Table Of ContentThe
Challenge
of
Children’s
Rights
for
Canada
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Studies in Childhood and Family in Canada
A broad-ranging series that publishes scholarship
from various disciplines, approaches, and perspectives
relevant to the concepts and relations of childhood and
family in Canada. Our interests also include, but are not
limited to, interdisciplinary approaches and theoretical
investigations of gender, race, sexuality, geography,
language, and culture within these categories
of experience, historical and contemporary.
Series Editor:
Cynthia Comacchio
History Department
Wilfrid Laurier University
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The
Challenge
of
Children’s
Rights
for
Canada
2ND EDITION
Katherine Covell
R. Brian Howe
J.C. Blokhuis
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Wilfrid Laurier University Press acknowledges the support of the Canada Council
for the Arts for our publishing program. We acknowledge the financial support of the
Government of Canada through the Canada Book Fund for our publishing activities.
This work was supported by the Research Support Fund.
Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication
Covell, Katherine, author
The challenge of children’s rights for Canada / Katherine Covell,
R. Brian Howe, J.C. Blokuis. — Second edition.
(Studies in childhood and family in Canada)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Issued in print and electronic formats.
ISBN 978-1-77112-355-6 (softcover).—ISBN 978-1-77112-357-0 (EPUB).—
ISBN 978-1-77112-356-3 (PDF)
1. Children’s rights—Canada. 2. Children—Government policy—Canada.
3. Child welfare—Canada. 4. Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989
November 20). I. Howe, Robert Brian, author II. Blokhuis, J. C., author
III. Title. IV. Series: Studies in childhood and family in Canada
HQ789.C68 2018 323.3’520971 C2018-902141-1
C2018-902142-X
Front-cover photo from Shutterstock, Inc. (ID 710840458).
Cover design by Cyanotype Book Architects. Interior design by Janette Thompson (Jansom).
© 2018 Wilfrid Laurier University Press
Waterloo, Ontario, Canada
www.wlupress.wlu.ca
This book is printed on FSC® certified paper and is certified Ecologo. It contains
post-consumer fibre, is processed chlorine free, and is manufactured using biogas energy.
Printed in Canada
Every reasonable effort has been made to acquire permission for copyright material
used in this text, and to acknowledge all such indebtedness accurately. Any errors and
omissions called to the publisher’s attention will be corrected in future printings.
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system,
or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior written consent
of the publisher or a licence from the Canadian Copyright Licensing Agency
(Access Copyright). For an Access Copyright licence,
visit http://www.accesscopyright.ca or call toll free to 1-800-893-5777.
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FOR TIM
h
and all other parents
who put the best interests
of their children first
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Contents
Preface ....................................... ix
CHAPTER 1 The Challenge of Children’s Rights ................. 1
CHAPTER 2 The Promise of Children’s Rights ................. 13
CHAPTER 3 The Moral and Legal Status of Children ............ 31
CHAPTER 4 The Supreme Court of Canada
and the Convention ........................... 45
CHAPTER 5 The Rights of Provision ........................ 65
CHAPTER 6 The Rights of Protection ....................... 93
CHAPTER 7 The Rights of Participation .................... 123
CHAPTER 8 Meeting the Challenge ........................ 145
Notes ..................................... 161
Selected Bibliography ......................... 205
Cases Cited ............................. 233
Online Resources ........................ 234
About the Authors ........................... 235
Index ..................................... 237
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Preface to the Second Edition
More than a quarter of a century has passed since Canada ratified the United
Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, and more than a decade
and a half has passed since The Challenge of Children’s Rights for Canada was
published in its first edition.
The Challenge has served as an important resource for children’s rights
courses across the country and as a valuable reference for researchers and
students. But the time is clearly ripe for updating. In this completely revised
and expanded edition of The Challenge, we incorporate new material and
add legal and philosophical perspectives to our interdisciplinary analyses of
children’s rights in Canada. We review decisions by the Supreme Court of
Canada in which the Convention has been invoked to show how children’s
rights under the Convention have been judicially recognized. And we add
new issues and cases that show the continuing gap between the promise and
the reality of children’s rights. For example, we examine Katelynn’s Principle,
which resulted from the inquest into the preventable maltreatment death of
Katelynn Sampson, and we analyze the problems of Internet luring, as high-
lighted in the tragic sexual exploitation of Amanda Todd.
As in the first edition, we examine the gap between Canada’s commit-
ment to implementing the rights of children, as expressed in Canada’s offi-
cial approval of the Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1991, and the
actual state of children’s rights in Canada. In doing so, we incorporate the
most up-to-date empirical and theoretical research in our respective fields.
And as in the first edition, a key reference point for our analyses is develop-
mental psychology. We use Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems theory to
draw attention to the important influences of families, policies, and laws on
children’s capacity to enjoy their rights. Politically and philosophically, we
remain firmly rooted in the liberal tradition, with its rejection of proprietary
notions of children and its respect for all individuals as ends in themselves,
as bearers of rights with inherent dignity and worth, and as the appropriate
focus of our moral concern. Children’s rights are, of course, human rights.
International human rights instruments, including the Convention itself,
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