| Regional Councillor Report
Submitted by: Colleen Jordan,
Regional Councillor Wards 3 & 4
Regional Council – Sept. 23, 2009
Children’s Charter
Durham Regional Council endorsed the updated edition of Durham’s
Child and Youth Charter, which will help to ensure that the rights
and freedoms of children and youth in Durham’s communities are
upheld. As the Child and Youth Advocate, I sat on a sub-committee of
Best Start, with representatives from the Region’s Children’s
Services Department, Ontario Early Years Centres, licensed child-care
programs, children’s support service agencies and the educational
sector to develop an updated version of the 2000 Charter. Input was
gathered from a number of sources including parents and children and
youth. The updated charter was separated into two versions; one
representing and incorporating the words of children and youth and the
other targeted at an adult audience. It references a broad-spectrum of
rights from basic needs, access to publicly funded education, justice
and freedom from discrimination to the right to be heard, respected,
valued and live in peace. Both versions of Durham’s Child and Youth
Charter will be widely distributed throughout the region’s child-care
community to a number of groups, such as children and youth service
providers, agencies, school boards and municipal councils. The charter
is intended to serve as the basis for planning and decision making at
both the political and broad community service level. The two versions
are shown in attachments.
Durham Region Roundtable on Climate Change
Regional Council endorsed comments and recommendations from a report
that originated with the Durham Region Roundtable on Climate Change
which summarized current climate change science, greenhouse gas emission’s
reduction targets, and cap and trade and revenue neutral carbon tax
strategies to meet those targets. Scientific evidence overwhelmingly
supports the conclusion that human activities are fundamentally altering
the conditions for life on earth. Climate change and associated global
warming is recognized as a severe threat to global systems with the
potential for catastrophic outcomes. The report provides an overview of
the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Fourth Assessment Report
(2007), which presents a grim view of the future. The report speaks to
the need for more aggressive targets for emission’s reduction and
strategies to achieve reductions, such as cap and trade systems and
carbon taxes. The report notes that a number of jurisdictions are
treating carbon tax and cap and trade systems as complementary
approaches. The report concludes that immediate action must be taken by
international, national and provincial/state governments to implement a
mix of policies aimed at achieving significant reductions in greenhouse
gas emissions.
Durham Region Children and Youth Charter
Children’s Charter
In Durham, children and youth came together and, in their own words
described
what these rights mean to them:
1. The right to be a "kid"
a. To have fun
b. To play
c. To play with friends
d. To make safe decisions for yourself
2. The right to basic needs.
a. To food and water and cookies and plates for our food
b. To real juice
c. To clothes and shoes that fit
d. To having a family
e. To be loved
f. To not be abandoned
g. To shelter
3. The right to be healthy.
a. To have a good heart because it takes care of your body
b. To have doctors and dentists
c. To have your eyes and ears checked
d. To have sugar once in a while
e. To have a bath
f. To exercise
4. The right to publicly funded education, recreation and learning
opportunities.
a. To learn
b. To go to school
c. To a kind teacher who doesn’t yell and who has zero tolerance
for
physical aggression
d. To have someone teach you so you can understand
e. To not have to participate in games if you don’t want to
5. The right to justice, protection and fair treatment.
a. To not be bullied
b. To call the police when you are in danger
c. To live in peace
d. To speak and communicate
6. The right to freedom from discrimination.
a. To try not to destroy the human race
b. To wear what you want to wear
7. The right to caring and healthy environments: at home, at school,
child care
and in your neighbourhood.
a. To have people care about you or you won’t survive
b. To take care of your neighbourhood
c. To go outside
d. To do sports
8. The right to experience friendship.
a. To pick whatever friends you want
b. To be careful who you choose as a friend
c. To know that what is popular is not always right
9. The right to value their religion, culture and beliefs and their
own identity.
a. To be respected for my culture
b. To make up my own mind about what I want to believe
10. The right to be heard, respected and valued.
a. To treat people nicely – people’s lives are like gold, very
valuable
b. To be treated the way you want to be treated
c. To not be ignored
11. The right to live in peace
a. To live the way you want to live and not be attacked
12. The right to a government that values children and considers
their needs in
the decision making and planning.
Durham Region will ensure a prosperous healthy future by protecting
the rights of
children and youth. We will work with families and communities to
fulfill our shared
responsibilities to our children and youth.
Durham Region Children and Youth Charter
Adult Version
In Durham, we value our children and youth ‐
our future ‐
and we commit to
upholding these rights:
1. The right to be a "kid"
a. To play
b. To make developmentally appropriate choices
c. To learn from their mistakes
d. To have personal, calm, private time
2. The right to basic needs.
a. Housing
b. Clothing
c. Healthy food and safe drinking water
d. Child and youth friendly transportation
e. Happiness
f. Love
g. Freedom from poverty
3. The right to be healthy.
a. Prenatal care
b. Safe places for physical activity
c. Medical care
d. Dental care
e. Vision Care
f. Mental health care
g. Injury prevention
4. The right to publicly funded education, recreation and learning
opportunities.
a. The opportunity and the support to reach their full potential
beginning
with acknowledgement of the critical importance of the early years
from
birth to three
b. Recognition of how individual children learn and respect for
differing
abilities
c. The opportunity to learn in either official language
d. Access to affordable skill development (i.e. First Aid
Certificate, Driver’s
License)
5. The right to justice, protection and fair treatment.
a. Freedom for abuse of all kinds ; verbal, physical, emotional and
sexual
b. Freedom from bullying and coercion
6. The right to freedom from discrimination.
a. Race, sex, sexual orientation, colour, creed, special needs,
language,
property or class, ethnic origin, region, ability/disability
7. The right to caring and healthy environments: at home, at school
and child
care and in their neighbourhood.
a. Safe places for youth to gather together
b. Environments that are free of pesticides and toxic substances
8. The right to experience friendship.
9. The right to value their religion, culture and beliefs and their
own identity.
10. The right to be heard, respected and valued.
a. Adults learn from children and youth just as children and youth
learn
from adults
11. The right to live in peace
12. The right to a government that values children and considers
their needs in
the decision making and planning.
Durham Region will ensure a prosperous healthy future by protecting
the rights of
children and youth. We will work with families and communities to
fulfill our shared
responsibilities to our children and youth.
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