By Arthur Weinreb
Wednesday, February 21, 2007
This week the province of Ontario launched a website to help track down some of the 188,000 deadbeat parents who owe child support to the province's Family Responsibility Office.
To the government's credit, the pictures and information of the 18 men that were initially put up on the website were men of various races and ethnicities. The politically correct Liberal government even dared to single out a Muslim deadbeat, although from his personal information it seems he prefers living under Mahmoud Ahmadinejad than Dalton McGuinty. The number of deadbeat fathers far outweighs deadbeat mothers, but don't look for a picture of a mom on the site anytime soon.
It comes as no surprise that all the deadbeats on the website are men and the notion that this is a program to seek out deadbeat parents as opposed to deadbeat fathers is misleading at best. The launching of the site is undoubtedly a bid to gain the women/feminist vote for the Liberals in October's upcoming election.
There are a couple of objectionable elements to the program that encourages Ontarians to go onto the site. Viewers are provided with an icon to click on in order to provide confidential information that they might happen to know to the government about these deadbeats. Providing Big Brother with this type of information has even been compared to the Crimestoppers program where citizens are encouraged to give information anonymously about crimes and dangerous criminals who are at large. But it is not really like Crimestoppers. People who live in a civilized democracy have a duty to report crime and assist the police in capturing and prosecuting suspected criminals. The fact that some parents, er, fathers, do not pay their child support has nothing to do with the fundamental protection of society. Although children can suffer from a lack of receiving proper support, their lives are not in jeopardy. There are plenty of social programs that will maintain these kids, at least at some basic level. The notion of providing this information is more akin to the practices in the former Soviet Union and other communist states that encourages people to inform on their fellow citizens for the good of the state. These types of programs that involve snitch lines and now websites are becoming more and more common as people are encouraged to report their friends and neighbours, usually in aid of some or other progressive policy. And unlike Crimestoppers, the high taxing, free spending McGuinty governments are too cheap to offer a reward to their snitches. Oh well, they have roads to pave and logos to change.
Another disturbing aspect of this program to track down deadbeat fathers, oops, parents, is that it involves the notion of shaming those who are behind or ignoring their orders for child support. Shaming might actually work; but the notion of shaming someone is generally frowned upon by touchy-feely liberals. Shaming someone will make that person "feel bad". They'll develop "self esteem issues", etc.
Many who are ordered to pay child support and either refuse or fall behind do so because of general financial troubles. But others are those who simply can't afford to pay for their children and buy a brand new SUV and the latter takes precedence. The program doesn't differentiate and it should when the notion of shaming someone into paying is used.
If we're going to shame people, why stop at deadbeat parents? While in reality the major proportion of deadbeats are men, what about the women who refuse fathers access to their children even when such access is granted by a court order? Let's shame the mothers who refuse to let their children have contact with their fathers and who flippantly regard a lawful order of Ontario's courts. Of course, this involves women who regardless of what they do are regarded as victims of a cruel patriarchal society and will never be criticized let alone shamed. Shaming is only being employed because the vast number of those being shamed are men.
At least the name of this Ontario government website provides some humour in an otherwise serious matter -- "Good parents pay". Hey Dalton -- good parents also set an example for their children by being truthful instead of saying whatever happens to be beneficial at the time.
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