N@WS eens.
Free daycare!

Embryonic co-op idea needs support

Jochen Biertiimpel

 

arents attending Douglas College
P feel that they are at an academic

disadvantage. “I know that I
missed two classes because my baby-
sitter let me down,” says student Anita
Carter. “After working in Peer Support, I
noticed that this is a very common
problem,” According to Carter, New
Westminster Douglas College needs to
give more support.to students who have
children.

Carter is attempting to start a baby-
sitting co-op at Douglas College, but she
needs more volunteers. It would work
like this: parents would drop of their
children, at no charge, and only owe the
co-op for the amount of time that their
kids were looked after.

This student/parent network would
be beneficial to Douglas College
students with children. Carter is
enthused about it; “After working on my
practicum, I’ve decided to devote my
time to this program.”

But there is a major problem: the
college has not given Carter's project a
room for-the co-op because there aren't
yet enough members. The key to
making this co-op a cost free system is to
get everyone to put in what they take

out, says Carter. Through the co-op,

’ parents would have more time to

themselves and their homework, and
money could be saved, too; foods and
goods can be bought in bulk since that
would lower the costs for everyone
involved. Toy and clothing swaps could
be created to ease the expenses of new
mothers and fathers. Car-pooling is also
an option whenever it would be
convenient.

The Nikolai family agrees that the co-
op program would be a real asset to
parents who are enrolled in school
programs. “We tried to get our son into
the daycare but they didn’t have any
room. They also said that we'd have to
be full time students. We are just a single
case, but there are many more out there
just like us.”

Carter mentioned that packing a
lunch, and bringing other parents to her
co-op meetings, would be a great idea.
For now they need more people, or the
school cannot give Anita a room in
which the co-op project kids cagystay.
There is a meeting every Tuesday at
noon in room 3408 where one can
discuss the co-op and bring up new
ideas. Show up to a meeting or simply
put your name and phone number on
one of Carter's sheets for the Student/

 

  

Parent Network. These sheets are
distributed all over the campus. So
if you're a student with

children, Carter urges you to

see what it’s all about.

BC government attempts to gain access to BC
Benefit recipients’ private information but
access is denied...for now

Monique “I don’t know the meaning of
pithy” Tamminga

 

ow far should the government
be able to dig into your private
life? Should they be able to

access information from your landlord
or your present and past employers?

The Ministry of Human Resources
thinks it should be allowed to do just
that. A consent form was mailed out
mid-January to residences of British
Columbia who collect financial
assistance through BC Benefits (income
assistance, youth works and disability
assistance).

The consent form required each
recipient to sign a release of all informa-
tion to the Ministry of Human Re-
sources by February 20 or it “may result
in an interruption in your assistance.”

This consent form created such an
uproar that rallies were held, consent
forms were burned, and Community
Legal Assistance Society decided to take
court action against the form. The

overwhelming negative reaction forced
Glen Clark to review the form and
retract the threat that the Ministry was
going to withhold financial assistance
cheques if people didn’t sign the form.
Jan Hastings, of Douglas College’s BC
Benefits office, says that some students
on assistance have been coming in upset
and asking whether they should sign the
form or not. In actuality, “thousands of
recipients have already signed the form
last April and didn’t even know it.” says
Robin Loxton of BC Coalition of People
with Disabilities. The consent form has
created such an uproar among BC
Benefit recipients and advocates for
people on assistance that an information
meeting was held at Carnegie Library in
Vancouver, February 6, to discuss
possible consequences of not signing the
form, as well as people’s legal rights.
The Carnegie Library was full to its
capacity with frustrated recipients and
MLAs who spoke out against the
Ministry's consent form. One of the
MLAs was East Vancouver's Jenny

Kwan. Kwan spoke out at Carnegie
Library, siding with the people on social
assistance in her neighbourhood rallying
against the invasion of privacy the
consent form implies.

Days after the meeting at Carnegie
Library, there was a rally held at Pigeon
Park where a steel drum situated at the
centre of the park burned brightly, fuelled
by angry people's consent forms. Neither
the meeting nor the rally at Pigeon Park
got very much media attention.

The outrage from BC Benefit
recipients did not go unnoticed by the
government, however. Glen Clark
announced this week that because of the
negative reaction to the form, the
Ministry will be reviewing the form’s
content to possibly alter it. Loxton
worries that this review will attempt to
sweep the problem under the carpet.
“My concern is that the consent form
will be reviewed and only minor changes
will occur.”

According to ELP (End Legislated
Poverty), lawyers have been faxing in

information on people's right not to sign
the form and at one point there were
two lawyers workjgg on a case. ELP staff
say that because of the recent review,
those lawyers have been put on hold.

Steve Anderson, a DC student as
well as a BC Benefits recipient, got the
consent form some time ago in the mail.
He remembers going to ask what the
form was all about and being told not to
sign it. “I didn’t know what it was but
they told me not to worry about it for
now so I think I threw it away.” Another
student on assistance was astonished by
all the information the Ministry wanted
to access, “this consent form asks for
everything but my DNA.”

Attempts to speak to someone at the
Ministry of Human Resources about the
form were futile. They referred the calls
to seven different people at six different
branches*By the seventh referral I was
told to give up the search for a quote
because no one in government is allowed
to talk about government documents.

A news release by End Legislated

Poverty executive member Jacquie
Ackerly had this to say about the
consent form, “It’s a small piece of a
larger whole. The government has
removed a whole number of rights from
people on welfare.”

Ackerly added, “Even criminals who
are not on welfare would have more
protection against infringement of their
privacy than people on welfare.”

Glen Clark did a cabinet shuffle
recently and that included replacing the
old Minister of Human Resources with
Jan Pullinger. Both Loxton and staff
from End Legislative Poverty fear she
might be too lax on issues supporting
people on assistance.

Many hope new awareness and
activity will occur in parliament in the
next years to support the rights of people
on assistance, and hopefully their voices
will be heard with compassion not

negativity. ep

@op.douglas.be.ca

 

UL

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The Other Press February 25, 1998 3