As a parent and a legislator, Nepean-Carleton MPP Lisa MacLeod holds children’s welfare close to her heart. That’s why she’s spent the last year consulting with children, youth, groups and advocates to draft Bill 165, which will strengthen protection for young people.

“As a mom, I don’t want to see these things happening and as a legislator I can make sure it doesn’t,” MacLeod says.

Child advocates put her on to the idea of a bill of rights for children. She realized the project was ambitious and decided to narrow her focus to article 19 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.

The bill is still a large, aggressive piece of legislation to combat violence against children. MacLeod lists the three main goals of the bill as:

* To increase awareness of child abuse and child protection rights.

* To give more tools to the justice system, parents and educators to prevent abuse.

* To increase accountability.

One example of a new tool in the bill is expanding Christopher’s Law from a sex offender registry to a child abuse registry that would also include physical abusers. The bill would require the advocate for children and youth in Ontario to table an annual report on how effective the province has been on advancing the principles in the UN Rights of the Child.

The omnibus bill would open up six pieces of legislation for nine new initiatives.

“It’s quite ambitious as a private member but it came from good hard work and honest consultation,” MacLeod says. 

MacLeod first began work on the bill when she was appointed the Progressive Conservative party’s children and youth services critic a year ago.

“I learned about the challenges children face,” MacLeod says. “It was an eye opener from a public policy perspective.”

Although she no longer holds that post, MacLeod was scheduled to introduce the bill in Queen’s Park for first reading on Nov. 20. If passed, the private members’ bill will become the Children’s Safety and Protective Rights Act.

She says the law would offer the proper tools educators, parents and the justice system need to protect youth with strong accountability to ensure dollars allocated to children actually help them. MacLeod points to a case where the Auditor-General found Children’s Aid Societies misusing money on cars, trips and gym memberships.

“Reports and assessments were not completed on time, if at all,” MacLeod says.

In preparing the bill, MacLeod consulted with the Osgoode Youth Association and spoke to a Grade 10 civics class and a Grade 12 law class at St. Joseph Catholic High School in Barrhaven. MacLeod brainstormed with the teenagers on what adults can do to prevent violence against children, what are the most important issues regarding violence against children and the role that youth have to play in prevention.

The youth said adults need to refrain from violence themselves, there needs to be appropriate penalties for offenders and youth need to help peers. MacLeod says the students were able to personalize the discussion in their own roles as babysitters, hockey players, Facebook users and more.

MacLeod says her bill is backed by the child advocate for Ontario, the Ontario ombudsman, and Defence of Children International, as well as local celebrity Max Keeping.

MacLeod will now be working on creating broad-based support for her bill. She has launched an online video, petition and Facebook group which are linked from her website, www.lisamacleod.com.

margaret.sambol@nepeanthisweek.com