A National Tragedy & Disgrace for Canada - The Alarming Rate of Suicide Among Aboriginal Youths

"We've had another youth hang himself yesterday and much prayer is needed to fight against any ensuing copycat suicides and attempt from other youths. The youth group is devastated by the sudden suicide and equally concerning is the enormous attention this youth is receiving for the act.

After all is said and done, the only thing we can do is continue to pray and beg the Lord for intervention.

Thank you for prayers."  From a Youth Pastor in a Canadian Reserve

It was such a tragic piece of sad news and a big shock for me when I opened my email and found this sitting in my inbox. I was in tears as I thought of the parents' enormous loss and sadness. As a parent, I could not imagine greater suffering than experiencing the death of your own child.Yet, youth suicides are happening at an alarming rate and frequency in native reserves across Canada. According to a recent article reported in the Globe and Mail - Canada's leading national newspaper:

"...the infant mortality rate on aboriginal reserves is 14 deaths per 1,000 births – nearly double the national average? How can it be that life expectancy among the Inuit is 15 years shorter than the Canadian average? Can it really be possible that suicide rates among Canada’s aboriginal youth are up to 11 times higher than the national average?"

The plight of our aboriginal people, the hardship and discrimination faced by them is a national tragedy and disgrace!

Since native reserves are usually quite far away from the cities,  most Canadians do not have a lot of contact with our aboriginal people. So when we hear tragic news like that,for most Canadians, it is just another news item reported on the evening TV news broadcast.  

Many years ago when I first heard of the unusually high youth suicide rates and the numerous challenges facing young people in Canada's native population, I wondered about the causes of these tragedies. As I heard  more about the stories of these youths in our nation's reserves, I started to have a burden and desire to do something for them.

A few weeks ago, we attended a presentation by a youth pastor from a reserve about his commitment and work in that community. This youth pastor's work challenged us and touched many of our hearts. Plans and ideas of lending a hand to this reserve are starting to germinate.  We thank God that finally my husband and I will have this opportunity to serve God and our aboriginal youths. Hopefully, with God's grace and mercy, we will have good health and strong bodies which will enable us to commit our time and effort to connect with and help our first people.

We look forward to working with our short term mission team and serving the youths in one of the reserves in western Canada.

I was invited to do workshops for youths in Cambodia and I did a few of them on communications and building positive self esteem. These workshops were quite well received and the young people there told me that what they had learned helped them. I hope that I can take my experience working with Cambodian youths and in Ontario and offer my services to youths in the Canadian reserves in the near future.

R.T.
Toronto, Ontario
p.s. I was saddened to learn today that at Cross Lake, Manitoba, there were six suicides within two weeks at that community and 140 students are currently on suicide watch. How tragic is that! What is our government to help these people?

Advocating for a Student at a TDSB's School Transition Meeting

One of TECA's - Ontario Education & Communications Associates'  mandates is to advocate for parents at the school level. A parent asked me to attend her child’s IPRC meeting ( a special school meeting for students with special needs)  at her son's school. I did and I attended the meeting as a parent advocate. 

Adam is a grade 8 student in Toronto and he will be going to secondary school in the fall of 2016. The Toronto District School Board (TDSB) has policies in place to ensure that students’ transition from one panel to the next will be a smooth one.

 For those students  who  have been identified with learning disabilities, the sending schools will send information to the receiving schools informing school personnel of these students’ learning needs, so that programming can be planned to meet their needs for the coming year.

Ann L., the principal of the school was there to chair this Transition Meeting, along with the presence of  the Vice Principal, the classroom teacher, the Special Education Consultant from the school board and a teacher who could speak this student’s  heritage language translating for the parents. That was a productive meeting.

The meeting started with the homeroom teacher producing one of Adam's Math test papers and giving a snapshot of the student’s current progress. The homeroom teacher then proceeded to say that this student had achieved a Level 3 ( above 70%) in Mathematics, therefore he had no concerns about this student's academic achievement.

After the teaching's sharing, Adam's mother asked the teacher about Adam's ability in solving word problem in Math and we reminded the teacher that though the student could do straight calculations, Adam did have difficulty at home while problem solving on his own especially when the Math questions involved comprehension and higher level of analytical reasoning. The teacher concurred and agreed with the parents' observations which contradicted to his earlier claim that he had no concern about this student's progress in Math. Therefore, we advocated to have extra support and assistance for the student in the problem solving and reading comprehension area.

Another area of concern for Adam was his anxiety and oral communication. I shared my observations and concern about this student’s lack of confidence to advocate for himself on a number of occasions when he was bullied in school. We asked that this information be noted and passed on to the next school where Adam will attend and that teacher should monitor his social interactions at school and Guidance Support be provided to help student to cope with future incidents.

This kind of exchange of information between school and parents is important as it gives all stakeholders opportunities to learn more about the student and therefore a more accurate and complete picture of the student’s academic and social abilities.

Hopefully, the next school teachers and staff will read the students' OSR ( Ontario Student Record) where information about the student is stored, and can plan their programs accordingly to meet the needs of this student.

R.T.
Director - TECA
Toronto Education &
Communications Associates
Scarborough, Ontario

  

Parents can Bring Their Advocates to School Meetings in Ontario

Sally, a parent of a child with a physical disability,  asked me to attend the school meeting with her last week so that I could advocate on her behalf.

Unlike Canadian born parents who are unafraid to question and challenge the school's actions, the majority of immigrant parents trust and respect the school decisions and rarely question them. Though most schools are effective schools in Ontario, there are some schools that are not always doing their best to observe and report the learning needs of their students. In schools where a high proportions of immigrant children are in attendance and schools not being watched closely by parents, some teachers and support staff can get away of doing their minimum.

Such as the case at this York District elementary school. At that school meeting, we requested to see her son's school record ( called the OSR - Ontario Student Record) and discovered that the school neglected the recommendation and referral made by J.'s kindergarten class teacher in 2009. Consequently, J, was left on his own without any physio or occupational therapies as recommended.

J. has been left without a lot of support on his own dealing with his physical disability. As a result, he is a very quiet student, lack of confidence about himself, always trying to hide his disabled hand under layers of clothing.

Surprisingly when we asked the principal for social worker assistance, and for J. to be formally identified, the parent was told that she could not do so as there was no social worker on site at the school.  But I know how the schools work in Ontario. Every school is assigned a social worker, he/ she may not be stationing at that school full time, but students can always access the service of a social worker when parents request that help. Knowing this fact, I challenged the school principal and advocated services for J.

Because J.'s mother brought an advocate ( me) to the meeting with the principal, she was able to get the school and the board set in motion to arrange the help that her son badly needs.

Ontario parents, please know that it's your right to bring an advocate with you to the school meetings if you feel that your child is not getting the services he/ she needs. There is a lot of extra support and assistance provided by Ontario schools, but parents must advocate for their children. Don't be afraid to get help from an advocate - who can be anybody who is willing to escort you to the school meetings!

R.T.
Markham, Ontario

All Ontario Parents Have the Right to See Thier Children's OSR - Ontario Student Record

The appointment with the principal of the elementary school located in York region was scheduled at 3:00p.m. I arrived there at around 2:30p.m. as I did not want to be late. I signed in at the school office and was given a Visitor's tag to identify myself.

S. arrived a few minutes later and signed in at the office. Since we were here early, I told S. to request to see her son's OSR ( the Ontario Student's Record) to learn more information which the school has about her son. Upon hearing our request, the Secretary appeared to be a little taken back and told us to wait for a few minutes.

Every Ontario student has an OSR housed in the public school where the child is currently attending. This record contains all the information such as report cards, assessment reports, special meeting notes, requests for special help and resources by the parents and school personnel etc. Principals and school staff can access this file to retrieve information about the child and help them to understand the needs of that student. The custodial parents are entitled to see their children's OSR and request access to the information stored there. The OSRs are kept in the schools for at least fifty years.

However, most parents are not aware of the existence of  the Ontario Student Records for their children and even fewer parents ever request to see them.

Shortly after we requested to see the OSR for S.'s son, the principal showed up to talk to us. Though S. had talked to the school secretary to make an appointment, the principal informed us that there was no record of S.'s request for an appointment. But since she had to be present when parents were looking through the OSR, she informed us that she would only had a few minutes with us.

We sat down in the Principal's office and looked through J's  OSR. The OSR contained all the report cards since he entered kindergarten, and a referral form from his kindergarten teacher for special assessment and help dealing with the disability regarding his hand.

Unfortunately, there was no other reports, assessments or any follow up by any of the school personnel. Report after report noted some difficulties in J. academic achievement but time after time there was no referral or his name being brought up to any school support team meeting.

As a former public school principal, I was outraged at the non actions and uncaring attitude of the school from kindergarten on up until the present moment.   J. is in Grade 6 currently. Yet nothing has been done and no teacher has paid enough attention to him to notice anything different about him.
But in a recent out of school setting, I had an encounter with J. who cried non stop for over half an hour for an activity he did not wish to participate. His behavior and emotional outburst alarmed me.

What could have triggered such an avalanche of emotions from this young person? Have he been teased about his disability?  Was he a victim of bullying in school? What was his emotional state? How does he see himself compared to other normal children? How has he been treated by his peers?

We asked the principal these questions about J.  She was unable to answer any of them as she had never met J., never heard of him being discussed in any school support meetings. We demanded that actions be taken and to meet with the teachers and school support school staff  who could offer assistance to J. that was suggested seven years ago.

We are currently awaiting to see what the York District School Board would do to make up for the seven years of service and assistance that J. could have received since 2009 as recommended by his kindergarten teacher when he first entered school. This referral form has been file in J.'s OSR, but all his teachers from Gr. 1 - 6 failed to notice it and therefore did not take any necessary actions for him.

J. has lost seven precious years where he could have received remedial and professional help to deal with physical disability. But he did not!  The York District School Board has failed to meet the needs of students attending their schools!

R.T.
Markham, Ontario
Disappointed with the York Region District School Board

Is the Ontario Education System Fair to All Its Students?

"Reaching Every Student" is the believe and philosophy of the Ontario Ministry of Education.

In Ontario, the government hopes to reach and educate every student in the province regardless of the student's economic background, gender, religion, race, ethnicity and learning abilities. However, this idealistic belief may not be realized and attainable for all Canadians residing in Ontario.

Unfortunately, there appears to be a two tiered systems in Ontario. The first tier for students of parents who are vocal, Canadian born and usually from English speaking background - those who are bold and  unafraid to approach the schools and know how the system works. These parents would be able to advocate for their children, especially those with special needs and getting a lot of help for them.

The second tier is for the ones who are newcomers/ immigrants, with limited English and those though Canadian born, but with little knowledge of how the educational system works therefore do not challenge the system such as the aboriginal people. These parents face many obstacles and barriers when they try to contact and approach the schools for help for their special need children. Their children would just get the basic education without much assistance.

S.'s son was born with an obvious physical defect on one of his hands. Recently, I met S. and her boys and I was surprised to find out that he has not identified as a special education student by the school. In Canada, there is special help for students with special needs. But the children need to be identified and assessed by the school if parents want to get any personalized programs or extra help for them to meet their learning needs.  If a child is not identified, i.e. without precise and accurate assessment, he/ she would not get any special help from the school at all.

 I encouraged the parent  to make an appointment to meet with her son's principal regarding the issue.   However, she had a really difficult time getting an appointment to meet with the principal as she was told that the principal was busy attending meetings.

When the parent called the school again during her lunch break, she was asked first by the secretary then passed on to the vice principal who asked again why she wanted this meeting. This parent with limited English was intimated and felt discouraged. She called me for advice. I told her it was the parents' right in Canada to meet with the principal and she should persist.  After a number of tries, she finally got an appointment with the principal.

She asked me if I could accompany her to the meeting and I accepted the invitation as I really want to help this student with special needs and I know how the education system works in Ontario.

J. is a student with a physical disability and he has been attending an elementary school in the York Region District School Board, a part of the Ontario Education System for the past eight years. Unfortunately, he has not received any resource or help since he was in kindergarten.

Is the education system fair in Ontario? To some, it is, if they know how to advocate for their children. But to those who cannot or know how to advocate for their children, they do not get anything.  Is this equity?

R.T.
Toronto

Excellent Games and Program for A Youth Group Meeting!

It is not easy to bring people to church these days. The church attendance in North America has been dwindling for the past few decades. I feel so sad when I see church buildings everywhere in Canada being sold off to become commercial buildings due to declining attendance.

Churches in Ontario are no exception to this problem and many are trying different ways to attract people back to their Sunday worship. One of the strategies is to bring young people back to church. Consequently, I was invited to start and lead a new youth ministry in Waterloo, Ontario

Last Sunday afternoon, we had our second meeting for the Youth Fellowship Program. Instead of the traditional sermon messages, we tried a different format.

1. Songs - We started with songs and we chose them carefully, taking into consideration the age and the unique problems youths face these days. We hope that these songs would break the ice and touch their hearts.

The Untangling Game

2. Games - Though I have more than thirty years of experience working with students and young people, I understand that young people need good role models and they relate better to their peers. I invited Y., an excellent senior high school student with an outgoing and positive personality to come and lead some program for us.

Y. did an outstanding job and led a few fun games. The ones that really got the youth engaged were:

A. Untangling a human knot - She divided the large group into two groups of six. Members were asked to hold hands from someone standing opposite from them first with their left hands, and then with a different person at least two away from them with their right hands. Then they had to work together to untangle themselves from this human know into a circle.

Young people working hard to get themselves out of the Knot

It was a challenging and fun activity for the youth as they had to work together and plan their exit from their knot.

As an older person, I would not have chosen this game. But I was glad Y. did because the youth really liked it!!

( I thought to myself this is why we must have young people leading the games. They know what young people like!)


B. Staring Down - This was the second game when everyone stood and formed a big circle. Everyone looked down at their shoes. When the announcer yelled "Look Up", everyone looked into the other people in the circle trying not to make eye contact with anyone. If two people made eye contact with each other, they would be eliminated. The game was repeated until only two people left in the circle.
That was a great game!

Rock, Paper & Scissors Game

C. Rock, Paper & Scissors - Participants were divided into two groups. Each group sent a representative to do the Rock, Paper, & Scissors with the other team member. The person who lost would cross the line and go over to the other team. The game continued until one side lost all their members. It was really fun when it was done in a fast paced manner.

I really like these three games as they required no equipment at all and can be played either indoor and outdoor. Many churches and youth groups are operating on very limited resources with little or no money to purchase any special equipment or preparation material when comes to their youth group meetings. These games would be great for them!

3. Short Story - After the games, the young people got to know each other better and were more relaxed at the meeting. Knowing that young people are studying hard and facing the problem of choosing their study and university, I shared a bible story that would appeal to them.

I used the story of Solomon and how he used divine wisdom to solve the problem for two mothers fighting over the living baby. The story was well received. As I shared my own life stories with them, there were some teary eyes among the young people.  I do hope that this Youth Fellowship Program would help some of them in the future!

R.T.
Youth Group Meeting
Waterloo, Ontario

Golf's Restaurant, Kitchener, Ontario- Excellent Food at Affordable Prices

Golfs Restaurant, Kitchener, Ontario

We drive into the Kitchener/ Waterloo area every month and have lots of opportunities to try out the various restaurants in the area.

This time, we were invited to have a Sunday brunch at the Golfs Restaurant in Kitchener.

Entrance to the Golf's Restaurant Dining Room

It was a Sunday morning and we arrived at the Golf's Restaurant at about 11:00a.m. The parking lot was almost full already!

We entered the restaurant and it was like a step back in time!

In fact the main stairs leading to the second floor dining area reminded me a lot of the movie Titanic where the two main characters were filmed at the bottom of the stairs.

While good restaurants are abound in the Waterloo area, we found this restaurant to be quite unique in its old world charm decor.

Wood paneled and antique glass windows are warm & welcoming

Wood paneled walls and antique glass windows in the dining areas were a throw back in time, but warm and welcoming.

Seating in the restaurant's solarium is always in high demand

This was the second time we were at the restaurant; twice we failed to secure one of the much coveted tables by the windows in the solarium.

We could only admire the scenery outside from afar. Next time, we must remember to reserve a seat by the window!

Though it was only around 11:15a.m. after we were seated, there was already a lineup at the hot buffet table.

But the variety of food being served and the delicious dishes were worth a  few minutes' wait.

The Salad Station with different Types of Fruit Juices

Because there was a long lineup at the hot food station, we headed to the salad station.

The salad station offered fresh salads such coleslaw, beets, cold pastas, marinated mushrooms as well as shrimps and different kinds of fruit juices one could have for the brunch buffet.

An Excellent Selection of Hot Food Offered at the Sunday Brunch Buffet

The hot food table offered steamed green beans, mixed vegetables, real home fried potatoes( NOT THE DEEP FRIED ONES!!!!),  rice Pilaf , tender juicy beef ribs,  roast chicken, vegetable lasagna, pan fried white fish, roast beef, along with breakfast items such as scrambled eggs, sausages, bacon, pancakes, french toasts and freshly made Belgian waffles with fresh fruit toppings!

(All these for $19.95 - adults and seniors are like, but half price for kids! Very reasonably priced.)

A Lineup at the Hot Food Table Starting at 11a.m. Already!

 It was a delightful choices of hot food items! We did not want to wast food nor overeat, so we took only a very tiny portion of the food we wanted to taste.

We were not disappointed at all!

Every single food item we had was simply delicious! The ribs were so tender that the meat fell off the rib when I tried to cut a piece off it. The roast beef was moist and perfectly roasted.

A Colourful & Tempting Display of Delicious Desserts! 

We have not dined in a restaurant where everything was so delicious and perfectly prepared!

We were warned by our friends: " If you think the main courses are good. Wait till you try the desserts!"

There was a beautiful and colourful array of desserts laid out on the dessert table. I shared and enjoyed a little bit of the creme brule, cheese cake, and apple pie. They were all yummmy!

We stayed at the restaurant, enjoying our desserts and mapped put the plans for the summer camp for the kids in August.  We had a very pleasant work lunch meeting and got a lot of work done over good food and excellent company! I can't think of a better place for a Sunday Brunch than the Golfs. I will keep searching when we are in Waterloo!

R.T.
The Golf's Restaurant
Kitchener, Ontario
p.s. I must bring my Mom here for the brunch one of these days!