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Scheme
by UNICEF and Elections Canada Foiled
We knew
that the great plan of UNICEF and Elections Canada to have Canadian
school children "vote" on their "rights" (as
set out in the controversial "UN Convention on the Rights of
the Child) was a failure – we just didn’t realize the extent of
this failure. (See Reality, "Questionable 'Show
and Tell' in Canada's Schools," Sept-Oct 1999, p.2.)
The results
are now in and they indicate that ordinary people can and
do make a difference if they raise objections to unreasonable
schemes. Without question, this ill-conceived children's vote was
turned on its ear through the efforts of individuals across the
country who soundly rejected this manipulation of school children
by UNICEF and Elections Canada.
The
Results
- Only 3.8%
of students in Canada participated in this exercise;
- Only 6.9%
of Canadian schools conducted the vote in their schools;
- Children
who did vote, voted as follows:
- 24.2%
voted that the right to a family was most important to them
- 19.6%
voted for a right to food and shelter
- 10.7%
voted for a right to health
(Other
options polled less than 10%, and 2.3% of ballots were spoiled.)
Cost of
the Vote
The Canadian
Taxpayer paid out $500,000 for this futile exercise. According to
information obtained under the Access to Information Act, monies
were contributed by the Department of Foreign Affairs, Canadian
Heritage, the National Capital Commission, Human Resources Industry
Canada and the National Film Board, which latter produced a series
of films to inform children about their "rights" under
the UN Convention. The cost to the office of the Chief Electoral
Office itself will not be disclosed until it issues its annual report
sometime in February or March. UNICEF Canada provided $150,000 towards
this exercise.
In summary,
the federal government spent at least half a million taxpayer dollars
to find out that children think their families are important! Why
didn’t the government provide some tax relief to families instead,
rather than throwing away money on such a hare-brained scheme?
Senator
Landon Pearson, who owes her Senatorial appointment to her Liberal
family connections, (she is married to Geoffrey Pearson, son of
former Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson, and is the mother of Michael
Pearson, working in Prime Minister Chrétien's office [PMO]),
was furious about the failure of this grand scheme to hold a children’s
vote. In an angry letter published in the National Post on
November 24, 1999, she stated:
Due
in large part to the campaign of disinformation in which the
National Post has taken part, hundreds of thousands of Canadian
children were deprived of a unique opportunity to learn about
what it means to have rights and responsibilities, how the electoral
process works, and most importantly, to express their civic
dreams.
She neglected
to mention in her letter, however, that concerned parents, school
boards and school principals were unwilling to allow Canadian children
to be used and manipulated for political purposes by influential
élites such as the federal government (on whose behalf she
was apparently speaking) and UNICEF to further their own agendas.
For further
details, please refer to Election Canada's web site: http://www.elections.ca/email/email_e.html
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