The Children's Holocaust - Part One

There is a worldwide holocaust being perpetrated against children. They are dying and suffering all kinds of abuse and violence and betrayal and neglect and exclusion. I have been led to wonder why adults feel and believe themselves justified in perpetrating this outrageous continuum of harm, exclusion and vilification that children experience.

Not long ago women and children were summarily grouped together and characterized as “not needing Rights” by a member of the Royal Commission that helped shape The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. It was Châtelaine Magazine's celebrated editor Doris Anderson who stood up against this bigoted opinion. Thereby Equal Rights for women was included in this Charter. At this point much of the violence, abuse and disenfranchisement that was suffered by women in general has been significantly reduced. Women have Rights, though theirs, like everyone's are certainly infringed upon from time to time.

Children DO NOT have Rights. That is to say that they do not enjoy the fullness of Equal Rights as defined in the Charter and judicial interpretations of its contents. Also the Criminal Code of Canada strips children of Equal Rights, protection and opportunity in Section 43 [in locus parentis]. And this Section bestows the children's Rights upon “responsible” adults – parents, teachers, and others who are busy protecting their own share of the social pie.

Again and again “responsible” adults tell me that they are comfortable being in control and empowered while children are murdered, exploited, abused, insulted, mistreated, rejected...and blamed. I now see why it's called a “criminal” code. The intent and consequences of this Statute are criminal and we are the guilty ones.

We gather children in neighbourhood concentration camps – schools. And many do not emerge alive after eight or twelve years in these camps. The camp director, staff and prisoner supervisors make sure the children know they have neither Rights nor recourse. They are helpless, powerless and optionless.

As a child I saw these claims as lies and spent as little time in these places as possible, leaving finally, once and for all, at age fifteen. I found options, choices, safety, respect, meaning and much more outside of the machine. The Ministry of Education and Government of Ontario consider all of this Just. So does the Government of Canada. But...The Canadian Senate Human Rights Committee does not consider it Just or fair or constitutional.

Sadly the entire social analytical apparatus [the media, academia, et cetera], along with the government, institutions, families and others remain convinced that children neither need nor deserve Equal Rights. This belief is poison for the Human Spirit and destructive to a society. Our journalists sleep while children suffer exclusion, harm, exploitation of many kinds, humiliation and death. This in turn causes deep impacts upon GNP and the economy in general.

I want others to see the widespread, vicious, unjust murderous picture of what children face in Canada and worldwide that I see. To me it has the appearance of a holocaust, with countless millions dying every single year. I want my fellow citizens to see the financial, political, social, legal, ethical, moral and other consequences of this injustice. And I want them all to change...quickly...before this injustice proves to be a welcome mat to those who want what we possess – land, freedom, sovereignty, businesses. Everything is in jeopardy and few see why.

I have demonstrated elsewhere that many of these “responsible” adults are not worthy or deserving of the public trust. In fact democratic principles, values and history make explicit the idea that one should never surrender one's Rights to anyone under any condition or circumstance. To do so is to break faith with our fellow citizens and those who strove and sacrificed to win and maintain our Freedom. To do so is to become a slave, according to Abraham Lincoln.

These “responsible” others are really only damaged and alienated children of previous generations. They were thwarted, humiliated and excluded by a system that saw teachers, preachers, lawyers, doctors and so forth as 'above' others, and above reproach. This obsolete and class-ridden idea has been lain aside and then laid to rest by The Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

If women had not been included in the definition of “Human” in Human Rights, Canada would have undergone a social and economic crisis. Now we are experiencing such a crisis as a result of the exclusion of children from the Social Contract.

Canadians must awaken to the injustice in this and to the threat that such injustice poses for those who perpetrate it. It's exactly like Apartheid in South Africa. But in this case the excluded ones with no Rights and Freedoms are children. Adults are in denial. Besides this we urgently need the help of our children to confront the Gathering Storm, just as children were called upon to help in the World Wars.

From Kitchener to the Congo, from Bangkok to Peking, Quito, New York, to London, Paris, Berlin, Baghdad, Cairo, Inuvik, Rio de Janeiro, Palestine, Moscow, Cleveland, Vancouver and in every town and village and region. In all places children suffer a spectrum of horrors and indignities from war to violence, prostitution, starvation and disease, slavery and torture, to internment in our poor excuses for schools, and in our police services, courts and jails.

They disappear, suffer beatings, bullying and abuse from “responsible” adults, have little or no say in their own affairs and destiny, can have their character slandered, their possessions confiscated, their opinions quashed. They receive little or no respect from society, and much abuse. Then their predictable reactions to all of this are put down to lame categories like adolescent or teenager. They are Human and are reacting in a human way to widespread and prolonged injustice. Do the Math!

This Holocaust is of such magnitude and proportion as to overshadow the Nazi Holocaust in each and every year it continues. Yet no one counts the victims. No one traces the causes to see the roots. No one tallies the insults, infractions, assaults, offenses, consequences and lame defenses that attempt to ignore and justify this horrific set of images that fill my mind from media sources every day.

Brothers and Sisters we must cease from making war upon our children, mostly via our social and governmental institutions. They need and deserve our love, nurture and protection. The holocaust must stop or we will all bear the guilt and consequences. If we do not alter our thinking and behaviour soon, we will suffer from the fallout.

Help our children and thereby help the nation and the global community. Support Equal Rights for children in Canada and an end to the silent and endless holocaust children endure everywhere.

Think global. Act local. - The Whole Earth Catalog

John Williams - Director – The Canadian Children's Rights Initiative

December 19, 2007.1500 h
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