Virtual Library of Newspaper Articles

and various other newspapers in Canada

Deadbeat parents owe $1.3B: Auditor

System in grave danger of collapse, auditor says

Canadian Press, December 2, 2003

Tens of thousands of parents and children are owed $1.3 billion in court-ordered support payments and the government agency that collects and forwards the money is in "grave danger" of collapse, Ontario's provincial auditor reported today.

In a scathing assessment of the Family Responsibility Office, the report says the system created to protect women and children from negligent men has only grown worse since he highlighted its shortcomings in 1999.

With families often desperately awaiting their money, the audit found it took an average of seven months from the time the office received a complaint that a payment had not been made until it even began trying to collect. In some cases, two years went by between attempts to get the outstanding money.

"You basically have women and children who are depending on these support payments (and) depending on the government to help them out to make sure they get their money," said Jim McCarter, assistant provincial auditor.

"Unless this thing is fixed, the government is not helping them out, they're not getting their money and it's creating extreme hardship for these people."

Part of the problem, the report notes, is that the number of front-line workers has fallen by 20 per cent since 1994, while their caseload shot up by almost 50 per cent.

Some individual workers now have as many as 1,300 cases to manage - one individual was handling more than 1,700 cases - but no one staff member is responsible for any particular case.

In each of about 1,500 cases, the amount owing totalled more than $50,000, yet no one was dealing with them.

"Unless the office takes aggressive enforcement action . . . it is in grave danger of failing to meet its mandated responsibilities," Erik Peters, who retired in September, wrote in his final report as provincial auditor.

Laurel Rothman of the Family Service Association of Toronto said she was "just appalled" by the findings.

"After detailed recommendations, several years have gone by and nothing has improved, indeed, it has got worse," said Rothman.

"No wonder we have all kinds of families, including working families with kids with no choice but to go to foodbanks."

The report found that phoning for information is a huge exercise in frustration, particularly for clients outside the Toronto area. As many as 90 per cent of non-Toronto calls were "blocked" or went unanswered, the auditor found.

The report notes that many of those who rely on the agency are in relatively dire straits. About 23,000 people on welfare are owed more than $200 million.

Overall, only one-third of cases were fully paid up and another third were in partial compliance.

In all, 136,000 cases were behind a total of $1.3 billion - an eight per cent jump from 1999

The Boy Crisis

TEDx Dr Warren Farrell

TEDx - The Boy Crisis: Why Our Boys Are Struggling and What We Can Do About It

One of the foremost speakers and thinkers on gender issues

It's a crisis of education. Worldwide, boys are 50 percent less likely than girls to meet basic proficiency in reading, math, and science.

It's a crisis of mental health. ADHD is on the rise. And as boys become young men, their suicide rates go from equal to girls to six times that of young women.

It's a crisis of fathering. Boys are growing up with less-involved fathers and are more likely to drop out of school, drink, do drugs, become delinquent, and end up in prison.

It's a crisis of purpose. Boys' old sense of purpose-being a warrior, a leader, or a sole breadwinner-are fading. Many bright boys are experiencing a "purpose void," feeling alienated, withdrawn, and addicted to immediate gratification.

So, what is The Boy Crisis? A comprehensive blueprint for what parents, teachers, and policymakers can do to help our sons become happier, healthier men, and fathers and leaders worthy of our respect.

Associated Press

Why boys are in trouble

Boys have been painted as the bad guys in the push to encourage girls to succeed, leaving many young men feeling confused and alienated, wondering what they did wrong

The Associated Press
January 5, 1999

According to psychologist and author William Pollack, 'sports are the one arena in which many of society's traditional strictures about masculinity are often loosened, allowing boys to experience parts of themselves they rarely experience elsewhere.'

When Harvard Medical School psychologist William Pollack administered a test to a group of 150 teenaged boys a few years ago, the results were shocking.

The Boy Crisis Book - Warren Farrell - John Gray

The Boy Crisis Book

The Boy Crisis: Why Our Boys Are Struggling and What We Can Do About It

Authors- Waren Farrell PhD and John Gray PhD

What is the boy crisis?

It's a crisis of education. Worldwide, boys are 50 percent less likely than girls to meet basic proficiency in reading, math, and science.

It's a crisis of mental health. ADHD is on the rise. And as boys become young men, their suicide rates go from equal to girls to six times that of young women.

It's a crisis of fathering. Boys are growing up with less-involved fathers and are more likely to drop out of school, drink, do drugs, become delinquent, and end up in prison.

The Boy Crisis

The War Against Boys: How misguided feminism is harming our young men

Canadian flag
Health Canada Publication

The Invisible Boy: Revisioning the Victimization of Male Children and Teens

"... the existence of a double standard in the care and treatment of male victims, and the invisibility and normalization of violence and abuse toward boys and young men in our society.

Despite the fact that over 300 books and articles on male victims have been published in the last 25 to 30 years, boys and teen males remain on the periphery of the discourse on child abuse.

Few workshops about males can be found at most child abuse conferences and there are no specialized training programs for clinicians. Male-centred assessment is all but non-existent and treatment programs are rare. If we are talking about adult males, the problem is even greater. A sad example of this was witnessed recently in Toronto. After a broadcast of The Boys of St. Vincent, a film about the abuse of boys in a church-run orphanage, the Kids' Help Phone received over 1,000 calls from distraught adult male survivors of childhood sexual abuse. It is tragic in a way no words can capture that these men had no place to turn to other than a children's crisis line."

American Psychological Association

American Psychological Association
Dating Violence Statistics in the United States

Nearly one in 10 girls and one in 20 boys say they have been raped or experienced some other form of abusive violence on a date, according to a study released Sunday at the annual meeting of the American Psychological Association.

The mean T-shirt: From the Stupid Factory

Todd Goldman says his popular boy-bashing T-shirts are simply funny.

So why are retailers having second thoughts? Read More ..

Why boys are in trouble

Boys have been painted as the bad guys in the push to encourage girls to succeed, leaving many young men feeling confused and alienated, wondering what they did wrong

The Associated Press

When Harvard Medical School psychologist William Pollack administered a test to a group of 150 teenaged boys a few years ago, the results were shocking.

Where the boys are

The Globe and Mail
February 1, 2003

Academically, boys across the country are lagging behind the girls, but a Montreal public school has seen dramatic improvement by separating the sexes in classes. It allows teachers to tailor curriculum and style to suit each sex. The result? The number going on to college has nearly doubled. INGRID PERITZ reports

MONTREAL -- The teenage girls at James Lyng High School like to flirt with boys. They like to tease them, joke with them, even date them sometimes. But attend class with them? As the giggling girls in one math class this week might say, "Gross."

Luckily, they don't have to. Coed James Lyng splits boys and girls up at the classroom door. The division of the sexes is credited with helping turn a faltering inner-city high school into an education success story.