Current Issues and Action

Learn what’s happening in research, politics and propaganda:

Daycare Fact & Fiction, Ideology & Agendas
This in-depth report was compiled by H. Ward, President of Kids First Parent Association of Canada. The latest June 2006 update is available as a pdf document (download here). Also available are a condensed version with references and links (download updated March 2009 version), and a condensed version with no references.

UNICEF Report on Daycare

Good News

Riots, Bullying, Obesity, Digital Obsession – The Kids Are Not All Right

Income Splitting/Family Taxation

Daycare Promotion by Corporate Right and Neo-Cons/Neo-Liberals

All-Day Kindergarten

Data Collection, Privacy Violation, UBC’s HELP & the EDI

Breastfeeding

Daycare: Safety, Health, and Developmental Concerns

National Daycare Debate

Child Poverty Issues

Cuts to BC Community Non-Profit Organizations Serving Children, Families, Handicapped

2011 Federal Election

Other Issues

UNICEF Report on Daycare

Innocenti Centre/OECD Report promotes daycare yet says it harms child development

Read the report, “The child care transition: a league table of early childhood education and care in economically advanced countries.” Innocenti Report Card, 8. Published by the Innocenti Centre, now a department of UNICEF. Written by Peter Adamson drawing on research by John Bennett from the OECD’s daycare agency.

“Childcare is bad for your baby, working parents are warned: A Unicef study suggests that government policy is at odds with the developmental needs of children under 12 months.” December 11, 2008 London Times article on the report.

Kids First commentary:
Daycare Lobby Co-Opting the UNICEF Brand: Children and Parents’ Rights Wronged (Download PDF)

Metro article by daycare lobbyist Martha Friendly
“Getting better child care: It’s the policy, stupid“

UNICEF says daycare lobbyists Martha Friendly and Sandra Griffin (former Executive Director of the Childcare Federation of Canada) were the Canadians consulted. (Download PDF)

UNICEF sets up daycare lobby leader to act as media contact before release of UNICEF daycare report (View Here)

Riots, Bullying, Obesity, Digital Obsession – The Kids Are Not All Right

Violent Youth Crime and overall violent crime up dramatically according to Statistics Canada data

Sept 14 2011: Cycle of ‘compulsive consumerism’ leaves British family life in crisis, Unicef study finds

Vancouver Sun Aug 15, 2011: Parents bear responsibility for the recreational rioter

Mayor of Philidelphia on youth violence: read a book, buy a belt, get your act together

Aug 6, 2011: David Cameron, UK PM responds to riots: “a lack of proper parenting“

From the Gordon Neufeld Institute:

Uncovering the Roots of Delinquency – Dr Gordon Neufeld on the Vancouver riots

Making Sense of the Senseless Business Profit Agenda Undermining Child-Rearing

Children, Teens and Technology

Aug 20, 2011 interview with Helen Ward on riots on the Roy Green show on Corus radio. Go to 8/20, segment “Another teen set to…”

Business Profit Agenda Undermining Child-Rearing: August 21, 2011 in The New York Times, The Kids Are Not All Right by UBC law professor, Joel Bakan, author of “The Corporation” and the new “Childhood Under Siege: How Big Business Targets Children”

Good News

GOOD NEWS: Recent indications that the tide is turning against discrimination against parental child care!

Swedish Parliament hears about the importance of parent-child attachment

Parent-Child Attachment Now a Political Issue in Britain. New Report from ex-leader of Conservatives says government should stop pressuring parents to use daycare centres

Thank you Newfoundland and Labrador for leading the way in funding child care equality: $1,000 for birth/adoption and $100/month for first 12 months according to a govenment press release

New Study from the UK Recommends $100 per Month for Parental Child Care: “Little Britons: Financing Childcare Choice” “[D]aycare was a long way down the list of priorities for parents in deprived families…formal childcare was actively rejected as inappropriate in most areas.” Read a description of the study or a discussion from a Canadian point of view.

Parents should be paid to spend time with their children says top UK School Head

Brown advisor calls for tax breaks for stay-at-home mums after warning over nurseries: UK PM’s policy advisor, Jay Belsky, cites negative effects of centre-based care and asks for funding for parental child care “on humanitarian grounds.”

Sweden to Fund Parental Child Care–Reverses Decades of Discrimination

Income Splitting/Family Taxation

Since its founding, Kids First has supported family taxation/income splitting. As in France, family income should be ‘split’ considering all dependent children—not only adults. It is just one step towards fairly financing the work of child care and early learning by parents or whomever parents freely choose to do this. Family taxation helps non-parents share the huge cost of this essential work.

April 5, 2011: HELP’s Paul Kershaw suggests funding daycare by cutting back grandparents’ medical care such as hip replacements. UBC alone paid Kershaw (2008) $97,321 + $10,009 in expenses. (How about cutting such “scholars'” salaries and distributing the saving to families?) We need a Canada that works for all generations. See Investing an additional $22 billion in the standard of living of Canadians is fiscally smart when the payback is huge in the Vancouver Sun

Kathleen Lahey’s article, Bribing women to stay at home, in the National Post and a reply by Andrea Mrozek, The new feminist demand: high taxes

April 4, 2011 Surrey Now article, MP Hiebert’s income-splitting bill ‘fluff,’ says NDP opponent Keeping

April 1, 2011: Liberal daycare plan ‘discriminates’ against most families: parents rights advocate on LifeSiteNews.com

Income splitting is discussed in the Globe and Mail: How to win women’s votes: Start a Mommy War (March 28, 2011), There are better ways to cut taxes than income splitting (March 29, 2011), and Income splitting won’t help families in need (March 28, 2011)

Feb 7, 2011: Make the tax system fairer for families by Dave Quist in the National Post

Debate on “Income Splitting” between Martha Friendly, Co-ordinator of the Childcare Resource and Research Unit and John Williamson, Head of the Canadian Taxpayers’ Federation

Watch Your Language! A Word on Words: “work”, “stay-at-home mum”, “single-earner”

Ottawa Conference on Family Taxation May 2008 audio

Calgary Herald article

Daycare Promotion by Corporate Right and Neo-Cons/Neo-Liberals

Though often thought of as “left-wing,” daycare and other institutional care/learning have long been aggressively promoted by the corporate right, which is not known for being “family friendly.” Check out the child policy of these organizations:

HELP propagandist, sociologist Dr Paul Kershaw, has a new 24-part editorial series in the Vancouver Sun. He is pushing mass tax-funded institutional child care with misleading claims and neo-lib/con ideology. He says he wants “DIALOGUE” so email sunletters@vancouversun.com

Neo-conservative alliance with second-wave feminist daycare lobby admitted: “Transnationalising (Child) Care Policy: the OECD and the World Bank” (Download PDF) by Rianne Mahon, Carleton University sociologist and top Canadian daycare apologist

World Bank’s Handy Dandy Early Child Development Cost-Benefit Calculator. Use it to “prove” the more you spend, the more you save: $1 produces $2-$17 in savings.

Dr. Strangelove and Daycare: The RAND Corporation, the biggest “think tank” in the world, is funded by the US military and large corporations. It pushed “universal preschool” in California.

A new book, Soldiers of Reason: the RAND Corporation and the Rise of the American Empire, exposes the RAND Corporation’s vast influence on the US government and ties to the World Bank. The character of Dr. Strangelove was based on a former RAND head who promoted nuclear war. Listen to author Alex Abella.

HELP spokesman Paul Kershaw seeks neo-liberal state coersion of parents’ child rearing decisions.

Read excerpts from chapter 10, “Carefair: Gendering Citizenship ‘Neo-Liberal’ Style,” by Paul Kershaw, leading spokesperson at Human Early Learning Partnership (HELP) and leading child/family policy advisor, in the 2008 book, Gendering the Nation State: Canadian and Comparative Perspectives

Kershaw advocates for state coercion regarding who cares for our children. He believes that women choose to do more unpaid care work because they are victims of patriarchal conditioning and need to be forced free of that by the state. He wants the state to force men to do more unpaid care work. He supports coercive ‘workfare’ policies as the model to build on.

He does not advocate financing unpaid care work to address the financial cost to women who do this, or including these women in policy-making to address their marginalization.

HELP as Media Darling: Propaganda Production

All-Day Kindergarten

Background to All-Day Kindergarten

Child Rearing by the State: The “Integration” Agenda to Merge Daycare and School

Background to All-Day Schooling: Daycare Lobby Strategizing at Taxpayer Expense

The Unhurried Day: Learning and Caring Seamlessly (Download PDF), Integration Network Project November 2005 Symposium report

The OECD’s idea of All-Day Kindergarten for ages 3-5 was established in Canada with the secretive strategizing of the daycare lobby. This tax-funded symposium brought daycare lobbyists together with education and daycare ministry staff. The item had been removed from the web.

Background to All-Day Kindergarten: The “Integration” Agenda to Merge Daycare and School

arrowHELP at SFU Dec 6, 2010: Exposing a Few of H.E.L.P.’s False Claims

arrow Kick Big Brother Out of School: Government Collecting “Sperm to Worm” Personal Data of All BC Children then Using it to Push All-Day Kindergarten

arrowFeb 2010 article by Kids First President, Helen Ward, submitted to The Tyee It’s Time Social Justice Proponents Took a Closer Look at Child Care Policy: The Ideological Who and Why of All-Day Kindergarten and Daycare

arrowPascal Adviser from OECD Says State is Responsible for Child-Rearing

arrowTop “Integration” Promoters Admit Problems and Lack of Evidence for their Policy:

2006 Paper by OECD child policy head J. Bennett, “Toward a new pedagogical meeting place? Bringing early childhood into the education system.” Integration is pushed despite admitting negative effects of “schoolification in Sweden” and finding “there is little up-to-date research evidence about the process or the consequences.”

arrow Government-Funded Daycare/All-Day K Promoters Lie When they Claim Nobel-Prize Economist Agrees with Them. Daycare and all-day kindergarten promoters including HELP and Charles Pascal & Fraser Mustard all say Nobel Prize Economist Dr James Heckman’s research supports their policy. This is NOT TRUE. Heckman rejects “universal” programs and favours vouchers for very targeted under-privileged families to use in programs run by religious and community groups of great diversity. He says it is not known what works best but that parents are key.

Read Heckman for yourself. He advocates vouchers for the underprivileged and not universal state-run early education. This is the 2009 interview by the Bernard Van Leer Foundation that HELP quoted to show Heckman is in favour of all day Kindergarten/daycare. Read pages 24 to 29 and see what he really says.

Heckman Quotes

  • “None of this evidence supports universal preschool programs.”

  • “Advocates and supporters of universal preschool often use existing research for purely political purposes.”

  • “People are very worried about the central government inculcating values in their children that they don’t agree with.”

  • He hopes “that early childhood provision doesn’t come to resemble a government bureaucracy,” which is exactly what the daycare promoters “integrated approach” is.

Heckman quotes from

arrowMore organizations & academics misrepresenting Dr Heckman on the economic benefits of daycare, all day kindergarten, preschool:

  • Council on Early Child Development (founded by F Mustard, HELP’s C Hertzman President)

  • World Bank

  • OECD

  • Fraser Mustard, Chair in Childhood Development at Alberta Children’s Hospital

    Misleading out of context quote:
    “Early childhood investments of high quality have lasting effects…. We cannot afford to postpone investing in children until they become adults, nor can we wait until they reach school age … The role of the family is crucial to the formation of learning skills, and government interventions at an early age that mend the harm done by dysfunctional families have proven to be highly effective.”
  • Committee for Economic Development (US)

    False statement:
    “Nobel Laureate James Heckman demonstrates that preschooling is key to improving America’s international economic competitiveness”

arrowTalking to economist Kevin Milligan: On all-day kindergarten, Nobel laureate James Heckman and the purported economic benefits of universal plans. (See PDF here) In IFMC’s eReview.

arrowKids First Parents Association of Canada Exposing All Day Kindergarten Dis-Information: Clyde Hertzman of UBC’s Human Early Learning Partnership Misleads the Public

All-Day Kindergarten—Newfoundland

arrowKids First Commentary— Fat Stats, Fuzzy Numbers, False Conclusions: A Closer Look at CUPE’s Newfoundland Poll On Daycare/All-Day Kindergarten (Download PDF here)

arrowNewfoundland considering all-day Kindergarten: World Bank institutional child care lobbyist Clyde Hertzman of HELP visited Newfoundland in Feb 2011. The province is following HELP’s established pattern (BC, Ont) of highly orchestrated “consultations” and a highly selective “research” overview. CBC reporters chime in supportively.

Newfoundland ECE leader and daycare owner, Mary Walsh, says,”People wonder: are the children ready for all that kindergarten? It never bothers me about the children.”

arrowSept 2011 CBC News—N.L. exploring all-day kindergarten

arrowGovernment documents CBC got through Access to Information request:

All-Day Kindergarten—Ontario

arrowJuly Costco Connections Debate on all-day Kindergarten with Helen Ward of Kids First: Send in your input and do the poll. Here is an uncut version of the Costco article with references/links

arrowKids First press release: Parents get lip service in Ontario daycare consultation (Download PDF Here)

arrowJune 2012 Kids First Letter to Ontario Minister of Education responding to the “consultation” process. (Download PDF Here)

arrowOntario Ministry of Education Press Release

arrowDiscussion Paper “Modernizing Child Care” (Download PDF here)= put more daycare centres in schools

arrowMar 2011—Toronto Star—Fate of all-day kindergarten in hands of Ontario voters. Read the response sent in by Kids First.

arrowMar 2011—Ottawa Citizen—“Full-day kindergarten set to expand. More than 40 additional schools to offer program in 2012: McGuinty”: If elected Hudak may “freeze” Ontario all-day K

arrowDec 2010, Toronto Star—Ontario axes “wrap around” daycare portion of “early learning”

arrowOttawa Citizen—Ontario should ax all-day kindergarten as well as wraparound daycare. Parents could spend the $9,000/child more wisely.

arrowNov 2010, Ottawa Citizen article—Full-day classes for kindergarten are a nightmare

arrowSpeak out against all-day Kindergarten

arrow Join Kindergarten Credit in the fight against all-day Kindergarten in Ontario

“Free” daycare through the back door: The push for full-time school for ages 3-5

arrowNew report by Ontario all-day-K man’s organization regurgitates “$2-for $1 investment” cost-benefit non-peer reviewed fabrication

arrow“All-Day K Money Tree: Ontario government decides taxpayers must give millions to daycares to NOT provide daycare.” April 27, 2010 Letter from Ontario government to daycares (Download PDF here). $51 million annually for not doing daycare for 4-5 year olds, plus millions more for daycare for babies.

arrowEarly Learning, er Kindergarten Daycare, Passes. An blog post by the executive director of the Society for Quality Education.

arrow In Ontario, the Liberals and NDP make full-day school for age 4-5 an election promise and disregard kindergarten child:staff ratios of 20:1—Full-day kindergarten no treat for kids (a Hamilton Spectator article by Kate Tennier)

arrowOpen letter demands full-day schooling for age 3-5 and daycare: the letter claiming disproven Utopian social and economic benefits for preschool and daycare is sponsored by maritime heiress Margaret McCain and signed by daycare lobby voices.

June 2009: All-day Kindergarten proposal in Ontario

arrowAll-day school report by Charles Pascal “With our best future in mind: Implementing early learning in Ontario”.

arrowNational Post—online commentary by Helen Ward, President of Kids First

arrowNational Post—commentary as it appeared in print by Helen Ward, President of Kids First

arrowToronto Star—“Full day of school just cruel for kids” by Rosie DiManno

arrow15 children per staff (Download PDF here)—Staff:child ratio recommendations for 3-5 year olds by daycare lobby OECD, Martha Friendly et al

Battles at the all-day schooling trough: The Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario (ETFO) recommends a maximum-cost approach to full-day schooling for 3 to 5 year olds: certified teachers, classes in schools

arrowIs All-Day K Needed to Ease Daycare Shortage? Daycare Vacancy Rate Over 7% in Toronto

Deadline for Submissions on “Kindergarten” Expansion Extended to Monday, March 29, 2010

arrowRead Kate Tennier’s Submission re Bill 242

arrowRead Kids First Submission re Bill 242

arrowBill 242 Submission of Jonas Himmelstrand (member of Swedish groups Haro and Children’s Right to Parents’ Time) and text of the attached speech and sources.

All-Day Kindergarten Government Documents—BC

arrowBC government says all-day K is better in BC than Ontario: George Abbott responds to criticism of full-day kindergarten, says BC model is play-based, in the Vancouver Sun

arrowSome costs of BC’s “early learning”—early schooling—spending spree: 2010 BC Government announcements:
$424 million for all-day K (capital costs not included)
$28.5 million for “modular classrooms” for all-day K
$2,000 grants available to daycares that need to move due to all day K
$43 million for Strong Start centres
“Pre-kindergarten” for ages 2-4 planned
$18 million over 6 years for “Ready, Set, Learn” “kindergarten readiness”—”supports school readiness events for three-year-olds and their families”

arrowBC Government Report on School All Day for Ages 3 to 5, “Expanding Early Learning In British Columbia For Children Age Three to Five” 2009, by unnamed members of the BC Government’s Early Childhood Learning Agency

2008 BC Sham “Public Consultation” Process

arrow“Stakeholders” list excludes public and parents. (Download PDF here) Government’s list of groups consulted and/or invited to participate in secretive “public” consultation: daycare lobbyists, public sector unions, school-tied professionals, and businesses are favoured with invitations while parents are not.

arrowDeadline extended to August 15 for submissions to BC Early Learning Agency on all-day schooling for 3 to 5 year olds: Ministry of Education news release, July 18 (original deadline)

arrowBiased Consultation: All five “Experts in the Field of Early Childhood Education” listed by the BC Government for the consultation are from HELP (Human Early Learning Partnership), including Hillel Goelman, HELP Director and author of the 2007 Vancouver Sun article describing and demanding all day schooling for ages 3-5

arrow“Research” the BC government is using in all-day schooling consultation: The list provided by the Ministry of Education at our request reveals a great deal of material by daycare lobbyists and their organizations, most of it not peer reviewed (M. Friendly, J. Beach, Cleveland, Krashinsky, G. Doherty, J. Bertrand, L. Anderson, Hillel Goelman, Alan Pence, HELP, RAND, OECD, F. Mustard, McCain, P. Kershaw , R. Mahon, Perry Preschool, etc).

arrowIs the BC government responding to KF’s complaint of secrecy in consultation process? See article in The Province: Earlier start and full-day kindergarten being considered

arrowBC Government press release re: consultation on all-day schooling for 3-5 year olds (after Kids First reported there has been no press release)

arrowIs full-day schooling for ages 3-5 a foregone conclusion? The UBC body promoting more institutional child care announces “Universal ‘Child Care’ Coming” before the so called “consultation” has even taken place or the “agency” to discuss it has been formed. Read more.



arrowJune 27, 2008 Press Release: BC government conducting secret “public” consultations

arrowUnpublicized public consultation by the BC government in response to the proposed full day schooling for ages 3-5. The “consultation” paper is vague on any specifics (example: no information on costs, research is mentioned but not actually named, “high quality” is not defined) and highly biased in favour of expanding tax-funded schooling to very young children.

  • BC Ministry of Education response to Kids First request to know who is on the Early Childhood Learning Agency does not name “parent groups” or “stakeholders” involved

Bias: All-Day K for 3-5 Pushed by the BC Government Top Advisers Far in Advance

arrowAll-Day Schooling for Ages 3 to 5?

arrowFeb 13, 2008: Times – Colonist Excerpts. Victoria, B.C (Download here)

arrowUBC’s Human Early – HELP – Pushes for Universal All day Preschool, Vancouver Sun Sept 2007: (broken link) HELP has 3 members the BC Provincial Child Care (daycare) Council and considerable policy influence. WARNING: misrepresentation of evidence, costs/benefits based on inapplicable Perry Preschool findings, confusing use of terms “high quality,” “child care,” and “preschool”

arrowHELP announces ‘Universal “Child Care” Coming’ (Dowload PDF here) yet the Education Minister says full-day K for age 3 to 5 is just an idea they are planning to explore. So is it a done deal with no parent consultation?

arrowHuman Early Learning Partnership (HELP) family/child policy document (brokent link) This is being studied by all BC MLAs. It was written by HELP Director Dr Clyde Hertzman (epidemiologist with the World Bank), and HELP staff: Dr Paul Kershaw (sociologist), Ms Lynelle Anderson (accountant and former staff of Child Care Advocacy Association of Canada), and Dr Bill Warburton (economist).

arrowJune 2, 2011 Vancouver Sun article—Study raises questions about full-day kindergarten

arrowSlate article discusses how “new research shows that teaching kids more and more, at ever-younger ages, may backfire”

arrowAll-day K/daycare promoters say Sweden is their model. But Swedes are saying “There should be a warning label on Swedish Family Policies”

arrowPost-Maternalism & Post-Familialism—Exposing the Ideology of All-Day Kindergarten and Daycare

arrowHELP spokesman Paul Kershaw seeks neo-liberal state coersion of parents’ child rearing decisions.

Read excerpts from chapter 10, “Carefair: Gendering Citizenship ‘Neo-Liberal’ Style,” by Paul Kershaw, leading spokesperson at Human Early Learning Partnership (HELP) and leading child/family policy advisor, in the 2008 book, Gendering the Nation State: Canadian and Comparative Perspectives

Kershaw advocates for state coercion regarding who cares for our children. He believes that women choose to do more unpaid care work because they are victims of patriarchal conditioning and need to be forced free of that by the state. He wants the state to force men to do more unpaid care work. He supports coercive ‘workfare’ policies as the model to build on.

He does not advocate financing unpaid care work to address the financial cost to women who do this, or including these women in policy-making to address their marginalization.

arrow“Vulnerability” in the all-day/daycare propaganda war: One-third of kindergarten students unprepared, study finds. Sept 22 Vancouver Sun article.

arrowUniversal program fails to address real needs in education by Andrea Mrozek, Special to the Sun, September 18, 2010.

arrow“Play-based learning” proven not effective – direct instruction method proven highly effective

arrowSept 8, 2010 Globe and Mail editorial—Proof before playtime. All day K promoters have not provided evidence for their claims.

arrowSept 7, 2010 Globe and Mail article—Ontario Premier trumpets all-day kindergarten for 2011 election. All-day K to become a top election issue.

arrowSept 7, 2010 Globe and Mail article—Full-day kindergarten in Ontario gets failing grade. The article includes comments from Kate Tennier, Kindergarten Credit co-ordinator, and Dr Kevin Milligan, UBC economist.

arrowCritics question value of full-day kindergarten in B.C. Helen Ward of Kids First is interviewed.



arrowSept 2010—Child Development journal article: “For 4-Year-Olds, Interactions With Teacher Key to Gains.” (Download PDF here) Free play amid peer harms language development, but talking with the teacher helps. (Are parents talking to their own children helpful too?)

arrow Sept 7, 2010—CBC interview on BC Almanac on all-day Kindergarten with Paul Kershaw of HELP and Helen Ward of Kids First. Kershaw crticizes Ward because she “doesn’t have a PhD” and says all-day K has “potential, IF…” (Go to minute 30:55 of the podcast.)

arrowResearch Says Start Later: When Did Education Become a Race?



arrowNot all hands are up for full-day kindergarten. Aug 2010 article in The Globe and Mail

arrowAge 5 too young to start school, too much testing according to a major Cambridge University review of UK primary. 2009 Reuters article: Children at 5 “too young” to start school. 2009 Guardian article: Where now after damning indictment of education?

arrowSome of the kids are all right.National Post editorial explains how “Canada is on the wrong track” with its push for all-day kindergarten.

arrowNovember 25, 2009: The cost of a free lunch: The real costs of the Pascal early learning plan for Ontario by Andrea Mrozek, Manager of Research and Communications, Institute of Marriage and Family Canada

arrowPress Release: The Real Costs of Full-Day Kindergarten in Ontario

arrowOctober 26, 2009: BC School Trustees Say Delay All-Day Kindergarten—Need More Cash

arrowPress Release, Sept 2009: Replace Anti-Parent Activist at Peace Summit Says Parent Group

arrowSept 8,2009 Globe and Mail editorial “Making the Case Against Universality“

arrowAcademic Outcomes: All-Day K for 3-5 Could be Harmful—Canadians Outperform Swedes & French on OECD Exams

arrowQueensland, Australia: Kids Fail New All-day Kindergarten. When the 3 half-day per week program for 5 yr olds was dropped for 5 full days per week, many kids failed the program or grade according to data found in a Freedom of Information request. The previous “play-based” program became formal schooling. April 19, 2010 TV News video with Tempe Harvey of Kids First Australia



arrowHelen Ward on The biggest investment scam out there: All-day kindergarten (link to the original April 1, 2009 National Post article with comments)

arrow“Scam”—ABC’s 20/20 on Universal Preschool

arrowThe more you spend the more you save? Exposing the false economy of daycare/preschool cost-benefit analysis

arrowCosts: Daycare, pre-school, all-day kindergarten (pdf brochure or html version)

arrowHow to fix boys: In this Maclean’s article, psychologist Leonard Sax says research shows early schooling is especially harmful to boys

arrowIrony: Fewer Kids in School=More School

Clyde Hertzman, head of the Human Early Learning Partnership (HELP) leading the consultation on all-day kindergarten advises expanding schooling for children under age 5 using funds saved by declining school attendance. CBC Radio One “Ideas”, Wednesday, July 16, 2008. “Sick People or Sick Societies?” Part 2

“Strong Start” drop-in kids (age 0-5) to be counted in formula for school-capital funding. Daycare kids may also be counted. Schools to provide cheap rent for some private daycares. Maple Ridge News(Vancouver area) article: 12 new daycare centres to open in district schools

Abandoning bricks-and-mortar schools for Internet classrooms. 48,000 kids expected to enrol in BC. Excerpts from the Globe and Mail article: Thousands choosing computers over classroom

arrowKids First on CKNW with Christie Clark on all-day schooling for ages 3-5. BCTF opposed to schooling for ages 3-4. Go to Wednesday July 9, 12 pm, and go to 37 minute mark. Note: HELP, which leads the all-day K consultation, told CKNW they could not participate in this interview due to their government contracts—but HELP has been active in the media elsewhere (see CBC Radio’s “Sick People or Sick Societies?” Part 2 and the Vancouver Sun article(broken link)).

arrowHELP Findings that Contradict HELP’s Promotion of Early Schooling/Daycare

arrowInstitutionalized daycare in the spin cycle: an article by the Canadian Taxpayers Federation

arrowToronto Sun article: Study the Real Costs of All-Day Kindergarten

arrowReality check—Costs of all day schooling/daycare: BC Government says it’s studying costs of all day kindergarten for age 3-5, but no costs are mentioned in the consultation paper.

$11,500/yr/child age 2-5: Quebec spending on daycare operation costs only—capital, training, bureaucracy, pension funds are more (Low Fee Regulated Childcare Policy, CIRPEE, p. 22 footnote) (broken Link)

$26,972/yr/child age 1-5: Sweden’s spending on daycare/preschool (Download PDF here)

arrowHigh Costs and Low Quality

Quebec government study finds 73% of licensed daycare there is of minimal or lower quality.

The OECD find “a problem of quality” and “deteriorating quality” in Swedish daycare—yet holds it up as a model for all (OECD Country Note Early Childhood Education and Care Policy in Sweden p .29, 30) (broken link)

Swedish Ministry of Education report finds low quality: too many children per staff, inadequate facilities and training, too much academic pressure on children harms learning.

arrowNew Brunswick government gives early learning curriculum to parents and daycares. (Should the state be fixating on regulating families while deregulating business?) Read the Daily Gleaner article “Province to unveil curriculum for preschool children today”

arrowFull-Day Schooling for 3-5 is Daycare Through the Back Door—article in Hamilton Spectator by Kate Tennier

arrowSee the TVO debate on daycare and full-day kindergarten for 4 and 5 year olds. Charles Pascal, the Ontario advisor on full-day schooling for tots, and daycare economist Gordon Cleveland win our BEER AND POPCORN AWARD for contemptuous attitudes towards parents and our DAYCARE DISINFORMATION AWARD for misleading information. Click on the Dec 5 episode.

arrowNov. 30 2007—Kids First President Helen Ward and activist Kate Tennier in Ottawa Citizen on push for full-day Kindergarten: More School isn’t Always Better

arrowOntario teacher speaks out against all-day kindergarten

arrowHead Start, Sure Start, Success by 6… Questioning the benefits of pre-school: We need to ask if children would be better off if the huge sums of public money going into these programs, related bureaucracies and research went directly to their parents.

Preschool for all? – No Thanks: article from Australia

£20 million study finds £3 billion program ineffective: British “Sure Start” preschool

Data Collection, Privacy Violation, UBC’s HELP & the EDI

arrowFeb 2011—Burnaby Now letters—“Privacy Concerns Alarming” no consent at all for data collection & linkage on all BC residents

arrowDefining “vulnerability”: HELP has not published EDI definitions and methodology for calculating 25-30+% “vulnerable” or “not ready to learn” or “at risk” in peer-reviewed journals.

How is “vulnerability” defined? “Vulnerability” is defined differently in different documents. Sometimes it is defined as exactly the same as “not ready learn at school”, sometimes not.

Has the definition of “vulnerability” changed – or not? In “EDI – Frequently Asked Questions” (Download PDF here) HELP says the vulnerability “cut offs” have not changed. This statement conflicts with its statement that “cut offs have been changed “as a result of our work in BC” found in HELP’s BC Atlas of Child Development 2006, by Kershaw, Hertzman etc, see page 26 (broken link). For more on different EDI vulnerability “cut offs” read this comparison of HELP 2006 cut offs and Offord Centre 2008 cut offs (download PDF here).

arrowHELP’s “linked databases”—note HELP Director, Hertzman, is also on Board of Population Data BC

arrowWho put help in charge of BC’s private data? Why trust HELP when they avoid informed consent to mine our private data? HELP’s PRIVACY POLICY—staff sign an “oath of confidentiality” = not reassuring (scroll down to Organizational Structure at this link to read about it)

arrowFeb 2011, Burnaby Now article. ‘Passive consent’ triggers complaint: Burnaby parent says survey is ‘unethical’

Feb 2011 responses to the article from a UBC researcher and from a citizen

arrowFraser Health vaccinating without parental consent. Mother upset over vaccination process. A Burnaby mom is upset her 13-year-old daughter was vaccinated for human papilloma virus without her parental consent.

arrow“Researchers” can access your child’s private medical records without child’s consent, but in Ontario parents cannot. See College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario policy #5-05

arrowPopulation Data BC provides some information on BC’s data mining mega-project “designed to capture the power of linkable, longitudinal data, and avoid the inefficiencies associated with project-by-project data linkage.” Perhaps the “inefficiencies” they refer to are things like informed consent.

HELP Director, Clyde Hertzman, is also on the Board of Population Data BC. See a partial list of Population Data BC’s linked databases that include HELP education data (even post secondary).

arrowHELP Violates Privacy Protection Practices it Claims to Follow: HELP claims to follow Statistics Canada’s procedures, but unlike HELP, Statistics Canada requires verbal or written parental consent for surveys of parents, children, and children’s teachers. Read this PDF of Jan 2011 e-mail from Statistics Canada answering Kids First questions on privacy and consent.

arrowFeb 1, 2011 interview on Roadkill radio on violation of privacy and parental consent, UBC’s HELP, the EDI and data linkage

arrowComplaint about HELP’s violation of informed consent and privacy to UBC Behavioural Research Ethics Board—Jan 2011 (download PDF here)

June 6, 2011 reply from UBC to request for HELP’s Ethics Certificates with fee estimates

April 5, 2011 email to UBC requesting HELP’s Ethics Certficates

March 17, 2011 email from UBC’s Behavioural Ethics Review Board declining to provide HELP’s Ethics Certificates for EDI and data-collection projects (or confirm/deny the existence of these).

Feb 15 2011 reply from UBC’s Behavioural Research Ethics Board to complaint regarding HELP. The reply states that the “concerns were passed on to the HELP team and their response is summarized here”

arrowComputerized student data system in BC—BCeSIS

arrowBCeSIS home

arrowHELP produced propaganda video promoting the HELP’s EDI activities

arrowPrivacy Violation & Data Mining in BC

Documents from HELP showing government complicity in privacy violation and lack of informed parental consent for HELP’s massive data mining project

February is “EDI” Month in BC Kindergartens

Requirement for Informed Parental Consent Violated by Schools, HELP and BC Government
Letters from HELP to Kindergarten parents about the EDI:
2006 and 2009 letters
2010 letter (download PDF here)
2011 letter – again NO SIGNED INFORMED PARENTAL CONSENT, no list of private records HELP intends to link

All Children Are Included in Data Mining

What Schools & Government Won’t Tell BC Parents

HELP DOCUMENT (download PDF here)- List of BC children’s and parents’ private records

  • HELP is collecting “person specific” data “from conception to high school leaving” on “all children in BC”

HELP DOCUMENT (download PDF here) – data collected from “pre-conception to young adulthood”

  • 97% of BC school students personal education and personal medical numbers are “linked”
  • Government signs approval of the data linkage

arrowUBC’s funding of HELP and daycare lobby: Clyde Hertzman over $212,000 from UBC alone


arrowHELP info for parents: HELP provides different information for different people – researchers get far more information

arrowFederal $ for daycare lobby propaganda (eg from HELP) and data-mining (eg the EDI) through HRSDC’s Understanding the Early Years (UEY)

arrowBurnaby Now article: Does data collection put privacy at risk? HELP is the government-funded organization that drives/creates child/family/daycare policy here AND does the mega-dating mining. Family’s addresses are not there but postal codes are and so is everything else. HELP does not follow Statistics Canada procedures—personal data is collected and linked without people knowing about it. Data-collection is repeatedly mentioned by the OECD and World Bank as a key aspect of “early child development.”

arrowKindergarten Parents: did you get your consent letters from HELP about data-mining your family’s private records? Read the letters: “negative opt-out” and lack of information means your rights to PRIVACY and INFORMED CONSENT are violated by the BC government through HELP and schools.

arrowJanuary 28, 2010 Press Release: Moratorium Sought for All-Day Kindergarten & Related Data-Mining (download PDF here)

arrowNotice to Parents: Your Privacy is Being Violated

arrowThe Early Development Instrument (EDI) Kindergarten questionnaire

EDI in English (broken link)
EDI in French (broken link)
Teachers’ Guide in English (broken link)
Teachers’ Guide in French (broken link)
from Offord Centre for Child Studies (broken link)

arrowThe EDI (Early Development Instrument): Are over 25% of young kids “vulnerable,” “not ready to learn,” “at risk,” “developmentally behind?” Find out where this “data” comes from and what it means.

arrowSept 29, 2009 interview on HELP and data collection

arrowBig Brother Goes to Kindergarten: BC Government Collecting “Sperm to Worm” Data on all BC Children (Kids First May 6, 2009 article – PDF here)

arrowBig Brother Goes to Kindergarten: BC Government Violating Parental and Privacy Rights in “Sperm To Worm” Kindergarten Data Collection (no informed consent—see copies of letters to Kindergarten parents for data collection)

Breastfeeding

arrowLarge longitudinal study shows link between breastfeeding and better mental health into adolescence

arrowResources for breastfeeding information and advocacy: Make the WHO breastfeeding Code law by R. Hefti, RN & lactation consultant (PDF here)

arrowWhat Sarah Palin and the Obama Administration really say about breastfeeding:

arrowAction Needed by Apr 15, 2011: Federal Government Breastfeeding recommendations under review

arrowVancouver Sun publishes article falsely claiming “mom to file complaint after she was asked to stop breastfeeding” followed by a rant against public breastfeeding (now removed from their web site) but refuses to publish any letters in response.

arrowJan 2011 Macleans article: “Heat Up the Bottle? Book says breastfeeding is overrated”

arrowBreastfeeding benefits academic performance 10 years later

arrowLonger breastfeeding good for kids’ mental health

arrowNew evidence that non-parental child care reduces breastfeeding and increases “risk of overweight at least during infancy.” Article in UK Telegraph: Putting babies in childcare “makes them fatter”

arrowBreastfeeding: Upholding the World Health Organization’s Code in Canada

arrowBreast-feeding gets cold shoulder in B.C. hospitals: Article in the Georgia Straight

arrowBreast-milk brouhaha at Burnaby Hospital: Article in the Georgia Straight

arrowBreastfeeding consultants resign: Article in Burnaby Now

Daycare: Safety, Health, and Developmental Concerns

arrowMar 2012: Queen’s University economists also find harm to children’s outcomes from Quebec daycare/Baker-Gruber-Milligan findings for Quebec continue

arrowJuly 2011 Maclean’s Magazine article with comments: “Is subsidized daycare bad for kids? A surprising new study says Quebec’s $7-a-day daycare is leaving children worse off“

A study referred to in Maclean’s: How Does Early Childhood Care and Education Affect Cognitive Development? An International Review of the Effects of Early Interventions for Children from Different Social Backgrounds
—>July 2011 Kids First commentary (download PDF here) on the study with quotes

arrowMay 5, 2011: Jonas Himmelstrand of Sweden’s Mireja Institute debunks the myth that Sweden is a social utopia based on its national daycare program

arrowJonas Himmelstrand: Universal daycare leaves Sweden’s children less educated. April 26, 2011 in the National Post

arrowIt took almost a decade for health authority to shut down daycare with repeat violations. March 2011 Vancouver Sun article

arrowMore than 200 daycares flagged ‘high inspection priority,’ data shows. March 2011 Vancouver Sun article

arrowStress in Daycare (broken link) – Sir Richard Bowlby 2007. This report regards policy for children under 30 months (2 1/2 yrs). Children who form a “secondary attachment” may not experience the stress (high cortisol levels) found in children in centre-based care. This requires first having a “secure primary attachment,” then having the same care-provider and that the care provider actively creates a “secure secondary attachment.” Centre-based care is the least likely to provide this.

arrowNov 2010—A Swede speaks out on negative outcomes of government daycare policy

arrowMay 2010 article in The Guardian says daycare centre care causes lasting elevated stress/cortisol levels

arrowWebsite offers anonymous child-care reviews: A CBC story about a new website where parents can comment anonymously on daycares or schools. The daycare and school establishment is opposed (of course!). Sharon Gregson (see article) is on the Vancouver School Board and a leading daycare apologist as well as an ED at a large daycare centre in BC. Could there be a conflict of interest? Though this forum is imperfect, there is no real forum for parents to get information to one other without fear of repercussions to their children.

arrowStudies of Daycare and Cognitive Development



arrow24/7/365 available daycare is a goal of some daycare proponents. All-week daycare in East Germany—a mother tells of her own and her child’s story

arrowIncreased antibiotic resistance, infections, and use of prescription medications: Health implications of children in child care centres Part B: Injuries and infections

arrowHigh-quality affordable daycare? There’s never enough money or staff. Alberta Liberal and NDP MLAs and daycare operators oppose Alberta’s effort to slightly improve the quality of infant daycare. “Day-care operators leery of new rules:” Calgary Herald (Sept 20, 2008)

arrowVancouver Sun newspaper sets up website on Vancouver area daycare inspection results and risk ratings

arrowVancouver Sun article: Daycares Lost Track of Children 230 Times Over 5 Years



arrowResearch on the Negative Health Impacts of Daycare Centres

arrowWashing their Hands of Responsibility—Keeping Daycare Centres Clean: The Impossible Dream?

arrowChildren in daycare centres have higher levels of stress measured by testing cortisol levels—BBC News article.

arrowDaycare staff:child ratios & “quality”: bad and getting worse (July 21, 2005)

arrow“Appropriate” Staff:Child Ratios in “Quality” Daycare: A Politically Sensitive Topic (July 18 2005)



arrowA Stanford and Berkeley study of over 14,000 children finds pre-school/daycare harms social development.

“The UC Berkeley-Stanford study found that all children who attended preschool at least 15 hours a week displayed more negative social behaviors such as trouble cooperating or acting up, when compared with their peers. The discrepancies were most pronounced among children from higher-income families.”

Note: No research has demonstrated that “moderate” advantage in cognitive tests for children in “high quality” preschool/daycare endure in the long term.

Note: The majority of daycares in the US and Canada have been found to be of low quality.

Read more about the studies: New report examines effects nationwide of preschool on kids’ development and Loeb’s study on preschool finds bright side, dark side and also this article in Parenting ScienceThe dark side of preschool: Peers, social skills, and stress

arrowA Critical Review of Daycare for Under 3s

arrowMore on Dumping Kids in Day Care: A blog by Dr. Rod Moser, PA, PhD

National Daycare Debate

arrowLiberals $500 million daycare promise: Watch the TV debate on Power Play between the head of the YWCA (largest daycare provider in Canada) and Institute for Marriage and Family Canada

arrowKids First response to thestar.com article, “Lack of child care costing Canada: report”

arrowFeb 11, 2011 National Post debate on national daycare: Daycare lobbyists write, Why we need a national child-care program, and Tasha Kheiriddin responds with, Support parents, not the daycare industry. Readers respond with four votes against national daycare: 1, 2, 3, 4

arrowCBC Survey: Fund daycare or families—please add your voice. Child care: Would you prefer benefit cheques or a national day care system?

arrow4 Parties’ 2008 Election Platforms for Children’s Care and Well-being (PDF)



arrowA Victory for Parents and Kids: NDP Switcheroo on Funding Parents

arrowLetter to the Toronto Star Editor in response to: “Daycare spaces or $100 cheques?”

arrowBeer, Popcorn and… Poppycock: NDP Talks with Kids First

arrowJack Layton Insults Parental Child Care, Replays Lie that Daycare Reduces Violence

arrowArchived Interviews on Child-Related Policy in Election Campaign with Kids First President, Helen Ward

Child Poverty Issues

arrowSept 2011: Association for Psychological Science, “How Devoted Moms Buffer Kids In Poverty“. This peer-reviewed study indicates that maternal nurturing and not only socio-economic status is associated with better health outcomes. The study was led by UBC psychologist Dr Gregory Miller. Miller works in exactly the field UBC’s HELP claims expertise in, yet he is not listed on HELP’s website. HELP does not publicize peer-reviewed research that shows benefits to parental child care or harms of institutional child care.

arrowMeasuring Canadian “Child Poverty”—Charts Showing Actual Incomes Called the Poverty Line

arrowStatistics Canada article on different low income measures

arrowLow Income in Canada: 2000-2007 Using the Market Basket Measure – August 2009

Cuts to BC Community Non-Profit Organizations Serving Children, Families, Handicapped

arrowFeb 15, 2010: CBC radio interview with Helen Ward, Kids First President on all-day Kindergarten, and BC government cuts to family services as part of an “integrated approach.” Go to 1:02 to hear interview

arrowVancouver Sun article Feb 12, 2010: Province to cut $10 million from community services for children, families

arrowBurnaby Now article Feb 10, 2010: “Looming cuts worry Burnaby Family Place“

arrowBurnaby Now blog: Ministry of Children and Family Development warns of cuts to come

arrowAgreement between the Ministry of Education and BC Assocaition of Family Resources Programs

  • acknowledges tension between Strong Start drop-in programs in school run by the Ministry of Education and non-government services like family drop-ins
  • expires July 1, 2010

arrowE-mail to organizations about upcoming cuts

arrowLetter from the BC Ministry of Children and Family Development (PDF) states that “preference will be given to agencies that provide a continuum of MCFD services to support an integrated approach to service delivery.” An “integrated approach” refers to a “new paradigm” policy of “shared responsibility” between the state and parents in child rearing combined with “strong partnership with the private sector.”

arrowE-mail to organizations about meeting on February 12, 2010—same day as Olympics open

2011 Federal Election

April 5, 2011: HELP’s Paul Kershaw suggests funding daycare by cutting back grandparents’ medical care such as hip replacements. UBC alone paid Kershaw (2008) $97,321 + $10,009 in expenses. (How about cutting such “scholars'” salaries and distributing the saving to families?) We need a Canada that works for all generations. See Investing an additional $22 billion in the standard of living of Canadians is fiscally smart when the payback is huge (broken link) in the Vancouver Sun

arrowFrom pensions for “stay at home mums” to beer and popcorn: How the Liberal party reversed its policy on children and families

arrowMarch 29, 2011 CBC radio BC “On the Coast” on Liberal Daycare promise (NOTE: CBC’s biased coverage: “On the Coast” called Andrea Mrozek of IMFC to participate but wanted a BC voice so she gave them given Helen Ward’s phone number. CBC did not call. CBC’s “panel” included only daycare lobbyists, Sheila Davidson and Paul Kershaw of HELP

arrowKathleen Lahey’s article, Bribing women to stay at home, in the National Post and a reply by Andrea Mrozek, The new feminist demand: high taxes

arrowApril 4, 2011 Surrey Now article, MP Hiebert’s income-splitting bill ‘fluff,’ says NDP opponent Keeping

arrowApril 1, 2011: Liberal daycare plan ‘discriminates’ against most families: parents rights advocate on LifeSiteNews.com

arrowIncome splitting is discussed in the Globe and Mail: How to win women’s votes: Start a Mommy War (March 28, 2011), There are better ways to cut taxes than income splitting (March 29, 2011), and Income splitting won’t help families in need (March 28, 2011)

arrowFeb 7, 2011: Make the tax system fairer for families by Dave Quist in the National Post

arrowDebate on “Income Splitting” between Martha Friendly, Co-ordinator of the Childcare Resource and Research Unit and John Williamson, Head of the Canadian Taxpayers’ Federation

arrowWatch Your Language! A Word on Words: “work”, “stay-at-home mum”, “single-earner”

arrowOttawa Conference on Family Taxation May 2008 audio

arrowCalgary Herald article

arrow1999 Federal Sub-Committee report (download PDF here) on income splitting

Other Issues

arrowAug 2012: Nurturing children: Why “early learning” doesn’t help. An article by the Institute of Marriage and Family Canada with interviews of Dr Gordon Neufeld and Kids First President, Helen Ward

arrowJune 2012: British Ex-PM’s wife attacks mothers working outside GDP and an article in response

arrowFeb 2012: Swedish family goes into political exile for homeschooling

arrowOttawa Citizen article, Feb 4, 2011: All work and no play is not good for the developing brain, says psychologist Dr. Gordon Neufeld

arrowNorway bullying Indian parents by taking away their children… for breastfeeding responsively, co-sleeping, and teaching their children to eat with their hand! Read more in the Mail Online and BBC News.

arrowSwedish politician suggests home learners be apprehended by state

arrowDec 2011, Montreal Gazette article – Corruption and unfairness in Quebec’s daycare system. NOTE: the article’s claim that daycare demand is higher than supply is very questionable. Parents in polls say they prefer parental care. Demand is artificially created by heavy tax funding of institutional child care done at the expense of unwaged parental child care and other types of child care. Quebec took money from families to fund daycare.

arrowDominic Johansson: Kidnapped by the Swedish Police for Homeschooling

Read more about the Johansson family’s struggles with Swedish authorities

arrowMarch 8, 2011 – 100th Anniversary of International Women’s Day Commentary:

arrowMedia release Feb 23, 2011: Police called to stop leaflet at daycare public forum



arrowTrauma: How We’ve Created a Nation Addicted to Shopping, Work, Drugs and Sex. “Post-industrial capitalism has completely destroyed the conditions required for healthy childhood development.” Dec 2010 Democracy Now (US) interview of Dr Gabor Mate by Amy Goodman

arrowDay care statistics from Sweden 2009: 92% age 18 months to 5 years registered in daycare centres

arrowFood Marketing to Kids Faces New Challenges. Nov 15, 2010 Yahoo! News

arrowDecember 1, 2010 news release—Dietitians of Canada calls for better controls on advertising of food and beverages to children. Dietitians of Canada calls for more effective controls on advertising of foods and beverages to children including federal government leadership in setting consistent science-based standards for determining healthy and less healthy foods.

arrowSecond wave feminist, Erica Jong, attacks “attachment parenting” and “green” child rearing in The Wall Street Journal article “Mother Madness“—November 2010



arrowNov 2010 article and discussion in The Tyee on BC day care. Please read the comments.

arrowSept 2010: US auto-worker union representing at-home child carers

arrowSept 2010: Play-dates being outlawed in Ontario—state control of child-rearing ramps up. Read this letter from the Ministry of Children and Youth Services (download PDF here) and the response of the Child Care Providers Resource Network (download PDF here)

arrowAn Aug 10, 2010 article about two Swedish families being fined for homeschooling has been translated to English and has generated many wonderful comments in English from the international homeschooling community. You can support these Swedish families by going to the Swedish article and leaving your comments–English is fine. For instructions on how to leave comments, see the English translation.



arrow“Are the Swedish state family policies delivering?” A statement by Jonas Himmelstrand of the Swedish family organisation, Haro, presented at the Familyplatform conference in Lisbon in May 2010. Familyplatform is a project financed by the European Commission to look into research areas for future European family policies. The project consists both of researchers and stakeholders, such as family organisations.

arrowJune 2010: New Swedish Law Outlaws Home-Schooling. The Swedish government is embarrassed by international outrage at this new law, so read the information and sign the international petition at the bottom of the linked page.

arrow2010 Australian Poll: large majority prefer equal funding for parental child care

arrowEmployment Insurance—Parental & Maternity Leave: Does extended maternity/parental leave help families?


arrowThe mother of all paradoxes: November 2009 Article in Prospect Magazine (UK) about extended maternity leave

arrowLiving wage for municipal workers misses the target

arrowDaycare system needs an urgent fix, a Mar 28, 2010 article in The Gazette talks about the Quebec daycare sponsorship scandal. Daycare operators are donating to political parties. In Ontario and BC, how much do the YMCA, CUPE, teachers unions, and other “early learning” vested interests give to political parties?

arrowDaycare Lobby Head is a Top Bureaucrat in BC’s Mininstry of Children and Family Development

arrowOECD Statistics on enrollment in daycare, preschool, kindergarten

arrowUK Prospect article: “The mother of all paradoxes: Stronger maternity rights can help mothers, but they will hurt employers and women in general.” Daycare proponents now argue for extending parental leave to 18 months and requiring fathers to take a portion in the name of “gender equity.” Dr Catherine Hakim shows this contradicts the evidence.

arrowCanadian Teens Out-Score OECD Average and Sweden on Academic Tests. See charts on page 60-64 of “Measuring Up: Canadian Results of the OECD PISA Study The Performance of Canada’s Youth in Science, Reading and Mathematics: 2006 First Results for Canadians Aged 15“



arrowBBC news item: Parents giving children alcohol ‘fuels binge drinking’

arrow“Our Phony Economy.” A Harper’s Magazine article. Simon Kuznets invented the GDP but opposed using it as if it measured all production: “The volume of services rendered by housewives and other members of the household toward the satisfaction of wants must be imposing indeed,” he wrote.

arrowPowerPoint slides accompanying presentation to the 2009 BC Home School Convention: “From Paragons to Parasites: Mums Choosing to Lose Our Work-Life Balance” (download PowerPoint)

arrow“Real choice” in child care through direct funding to parents is championed by leading child development researcher internationally:

Effects of Child Care on Child Development: Give Parents Real Choice by Jay Belsky
Institute for the Study of Children, Families and Social Issues
Birkbeck University of London
March, 2009

arrowSocial policy “ruining childhood”: Childhood is being undermined by a string of “oppressive demands” from ministers disguised as social policy, experts have claimed. June 2009 article in Telegraph.co.uk

arrowPregnant woman and babies should not eat deli meat

arrowA brilliant answer to those 2nd-wave feminists who oppose who hate mums who look after their own children—Atlantic Monthly article: I Choose My Choice

arrowThank you to Newfoundland and Labrador for leading the way in funding parental child care: $1,000 for birth/adoption and $100/month for the first 12 months

arrowAustralians debate “means testing” for the $5,000 per child birth bonus promised for July 1, 2008 to increase birthrates


arrowInterview with Canadian Dr. Elliot Barker, child psychiatrist and founder of the Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Children. He sees lack of empathetic parenting and consumerism as the roots of criminality.

arrowThe OECD and Canada’s Daycare Lobby: Ties Denied

arrowThe OECD: Globalizing Daycare Lobby Ideology

arrowDaycare Turf Wars: For-Profit Big Box vs. Non-Profit Big Box vs. State-Run Big Box exposing the spin and re-framing the debate in favour of funding parents not boxes

arrowSpring 2008—Kids First Submission (download PDF here) to the Senate Committee on Social Affairs, Science, and Technology re: OECD “Starting Strong II” Report



arrowMustard Calls Quebec Study “chicken shit”, McCain Accuses Authors of Denying Breastfeeding Benefits

arrowMustard’s Contempt for Parents: “17% of parents are godawful” and only one third of us are “competent” says World Bank backed daycare lobbyist, Dr. Fraser Mustard in a Toronto Star article (download PDF here)

arrowSenate Committee Hears from Daycare Lobby but not Parents

arrowTranscripts of Senate Committee Hearings on Child Care

arrowBillionaire McCain Displays Contempt for Low-Wage Nannies

arrowOECD Underestimated Early Education Funding—Only Counted Spending on Kindergarten

Letter in Hill Times Embassy Magazine, March 12th, 2008 in response to original article published Feb 20, 2008: “Canada Lagging in Early Education Funding”

arrowSurvey by Ipsos Reid for Federal government finds Canadians want choice and support for parents

arrow Article: “Who should be caring for very young children?” in The Medical Journal of Australia

arrowNAFTA Means US “Big Box” Daycare Chains Can Get Canadian Taxpayers’ Dollars: A legal opinion for Canadian Union of Public Employees CUPE) says because of NAFTA daycare must be STATE-RUN not just state-funded to keep out US chains. Another legal opinion (dowload PDF here) refutes CUPE lawyers.


arrowCorporate Welfare: Labour Force expansion policies: The OECD and the World Bank seek a larger, globalized, more “flexible” Labour Force. Importing low-wage labour means higher profits through lower wages. This Guardian article describes the situation in Europe. “Putting more women to work”–the name of an OECD colloquium–through de-funding families and funding daycare has the same effect. Both the OECD and the World Bank vigourously promote funding daycare over parental care.

arrowCare Control Revolution: UK moves away from state control of care decisions to provide direct cash benefits to elderly and disabled for care costs—why not parents? The Health Minister calls this a “radical transfer of power from the state to the public” and speaks about the elderly getting “self-determination and maximum control over their own lives.”

BBC News Elderly to get personal care cash

Telegraph Elderly set free, but children shackled

arrowDaycare Bill C-303 Update Nov 2007: Liberal MP’s Letter Reveals Bill C-303 is about Political Games, not Keeping “Big Box” Daycare Chains Out (download PDF here)

arrowWelsh parent says switch to parental care after 4 years of daycare eliminated son’s problematic behaviour revealing his true character.

arrowBritain’s Daily Mail finds Swedish woman are asking for an end to daycare discrimination: women are far from equal after 30 years of policy discriminating against parental child care. Parents in Britain—and Canada—take note!

Flexi-hours and longer maternity leave: A trimph for feminism? Anything but!

arrowWORKING MOTHERS

Most mothers are not at full-time paid jobs. Only about 6%—not 70% as we are told—of mothers of children under 3 are at full time jobs.

These graphs (download PDF here) present a breakdown of mothers’ labour force participation rate statistics from the OECD. Labour force statistics have been misused to argue for high demand for daycare centres and preferential funding for daycare over parental care. We recognize that every mother is a working mother.

arrowStatistics Canada: More mums are breastfeeding longer after Employment Insurance leave increased from 6 months to 1 year

arrowArticle: “Parents of babies to be given ‘learning d\iaries’ so experts can monitor children”—lots of cash for studying parents but not for parents

arrowKids First Submission Opposing Discriminatory Bill C303 (in English and Download PDF in French)


arrowTake action against Bill C-303 on early learning and child care

arrow National Institute for Child Health and Human Development Child Care Outcomes Study—Report of Findings to Grade 5 and 6 (download PDF here): The study defined “child care” as non-maternal care over 10 hours per week. The main findings were that children who were in daycare centres had higher levels of behavioural/social problems such as aggression and cruelty, which continue without reduction; high quality child care is associated with better vocabulary scores than low quality child care; high quality child care is found most often in dad and grandparent care (the study previously estimated only 9% of child care settings were high quality).

arrowAnother tax-funded daycare lobby cash cow feeding at the “child care” trough

arrowMotherlove, crime and addiction: lessons learned from lab rats by Chella Turnbull



arrowA fairer way to fund child care: Montreal Gazette. Correction to info in article: Quebec pays up to $60/day/child ($15,700/yr) to daycare centres to subsidize operation costs. Regulation, capital, training, etc are additional costs. Only 21% of Quebec children aged 1-5 are in daycare centres.

arrowWhat Stats Can is not telling us: charts of daycare use for ages 6 mos-5 yrs and ages 6-11

arrowComments on Child Care Spaces Report (download PDF here)

arrowFederal Budget 2007: Good News—Bad News (download PDF here)



arrowJonas Himmelstrand was in Dublin speaking about Swedish daycare

arrowRose-tinted view of ‘Nordic’ childcare based on misconceptions by Jonas Himmelstrand

arrowNordic childcare model best for economic and social wellbeing by Dympna Devine and Ursula Kilkelly

arrowSwedish childcare system is hardly a utopian model by Breda O’Brien

arrowSwedish family policy has not led to equality for women according to the UK Guardian: “For decades we’ve been told Sweden is a great place to be a working parent. But we’ve been duped.”

arrowSwedes opposing Swedish daycare and family policy:

On daycarism in Sweden by Jan-Ola Gustafsson
Katarina Runske 1989 speech
Katarina Runske 1994 speech.

arrowRead excerts from Patricia Morgan’s book, Family Policy, Family Changes—Sweden, Italy and Britain Compared:

book coverSweden: Socialist Engineering in Family Policy (download PDF here)

Overview and Conclusions (download PDF here)

Read a short resume (PDF here) of Patricia Morgan’s new book that talks about research on family policy in Europe, which finds that…

  • Sweden has most sex-segregated work force in Western world
  • Cheap daycare does not produce higher birthrates
  • Huge numbers of “working” Swedish mothers are off work

arrowSwedish intolerance in child care (download PDF here)

arrowSwedish Government Report Critiques Appalling Daycare Conditions (July 15 2005)

arrowSwedish report to the United Nations (download PDF here)

arrowSwedish legal case (download PDF here) involving a family wishing to care for their own child

arrowRising Violence Against Swedish Women Despite Gender Equity Promotion

arrowThe Failure of European Family Policy: Does Daycare Raise Birthrates in Sweden? Dr. Allan Carlson, historian of Swedish family policy, demonstrates the falseness of the claim that Sweden has overcome sub-replacement fertility rates: policy that coerces mothers into jobs and favours daycare lowers birthrates.

arrowNew Vanier Institute Report: The Rise in the Number of Children and Adolescents Who Exhibit Problematic Behaviors: Multiple Causes

Kids First summary

Press Release

Globe and Mail article and readers’ comments

Recent related reports:

  1. UNICEF report finding Canadian children rating low in peer & family relationships, behaviour & risks, and subjective well-being (see chart, p. 4)

  2. Statistics Canada report finding lower amounts of time spent with family

arrowDaycare Supply and Demand


arrowIs there a labour shortage and should mothers have to fill it? (PDF here)

arrowKids First Input for Child Care Spaces Initiative Consultations (PDF here)

arrowParents vs State Intervention in Child-Rearing: Clarifying our Roles

arrowLiberal policies:

arrowMum professor seeking input from “at-home” parents for book

arrowDaycare Dis-information Buster: What it really means when they say “The reality is that 70% of mothers are working” (download PDf here)

arrowHutchinson v. BC (broken link): BC Human Rights Tribunal rejects Ministry of Health discrimination against hiring family as care providers. This case has implications for funding of other forms of care including child care.

arrowReview of Ann Crittenden’s book, If You’ve Raised Kids You Can Manage Anything

arrowThe daycare lobby is using the “UN Convention on the Rights of the Child” to argue for more daycare. They avoid mentioning the primacy given the family and the parent-child relationship throughout the document.

arrowKids First Responds to Some Concerns

arrowGovernor Teaches a Preschool Lesson: An article at NRO by Carrie Lukas about the states rejecting universal preschool as costly, ineffective and interfering in the family sphere

arrowNew survey finds over 80% of Canadians prefer parental care

arrowWhat is Feminism? Pop-Culture Shocker: TV Cartoon Tackles Mums’ Work Choices



arrowDangerous superbug sweeping across nation, officials say: An article at globeandmail.com by Helen Branswell

arrowNew Daycare Poll: Ripped Off, Dumbed Down & Shut Up

arrowMothers’ Day Proclamation 1870: No Brekky in Bed


arrowResponse to Dr. Hillel Goelman’s article “Time to get past child care myths”

arrowDo children become criminals without government-licensed daycare and preschool?

Carolyn Bennett, Toronto MP and candidate for Liberal leadership, said it’s good the government is building more prisons because we’ll need them since they are cancelling the daycare deals.

For more information see ProudToBeCanadian
and click “Liberals endorse Conservative Jail-Building Plan.”

Mike Duffy gives Ms Bennett a chance to explain herself. She says it’s “early learning” that is needed. See http://www.ctv.ca/canada Go to “Mike Duffy Live” and click the Bennett link.

Child-care battle rages: a Toronto Star article



More beer and popcorn: a Winnipeg Sun article

Daycare or Prison: Does $1 Spent on Daycare Save $7? Helen Ward of Kids First responds to Dr Bennett’s comment.

arrowPerry Preschool Propaganda Project Reality Check: Daycare: The More You Spend, The More You Save!!!???

arrowMajor study from University of London, England: What is known about the long-term economic impact of centre-based early childhood interventions?

“Politicians and policy-makers should stop basing the case for expanding early years provision on old, inaccurate and decontextualized data about long-term economic benefits, a research study has concluded.” Read more.

arrowKids First and the New Universal Childcare Allowance (See PDF here)



arrowKids First a Focus at PM’s Child Care Policy Visit to BC: Read the Kids First report and Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s news release. Read the Vancouver Sun, CTV and CBC reports.

arrowNeither Conservative nor Liberal Daycare Plan Addresses Equality: Published in The Hill Times, Letters, April 24, 2006

arrowDaycare Dis-information Buster—Waitlists: Child-care lobby’s numbers are a joke: A Winnipeg Sun article by Tom Brodbeck

arrow Some Dutch and US 2nd-wave feminists Condemn University Grad Mothers who Reduce their GDP-Sector Time:

arrowBehind the baby gap lies a culture of contempt for parenthood: An article by Madeline Bunting published in The Guardian that points out how women’s unpaid care-work is worth more than entire GDP

arrowBest-selling author on parenting, therapist Steve Biddulph: “My warning to parents is simple: one in five children put into nursery early will develop mental health problems”

arrowMinding the Baby Rebecca Abrams’ review in The Guardian of Sue Gerhardt’s book Why Love Matters: How Affection Shapes a Baby’s Brain


arrowEvery Mother is a Working Mother in Venezuela: Unpaid Home-Workers of Venezuela Fight Bureaucrats to Assure President Hugo Chavez’s Revolutionary Promise of Remuneration

arrowMedia Release April 24, 2006: Parent Group Says Government Must Cut Funding to Daycare Lobby Now

arrowPress Release March 1, 2006: Caregivers from around the world meet in New York seeking recognition Kids First representatives are in attendance.

arrowFund the child, not the system: An article (download PDF here) by Kate Tennier published in the Globe and Mail on Monday, February 13, 2006.

arrowFUND THE CHILD vs FUND THE SPACES: Kids First Responds to Caledon Institute Report that $1,200 could be $388 for Low Income Families



arrowFund the child, not the system: by Kate Tennier and published in the Globe and Mail on Monday, February 13, 2006 (download PDF here).

arrowDaycare Dis-information Buster: Daycare is Not Medicare—Comparing Apples and Oranges


arrowDaycare Dis-information Buster: Under 10 % of Children in Daycare

arrowDaycare Dis-information Buster: Creating False Impressions with “Child Care” Words and Numbers

arrowReality Check on Quebec Daycare: Research Finds Low Quality, High Costs, Negative Outcomes, Worse Family Finances

arrowThe Fund the Child Coalition Canada-Wide Event for International Children’s Day was held on Nov 19-21. Read about our formal Complaint to the United Nations.



arrowSpeaking Notes for the Fund the Child Press Conference (download PDF)

arrowKid First Presentation to Federal Finance Committee 2005—Transcript

arrowCorporate Right World Bankers Lobbying for Daycare—Speech

arrowLetter to the Editor Re: Dis-information in Article by Top Daycare Lobbyist, Martha Friendly


arrowDaycare, Low Income and the Left

arrowViolent Youth and Child Care



arrowReality Check: Maybe We Ought to Ask…What Does Daycare Cost?

arrowMedia Release December 12, 2005: “Daycare and ‘Beer-Gate’: Accountability, Hate and Lies”

arrowSept 29 Media Release (download PDF): Daycare Mis-Information Exposed

arrowWe Need a Moratorium on Paul Martin’s National Childcare Program

Reality Check: Misleading BC Daycare Info Corrected. Read this August 2005 report in pdf format.


arrowJuly 2005 Update

arrowDoes Daycare Lower ‘Child Poverty’ and Get Mums into Jobs? Quebec Experiment Results: No

arrowDaycare does not lower “child poverty” or increase mothers’ labour force participation (August 26, 2005)


arrowInternational Women’s Day Update & Real Equality

arrowFinancial Post March 7, 2005: “Kids First response to CAW union on daycare funding”

arrowMedia release March 2, 2005: “Kids First Response to Federal Budget & Child Care Funding”

arrowMedia release February 9, 2005: “Message to Fed-Prov Territorial Meeting: Legal Challenge Sought to Daycare Discrimination”

arrowCBC commentary—Beverley Smith—Dec 28, 2004



arrowThe Politicized Science of Day Care: A Personal and Professional Odyssey: A paper (download PDF here) by Dr Jay Belsky, a leading researcher with the US NICHD who is now at the Birkbeck University of London.

arrowRoyal Bank of Canada Vice President Charlie Coffey speaks of the “business imperative” in “Early Child Development,” which means daycare. Speech text
Video of speech

arrowCalgary Sun Dec 13, 2005: Grits are scary on child care

arrowResearch on Daycare and Low Birthrates

arrowJuly 30, 2005: Premier advances N.B. position on federal gas tax return, child-care funding

Recent findings on negative outcomes for children and parenting in the Quebec system

“Universal Childcare, Maternal Labor Supply and Family Well-Being” (brokent link) by Michael Baker (University of Toronto), Jonathan Gruber (MIT) and Kevin Milligan (University of British Columbia).

From the study:

“We uncover striking evidence that children are worse off in a variety of behavioral and health dimensions, ranging from aggression to motor-social skills to illness. Our analysis also suggests that the new childcare program led to more hostile, less consistent parenting, worse parental health, and lower-quality parental relationships.”

Note that child:staff ratios have been raised since the data used was collected and are now 8 children age 1 per staff. This would worsen outcomes.