The province of B.C. should look carefully at a secure care model for children to ensure that their rights, special needs and concerns are addressed.
Locking up children against their will for their protection seems at first glance to be a Victorian-era remedy that could, in the wrong hands, unfairly put troublesome teens into institutions.
But a more nuanced approach to secure care could, with appropriate legal safeguards and facilities, provide safe placement of children and youth who might otherwise be at high risk of self harm.
The key to ensuring that troublesome teens aren't simply put away when their parents or "the system" lose control over them is to make sure that they are placed in a situation that can actually help them deal with the drug addiction that is putting them into harm's way.
Currently, seven Canadian provinces have some form of secure care for children that allow them to be involuntarily placed into a facility to deal with their drug addition, typically after a doctor's order, and then only with several restrictions, such as time limitations.
B.C. Child and Youth Representative Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond has recommended the province also explore some form of secure care that would see vulnerable children and youth be apprehended but only as a last resort.
Children of the Street Society spokesperson Diane Sowden has dealt first hand with situations where parents are at a loss to help their kids who either can't or won't change their lives out of real fear about the potential consequences or apathy caused by their addiction to drugs. Often these teens are extremely vulnerable youth who have been preyed upon by older adults who lure them into prostitution with gifts and then keep them submissive with drugs.
These teens, it could be argued, could have made better choices. But that is no reason to leave them in a terrible situation. While no one doubts that it would be costly to provide an appropriate facility and level of care, the cost of doing nothing is also extremely high.
