September 1 - 15, 2018
OPINION
PHILIPPINE ASIAN NEWS TODAY
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No kid gloves
Breaking
Point
By Rosette Correa
It’s alarming. The number of
young people dying in Canada has risen
in the last few years, and not because of
illness, but pure and simple neglect by the
government. Canada’s reputation in the
world as a healthy place to raise children
is belied by statistics showing high rates
of suicide, child abuse and struggles
with mental health. According to a report
compiled by Children First Canada and
the O’Brien Institute for Public Health,
the study, which analyzes data from
major research organizations including
Statistics Canada and the Canadian
Institute of Health Information, said all
orders of government need to do more
to ensure that children benefit from the
country’s overall wealth and prosperity, in
particular, children’s health.
Children First pointed to a UNICEF
ranking of 41 Organization of Economic
Co-Operation and Development countries
that placed Canada 25th on the list when
assessing for children’s well-being. There
have been various research agencies that
have documented many troubling markers
of kids health over the years, with mental
health emerging as an area of increasing
urgency. The report found the number
of mental health-related hospitalizations
among people aged five to 24 had soared
66 per cent over the last decade. The lack
of stats focusing specifically on those
18 or under, highlights one of the many
shortcomings in the government’s efforts
to keep tabs on children’s health.
According to the Child and Youth
Mental Health Collaborative between Sick
Kids Hospital, the Centre for Addiction
and Mental Health and the University of
Toronto, many of these cases are youth
OP-ED
Better transportation for everyone
in Surrey is one step closer to reality. Last
week, the Surrey-Newton-Guildford Light
Rail Transit (SNG LRT) Project reached a
critical milestone with the forma l approval
of the Business Case by the governments
of Canada and B.C. The Project is now
fully approved and fully funded with
backing by all three levels of government.
The procurement process officially began
last week and my team is working to
have B.C.’s first light rail project carrying
passengers across Surrey by 2024.
We all know that Surrey is
growing. We see it every day. More people,
more jobs, and, yes, more traffic. There’s
another 400,000 people expected to live
in Surrey by 2040. That makes it B.C.’s
fastest growing city.
With this in mind, we worked
with the City to carefully study population
and employment growth, detail Surrey’s
transportation needs and establish
its livability goals. Years of work and
discussion have gone into the decision
that a light rail system would be the best
solution for Surrey to reduce congestion,
who are not given the proper
counseling and attention that they
need in order to address their
problems. Many of these cases result in
suicide attempts, and sometimes death.
Despite documenting high prevalence of
mental health issues in kids as far back
as 1987, Canada has taken comparatively
little action to get at the root of the
problem.
The results also show not only a
red flag, but an ongoing shortfall in the way
mental health is handled in schools and
primary health centres. Many institutions
today, as well as parents, fail to give their
children the necessary tools to cope with
these things when they’re still minor. We
are a crisis-driven health care system,
not a public health system, that should
aim to avoid and prevent these things
from happening. Helicopter parents have
enabled their children to think that as long
as they speak their mind and raise their
issues, something will be done about it
by a third party. These parents forget that
the best way for their children to cope
with issues is to allow them to fall, to seek
help, and to give encouragement to rise
from them.
As well, instead of exploring
psychological assessment and the
appropriate therapy to cope with issues,
young people are simply given what they
think they want, rather than the remedy
they need, because parents simply do not
want to deal with the harsh criticism of
social media when they don’t “support”
their children’s choices. This leads to
the child’s further confusion, and more
issues rise from them. In the end, when
the child becomes more mature in age
and intellect, and is ready to face his/her
problem, they realize that there is no
turning back from a decision that they
were allowed to make when they were at
an age that they needed guidance, not
approval of their ill-advised decisions.
Many data shows that a
growing number of young people are
ultimately resorting to suicide. Suicide
is the second-most common cause of
death among children, and Canada’s
child suicide rate is among the top
five in the world. Suicide is a result of
desperation and frustration over issues
that young people needed to resolve
with the help of a responsible adult,
one that is capable of giving them the
courage to face a problem, to deal
with it in the best way possible without
changing their lives forever, and to help
them get through crises that does not
involve permanent damage to their lives.
Alas, social media wins the day, and the
death of a young person will live in the
news for a few days until a new, more
controversial issue takes over the papers
and grapevine.
As Canada gears up for the
legalization of marijuana, many responsible
parents fear the worst. Marijuana is a drug
because it contains tetrahydrocannabinol
or THC that creates the mind-altering
effects that classifies marijuana as a
“drug.” The medicinal part of marijuana
used for pain management is CBD or
cannabinol, and does not have the effects
that gets you high. Big difference. As
well, recent studies on young adults that
smoke marijuana, found abnormalities in
the brain related to emotion, motivation
and decision-making. Marijuana smokers
have poorer memories and mental
aptitude than do non-users. This will
make the next generation dumber and
dumber, and the next Liberal government
not any smarter.
If the Canadian government
spent less time on implementing laws
legalizing marijuana and more on
children’s physical and mental health,
these mental and physical health issues
would not be happening. As it is, the
Trudeau government is giving numerous
mixed signals to children regarding how
they should take care of themselves, and
legalizing marijuana and many issues
regarding physical health and identity, are
some of the issues that continue to confuse
young people. With a poor mental health
care monitoring and preventative system
to begin with, children really don’t have a
fighting chance. If it is true that Canada is
no longer a country highly recommended
to raise children, then my husband and
I made a mistake choosing this country
to be our home. We hope and pray we
weren’t wrong.
New Surrey LRT
meet growing transit demand, and support
the development we all want: complete,
connected and livable neighbourhoods.
People look for convenient public
transit options when deciding where
to live, work, and spend time. Light rail
transit in Surrey will stimulate economic
development, job growth, and density.
This boosts transit demand, but also
increases employment and housing
options. There will be more than 28,000
jobs within 400m of a LRT stop in 2024
and more than 34,000 jobs by 2033.
Surrey LRT will serve 104th
Avenue and King George Boulevard,
connecting three of Surrey’s largest town
centres. Three-quarters of all transit trips
that start in Surrey end in Surrey. That
confirms the need for better, more frequent
local transit services and connections.
The SNG LRT will replace
the 96 B-Line once it’s open. This B-
Line is the fastest-growing B-Line in
TransLink’s network. It saw about five
million passenger boardings in 2017
–a 50 per cent increase from 2014. At
this rate, ridership demand will outstrip
B-Line capacity within a decade. LRT,
which can move more than four times the
number of B-Line passengers, will meet
forecast de mand well into the future while
providing accessible and comfortable
service along two important corridors.
Customers don’t want to have
to wait long for a ride. LRT will be more
frequent with five minute waits during
peak period and a travel time of 27
minutes or less. Travel times for the 96
B-Line during peak congestion range
between 29 minutes and 50 minutes.
B.C. is joining cities and regions
around the world that are choosing
light rail transit to create more vibrant,
connected communities. We will learn
from the experiences of the more than
400 light rail projects around the world to
make sure we can build this Project in the
least disruptive way.
This is an historic opportunity.
The SNG LRT Project is the greatest
infusion of transit funding for the area
south of the Fraser, and the largest capital
investment in Surrey. There is much work
to do over the next few years before we
WWW.PHILIPPINEASIANNEWSTODAY.COM
Stephan Mehr
can ride LRT in B.C., but we are closer
today than ever before and are thrilled to
say: LRT is on the way!
Stephan Mehr is TransLink’s
Director of the Surrey-Newton-Guildford
LRT Project