Charges Laid In “Baby Mac” Daycare Death – Government Is Also At Fault

August 2020. Vancouver Sun – web: Charges laid in 2017 death of toddler at unlicensed East Vancouver daycare
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          Kids First was consulted by the lawyers for this family in 2018 regarding their case against the government. The tragic death of this baby was the result not only of the daycare operator’s actions, but also of the failure of the BC government’s daycare inspection system and regulations. The government failed to act on a number of complaints that had been made about this daycare and failed to shut it down. The parents were told that it was licensed, tried to ascertain that the daycare was licensed,  and could not access the complaints that had been made.

         Even so, the current allowable staff: child ratios for children in licensed home daycare is 1staff for 8 children, and for age 0-18 months in centres is 1 staff for 4 infants. This is a “license to neglect” according to Dr Jay Belsky, international leading expert of the effects of non-parental child care. The quality of licensed daycare in Canada is “minimal to mediocre” and inadequate to meet developmental needs according to research by leading daycare proponents Doherty, Lero, Goelman, Tougas in their federal government funded You Bet I Care! study.

          Moreover, by the federal, provincial, and local governments’ aggressive promotion and preferential treatment of non-parental child care governments bare  some responsibility for and are complicit in daycare tragedies. Governments routinely assert that non-parental care is ‘the best start in life’ and ‘high quality’ and that mothers need to be in full time jobs to be ‘productive’.