Latest news with #AnnetteKing
CBC
03-05-2025
- CBC
Yukon child advocate finds shortcomings in gov't response to holds, isolation at Whitehorse school
The Yukon government failed to properly respond to and support students and families affected by the improper use of holds and isolation at a Whitehorse elementary school, according to a new report by the office of the territory's child and youth advocate. Territorial Education Minister Jeanie McLean tabled the report — titled I Am Not Okay, It's Not Okay — in the Yukon legislative assembly Thursday. The 68-page document is the result of a systemic review the advocate's office began in 2021 after reports emerged that some staff at Jack Hulland Elementary School had placed students in physical holds or confined them in isolation spaces. "I think the title says it," advocate Annette King said in an interview after the report was tabled, emphasizing the "long-lasting impacts" that the practices had on children and their families. "In our work, we're always dealing with rights violations... But to learn about the magnitude of this in terms of the long-standing 'Jack Hulland way' that wasn't addressed for many, many years — that is alarming." Holds, where adults use their bodies to physically restrain a child, are supposed to be a last resort when a child is at serious risk of harming themselves or others, while isolation is not supposed to be used in Yukon schools at all. However, an internal review by the education department found that up until 2020, some Jack Hulland staff members routinely used both on students for not complying with directions, including in cases like a child refusing to pull down the hood on their sweater. "We have witnessed the alarming consequences of a systemic failure in the education system – one that has left vulnerable children subject to harmful practices, without accountability for those responsible," part of the child and youth advocate's report reads. The advocate office's review was independent from the government's and from a Yukon RCMP investigation that resulted in no criminal charges being laid. The report makes five findings related to major shortcomings in the government's response and lays out eight recommendations "so that this never happens again." Among the shortcomings were a lack of communication with families throughout the process, which the report says left some "in a state of uncertainty and frustration" and excluded others from being able to participate in investigations or reviews. The report also says there was inadequate documentation and incident reporting, including when it came to "some individuals" complying with their duty to promptly report suspected child abuse and properly filling out workplace risk assessments. School staff must fill out those assessments whenever there's physical contact between a student and staff member, but the report says that in some cases, assessments at Jack Hulland lacked detail or were not done at all. As well, some of the completed assessments were not properly stored or reviewed by higher-ups in the department in a timely manner. Other shortcomings, the report says, include staff named in the criminal investigation having continued access to students, insufficient educational programming for students with complex needs, and a failure to provide therapeutic support for both current and former Jack Hulland students since the allegations came to light. As well, the report says the RCMP's response "was delayed by many months and interviews were not prioritized," which resulted in some victims losing trust in the investigation and deciding not to participate when finally contacted by police. Minister accepts recommendations 'in principle' The report's recommendations include improving coordination between government departments and other agencies to ensure reports of child abuse are dealt with promptly and that affected children receive ongoing support. It also recommends creating "a clear and organized process to document incidents," improving post-incident communication with school communities, strengthening school safety policies and procedures, and providing "continued access to supports" for former Jack Hulland students and families dealing with "the life-long impacts." Besides the findings and recommendations, the report also notes that the office provided "individual advocacy" to 20 affected children and youth, that Indigenous children made up a "disproportionately high number" of Jack Hulland-related referrals to the office, and that while some affected children "struggled with dysregulation, many did not." The report asks the government to provide an initial response to the recommendations and the work being done to implement them by June 30 and a follow-up by on Dec. 1. Education Minister Jeanie McLean, who also tabled two other reports by the child and youth advocate this week, unrelated to the Jack Hulland review, was not available for an interview Thursday or Friday. In a news release, she said the government accepted the reports' recommendations "in principle and has already been hard at work to take meaningful steps to address these issues." "Our government is committed to creating safer, more inclusive schools that support every student's learning and wellbeing," she said.
CBC
14-02-2025
- Business
- CBC
Yukon agencies making much ado about nothing, gov't says in response to budget dispute
Yukon's finance minister says the territory's ombudsman and its child and youth advocate are overreacting with some "rhetorical excess" by claiming potential government interference in the budgeting process for their offices. And the minister says a petition by those offices to Yukon Supreme Court is essentially asking the court to interfere where it shouldn't — and should therefore be tossed out. Ombudsman Jason Pedlar and child and youth advocate Annette King went to court last month in a bid to get finance department officials to butt out of the budgeting process for independent offices of the Legislative Assembly, including theirs along with the information and privacy commissioner, the public interest disclosure commissioner, and Elections Yukon. They accuse the territory's finance department of "unlawful intervention" in setting their annual budget and they've asked the court for a writ of mandamus — essentially, an order forcing the government to do something set out in law. The dispute flared up in November, when Pedlar, King, and Maxwell Harvey, the chief electoral officer, all complained finance department officials vetoed budget increases for their offices. At issue is the question of who precisely has the final say on budgets submitted by independent offices of the assembly. The court petition asserts that the budgets approved for each office by the assembly's all-party members services board should be approved as-is by the finance minister, before being included in the annual budget. In a response filed to court last week, Finance Minister Sandy Silver rejects their complaints, calling them "speculative and premature." The minister argues that he has not yet tabled the annual budget — that's expected next month — and so the suggestion of political interference by his office is a "purely speculative hypothetical question," and the issue is not a "live dispute." "The materials make frequent reference to 'political interference' as a basis for immediate court action. However, this disturbing assertion turns out to be a matter of rhetorical excess rather than of fact or evidence," the minister's response reads. Just following the law, minister argues It also says the finance department is simply following territorial legislation laid out in the Financial Administration Act. That act spells out the role of the government's management board in the budgeting process. Silver's actions to date "are fully authorized by, and in complete compliance with, the Financial Administration Act," his response reads. The minister also suggests that the Yukon Supreme Court is essentially being asked to violate a sacrosanct principle of legislative independence. It says granting a court order in this case would violate parliamentary privilege — something the Supreme Court of Canada has clearly said courts cannot do. "It is impossible to identify an activity more obviously legislative in nature than the introduction of budgetary legislation in the Legislative Assembly by a minister of finance," Silver's response to the Yukon court reads. "This application therefore asks the Supreme Court of Yukon to undertake a startling reversal of several hundred years of constitutional precedent on the relationship between courts and the legislature in a parliamentary system based on the Westminster model." None of the claims in the petition have been tested in court. There's no date set yet for a hearing.
