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Your source for local sports, news, weather and entertainment! >> www.burnabynow.com FIGHTING FOR THEIR KIDS
Parents share stories Jennifer Moreau staff reporter
About 40 people showed up at a parents’ meeting in Burnaby Monday night to brainstorm on how to deal with long wait-lists to get help for their children with special needs. Parents Wendy Seet and Marc Adams organized the event at the McGill library branch because they were frustrated with the long wait to get help for their three-yearold daughter, Kate, through the Supported Child Development Program. Because Kate has Down syndrome and extra needs, she was approved to have an support worker with her in daycare, but by the time Kate’s wait-list number comes up, she’ll likely be out of daycare. Seet said the meeting was mostly taken up by similar stories from other parents whose children were wait-listed because government funding is not keeping up with demand. “The stories were so powerful,” Seet said. Local NDP MLAs attended, and the Liberals MLAs sent their constituency assistants. Barbara Spitz, who works for Harry Bloy, arranged for the parents to make a presentation to the provincial government’s select standing committee on finance and government services, which is on tour listening what the public wants prioritized for the 2011/12 budget. Seet said parents will plead their case on Wednesday in Vancouver. “We’ve asked for as many parents as possible to come, and we’ll write a joint speech to be delivered at the budget hearing,” she said. Parents Page 9
Larry Wright/burnaby now
Making noise: Protesters from No One Is Illegal, a refugee and immigrant rights group, rally outside the Burnaby youth prison where Tamil women and children are being detained.
Protesters send message to Tamils Jennifer Moreau staff reporter
A pregnant woman from the boat of Tamil migrants was released from Burnaby’s youth prison Monday, following a detention hearing. She is the first adult to be released from the group of nearly 500 migrants who arrived in Esquimalt Aug. 13, after months at sea. Her name cannot be released because of a publication ban, but she is pregnant and has three children. Meanwhile, about 70 demonstrators gathered outside the Burnaby youth prison on Saturday, banging pot and pans in hopes a group of Tamil women and children would hear them from inside the prison walls.
“We’re holding a noise demonstration to let the … Tamil women and children know we’re here to support them,” said Nassim Elbardouh, from No One Is Illegal, a refugee and immigrant rights group. Four hundred and ninety-two men, women and children from Sri Lanka were packed on the MV Sun Sea. All are being held in detention, apart from a handful of unaccompanied minors, who were released to the Ministry of Children and Family Development. Twenty-five women and 44 children are being held at the Burnaby Youth Custody and Services Centre. The children aren’t officially being detained, but they are staying with their mothers or guardians, who are in custody. “We want to see them be released imme-
diately and be welcomed,” Elbardouh said. “It’s criminalizing asylum seekers, it’s criminalizing refugees, and that is not OK.” Immigration and Refugee Board spokesperson Paula Faber said the migrants are in the beginning stages of the third round of detention reviews. The Canada Border Services Agency is arguing the migrants be kept in detention till their identities have been confirmed. Faber said she has no information on when the women and children can expect to be released, but as long as the people are held in custody, they will get detention reviews For more on this story, see Jennifer Moreau’s blog, Community Conversations, at www. burnabynow.com.