B.C.’s representative of children and youth, Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond, whose second and final term is coming to an end, didn’t make a lot of political friends during her 10 years of advocating for the most vulnerable kids in our province. But it wasn’t her job to be popular.
Like other independent officers of the legislature, her job was to call the government to account.
She took on that task relentlessly and unflinchingly for the past decade. She issued nearly 100 reports and made 200 recommendations. Her words were not often easy to hear. She chronicled horrifying circumstances, often involving the deaths of and harm suffered by kids in government care. Her reports have highlighted issues like the practice of housing children in hotels, the woeful inadequacies in mental health supports for kids and the plight of teens who “age out” of foster care.
Too often, her reports have pointed to our collective failure to help those most in need of it. She did not mince words or sugar-coat.
Not surprisingly, Turpel-Lafond has not been a favourite of those on the government benches. Her candid assessments are ones many politicians would seek to avoid.
Yet in exposing those failures, Turpel-Lafond was able to bring pressure on government to fix them.
We suspect the government will be in no rush to replace Turpel-Lafond with an advocate who could prove to be an equal thorn in the Liberals’ side. The delay in naming a replacement speaks loudly. Meanwhile, Turpel-Lafond should have our thanks for shining a light on some very dark places and for fighting so tirelessly for those who have no voice.
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