Looking at the bigger picture, is child poverty the most pressing issue when it comes to child welfare?
SJ: I think that child poverty, and family poverty in general, underlies everything that we do. Not to say that abuse is limited to people living in poverty, I would never want to say that, but I think that when you are in a situation where you are living on the poverty line it is difficult to get the supports that you need in a family. If you are a middle or upper class family and you have some issues within the family you usually have either the intellectual resources or the personal resources, or the networking resources to get the support you need. So poverty is a huge issue for us. The poverty we see is often third world poverty and I don’t think Canadians generally have any idea of the kind of poverty that people experience in Canada. We see tremendous neglect of children, children who don’t ask ‘what’s for dinner tonight?’ but ‘is there dinner tonight?’ These are children who are hungry, who don’t have the proper clothing to go to school, and who don’t have the proper supports t
