First Call Child Labour Campaign 
May 9, 2013: Today First Call: BC Child & Youth Advocacy Coalition published a new research report "Child Labour is No Accident: The Experience of BC’s Working Children"
- Report: "Child Labour is No Accident: The Experience of BC’s Working Children"
- Addendum: "Child Labour is No Accident: Addendum"*
- Media Release: New Report Reveals Risks Working Children and Youth Face in British Columbia
- Media Backgrounder: "Child Labour is No Accident: The Experience of BC’s Working Children Media Backgrounder"
*On the eve of publishing the report, we received important new data from WorkSafe BC. Since it was too late to integrate this new data into the report, we have included it as an addendum.
We want to take this opportunity to extend a thank you to everyone who participated in this project: the youth who shared their stories, our advisory committee, the partner organizations who helped us connect with youth in their communities; the facilitators and interviewers for their work on the ground; our editors and designer, and project funder, the Law Foundation of British Columbia, for providing us with the resources to bring them all together.
We encourage you to share the report with your networks, and to help us create the momentum needed to ensure that the problems highlighted by this report receive the attention they deserve, and result in concrete policy changes.
Building on this research, our next step will be writing a policy framework to present to the new government to guide the changes necessary to protect BC's children and youth.
Media Coverage of the Child Labour Report:
We were thrilled that the report was featured on the front page of the print edition of the Vancouver Sun and that Adrienne's oped was published:
- Work-related injury claims payouts to children surge: Increase largely due to ‘severe’ injuries to two boys under 15
By Gordon Hoekstra, Jonathan Fowlie, & Brian Morton, Vancouver Sun, May 10, 2013 - B.C. pays price for lower work age: Opinion: Accident claims for children have skyrocketed with some young people now disabled for the rest of their lives
By Adrienne Montani, Special to The Vancouver Sun May 9, 2013
Unfortunately when Premier Clark was asked by the Vancouver Sun to respond to our report, her response was incredibly uninformed, and she defended the current inadequate child labour laws in
- B.C. shouldn’t return to permit system for working children: Premier Clark
By Jeff Lee, Vancouver Sun, May 10, 2013 (Clark’s response to our report)B.C.
Helesia Luke, First Call Coordinating Committee member and co-editor of the report responded to Premier Clark’s comments in an opinion piece in Rabble.ca.
- Christy Clark’s excuses for child labour in B.C. defy logic and good public policy
By Helesia Luke, Rabble.ca, May 13, 2013
Living Wage for Families Project
The First Call ECD Roundtable continues to bring together early childhood advocates to monitor how public policy and investments are serving our youngest children. Participants share information on the state of services and supports in their local communities and on new developments in their fields of work. The recent cuts to the national child care program and provincial child care services have prompted a dialogue with the provincial government, trying to track and influence government decision-making, spending and plans for this sector. The Roundtable has also focused on the shift of responsibility for early learning to the Ministry of Education. Always the Roundtable tries to bring attention to the need for a comprehensive framework for action for early childhood development in BC.