Virtual Library of Newspaper Articles

Little money for social programs from Finance Minister

Globe and Mail, by RICHARD BLACKWELL, March 23, 2006

Compared to the billions of dollars being spent on subways, bridges and health care infrastructure, the amount of new money going to help disadvantaged Ontarians in yesterday's provincial budget was decidedly modest.

An extra $218-million will be added to spending on children's and social services in 2006-2007, a 2.2 per cent rise from the $10.1-billion spent in the previous fiscal year.

The new money includes $33-million for a two per cent rise in social assistance payments and shelter allowances for those on welfare meaning a single parent with two children will get a boost of a little over $5 a week this year.

Families on social assistance will get another boost of about $8.50 a week, a result of provincial changes that will trim the amount of money the province claws back from federal child benefits.

Finance minister Dwight Duncan conceded yesterday that the social assistance measures were slim. There's much more to do, we acknowledge that, he told reporters. Hopefully, as prosperity grows we'll be able to build on [what we've done].

He noted that the Liberal government has been boosting the minimum wage in stages over several years, and he claimed that welfare payments to single-parent families have grown by more than 15 per cent since his party took office.

NDP leader Howard Hampton said the government can easily afford to put far more money into social spending. He was particularly critical of the Liberal's reluctance to completely eliminate the claw back of federal child benefits a move that he said would cost the province about $220-million.

The new social spending in the Liberal budget includes about $80-million that is being added to services for people with developmental disabilities. Another $7-million will go to hostels for people who need round the clock supervision.

There was also some new money for aboriginals, but not a lot. The budget included $6-million for libraries on First Nations communities and $800,000 for a summer camp program that is designed to encourage literacy among native young people.

Seniors in Ontario get one small break from among the very few tax changes in the budget. The province is increasing the income threshold at which seniors get property and tax credits clawed back. The change will ensure that the benefit isn't cut off as federal old age support programs rise with inflation.

The budget gave the government a chance to re-announce some of the spending it plans for at-risk youth, a key political priority after the spate of gun killings in Toronto in 2005.

Up to $45-million will go to the Youth Challenge Fund the program that's designed to provide an alternative to gangs and is being chaired by former football star Mike Pinball Clemons. Another $51-million has been allocated to the province's anti-gun and anti-gang strategy. Some of that will go to police and prosecutors.

The Ontario government has also already announced most of the new money that is budgeted for education in the coming year.

That increased spending in 2006-2007 includes an additional $424-million to school boards, and a boost for college and university operating grants.

The province will also increase grants to university students, and it is making that money available to more middle-class families those with family incomes of up to $75,000.

When it comes to child care, the budget says Ontario will put $63.5-million into the federal-provincial child care program in 2006-2007, the last year that the new federal conservative government will support the plan. The province put the same amount into the program for each of the next three years, without the federal help. But the Liberals say they will work with municipalities to try to get Ottawa to reconsider its move to shift funds out of child care.

Brainwashing Children - Divorce - Family Law

W5 TV Show on Parental Alienation

TV Show about Parental Alienation

W5 investigates: Children on the frontlines of divorce

November 7, 2009

The world of divorce is scary for any child. But when a divorce becomes especially toxic, children can become the target of an unrelenting crusade by one parent to destroy the child's relationship with the other. Experts call it parental alienation.

Parental Alienation

Divorced Parents Move, and Custody Gets Trickier

The New York Times, New York city, U.S.A. August 8, 2004

Not too long ago, Jacqueline Scott Sheid was a pretty typical Upper East Side mother. Divorced and with a young daughter, she had quickly remarried, borne a son, and interrupted her career to stay home with the children while her husband, Xavier Sheid, worked on Wall Street.

Early last year, Mr. Sheid lost his job and saw his only career opportunity in California. But Ms. Sheid's ex-husband, who shares joint legal custody of their daughter, refused to allow the girl to move away. So Ms. Sheid has spent much of the last year using JetBlue to shuttle between her son and husband on the West Coast and her daughter (and ex) on the East.

The New York court system, which she hoped would help her family to resolve the problem, has cost her tens of thousands of dollars in fees for court-appointed experts, she said, and has helped to prolong the process by objecting to her choice of lawyers.

Parenting: Baldwin Speaks Up

NEWSWEEK, U.S.A.
May 7, 2007

Many celebrities would shrink from view after a PR nightmare like Alec Baldwin's leaked voice mail in which he calls his 11-year-old daughter, Ireland, a "rude, thoughtless little pig." But Baldwin wants to use the media scrutiny to give exposure to parental alienation, the controversial "syndrome" caused by one parent's systematically damaging a child's relationship with the other parent.

Parental Alienation

Canadian Press

B.C. judge bars mother from seeing daughter

Court orders one-year ban after 'unfounded' abuse allegations made about teenager's father

THE CANADIAN PRESS
March 10, 2009

VANCOUVER - In a case of extreme parental alienation, a mother has been banned by a B.C. Supreme Court judge from seeing her teenage daughter for more than a year.

Because of the urgency of the matter, Justice Donna Martinson issued the terse, two-page ruling outlining 15 conditions the parents must follow, including that the mother, known only as Ms. A, not see her daughter until at least March 31, 2010.

The decision came after the mother alleged extreme emotional abuse by the father, which she claimed was putting the teenager's safety at risk.

"I am satisfied that Ms. A's allegations are unfounded," Martinson wrote.

"I am further satisfied that she has continued to undermine the relationship between M and her father and has acted in ways that are detrimental to M's psychological healing."

Names have been stripped from the court ruling to protect the girl's identity.

The judge has ordered that both the mother and maternal grandmother have no contact with the girl, which would be enforced by police if necessary.

PSYCHOLOGY: MIND GAMES

The family Pandora's Box

Some victims of parental alienation syndrome don't realize until adulthood that one parent turned them against the other

The Globe and Mail
March 24, 2009

After Joe Rabiega's parents divorced, when he was an adolescent, his father repeatedly told him his mother had abandoned him. The boy had to return any gifts that came from his mother's side of the family and, twice daily, he had to pledge his allegiance to his father.

"I was never allowed to have anything to do with her," he says from his home in Raleigh, N.C. "The consequences were dire if I did. He said I would have nobody."

Even though Mr. Rabiega, now 33, had witnessed ugly behaviour by his father toward his mother and knew his dad to be an erratic alcoholic, it wasn't until he sought counselling for personal problems in his early 20s that his past snapped into focus: He had been the victim of parental alienation syndrome - his father had systematically turned him against his mother.

The phenomenon, coined by psychiatrist Richard A. Gardner in 1985, has gained traction recently due to a number of recent high-profile divorce cases in Canada - not to mention the very public case of movie star Alec Baldwin, who accused his former wife, Kim Basinger, of parental alienation. Read More ..

A GUIDE TO THE PARENTAL ALIENATION SYNDROME

November, 1999

WHAT IS IT?

The Parental Alienation Syndrome (PAS) is the systematic denigration by one parent by the other with the intent of alienating the child against the other parent. The purpose of alienation is usually to gain or retain custody without the involvement of the non-custodial parent (NCP) The alienation usually extends to the NCP's family and friends as well. Though this document is written with the father in mind, it must be clear that there are many cases of PAS where the NCP is the mother, and PAS from the non-custodial mothers' viewpoint will be discussed later.

Dr. Richard Gardner in his book 'The Parental Alienation Syndrome' states (p. 74) "Many of these children proudly state that their decision to reject their fathers is their own.";

They deny any contribution from their mothers. And the mothers often support this vehemently. In fact, the mothers will often state that they want the child to visit with the father and recognise the importance of such involvement, yet such a mothers every act indicates otherwise.

Such children appreciate that, by stating the decision is their own, they assuage mother's guilt and protect her from criticism. Such professions of independent thinking are supported by the mother who will often praise these children for being the kind of people who have minds of their own and are forthright and brave enough to express overtly their opinions.

Frequently, such mothers will exhort their children to tell them the truth regarding whether or not they really want to see their fathers. The child will usually appreciate that "the truth" is the profession that they hate the father and do not want to see him ever again. They thereby provide that answer - couched as "the truth" - which will protect them from their mother's anger if they were to state what they really wanted to do, which is to see their fathers.

It is important for the reader to appreciate that after a period of programming the child may not know what is the truth any Read More ..d come to actually believe that the father deserves the vilification being directed against him. The end point of the brainwashing process has then been achieved. Read More ..