What's New?

October 2019 New York Times article: Stay at Home Parents Work Hard: Should They Be Paid?

Currently government discriminates against parental child care in favour of non-parental child care especially daycare centres by heavily subsidizing that form of care.

Kids First position:

• there are no 'stay at home' parents
• that child care is work whoever does it including parents
• that child care work is costly and socially essential whoever does it
• that there should be no preferential treatment for any form of child care
• that all child care funding should 'follow the child' and flow to parents directly so they can choose the form(s) of care best suited to their situation(s)
• that daycare regulations (especially staff:child rations) must ensure 'the best interests of the child' - that children's well-being is not compromised
• that 'gender equity' - or women's equality as it used to be called - will not be achieved until family care work is not discriminated against in favour of GDP-counted waged care work

NOTE: parents' and children's Charter rights and freedoms, and the Principles of Fundamental Justice seem to be ignored in these laws. The laws do not recognize the long record of harm caused by government intervention in families, and so there is no 'balancing' of rights or risks.

February 2019 Statistics Canada article - "Changes in parents' participation in domestic tasks and care for children from 1986 to 2015"

The percentage of mothers who had done paid work or looked for work, on an average day, increased from 36% in 1986 to 47% in 2015. In contrast, this proportion decreased for fathers, from 69% in 1986 to 64% in 2015." - partnered parents with children 12 and under

• Illegal data collection.
• Manipulating children into in-app purchases.
• Ads for gambling and alcohol.
• Modeling harmful behavior like cleaning your eyes with sharp objects

Sign the Campaign for Commercial Free Childhood petition
Tell Google: Adopt the Kids' App Store Standards now!

The federal government is again claiming that it funds "HIGH QUALITY" early learning and child care. However the evidence from studies of daycare quality conducted by daycare advocates, and from peer-reviewed empirical studies shows that the majority of licensed daycare in Canada is of "minimal to mediocre" quality, not high quality. Inadequate staff:child ratios are the primary reason for inadequate quality. The ratio problem cannot be fixed by unionization, higher wages, or more training.

December 2018: This new VIDEO from the federal government repeats the high quality lie.

• $0 per child in parental child care
• $24,000++ per 'space' for non-parental 'prototype' daycare
• parents not considered to be child care workers
• government admits inadequate quality daycare will take $100++million to improve

Nov 2018 BC Government news release

Support for B.C. families and early childhood educators

November 2018, Vancouver Sun article: Social worker accused of stealing from & abusing vulnerable first nations children in care of BC Ministry Of Children & Family Development

2008 Canadian Paediatric Society position statement - Health implications of children in child care centres Part A: Canadian trends in child care, behaviour and developmental outcomes

The report states a 1998 questionnaire study of 325 Canadian daycare centres found average quality to be 60.1% and that 67% "may be needed to promote child development."

2009/16 Canadian Paediatric Society position statement - Health implications of children in child care centres Part B: Injuries and infections

"for every 9 h of daycare per week, there was a 12% increase in respiratory illness days. Children without siblings at home had a threefold increase in the incidence of respiratory illness."

Non-parental child care expenses incurred so parents can "work" can be deducted for children age 0-15. Expenses include 'camps' and boarding school. This case broadens what can be called 'child care' and affirms parents right to determine the form of child care based on children's needs.

QUOTES from the Judgement

• It is not for the state to decide who minds the Appellant's children as long as the expenses claimed are reasonable.
  
  
• The taxpayer is responsible for choosing...the child care services he or she wishes to use; the taxpayer makes this choice on the basis of the child's needs, and this choice is an exercise of parental discretion.
  
  
• A parent alone has the right to decide when a child 12 or older should stay home alone.

The case raises government violation of the child's Charter right to security of person. Daycare regulations are inadequate to provide "adequate" care to the majority of children according to peer-reviewed empirical research on staff:child ratios and group size, and according to research that states the majority of licensed daycare in Canada is of minimal to mediocre quality.

Federal-provincial Early Learning and Child Care agreements exclude parental child care from any funding.

The agreements for funding to each province and territory specify that "areas of investment" be limited to government-regulated settings. This discriminatory policy violates Charter values of personal autonomy, equality, liberty, and security of person.

The discriminatory policy also contradicts the empirical evidence: low enrollment in regulated daycare, parental preference for parental child care, inadequate quality in the majority of licensed daycare; worsened child outcomes in group care for health, emotional and physical well-being and academic performance; high cost of group care, inadequate staffing and training; not enough people wanting these jobs, etc

Read agreements at Early Learning and Child Care bilateral Agreements

July 2018 New York Times article: U.S. Opposition to Breast-Feeding Resolution Stuns World Health Officials

July 2018 Counterpunch article: The Sordid History of Infant Formula and Trump's Attempt To Bully, Blackmail & Threaten Third World Countries

Paul Kershaw - head of GenSqueeze lobby group funded by UBC's H.E.L.P.
$154,111 ($149,550 + $4,561 in expenses)

UBC daycare Executive Director Darcelle Cotton
$129,806

SFU daycare Executive Director Pat Frouws
$95,059 ($93,859 + expenses $1,200)

• 2008 January article - Daily Mail (UK): The US NICHD massive Child Care Effects study found lasting NEGATIVE BEHAVIOUR EFFECTS for children cared for in daycare centres. Lead researcher Dr Jay Belsky called for tax policies which reduce pressure to use non parental child care.
  
  
• January 9, 2008 email from Dr. Hillel Goelman of UBC's Human Early Learning Partnership (HELP) to the BC Provincial Child Care Council (government advisory body). Did Goelman mis-represent NICHD findings and attack Dr. Jay Belsky?
  
  
• January 9, 2008 email from Dr Paul Kershaw of UBC's HELP to Provincial Child Care Council and head of Gen Squeeze lobby group funded by UBC. Kershaw opposes Dr Jay Belsky's policy suggestion that parents not be financially coerced into using daycare centres. Belsky was a researcher with the NICHD Child Care Effects Study which showed that daycare centre care produces lasting negative behavioural outcomes for children.

Our government thinks maternal child care is bad for women and children and the economy. Our leaders want to "GET MOTHERS BACK TO WORK" and get our children into full time LICENSED DAYCARE so we can be "PRODUCTIVE" in the name of "GENDER EQUITY."

Read Kids First complaint to the federal government about the violation of human rights in policies aimed at shaming, stigmatizing, and coercing mothers into full time GDP-counted jobs and full time daycare for our children.

• Draft (blues) Hansard record
• Video of speech

Sept 2015 working academic research paper by economists Milligan, Baker, Gruber showing long term negative impact of Quebec daycare system: "Non-Cognitive Deficits and Young Adult Outcomes: The Long-Run Impacts of a Universal Child Care Program"

Two related articles in Sept 2015 Maclean?s Magazine:

• Economist Kevin Milligan responds to critics of his controversial new paper on Quebec?s low-cost childcare program
  
  
• Stephen Gordon explains what the paper examining the Quebec daycare program reveals, and the ensuing controversy

Kids First info sheet Costs?Daycare, Preschool, All-Day Kindergarten compiled a few years ago gives actual costs reported by different governments in Quebec, BC, Sweden and US. EXAMPLE: Nearly $16,000/yr for centre operating costs alone for infant care in Quebec in 2001 - with 1 baby for 1 staff person.

Kids First Info sheet THE MORE YOU SPEND THE MORE YOU SAVE shows how the daycare lobby low-balls costs and pads benefit estimates.

Oct 2015, Canadian Taxpayers' Federation paper, CTF Fact Check: NDP Lowballs Daycare Plan Costs

"Gen Squeeze" says its a "lobby" group. It demands $10/day daycare and opposes funding families equitably.

Squeeze head, Paul Kershaw is paid over $145,000 ($134,753 + $11,431 expenses in 2014) from UBC's Human Early Learning Partnership (HELP) funded by the BC Government/taxpayers. HELP's Lynell Anderson over $90,000 ($88,812 + $1,827 expenses in 2013) is on Squeeze staff with Kershaw, and Kershaw's partner, Andrea Long, helps out too. and Darcelle Cotton - ED of UBC daycare - $114,861

Why not share the wealth around if you really want to stop squeezing families with children?

April 28, 2015 report by Kids First President, Helen Ward, published by the Institute for Marriage and Family Canada: "Is there really a daycare shortage? - A Toronto case study shows vacancies despite waiting lists and subsidies"

Ward's report uses unpublicized data from Toronto Open Data, Statistics Canada, and daycare proponents' studies. It exposes low demand and excess supply of daycare centre spaces shown by high vacancies and low enrollment despite massive preferential funding. Higher income families use centres more and benefit more from preferential funding to centre spaces.

April 28, 2015 National Post article on the report: "Busting Canada?s daycare myths"

Finland has the largest cash benefit for parental care and lowest use of daycare, and also has the best outcomes in the world for high school academic results on OECD PISA tests.

Read about the different Nordic funding schemes in this April 2012 research paper from University of Oslo in Norway, "Cash for Childcare: Experiences from Finland, Norway and Sweden" by Dr Anne Lise Elligsaeter

Police harass kids and parents for walking and biking in safe neighbourhood. Result? The kids are now afraid to go out alone.Time to push back.

• List of human rights laws, cases, etc. related to parental/child rights in Canada
• UN Convention on the Rights of the Child - parent rights and "respect for parent" highlighted

• All-day Kindergarten - 1 teacher for 22 kids for 6 hours
• New category "multi-age child care" allowing 1 adult to 8 children: 1 child under 1 year + 2 children under 3 years, + 5 age 3 years or more
• Worsened group size and ratio for daycare for K and Gr 1 and for Gr 2-7
• GROUP SIZE - daycare for K and Gr 1 - up 4 from 20 to 24 per group
• GROUP SIZE - Gr 2-7 daycare - up 5 from 20 to 25
• RATIO - daycare for K and Gr 1` - up 2 to 12 from 10 kids per staff
• RATIO - Gr 2-7 daycare - 1 staff:15 children

An article about research by Quebec economists LeFebvre, Merrrigan, and Haeck discusses the impact of cheap daycare on children and paid work by mothers. Note the comments about "quality" by HELP's Goelman and Kershaw are disingenuous as they have authored research stating that the quality of daycare in Quebec is minimal and inadequate.

• Sept 2014 "Setting a wage for homemaking" - Mercatornet
• "Taking Unpaid Housework for Granted Is Wrong" - New York Times
• March 2014 - "Italian campaigners call for housewives to be paid a salary" - The Guardian

Kids First is working towards a human rights complaint about the definitions of "child care" and "work" that say that child care is not done by parents and is not work if it is done by parents.

This case is related as it states that parents DO have child care obligations - yet the judge mistakenly seems to seems to indicate that parental child care is not work and that work force "wish[es]" are the primary obligation...

Justice Robert M. Mainville wrote, "without reasonable accommodation for parents? childcare obligations, many parents will be impeded from fully participating in the work force so as to make for themselves the lives they are able and wish to have. The broad and liberal interpretation of human rights legislation requires an approach that favours a broad participation and inclusion in employment opportunities for those parents who wish or need to pursue such opportunities.??

Oct 2013 Globe and Mail column: All Day Kindergarten "No Magic Bullet"
McMaster University Economist Phillip de Cicca asks, ?To me, the question should be, could that money be used in a better way??

November 2013 Macleans magazine article: Full-day kindergarten is failing our children: A closer look at Ontario?s $1.5-billion-a-year full-day kindergarten experiment
Ontario's Ministry of Education caught misrepresenting the junk science research

Aug 2012: Ontario government big lies in this Gives ENROLMENT projections and claims that $1 spent will save $7. This is a "gross misrepresentation" (UBC economist Dr Kevin Milligan) of research by Nobel Laureate economist James Heckman.

Nov 30, 2013 Globe and Mail column by M Wente: Ontario's $1.5-billion kindergarten hoax

Dec 9, 2013: Ontario Minister of Education, Sandals, responds to Globe and Mail column by M Wente (scroll down to "Kindergarten?s value")



The Offord Centre for Child Studies, McMaster University: The Full Day Kindergarten Early Learning Program Final Report, October 2012

Ministry of Education: Early Learning Resources 2013-14

Nov 2013 IMFC report: Full-day kindergarten in Ontario: Reading the fine print. Did those cheerleading for full-day kindergarten actually read the research?

Dec 2013, Kids First Media Release: Kindergate Research Cover-up Scandal

Letter to the Ontario Minister of Education Regarding Misrepresentation of All-Day Kindergarten Research

• The OECD and the Reconciliation Agenda: Competing Blueprints. Published by Martha Friendly's Childcare Resource & Research Unit, Occasional Paper # 20
  
  
• Transnationalising (Child) Care Policy: the OECD and the World Bank
  
  
• Canada's Early Childhood Education and Care Policy: Still a Laggard? International Journal of Child Care and Education Policy 2009, Vol. 3, No. 1, 27-42. In this article, Mahon takes an 'anti-neo-liberal' stance and makes no mention of the World Bank though she supports this agenda.

"What are the consequences for the economy of several tens of thousands of women entering the Quebec labour force? More people looking for work exercises downward pressure on wages, which induces firms to employ more women.... The slower rate of wage growth increases business profitability? .... All components of domestic income eventually benefit from the arrival of new workers."

from "Impact of Quebec?s Universal Low Fee Childcare Program on Female Labour Force Participation, Domestic Income, and Government Budgets" 2012 working paper by P Fortin, L. Godbour, S. St Cerny, p15?

Payer les m?res ? la maison? Tout le monde y perdrait! Cela co?terait trop cher et serait socialement r?trograde. (Pay mothers in the house? The whole world would be lost! It costs too much and would be socially retrograde.) Quebec daycare economist, Pierre Fortin (see his non-peer reviewed study above), opposes a poll showing support for funding parental child care on a par with daycare subsidies.

• Swedish tax

second-wave feminism critiqued by feminists who honour unwaged family care work: Kids First has long been aware that the elite feminists who dominate our government women's and family policy making reject and marginalize our stance on daycare and children's well-being.

October 2013 article in The Guardian:

-- a full length film by Canada's National Film Board

Paul Kershaw of the tax-funded daycare lobby at the Human Early Learning Partnership is critiqued for his neo-liberalism by a fellow academic in the Feb 2012 Rabble article,

In 2011, 68% of mothers with children 12 months and under received these benefits. 76.6% had insurable employment and 88% of those got benefits. See the Statistics Canada Employment Insurance Coverage Survey, 2011

CBC article: "Obesity odds may be higher for children in daycare?

Toronto Star: ?Daycare and obesity: Parents weigh in on why kids in daycare more likely to be overweight?

March 2012: Study published in International Journal for Equity in Health of ?gender equity? parenting (both parents spending equal amounts of time at jobs and doing child care) in Sweden finds children have more mental health problems with gender equal parents.

"Could gender equality in parental leave harm off-springs' mental health? a registry study of the Swedish parental/child cohort of 1988/89

Here is the 2009 document prepared by the Monitoring Committee of the Early Childhood Learning Knowledge Centre The World's Best Infrastructure for Child Development Statistics in Canada: Strategies for Federal-Provincial-Territorial Collaboration

May 2012: British Medical Journal article - "Disability pension among young women in Sweden, with special emphasis on family structure: a dynamic cohort study"
FINDING: "Parenthood contributed to an increased risk of going on D[isability]P[ension] among young women."