[LabComm] Kwan Slams Hagen for Dismissing Call to Restore Children's Commissioner

[BC NDP NEWSWIRE]

Kwan Slams Hagen for Dismissing Call to Restore Children's Commissioner

NDP MLA says Children's Commissioner was no Paper-Pusher

VANCOUVER - NDP MLA Jenny Kwan today slammed Children and Family Development Minister Stan Hagen for saying that restoring an independent Children's Commissioner is a "bureaucrat's" response to child welfare.  

She said that Hagen's remarks show that the Minister is not up to his job and that he shouldn't be responsible for children at risk.

"If Stan Hagen thinks that the independent Children's Commissioner was just another 'bureaucrat', then he really shouldn't be in charge of a ministry where the lives of children are at stake," said Kwan.

Kwan reminded Hagen that the office of the independent Children's Commissioner was established in response to the recommendations of Justice Thomas Gove following the death of Mathew Vaudreuil.  She said that without an independent watchdog, the public has no way of assessing the adequacy of the government's response to child deaths and injuries.

"Justice Thomas Gove and the Children's Commissioner were no paper-pushers," said Kwan.  "They worked day and night to see that every child death and injury was fully investigated and that we learned something from the tragic death of Mathew Vaudreuil. Either Mr. Hagen thinks that work wasn't important, or else the BC Liberals have something to hide."

In 2002, the Campbell government eliminated the independent Children's Commissioner and transferred responsibility for investigating child deaths to the Coroner's Service - despite Gordon Campbell's own acknowledgment in Opposition that the Coroners' service "is no substitute" for the reviews recommended by Gove.  In addition, by the government's own admission they have not provided the Coroner's service with sufficient resources to do the job, and since 2001 has carried out no full, public investigations.

"After four years of BC Liberal chaos, mismanagement and cuts at the Ministry of Children and Families, the need for independent oversight of child protection is BC is greater than ever," said Kwan.  

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