BETTER SERVICES BEST FOR KIDS

Musing aloud at a recent Canadian Bar Association conference in St.
John's, NL, Justice Minister Vic Toews wondered if the Youth Criminal
Justice Act should be amended so that children as young as 10 who "run
afoul of the law" should get a court hearing.

Even though Toews explained he wasn't advocating the jailing of
children who should be in Grade 5 or 6, but merely attempting to give
legal authorities the power to intervene in the lives of youngsters
who have come to be manipulated by "criminal elements," it came off
sounding like the simplistic solution that it is.

For one thing, it carries shades of the onetime Reformers' gettough-
on-crime, put-'em-in-boot-camps rhetoric that not only failed to
connect with many Canadians but also was a demonstrable failure in the
few instances it was tried in places such as some American states.

For another, the suggestion comes from a justice minister who recently
acted, quite correctly, to raise Canada's age of consent for sexual
activity to 16 because youths at age 14 aren't considered mature
enough to decide on an activity with potentially life-altering
consequences. With developmental psychologists pointing out that the
children below age 12 lack the cognitive skills required for
court-imposed sanctions to have the intended deterrence effect, it
makes little sense to consider involving judges in the treatment of
young children in trouble with the law.

Canada already locks up more of its youngsters than almost any other
country -- its rate being twice that of the United States, and
many-fold the rate of most European nations, Australia and New
Zealand. And within Canada, Saskatchewan and Manitoba have among the
highest rates of youth incarceration, with this province locking up
0.28 children per 100,000 young persons and Manitoba 0.2 kids per
100,000. The probation rate per 100,000 youths is 1.65 in Saskatchewan
and 1.78 in Manitoba.

Yet, with even such high rates of court intervention in the lives of
children aged 12 to 17, Canada's rate of youth recidivism is among the
world's highest, meaning that kids exactly aren't being "scared
straight" by hauling them before the courts.

What prompted Toews to raise the topic at this juncture, when
Statistics Canada fi gures indicate the rate of crime among older
youth actually has fallen by six per cent, isn't clear. As far as can
be determined, there hasn't been a crime spree involving the Grade 5-6
set, although the minister suggests there's some anecdotal evidence of
such children being dragged into criminality by older persons.

If Toews's concern indeed is to fi nd a way to intervene in the lives
of these young kids before it's too late to rehabilitate them at age
12, criminalizing them by dragging them into court is the wrong
tactic. As the minister could have ascertained with even a modicum of
research, processes already exist under provincial laws across Canada
for child protection agencies, under supervision of youth courts, to
take remedial action to treat troubled children when their parents
fail to act.

The minister's impulse to take timely action to help young kids avoid
a life of criminality is laudable, but he needs to work not only with
his counterparts in the provinces but also involve politicians and
offi cials responsible for a plethora of public agencies that provide
services ranging from welfare to mental health to education if his
intent is to take effective action, not merely pander to mostly
misplaced public fears about youth criminality.

Court-ordered treatment cannot work if the mental health and basic
health services required to provide the required help are inadequate,
overcrowded or non-existent. That means working with provincial
agencies to buttress overstressed child welfare systems.

Without tackling such complex factors as poverty and dysfunctional
families that lead to children growing up in an unhealthy environment,
it's nearly pointless to talk of early intervention and forced
treatment as the key to rehabilitation. Addressing these require
co-ordinated action from federal, provincial and municipal
governments, not more talk about dragging kids into court.