thirteen-year-old Josh Montgomery said the animal has kept a regular routine the past couple of weeks of wandering up and down a path and even venturing into back yards near his home on Ash Park Cr.

“I saw it yesterday right in front of the play structure,” he said of the nearby park. “It just keeps walking around.”

In fact, a picture taken by Montgomery’s uncle Mark Hunter shows the coyote brazenly wandering past the structure at the Greenboro Community Centre with a child playing nearby. In the background can be seen the entrance of Coun. Diane Deans’ office. Deans is chair of the community and protective services committee.





Personal Note:

Ottawa has done nothing about the Coyote problem. Osgoode is trying to get rid of the Coyotes by having a contest, and the media and government scorns them for it.

Ottawa will likely only do anything if a child is attacked. One question though, who's child will be attacked?


Issues were discussed here:

OTTAWA — As he fought and killed a coyote who “attacked” his snowmobile, James McGee had one thought on his mind: “To save my life.”

Coyote cull contest 'casts shame': critic
By DOUG HEMPSTEAD, QMI Agency

A contest to kill coyotes in the Osgoode area is an embarrassment to the City of Ottawa, the president of a wildlife centre says. (QMI Agency file photo)

The president of the Ottawa-Carleton Wildlife Centre says the so-called Great Coyote Cull Contest underway in Osgoode “casts shame on the entire city.”

What is an Anti-Feminist, one that only puts herself first.

An anti-feminist prime minister is suddenly concerned with maternal health. What's happening?

{this is not my article, my comments are posted below}

When I heard that Stephen Harper was suddenly taken with a desire to promote maternal health as the key issue for the G8, I have to admit to being perplexed. I don't think I've ever heard Harper talk about women's issues. Behind the scenes his government, which of course means him, has not only cut funding to most women's groups and the most progressive NGOs like Alternatives and Kairos but have eliminated the word "equality" from their women's bureau. Harper is no doubt that most anti-feminist PM we have ever had.

The media reported that a coalition of NGO's had recommended the issue to Harper but still, when was the last time Harper listened to anyone? Interesting how the media has so far ignored the just published report in the Canadian Medical Association Journal that fetal and infant mortaity rates are 2.7 times higher in Inuit inhabited areas of Canada than elsewhere. Women's and Indigenous groups should be insisting that Harper put his new commitment to work in his own country too.

At first I thought, more damage control from his proroguing catastrophe. Then, Mr. Ignatieff appeared promising that the Liberals will restore funding to women's groups and generally priorities women's issues. Hopefully that means restoring the idea of a national child care policy. What up? It's been eons since women's issues were at the top of the political agenda.

Frank Greaves from Eko Research says his next poll will show that the traditional gender gap between the Liberals and Tories is re-emerging. Obviously Harper is trying to win back the women's votes he seemed to have had for a while.

There was another election where women's issues came to centre stage in 1984. Polling was getting more sophisticated and the gender gap between the Republicans and Democrats in the US election had become clear. Women were against Reagan. In those days, the National Action Committee on the Status of Women was a powerful organization and the media savvy NAC President at the time, Chaviva Hosek, called for a Leader's Debate on Women's Issues. It actually happened. Watch it if you don't believe me. Not only did Brian Mulroney, John Turner and Ed Broadbent debate women's issues on national television but they did so under questioning from members of the NAC executive rather than journalists. It had an amazing impact by demonstrating the increasing power of the women's movement.

So the moment has come again and it is critical that women's groups and others supporting women's equality move into the discussion to ensure that issues like equal pay, child care and ending violence against women are part of the discussion. There is an opportunity on February 14, the day that vigils and memorials are held across Canada to honour the missing and murdered Aboriginal women, now estimated to be around 500. Another one will come with International Women's Day in and around March 8.

It seems to me the time has come to make sure that women's equality get back on the front burner and stay there. Despite the tremendous advances of the last 40 years, women still earn only 70 percent of male wages. I am convinced most of that is because of the lack of child care and the resistance of corporations and government to end patriarchal forms of functioning that were created for men with wives and that hold on tentatiously excluding many women and the increasing number of men who want to take their parenting responsibilities seriously.

Moreover all levels of government are ominously talking about tightening their belts, which will mean massive cuts to the public service, where the best paid jobs for women are located. They can find money for the banks and the mostly boys on Bay Street but not to protect good jobs for women, let alone expand them. At the municipal level, in Toronto for example, the City is talking about major cuts to childcare.

Despite the rhetoric of the mainstream parties, it will take a revival of a powerful women's movement to make sure that our stalled progress to equality doesn't get driven back.



Personal Note:

This entire article is spewing with hate over men and the woman who wrote it just seems to be jealous she does not have the male body parts, you know the ones in which let you write your name in the cold cold snow.

A national daycare strategy aka scheme will not give woman equality nor will it teach the children to pay higher taxes in the future. Yet, this author believes that the whole feminist movement wraps around a national childcare scheme created by 2nd wave feminists that did not think changing diapers had any economic value. I think Huggies would disagree with the economic issues of diapers, don't you?

The point here should be the children and how or what is best for them.


When we are discussing children it is the parents legal right to make the decision for them, not a government or advocacy trying to provide unions with more funding!


A career does not make me a woman!

Yes Harper is ignoring parental issues, but so is Ignatieff!

OTTAWA — The Harper government's pledge to help vulnerable women and children in developing countries doesn't reflect its record of cutting the programs that offer the support required, Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff said here Wednesday.

Following a parliamentary forum hosted by his party on women's issues, Ignatieff said that a Liberal government would restore programs and funding that promote gender equality here in Canada and abroad.

"We think that women's groups do incredibly valuable work for all Canadians," Ignatieff said at a news conference. "Cutting their capacity to exercise in advocacy has set us all back, set men and women back across Canada. So yes, we will restore cuts to Status of Women Canada and we will restore it's equality mandate."

Prime Minister Stephen Harper said this week that his government would make the issue of maternal and infant health in developing countries a priority as Canada prepares to host the G8 economies meeting this summer. But the Liberals said the government has undermined progress on women's issues by cutting funding to programs such as KAIROS, a charity initiative, as well as reducing the budget to Status of Women Canada by 43 per cent.

"For heaven's sake, what do you have Status of Women Canada for, unless it's mandate is a profound commitment to equality?" asked Ignatieff.

The Liberals also promised to spend more than $125 million on a series of job-creating initiatives. Those would include incentives for manufacturing companies to invest in new equipment and for companies to hire young workers and tax incentives for Canadians who invest in startup companies.

Ignatieff said the measures would be tailored to create jobs that help Canada's economic recovery.

mdesouza@canwest.com


Personal Note:

Funny, there are no comments allowed on this article. You can really tell that Mike Duffy has left the scene. Our media is seriously turned Liberal. Personally I wouldn't mind if the media had some real issues to discuss but alas they do not. Harper is ignoring "Income Splitting" which is a huge issue for women and men who childcare their own children also ignoring the childcare tax credit of $7,500 that only go to pay who outsource there childcare.
But so is Ignatieff, the Liberals believe in non-profit daycares only and leave parents out in the cold.

Which leaves the question, who do you vote for.

Hell I do not know, but you can complain to your MP about it!

Martha Friendly trying to wipe out any daycare that isn't non-profit

All-day kindergarten under threat?
January 26, 2010

Laurie Monsebraaten
SOCIAL JUSTICE REPORTER

More on Daycare
Union report sounds alarm...





Big-box child care is setting up shop in Canada and critics worry it will undermine quality, scuttle chances for a national daycare program and thwart provincial plans for all-day kindergarten.

The new company, Edleun Inc., has "identified a large and growing supply and demand imbalance" and is looking to acquire and develop "high quality" child care and early education centres across Canada, according to documents filed with the TSX.

Edleun already owns a chain of Alberta daycares with links to the failed Australian-based ABC Learning Centres. It has merged with a Montreal capital company and plans to begin trading on the TSX Venture Exchange.



FAMILY ISSUES REPORTER

After the bell

The City of Toronto's After-School Recreation Care (ARC) program is one answer for parents who have no place for their kids to go between the end of the school day and dinner time. Costing $4 a day for care between 3:30 and 6 p.m., it was launched last fall in 13 locations in high-needs neighbourhoods. This fall, another 10 sites will be added, subject to demand. See Toronto.ca/parks/after-school- recreation.htm or call 416-338-2512 for details.

A quick guide to your options for child care

Licensed child care means it is government-regulated and monitored according to the Day Nurseries Act, which sets minimum standards for health and safety, nutrition, equipment, staff training and ratios, and activities. It can be in a child care centres or the home of an approved caregiver.

Unlicensed child care, the majority of child care, can be an informal arrangement with a relative or other caregiver. It may be home-based care with up to five children. More than that requires a licence.

Illegal child care is unlicensed care of more than five children.

When deciding on child care:

Consider the physical space, the staff and other children; the daily program and activities; whether parents are welcome to visit or get involved.

Ask if there are written policies and procedures and request copies. Ask about safety procedures in the event of emergency, accident or fire.

Consider the intangibles: your gut response, how you feel about leaving your child there; whether you are comfortable expressing your concerns to the caregiver; whether your values be respected.

Pay attention to whether the other children seem happy and involved. Talk to other families who have used the child care centre or caregiver.

For a checklist of things to look for, visit the city's website at Toronto.ca/children/guide.htm. For more information about child care and the Day Nurseries Act, visit Child Development Resource Connection Peel at cdrcp.com.

If you have complaints about licensed or unlicensed child care, contact your local office of the Ministry of Children and Youth Services. Find out more at www.children.gov.on.ca
Email your comments to

living@thestar.ca.


More on Daycare
All-day kindergarten...

Big-box child care is setting up shop in Canada and critics worry it will undermine quality, scuttle chances for a national daycare program and thwart provincial plans for all-day kindergarten.



It's enough to make any parent shudder. And even second-guess who's looking after their own kids.

Last week, the Star reported that children at a Vaughan home daycare were seen playing close to an unfenced swimming pool and within reach of chemicals. And a few weeks earlier, Happy Child Care in Toronto was shut down after a toddler was reportedly bitten up to 18 times by another child. Police said they found 26 children in the care of three adults who did not have adequate health and safety training.

Anyone who's never been on wait lists for a child care spot, sweated over caregiving down to the last minute of parental leave, or had to fork over most of their salary to make sure their children are safe and stimulated might wonder how kids end up in these arrangements. How can parents do it?

They are wiping out NB daycares, and forcing only non profit, bye mom & dad

Non profits have taken over NewBrunswick!
It doesn't get much better than this. However, not all child care investments are created equal. To get the greatest social and economic benefits, the government must ensure it follows best practices and heeds the accumulated Canadian and international evidence on where to invest public dollars so that they make a real difference.
(in case you missed the last statement Jody is saying that daycare is better financial sense invested than being at home or family members)

To meet the objectives of economic prosperity, population growth and poverty reduction, the government's Early Learning and Child Care Act will need to have teeth and mandate how public funds are used based on the lessons learned by other jurisdictions and nations.

First, New Brunswick must move away from the failed market-based reliance on parents' ability to pay, which leads to the high parent fees that we see today. Instead, the province must provide funding directly to child care programs so that they can have a measure of security and be able to plan for the long-term. Programs accessing public dollars, in return, must be accountable for lowering parent fees.

Second, all new spaces should be created in non-profit and public programs - with a grandfather clause to ensure that all existing programs receive available public funds, assuming that they meet the accountability criteria.

Currently, there is no coherent planning to meet community needs and no assurance that programs will be there for families from one day to the next. Planned, adequately funded programs delivered locally with community involvement have a proven track record of providing better access, creating conditions for high quality programs, and ensuring inclusiveness and affordability.

Along with the legislation, the government has committed to a significant expansion of early childhood services by 2015 to ensure 20 per cent of infants and 50 per cent of children aged 2 to 5 have access to regulated programs. To this, we can only say bravo!

Here is a new study you can check out!

Frontier Center for Public Policy

* The claim a universal childcare system would bring enormous long-term benefits to society are built on a shaky empirical foundation
* A solid body of evidence suggests the cognitive benefits of childcare participation are generally short-lived, and that these benefits “fade out” almost entirely for most children in just a few years
* There is strong evidence that children from poor families can experience long-term benefits from participation in high-quality childcare programs.
* However, the evidence suggests that preschool participation brings few if any long-term cognitive benefits to children from middle-class families.