What the "New Era of Child and Family Development" means for girls
Speech by: Annabel Webb, October 4, 2002
Demonstration organized by Vancouver Rape Relief & Women's Shelter

I am here today to talk about the "New Era of Child and Family Development" because this is what teenage girls in poverty are up against. Let's take a look at some of the language the Liberal government is offering us and ask ourselves what it really means.

"Building Capacity of Families and Communities":
What does it mean? It means putting mothers in a position where they can not feed or house their children, where they can not escape the men who are abusing them and their daughters. It means keeping mothers in a position where they are already so devastated from the historical abuses of colonization and resultant poverty that they too are on the street. It means putting girls in the custody of abusive fathers because their mothers couldn't get legal aid to fight them. It means closing down youth programs that were already insufficient and pulling the plug on youth advocacy organization and women's centers to ensure that there will be no organizing against these cuts.

"Youth Justice and Mental Health Services"
What does it mean? It means that when teenage girls leave home because they want out of the poverty, out of the violence (of fathers, brothers, step-fathers, uncles, foster parents), out of the immobilizing grief of seeing their communities drowning in poverty and despair, out of the alienation of schools that invalidate everything they know to be true about the histories of their peoples, out of government homes that continue to erase their culture and refuse to deal with their reactions to rape and brutality-the "New Ear" priority is to provide those girls with mental health and youth "justice' services. In other words this government is going to diagnose those young women and jail them: the symptoms, any sign of resistance to violence and oppression, the crime, poverty

Once girls are in the child welfare system this "New Era" government is going to force them into mediation with abusers and throw them back into the very circumstances that led them to leave home. Why? Because this "New Era" is about saving money.

"Promoting independence of youth"
What does it really mean? Leaving young women to fend for themselves in institutionalized poverty and ensuring that if they do find a job that they will receive a "training" wage that makes it impossible for them to ever crawl out of poverty. But don't worry, when those girls can't make it and find themselves forced to live with abusive adult boyfriends in hotels in the downtown eastside, or living in squats or on the street, or abused and exploited through prostitution, then they will qualify as "high risk" or "sexually exploited youth" for a host of interventions including being jailed under "safe care" legislation, continually harassed and sometimes beaten by police, jailed in youth prisons and mental health facilities.

"A New Era in Aboriginal child welfare-Handing back responsibility for Aboriginal children and capacity building"
This government is not going to give back land or recognize the inherent rights of Aboriginal peoples in this province. Instead Gordon Campbell is handing back responsibility for Aboriginal girls who have been utterly victimized by a colonial regime and continue to be raped and murdered at staggering rates in this province. At the same time this government is hosting a campaign of vicious and systemic racism to ensure that Aboriginal girls will have to endure continued oppression and violence despite the tireless efforts of their communities.

"A New Era of child welfare community governance"
Translation: Unloading of responsibility onto communities who have no resources, union busting through contracting out of child welfare services, and no accountability of government for children in care.

We will not stand for the new era agenda. We will not watch young women raped, beaten, murdered, blamed, diagnosed and jailed while Gordon Campbell and his colleagues wash their hands of any responsibility. Don't believe this government when they say they are acting in the best interest of girls by diagnosing and criminalizing them, it is a lie. We must fight Campbell's New Era cuts and fight for teenage girls in poverty because now, more than ever, it truly is a matter of life and death.