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Child welfare system in Canada has undergone tangible shifts due to the intervention of child welfare programs. Despite the detrimental influence of colonization that had last for a century, the contemporary child welfare system has experienced a significant proliferation of funded and government-regulated social services.
Introducing action plans in urban areas have also been extended to rural districts, including Aboriginal population. Significant improvements have been presented to the professional field of social work.
The new professional realm has provided a strong underpinning for shaping the standards that can be used to analyze traditional childcare practices in an Aboriginal family. Despite the recent improvements, child protection policies were not consistent to meet the demand of the Aboriginal communities.
Significant changes started with the introduction of the Indian Act, the Act for the Prevention of Cruelty to and Better Protection of Children of 1981, and the Child Welfare Act of 1922. All these documents have contributed significantly to the child welfare in Canada.
The history of child welfare in Canada dates back to the nineteenth century. During this period, children workforce was exploited and some of children were even owned by their parents. At the end of nineteenth century, first attempts were introduced to face children abuse and avert the child enslaving practices.
At the threshold of the twentieth centuries, first organizations established orphanages and specialized schools for neglected and abandoned children. In 1981, Children’s Aid Society was established that issued the first Child Protection Act two years later in Ontario (Turner, 2005). The Act addressed the Prevention of Cruelty to and Better Protection of Children; it also promoted protection and assistance to abused children (Turner, 2005).
The legal statute at issue was premised on the Children’s Protection Act of 1988 according to which the courts were allowed to place abused and abandoned children in specialized homes.
The courts were also entitled to take responsibility for the neglected children and required the municipal governments to cover costs for children’s housing facilities (Turner, 2005, p. 13). In addition, it also introduced regulations ensuring proper training and education.
The expansion of childcare services in Canadian provinces has a potent impact on further development of child protection laws. Shifts in child welfare were largely influenced by the changing perception toward children’s engagement in labor market. In particular, the existing regulations encouraged formal education and enhanced the importance of receiving degree in various subjects.
More importantly, child care professionals were extremely concerned with family environment in which a child was placed to highlight possible psychological and social problems influencing children’s normal development.
In 1960s, the Canada Assistance Plan was implemented to protect low-income families and neglected children (Cleveland & Krashinsky, 2001). Such a policy was handed over to the current federal government, but no essential reforms were introduced due the significant expenditure they required.
As a result, there is a growing concern with the negative consequence of the government’s passive participation for child development (Cleveland & Krashinsky, 2001). In 1990s, Canadian child welfare protection was poorly recognized due to fragmentation, inconsistence, and inadequacy of the introduced regulations (Cleveland & Krashinsky, 2001).
Such a situation took place despite the introduction of Child and Family Services Act in 1990 that undermined the existing inequalities in treating children.
The main purpose of this act was to “promote the best interest, protection and well being of children” (Child and Family Services Act, 1990). Introduction of the legal statute have provided slight improvements in the sphere of child protection. Nevertheless, there existed tangible gaps in governmental policies.
The welfare of children in Canada is strongly associated with problems in the Aboriginal community. Under these circumstances, particular attention deserves the changes made to the Indian Act, as well as how these amendments have improved the welfare of Indian children. So far, the experiences of Indian children were predominantly negative, which creates a controversial case.
On the one hand, the white population faced sufficient professional support on the part of childcare agencies. On the other hand, child welfare centers in provinces failed to deliver adequate and coherent services for off-reserve Aboriginal children.
The first attempt to protect the representatives of the First Nation had been made with the introduction of the British North American Act of 1867 according to which “the provincial child welfare authorities took the view that they had not jurisdiction over on-reserve First Nations children, the delivery of child welfare services being a matter within the jurisdiction of the federal government” (Harris-Short, 2012).
The emergence inconsistencies were alleviated as soon as the Indian Act was corrected in 1951. This is of particular concern to the Section 88 that ran, …all laws of general application from time to time in force in any province are applicable to and in respect of Indians in the province, except to the extent that such laws are inconsistent with this Act (Indian Act, 1951, as cited in Harris-Short, 2012, p. 44).
The amendment has created the legislative foundation for extending provincial child welfare in the Aboriginal communities. Despite the changes, the provincial government is still reluctant to take responsibility unless sufficient funding is provided.
The initiatives, statutes, and policies introduced in the twentieth century have had an enormous impact on the current state of child welfare in Canada. Increased awareness of the dynamics of emotional, sexual, and physical child neglect and abuse has triggered changes to the legal system (Harris-Short, 2012).
This is of particular concern to the development of an extensive network of social agencies, which is an obligatory requirement for professionals working in most child protection jurisdictions. The global recognition of child welfare issues has also led to the improvements that have made societies develop programs and services for children (Harris-Short, 2012).
Despite the fact that the need for child protection agencies exists, general understanding of the problem in child welfare field has greatly increased. As a result, the Canadian community creates opportunity for developing meaningful employment, adequate education, and good child assistance for working parents.
In conclusion, child welfare in Canada involves a rich history of policy development. In the late nineteenth century, the problem came to the forth as soon as the child negligence and abuse was recognized. Numerous acts and statutes were introduced to treat the problem properly.
Further amendments touched on both the Aboriginal community and white population of Canada to define what the federal government should do to improve the situation. In this respect, such acts the Indian Act, the British North America Act, Child Protection Act, and the Child and Family Services Act have led to significant proliferation of the rights of children in the Canadian community.
References
Child and Family Services Act (1990). Established on the Office of the Legislative Counsel. Web.
Cleveland, G., & Krashinsky, M. (2001). Our Children’s Future: Child Care Policy in Canada. Canada: University of Toronto Press.
Harris-Short, S. (2012). Aboriginal Child Welfare, Self-Government and the Rights of Indigenous Children: Protecting the Vulnerable Under the International Law. US: Ashgate Publishing.
Turner, F. J. (2005). Encyclopedia of Canadian Social Work. Canada: Wilfrid Laurier University Press.
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