EXCERPTS
A new federally sponsored child-care program is unfolding across Canada. This initiative didn’t fall from the sky – it’s the result of decades of agitation by child-care activists in Toronto and the rest of the country. We are bringing together a panel to discuss the campaigns for decent, publicly supported child care and to assess how this new program measures up.
Panelists
Lisa Pasolli is Assistant Professor of history at Queen’s University and the author of numerous publications on the history of child care in Canada.
Martha Friendly is Executive Director (and founder) of the Childcare Resource and Research Unit and has written about and advocated for good child care for some fifty years.
Julie Mathien worked for many years as Director of the Early Learning and Child Development Branch of the Ministry of Children and Youth Services and recently wrote a history of the Campus Community Co-operative Day Care Centre (she also participated in the occupations required to get funding for that centre fifty years ago).
Jessica Tomas works at the U of T Early Learning Centre and is Diversity Officer and Vice-President of Advocacy on the executive board of CUPE Local 2484 and a board member of the Ontario Coalition for Better Child Care.