The Mark Cherrington Podcast: Episode 4 - Forced to Pawn: How Families Navigate the Welfare System's Gaps to Survive
This is episode 4 of my podcast. An extended version is exclusively available to my Patreon supporters. I sit down with Kevin to discuss the harsh realities that vulnerable families and single parents face as they navigate broken Social Services and Income Support systems.
I share firsthand stories about the desperate measures vulnerable people are forced to take just to survive—like pawning their personal belongings—and expose the systemic gaps that lead to financial instability and lack of proper support.
We talk about the struggles of those dealing with inter-generational trauma, escaping abusive relationships, and the inefficiencies in our current welfare systems.
We also explore some innovative solutions for handling non-violent offenders, ways to strengthen Child Welfare services, and why community support and donations are so essential.
Join us for an eye-opening discussion, during which we advocate for compassionate reforms and call for collective action to improve people’s lives.
In this episode, we answer these questions:
1. How did an Indigenous mom’s experience with intergenerational trauma and child welfare impact her ability to parent her children?
2. What desperate measures did a single mom take after income support cut her off, and how did it affect her and her child?
3. How did a temporary guardianship order complicate one mother’s ability to stay involved in her children's lives?
4. How does Mark work directly with vulnerable families to ensure they get the support they need from social services?
5. What common gaps in the system force families to pawn their belongings or face homelessness while awaiting help?
Chapters:
00:00 The Struggles of Single Parents and Pawn Shops
01:00 Introduction to the Podcast and Episode Overview
02:10 Challenges Faced by Indigenous Mothers
10:12 Income Support Issues and Exploitation
23:13 Rethinking Remand Centers for Non-Violent Offenders
32:27 Efforts to Help the Homeless and Vulnerable
42:14 Government's Underwhelming Investment in Children's Services
43:31 Personal Experiences with the System
46:41 Challenges Faced by Homeless and Vulnerable Populations
54:18 Monthly Stats and Personal Stories
57:24 Issues with Emergency Social Services
01:05:43 Child Welfare Cases and Systemic Issues
01:11:02 The Importance of Donations and Community Support
01:15:38 Conclusion and Call to Action
Transcript
on September 16th, uh, you said, a sad indicator of how things are going is
Speaker:for the number of times I, I take single parents to the pawn shop so they can
Speaker:pawn their electronics for grocery money.
Speaker:That phone could save their life but they're having to pawn it off
Speaker:for grocery money in the moment.
Speaker:Is that, is it, is that right?
Speaker:Oh yeah.
Speaker:Electronics, uh, electronics or jewelry, gold.
Speaker:Um, that's the two main things.
Speaker:I mean, there's lots of factors to it again.
Speaker:Um, cost of living, underlying issues, their rent, things like that,
Speaker:emergency expenses, the pawn shops are the banks of many vulnerable people.
Speaker:I still do a lot of work there, uh, with a lot of families and their only
Speaker:access to, getting food sometimes or, paying this month's rent or
Speaker:getting, medicine for their children.
Speaker:Is pawning, pawning things and pawn stores are the banks of, uh, the impoverished.
Speaker:My name is Kevin and I'm one of Mark's volunteers.
Speaker:Welcome to the podcast.
Speaker:In this episode, episode 4, we're going to answer these questions coming up.
Speaker:How did an indigenous mom's experience with intergenerational
Speaker:trauma and child welfare impact her ability to parent her children?
Speaker:What desperate measures did a single mom take?
Speaker:Take after income support cut her off, and how did it affect her and her child?
Speaker:How did a temporary guardianship order complicate one mother's ability to
Speaker:stay involved in her children's lives?
Speaker:How does Mark work with vulnerable families to ensure that they get the
Speaker:support they need from social services?
Speaker:What common gaps in the system force families to pawn their belongings or
Speaker:face homelessness while awaiting help?
Speaker:In this podcast, Mark opens up about the real life struggles
Speaker:of the families he's helped.
Speaker:Continues to help who are caught in a broken system.
Speaker:Mark's firsthand experiences highlight how the system often falls short,
Speaker:leaving people vulnerable and desperate.
Speaker:He shares these powerful stories to raise awareness, advocate for change and
Speaker:call for more compassionate solutions.
Speaker:Episode four.
Speaker:Here we go.
Speaker:How's your week been?
Speaker:Kind of clunky, kind of, I
Speaker:got that sense.
Speaker:That's a good word for it.
Speaker:Clunky, kind of intense.
Speaker:I do want to.
Speaker:Thank you for taking, sincerely, for taking the time to,
Speaker:to, uh, be on this podcast.
Speaker:Number four that we, uh, uh, that, that we're doing.
Speaker:And I know your time is very valuable and I, I really do appreciate you being here.
Speaker:And obviously there have been some delays.
Speaker:We tried to record this podcast almost a month ago.
Speaker:And yeah, and I had a killer migraine.
Speaker:Yeah, you weren't doing too well.
Speaker:I just got nauseous and I was just terrible.
Speaker:It was just a migraine and I couldn't even focus.
Speaker:And I don't know if you can salvage some of that, mush it in with this one.
Speaker:I'm going to try, but you obviously always say things that are of interest.
Speaker:They're just, you kind of got to a point where we had to call it quits.
Speaker:And here we are a few weeks later to, uh, Uh, to try again, but, uh, thanks
Speaker:for being here, Mark, we all, we all appreciate you and, uh, everything and
Speaker:everything that you have to say, uh, your personal opinions, your insights,
Speaker:your perspective, the stories you have to tell, uh, and, uh, again,
Speaker:just thank you for, for doing this.
Speaker:I, I always appreciate seeing you and talking with you.
Speaker:Yeah, no.
Speaker:And I've, you know, I've got lots of things on my mind right now
Speaker:regarding children's services.
Speaker:Regarding.
Speaker:Uh, adult welfare regarding police school resource officers.
Speaker:Just a bunch of things.
Speaker:We'll, we'll see how, how far we get here.
Speaker:I did take out a couple of the stories.
Speaker:I thought we did a pretty good job.
Speaker:Of course, you're where you want to start, but obviously you dove right
Speaker:into the, uh, uh, that meeting with, with child welfare, uh, yesterday.
Speaker:And of course your, your, your thoughts on that.
Speaker:So appreciate you bringing that up right away.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I had another, uh, meeting today with a mom.
Speaker:Involves an indigenous mom who, uh, has.
Speaker:She has seven children, four of which are in care.
Speaker:She's a victim of intergenerational trauma.
Speaker:She's had a lot of trauma in her life by no fault of her own.
Speaker:And this of course impacts how she becomes a parent and the supports and
Speaker:the way she needs to be approached.
Speaker:And I find it ironic because this is the week, uh, you know, uh, September
Speaker:30th was Truth and Reconciliation Day.
Speaker:So yes, it was.
Speaker:Thank you for mentioning that.
Speaker:And I keep trying to.
Speaker:incorporate that feelings and that philosophy and everything that I do.
Speaker:I met with the mom and it was very heartbreaking and hard to listen to about
Speaker:how her children, um, were taken from her, how she felt that child welfare
Speaker:had shoved a pile of papers in her face and wanted her to sign these documents
Speaker:that she really wasn't, she was in a crisis when she was asked to sign
Speaker:this and she didn't really understand what she was signing, so she refused.
Speaker:And somehow that was implied that it, that'd be used against her.
Speaker:She went to visit one of her children who's, I guess, at an extended family
Speaker:member and she thought it would be okay.
Speaker:And the extended family member freaked out on her and she left, so
Speaker:she couldn't visit with her child.
Speaker:She left that distraught.
Speaker:But the more alarming thing, Kevin, with this one is at least again, it's just
Speaker:based on solely based on this woman's information and, you know, child welfare
Speaker:where I'm trying to set up a meeting, but I don't have any information on
Speaker:child welfare's position or side of the story or anything, but based on solely
Speaker:with just chatting with her, my concern is that now there's different levels
Speaker:of intrusiveness or different levels of care that children's services is.
Speaker:Um, can, can have under the Child, Family, and Youth Enhancement Act, which
Speaker:is the Child Welfare Act, I guess I call it, um, you know, there's a, um, Family
Speaker:Enhancement Agreement, which is really community focused, um, Parents Remain
Speaker:the Guardian, there's a Supervision Order where, um, The parents, the parent
Speaker:or parents remain the guardian, but child welfare, uh, through the courts
Speaker:have directed that the parents have to do certain tasks or, or behave in
Speaker:a certain manner, uh, could be, uh, abstaining from alcohol, drugs, whatever.
Speaker:Then there's a custody order where, um, or custody agreement, sorry, uh,
Speaker:where, uh, There's an agreement between the, um, guardian and children's
Speaker:services where child welfare is a bit more intrusive and complacent child.
Speaker:And of course, make decisions about that child involving maybe school or treatment
Speaker:or placements or things like that.
Speaker:And then you get into the real, um, intrusive ones.
Speaker:The temp, uh, well, there's temporary guardianship.
Speaker:Order where child welfare, basically, again, I'm not a lawyer, as you know,
Speaker:but it's just my layman's term is that they're kind of sharing guardianship with
Speaker:the child, with the parent on the child.
Speaker:And then there's a permanent guardianship order where child
Speaker:welfare becomes mom and dad.
Speaker:Uh, so in this case, it's involving a temporary guardianship order.
Speaker:So mom is still the guardian and still needs to be informed and consulted.
Speaker:And her feedback and her input matters.
Speaker:But from what I'm hearing from mom is that these children are coming to
Speaker:see her and they got bruises and huge scrapes and they've had medical issues.
Speaker:There's schooling issues.
Speaker:There's sociological issues.
Speaker:There's cultural issues.
Speaker:And child welfare hasn't been, um, consulting with mom about any of this.
Speaker:So this is another frustrating thing that I dealt with today is, is reaching out to
Speaker:child welfare to try to set up a meeting.
Speaker:And make sure that we can set the course right where mom has meaningful
Speaker:and robust visits with their children.
Speaker:And to try to ensure that Children's Services is working to re, reintegrate
Speaker:the children back with mom and provide mom and the children the support so that they
Speaker:can thrive and, and move on in their life.
Speaker:Mom was just, Very distraught and, um, you know, she searched me
Speaker:out and see if I could help her.
Speaker:So that was another rough one today.
Speaker:Those are kind of the battles.
Speaker:And then yesterday I had one where again, a single mom, Métis was
Speaker:involved in a very abusive relationship with, um, with her partner.
Speaker:Sometimes I like to call it as like stupid boyfriend or girlfriend syndrome,
Speaker:where somebody falls in love with somebody and it's the bad choice.
Speaker:And that person becomes complete, uh, anchor on, I don't know if I
Speaker:should say anchor, but a complete, um, liability on that family.
Speaker:And this was the case with this lady.
Speaker:She fell in love and they had a relationship and they had a child
Speaker:and this guy ended up being a jerk.
Speaker:Um, you know, a crook and a jerk.
Speaker:And mom, um, Uh, was taken advantage of and the father
Speaker:was cheating on his welfare.
Speaker:So he was, he had a job and he was claiming that he didn't and he was
Speaker:collecting welfare on the side and he was really, uh, impacting this family.
Speaker:It was emotional and physical abuse.
Speaker:Mom has broken off that relationship and this guy keeps trying to fight
Speaker:her in court with all these frivolous, frivolous, uh, claims for, so they're
Speaker:fighting over a parenting order.
Speaker:But the issue is that because she is on her own now and because she's very
Speaker:limited in what she can do and her son is, you know, has a lot of needs,
Speaker:she got cut off by income support.
Speaker:And this has been happening a lot lately because income support has been asking
Speaker:clients for their bank statements.
Speaker:And if there's anything that doesn't look right from income support's
Speaker:perspective, at least it's been my experience recently that they have
Speaker:been cutting off, uh, benefits.
Speaker:And this is what happened to mom.
Speaker:And the reason for that is that there were some sums of money
Speaker:put into her bank and she had.
Speaker:She had excuses for this, you know, it's because she had to borrow
Speaker:money and then pay back the money.
Speaker:So you have these large sums of money coming into her bank account
Speaker:and then coming out because people don't use cash anymore.
Speaker:It's all direct deposits and e transfers.
Speaker:And when income support got suspicious and cut her off, well, mom did, did
Speaker:what many people do, single parents have done when they're facing that situation.
Speaker:And she was sexually exploited.
Speaker:Uh, so she was, you know, involving herself online and being sexually
Speaker:exploited so she could have some money to feed her child.
Speaker:Of course that, that in itself caused even more trouble and harm for her
Speaker:because that was sort of good enough for income support to absolutely cut her off.
Speaker:So that forces her into that trade.
Speaker:I shouldn't say trade, it's not a business or trade.
Speaker:It forces her into that
Speaker:trajectory.
Speaker:So I've been Working with her to try to help her with a damage
Speaker:deposit, help her with some rent.
Speaker:And so that she doesn't have to be exploited so that she can
Speaker:meet the needs of her child.
Speaker:Yeah, so I was dealing with that one as well.
Speaker:That's a big problem with sexual exploitation is we don't give enough funds
Speaker:and we're, and we don't provide enough to families and single parents to survive,
Speaker:especially with inflation and rents.
Speaker:And the housing shortage.
Speaker:So sometimes parents turn to, uh, crime or sometimes they turn to,
Speaker:um, being exploited sexually, um, just so that they can survive.
Speaker:It's a terrible situation that I'm dealing with right now with a lot of families.
Speaker:Exactly.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Uh, I've been on income support at times myself, mark, as I've said before.
Speaker:And, um, I'm not gonna get into I think the record No, no.
Speaker:But is everything income support.
Speaker:But I will say to your point just now where it's not enough and they,
Speaker:uh, the, the sense I got that, that, that I've, I've had when, when I've
Speaker:been on it, is they do look for, this is again, my, my view, but, uh, I,
Speaker:I've heard it echoed elsewhere where.
Speaker:They do look for any excuse not to give it to you, and they'll cut you off
Speaker:before they, and then you gotta, you give them a call, and uh, what's going
Speaker:on here, and then they want to have that conversation with you, and, but they
Speaker:still question everything, um, it just, it's not enough, uh, and it's frankly an
Speaker:insult to the people who need it, but it's better than nothing if you can get it.
Speaker:I don't know what else to say more on that without getting into a Passionate
Speaker:rant, but, um, certainly I was a little bit more privileged than some
Speaker:of the people that, uh, you've helped over the years and, uh, certainly not
Speaker:having to put myself into a position where, you know, I have to do sex work.
Speaker:Um, I don't, I'm no judgment, but I thank God I've never had to do it.
Speaker:You know what I mean?
Speaker:So it's whatever people are needing to do to make ends meet, to feed
Speaker:their child, to pay their rent, what have you, and of course there are the
Speaker:individuals who know to contact you and hopefully, maybe you can help them out
Speaker:a little bit to make things work for that particular month or, or situation.
Speaker:Yeah, it's, the whole system for income support, nevermind child welfare, uh,
Speaker:definitely needs to be overhauled, uh, to be much more, uh, beneficial, to
Speaker:be polite and diplomatic about it, uh, for those that, that need it, because,
Speaker:uh, I know myself, uh, during the peak of the pandemic, um, it was stressful
Speaker:enough to need the income support, nevermind to have to beg for it.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Uh, that's a traumatizing thing in itself, and, um, I told them that.
Speaker:It's like, I'm just trying to get a little bit of help here to buy some
Speaker:groceries and uh, feed my cat, and Uh, pay my rent, that's it, I'm not asking,
Speaker:you know, I'm not looking to take a vacation or retire here anytime soon,
Speaker:I'm just looking to very much cover the basics, and they're picking apart my
Speaker:bank account, I was like, really, does this, we have nothing better to do?
Speaker:Um.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah, so it's along, it's along those lines.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:We need to treat people a lot better than we do, especially those who
Speaker:are, who are in vulnerable positions.
Speaker:Exactly, Kevin.
Speaker:I mean, you're dealing with.
Speaker:a single mom with a child or children or a single dad with a child and children and
Speaker:they're haggling that where did this 97 come from or where did this 150 come from
Speaker:or you know, uh, why do you have a car or like, why are you paying this much rent?
Speaker:And what compounds all of this is in the good old days.
Speaker:Income support used to come to your residence and you had a
Speaker:relationship with a worker, um, and you've talked about that before.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And now it's just a call center, uh, where you're dealing with whoever
Speaker:you talk to, there's usually, uh, literally it's one of the few lines
Speaker:you can call and say, uh, basically in a polite way, we're too busy today.
Speaker:Call back tomorrow, click, or you're on a four hour waiting list
Speaker:and you're listening to elevator music for three or four hours or.
Speaker:It's just a really, again, this is just my personal opinion.
Speaker:It's a really cumbersome, uh, apathetic patronizing system.
Speaker:Um, where there's no relationships and there's no emotional connection.
Speaker:Um, I had a great teacher once who told me that his goal was to make one emotional
Speaker:connection with a child per year.
Speaker:I don't know if he made the emotional connection with me, but I certainly
Speaker:made an emotional connection with him.
Speaker:And he became, he was one of my favorite teachers.
Speaker:And I remember that, and this is from elementary school that, uh, Mr.
Speaker:Mays, and, uh, so I try to make emotional connections with everybody
Speaker:I'm involved with, like my clients.
Speaker:But I don't see that happening because if you make an emotional connection,
Speaker:you're able to understand and you should still show some empathy.
Speaker:You can, you seem to perceive what's going on and you're sort of in the game
Speaker:with the person trying to help them out.
Speaker:There's no emotional connections now.
Speaker:There's no interactions.
Speaker:Uh, the pandemic certainly hyper hyped this all up where you're just
Speaker:listening to a voice and it's a different voice every time you fold.
Speaker:So income support, I think is just a big mess.
Speaker:I think they aren't meeting the needs of Albertans.
Speaker:I think, and it's not the workers, it's the system that is directing the workers.
Speaker:And I want to emphasize that to the people, the workers that I, that I talked
Speaker:to personally tied to the pandemic.
Speaker:I spent three hours on hold listening to elevator music.
Speaker:That's true.
Speaker:The, the, but the ladies I talked to were lovely.
Speaker:I know they're getting yelled at because given the nature of people who
Speaker:are struggling and having to make, you know, just the fact that you have to
Speaker:call me and you're under stress, right?
Speaker:So, but they were lovely and I told them this.
Speaker:It's like when I talk to somebody, maybe it's a bad comparison, but
Speaker:you know, my cell phone company.
Speaker:Right?
Speaker:I make it clear, like if I get to vent about something or complain about
Speaker:something, I'm not yelling at you guy, or I'm not yelling at you ma'am.
Speaker:This call's being recorded for the company, so I'm venting at the company.
Speaker:You're just doing your job.
Speaker:The thing that stuck out to me when I, when I was on it, income support.
Speaker:Um, wasn't so much the relationship, it's like, okay, fine, you be kind to me, I'll
Speaker:be kind to you and this all works out, I get the money that I need this month,
Speaker:hopefully, well, not all the money that I need that month, but it's something.
Speaker:Um, but it was, in hindsight, and even to a point at the time, it was
Speaker:a matter of not being well informed.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:There were a few times where.
Speaker:Um, I wasn't cut off, but they'd be doing, um, what's that called the, the audit.
Speaker:So they'll, they'll look at your bank statements.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:For these forensic audits, they're very onerous and you also have to
Speaker:realize that when you're working with people on the phone, people have
Speaker:different strengths and different challenges and dealing with everybody
Speaker:on the phone is not for everybody.
Speaker:It's not like.
Speaker:You have these, you have this tremendous pool of employees that have all these
Speaker:strengths and many of them have degrees in humanities, whether it be psychology
Speaker:or education or social work, and they're working in a call center and they can't.
Speaker:use these skills like they should be.
Speaker:And on the other side, you have clients that have, um, you know,
Speaker:vulnerable people that have organic issues and environmental issues.
Speaker:And again, so their challenges and their barriers are a lot different
Speaker:and they have difficulty articulating.
Speaker:Maybe many of them have difficulty articulating on the phone.
Speaker:Well, there is no option B again, many of the workers I deal with in all systems
Speaker:are nice, nice human beings in that.
Speaker:But I think the system molds you into being not the best person.
Speaker:You can be, uh, at both ends of the scale, either you're a recipient of the system
Speaker:or you're a deliverer of the systems.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So one last thing on income support, we'll move on to some other things
Speaker:that you've tweeted about that when I said about the lack of being informed.
Speaker:There were different conversations that I had, um, when I've needed income
Speaker:support, particularly earlier on, again, during the peak of the pandemic.
Speaker:Where I'd be getting pieces of information of you need this or you need that and
Speaker:that'll make it easier for you not to be audited or whatever the criteria
Speaker:were to kind of smooth out that process.
Speaker:So when I need it this month, I can apply for it.
Speaker:You know, have things in place.
Speaker:Uh, and there's very little questioning and they just give me the you know They've
Speaker:given me the money that that particular month and that's much less stressful than
Speaker:having to call in and beg for it they're so overwhelmed and it's no longer three
Speaker:hour waits, but The staffing is limited resources are limited and that's the
Speaker:fault of the government and and the system absolutely um, but for Uh, some of the
Speaker:information that they've needed, like a doctor's note or what have you, and, um,
Speaker:which sounds obvious, but again, it's, um, within context and what I was dealing
Speaker:with at the time, um, where I wasn't properly informed of these are the things
Speaker:that you can do to make this a smoother process or to, um, Uh, we, things are
Speaker:being questioned and, and, and so forth.
Speaker:That took a few tries.
Speaker:It's, it's, they're so overwhelmed, where it's, they're
Speaker:just going through the motions.
Speaker:They're going through the routine of it.
Speaker:The ladies are lovely.
Speaker:It's been ladies that I, that I've spoken to.
Speaker:But, uh, they can't, they give everything, everything they've got.
Speaker:I guess off the top of their head or whatever, or some of them
Speaker:aren't even properly trained, but that's another conversation.
Speaker:You figure it out, but, um, it needs to be a much more well oiled machine,
Speaker:um, in order to, as we have said, help out the vulnerable people who need it
Speaker:without adding the stress and trauma.
Speaker:Um, of applying for, uh, income support, never mind age.
Speaker:If it's okay, I'm going to move on to a few of your other tweets or the Oh, sure.
Speaker:Stories you've shared, your thoughts in terms of the remand, and then you became
Speaker:ill and we had to end the call, but so I wanted to kind of revisit that, uh,
Speaker:see if you had anything further to say, but, um, that kind of, the headline that
Speaker:I have here is, Rethinking the Remand Proposed Cost Effective Alternatives.
Speaker:To support non violent offenders in Edmonton.
Speaker:Um, just want to put the idea out there to save taxpayers a lot of money.
Speaker:Our somewhat new Edmonton Remand Center is a super max security institution.
Speaker:This costs many hundreds of dollars per day per inmate.
Speaker:It currently holds 1500 people.
Speaker:Uh, I, I question why, why we cannot have minimum security
Speaker:quasi remand centers as well.
Speaker:Many folks have no support or stable address and then run into problems
Speaker:and somehow have addictions issues.
Speaker:Why not designate treatment centers or supportive housing programs as
Speaker:remand centers and therefore allow a less intrusive and cheaper solution?
Speaker:This is a win win.
Speaker:Uh, you finish off by saying, I'm not speaking of persons who are habitual
Speaker:offenders or charged with severe violence.
Speaker:But I also remind folks that those on remand status are presumed
Speaker:innocent and haven't pled or been found guilty of anything.
Speaker:So um, did you want to, if you can kind of revisit those thoughts and anything
Speaker:you might have to say on that end, now that you're, you're feeling well again.
Speaker:Yeah, I, I, I believe that if you had a halfway house approach or a
Speaker:group home or a group, a group home.
Speaker:residential center.
Speaker:You don't need the physical security.
Speaker:You don't need the bulletproof windows and the magnot lock doors and the razor wire.
Speaker:You have what's called dynamic security, where people have
Speaker:a stable living environment.
Speaker:They have some structure and some rules and some supervision, so they don't
Speaker:need all that brick and mortar stuff.
Speaker:If you're living in a tent in the river valley, you're much more
Speaker:at risk of being victimized as well as being, uh, victimizing
Speaker:others because of your situation.
Speaker:So if you're able to say you've been charged with, let's say a common assault
Speaker:and you have no residence and you're, or for whatever, you're remanded into
Speaker:custody, why would somebody like that?
Speaker:You have to go to a supermax prison when a halfway house or a group
Speaker:home might, it's less intrusive.
Speaker:Second of all, it allows the person to continue that, you know, their intimacy
Speaker:with their supports and their family.
Speaker:Third thing, it allows them to continue to go to school or work.
Speaker:And contribute to the community as opposed to be a liability to the community.
Speaker:So there's all these sorts of things that we can do as opposing to have
Speaker:this, uh, solid little brick box that we just stuff people into,
Speaker:uh, who we deem being on remand.
Speaker:And even if you're able to just to take out, let's say there's
Speaker:is 1, 800 people at the remand.
Speaker:I'm not sure.
Speaker:Um, let's say you were able to remove 50 or a hundred of those people.
Speaker:Imagine the money that you're saving.
Speaker:So I gotta ask, why do you think it hasn't been done?
Speaker:Well, it, it is done through Through parole and probation and, and through
Speaker:the, once you're sentenced, you go through that cycle once you're sentenced.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:But for remand, I don't know why we don't do it.
Speaker:You know, it's something that I don't understand.
Speaker:I know under the Corrections Act, so let's say you're in remand and you.
Speaker:Get pushed off a ledge and fall off the tier and you break your leg and you
Speaker:have to go to the hospital and actually stay in a hospital bed under the act.
Speaker:They designate that hospital bed as a correctional center.
Speaker:And, you know, so you can designate something as a correctional
Speaker:center or a remand status.
Speaker:Uh, it doesn't have to be wrapped around like a bow with razor wire.
Speaker:Um, and it, it allows more reintegration, rehabilitation.
Speaker:And I think it just keeps our communities actually safer.
Speaker:If I was justice or solicitor general for the, for a day, I would try to work
Speaker:at working with agencies such as in Edmonton, we have the Salvation Army
Speaker:or Edmonton John Howard Society or Elizabeth Fry Society, designating certain
Speaker:houses and programs as remand centers.
Speaker:And of course, You could under remand, it would still be up to the Solicitor General
Speaker:to determine the level of security.
Speaker:You know, there's a lot of flexibility.
Speaker:You're able to pivot and I think it would be cheaper.
Speaker:So if I was Solicitor General for a day, that's what I would, uh, try to set up.
Speaker:I hope someone listening or watching this podcast kind of goes, Hey.
Speaker:We should look at that more as someone in government, let's get on this, you know.
Speaker:Absolutely.
Speaker:It does feel delayed.
Speaker:This feels like common sense to me.
Speaker:But the thing that, the question that, that jumped to mind, um,
Speaker:uh, last time when we tried to record this, but also this time is
Speaker:why is it a, a super max prison?
Speaker:Um, what determines that when, is it because some of these people are
Speaker:deemed to be In the remand, in the same cells, in the same units as the
Speaker:guy that killed three or four people.
Speaker:You know, or alleged it to have.
Speaker:So they need, you need a supermax prison.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:For our most violent Yeah, yeah.
Speaker:And disruptive people.
Speaker:You do.
Speaker:I I, I don't think anybody would argue that, but you don't have to
Speaker:put 'em all into the supermax prison.
Speaker:It, it's, it's the behavior that it, that, that demands the, uh, the Supermax prison.
Speaker:The fact that they haven't been convicted of that yet.
Speaker:So they're not going to, I guess, whatever prison they'd
Speaker:be going to next until they are.
Speaker:So there's issues with gang violence, there's issues with, um, uh, protective
Speaker:custody, people with certain charges.
Speaker:So sometimes you need to have those sorts of facilities, these high
Speaker:security facilities for people.
Speaker:There's a percentage that you don't.
Speaker:And I know through, now I worked 20 some years in youth court.
Speaker:And way back when Canada was jailing everybody, every kid that
Speaker:we could get our hands on, we had a really great program run by Alberta
Speaker:Hospital called CounterPoint.
Speaker:And it was a group home for children charged under the, uh, under those
Speaker:days, under the Young Offenders Act, who were charged with things like,
Speaker:uh, sexual interference, sexual assaults, and they needed treatment.
Speaker:So some of them were actually held at this group home run by Alberta
Speaker:Hospital called CounterPoint.
Speaker:on remand status because their treatment was so critical.
Speaker:We have done it.
Speaker:And we used to call that open remand status under the
Speaker:youth, uh, in youth court.
Speaker:We have done it.
Speaker:So we should be doing it with, with adults would be my argument.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And to your point a moment ago where I was almost going to say if I were
Speaker:convicted, but that's not what it's for.
Speaker:If I were placed, uh, in The remand center and for minor offense, but
Speaker:put in the same cell as, I was going to say a serial killer, but
Speaker:someone who's more violent, right?
Speaker:Yeah, that doesn't feel like something that should be to be happening and,
Speaker:uh, you know, that he can stay in his cell, but I want to go over to
Speaker:kind of halfway house or whatever the little safer place to be.
Speaker:What was that movie with, uh, Richard Pryor and Gene Wilder,
Speaker:where they went to prison?
Speaker:I met, I, it, that this big, huge hulking guy walks into the cell with
Speaker:something, but he's just a little, you know, you know, it is just like that.
Speaker:But your cellmates, all of a sudden this guy been charged with three
Speaker:first degree murders and, uh.
Speaker:You know, mother tattooed on his shoulder and trees is his arms, you know, we
Speaker:left them on it, but it, but it was, it was scary the crap out of me, Mark.
Speaker:Well, can you, you know, and this is the issue when you're dealing with.
Speaker:It doesn't feel appropriate.
Speaker:You, Suri, you're 18 or 19, Yeah.
Speaker:and you're putting in a cell with a 40 year old man who's much more hardened.
Speaker:So there's a lot of That's right.
Speaker:There's a lot of growth in that area, Kevin.
Speaker:I think we could move in, forward.
Speaker:But we seem to get ministers that are just so I don't want to say boring,
Speaker:but so they don't look at innovation.
Speaker:They don't seem to look at ideas.
Speaker:They don't look at best practices.
Speaker:What they look at is they look at their deputy ministers and their
Speaker:assistant deputy ministers who've been sitting there for fricking decades.
Speaker:There's no innovation.
Speaker:There's no evolving.
Speaker:And we get what we get now.
Speaker:That's my opinion.
Speaker:I'm inviting people to always challenge me because, you know, I could be wrong.
Speaker:But that's what I see from my window anyways.
Speaker:Anyways, what's next?
Speaker:Sounds good.
Speaker:What's next, he says.
Speaker:August 21st.
Speaker:Um, I have a, there's a headline that says, Still searching.
Speaker:Efforts to help a homeless woman secure medication in support of housing continue.
Speaker:You said you were out on the street looking for a homeless lady?
Speaker:Um, I said I would help get her coverage for her prescription
Speaker:medication and find supportive housing, but I can't seem to find her.
Speaker:I'll keep looking.
Speaker:Do you, do you remember that day were, were you able to Oh yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Find her.
Speaker:That's a common, that's a common, uh, situation.
Speaker:Uh, no, I don't think I did find her, not that day.
Speaker:Um, I think she called me about a week later from the hospital because.
Speaker:She was diabetic and, um, she wasn't able to get her insulin or, you
Speaker:know, some of her blood tests done.
Speaker:And so things spiraled down.
Speaker:And again, another example of what homelessness can really do, you know, if
Speaker:your medical needs aren't taken care of and you don't have a place, um, you're
Speaker:going to end up in a hospital bed costing the Alberta taxpayers a lot more money
Speaker:because again, we'd have no housing.
Speaker:That's a fairly common scenario, actually.
Speaker:I mean, not.
Speaker:Per se, everything that happened there, but you're trying to get into
Speaker:contact with somebody that's homeless, maybe because you don't want them
Speaker:to forget they have a court date or that their, um, daughter is ill and
Speaker:they need to find the person or, um,
Speaker:there's a house that has come available or a treatment program
Speaker:or, and they have no phone.
Speaker:So you have to go find them and say, Hey, there's this bed available
Speaker:for you now at the Salvation Army.
Speaker:Let's go.
Speaker:Well, you got to find them.
Speaker:It happens a fair bit.
Speaker:You end up leaving messages with extended family, with friends, with people that
Speaker:you know that hang out with some of that.
Speaker:So it's always hit and miss.
Speaker:I'm glad that she got a hold of you.
Speaker:Nothing happened to her in the meantime, which could happen as
Speaker:well, um, when people are out on the street, as you've talked about.
Speaker:Also on August 21st, uh, you said today, today I found myself at a
Speaker:drugstore picking up essential items.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Baby formula, diapers, and wipes.
Speaker:Uh, for a newborn and a family with nothing.
Speaker:They were promised support and resources, but have received
Speaker:NOTHING, you put in all caps.
Speaker:Uh, this is how our child welfare system, this isn't, excuse me, how our
Speaker:child welfare system should function.
Speaker:It's what I call a dump and run.
Speaker:Children's services took the child, and as soon as the FA the family said
Speaker:yes, they just dumped the child there.
Speaker:My visit here has stirred up emotions, primarily frustration and concern
Speaker:regarding how we handle child welfare cases involving newborns.
Speaker:While I acknowledge I could, uh, be mistaken in my assumptions, I am compelled
Speaker:to share my thoughts and experiences.
Speaker:Did you wanna follow up on that?
Speaker:Yeah, so I actually, uh, had two cases in the last couple of months, uh,
Speaker:where I was really concerned about how the newborn, so there's a specialized
Speaker:child welfare unit called ABIRT.
Speaker:Uh, and again, they're great people, they're highly specialized and trained,
Speaker:and I don't know what ABIRT stands for.
Speaker:They work in collaboration with Alberta Health Services, and
Speaker:they're the ones, they're the social workers that are lurking around the
Speaker:maternity wards and delivery rooms.
Speaker:I think everybody realizes that.
Speaker:It is critical that baby and mom maintain that contact, but there's
Speaker:certain times and circumstances where that doesn't happen.
Speaker:So in that situation was a situation where mom was, has some real challenges
Speaker:and just wasn't able to keep baby safe.
Speaker:So the baby was taken to extended family, which is the way that's
Speaker:the great, that's, that's the next best thing and the loving family.
Speaker:That's right.
Speaker:But just.
Speaker:Just to, to give you an example, in that case, so, uh, the family members
Speaker:that they, so it's this indigenous family, and the family members that they
Speaker:dropped off at the Cookham's house, at the Cookham's residence, uh, was in a
Speaker:hotel room because Cookham, uh, is in a hotel room because she's homeless
Speaker:and, um, she has special needs as well.
Speaker:So they dropped the baby off.
Speaker:At the, or the baby's kind of under the care of this cook at the hotel room
Speaker:and the baby's called, and I don't know what the medical term is, but what you
Speaker:call tongue tied and can't, uh, feed.
Speaker:It's difficult to feeding in that.
Speaker:So, uh, the baby has specialized bottles and so child welfare dropped off one
Speaker:specialized bottle in a hotel room.
Speaker:Now what's ringing in people's minds and just to see if this is, and this
Speaker:is what children workers, child welfare workers have to think all the time.
Speaker:Well, this is it, you're in a hotel room.
Speaker:The issue is that, as I recall from what you said, she
Speaker:couldn't sterilize the bottles.
Speaker:Exactly.
Speaker:I, having three boys, stuck a million and five bottles into 50 or 60 babies
Speaker:in my lifetime, know that you need to sterilize bottles, but I get passionate
Speaker:and dump and run in the sense that you didn't think about the bottles.
Speaker:You gave one bottle, you didn't think about the environment, the baby was there,
Speaker:there's no way to sterilize the bottles.
Speaker:And you disappear, they disappeared after they dropped off the baby
Speaker:in that, um, you know, and Well, that's, well, that's the dumper news.
Speaker:There was no follow up with income support.
Speaker:So income support wasn't providing enhanced services
Speaker:or, uh, Cookham was on AISH.
Speaker:So AISH wasn't providing enhanced services for the child.
Speaker:So it was, it was a slow starvation.
Speaker:You, you ran out of the baby formula, your one bottle, you couldn't sterilize.
Speaker:Uh, you didn't have enough food, you didn't have enough resources, you
Speaker:didn't have enough emotional support.
Speaker:The things start crumbling down.
Speaker:And then all of a sudden it's all That's why you're passionate
Speaker:and thinking about this, right?
Speaker:And then, so it's like, and of course, no one likes to bug me because everybody
Speaker:says, Oh, Mark, you're so busy.
Speaker:You're so busy.
Speaker:So the family waited until it was a crisis.
Speaker:We have no food.
Speaker:We can't get ahold of anybody from child welfare.
Speaker:The baby hasn't eaten it, but you know what, I had a meeting and then I
Speaker:had another case involving a newborn.
Speaker:I had a meeting with the manager of Avert and the person's really, really
Speaker:understands things and basically knew what I was talking about and understood
Speaker:the issues and, uh, invited me to.
Speaker:Provide any feedback that I have and to engage with them.
Speaker:And if we're having problems with the frontline worker, can't get
Speaker:ahold of them or the supervisor to just get a manager right away.
Speaker:So it was a good outcome and both babies, newborn babies are doing well now.
Speaker:And, uh, Averitt's still, uh, a really good unit.
Speaker:I'm glad the city's I'm glad the city has it.
Speaker:At least Edmonton has it.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I looked it up.
Speaker:Uh, according to the AHS itself, it's the Alberta vulnerable
Speaker:infinite, infinite response team.
Speaker:Yeah, everybody's got to have an acronym.
Speaker:You know, if I was writing it, I'd call it the baby savers.
Speaker:They seem kind of essential when they work well.
Speaker:Oh, they are.
Speaker:I just don't know why they have to use an acronym.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:You know, government institutions love acronyms.
Speaker:Ah, bureaucracy.
Speaker:Glad the baby got what they needed though.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Uh.
Speaker:But it's like always reinventing the wheel.
Speaker:Like you say, it's a dump and run sense.
Speaker:I can appreciate why you got emotional about it.
Speaker:Uh, why you recorded the video on Instagram, uh, sharing your thoughts
Speaker:in the moment, which, uh, I know that quite, quite a bit of response.
Speaker:Thank you for bringing attention to that.
Speaker:Even if most of the time, or hopefully most of the time, um,
Speaker:Avery does a much better job.
Speaker:And you know, I, I really want to say this because.
Speaker:Um,
Speaker:it's critical
Speaker:regardless of what Mike gripes and groans and moans and complaining
Speaker:of children's services is and does and what it doesn't do.
Speaker:They are still the best of the best.
Speaker:Uh, they are still, when you see a three year old wandering through
Speaker:traffic in dirty diapers and or hearing the pounding of a fist against
Speaker:the wall and screaming of children, it's They are, they are superheroes.
Speaker:These are the people we need to call.
Speaker:Um, and your confidentiality is protected.
Speaker:Um, so that never knows that the neighbor called or the person down the street
Speaker:or the grandmother or uncle Fred or big brother, even if the caught child call.
Speaker:I'm invested.
Speaker:And maybe I'm so passionate about children's services because
Speaker:they're so essential and they're so important and they save so many
Speaker:lives and, um, They have to be elite.
Speaker:They have to continue to be elite.
Speaker:They have to be the best of the best, because if they aren't, children
Speaker:will start dropping and dying.
Speaker:And it's unfortunate that, um, they're here, but they will always
Speaker:need to be here, and they will always need to be well funded.
Speaker:Their workers will need to be supported, and their systems need
Speaker:to understand how important and critical child welfare is, so.
Speaker:Yeah, and as far as I could tell, they're not well funded.
Speaker:Uh, no, I don't think they are.
Speaker:I think they're just, it's always the bare minimum that, you know,
Speaker:and, and the government, they always skew things, like, you know, Mr.
Speaker:Speaker, we've invested 720 million into children's services just the last year.
Speaker:And you hear this roar bench bench backers pounding their desk, but per
Speaker:capita, we're still the lowest in Canada or where it's just underwhelming.
Speaker:Um, don't be fooled by the dramatics of it all.
Speaker:Look at the facts.
Speaker:And the facts are, is that our children's services is underfunded and I don't
Speaker:care what minister stands up and.
Speaker:It says what, and, you know, premier chuckles it off.
Speaker:It's our system sucks.
Speaker:Uh, and it's not because it's not because of, and it's not because of the workers.
Speaker:As much as it's because it's underfunded, we can do so much better
Speaker:and we need to do so much better.
Speaker:Thousand percent.
Speaker:And I'll, but I'll also add, thank you for bringing attention to the flaws
Speaker:and for bringing awareness to the things that are going wrong, uh, so
Speaker:that hopefully they'll be improved.
Speaker:Yeah, I wouldn't hold my breath on that last bit.
Speaker:It's just, again, my experience when I'm involved in a specific case.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:I won't stop until things are fixed.
Speaker:Uh, I remember way back in the 90s and early 2000s, uh, when we
Speaker:had a minister called Iris Evans.
Speaker:I think she was completely ill suited for the ministry of, for children's services.
Speaker:I remember we had a protest with foster kids once at the legislature and she was
Speaker:all alarmed that these kids, these kids in care were protesting against her.
Speaker:And she was walking around with a clipboard trying to get everybody's name.
Speaker:And then she comes up to me and goes, what's your name?
Speaker:I'm not giving you my name.
Speaker:Mr.
Speaker:Government minister.
Speaker:She was a terrible minister.
Speaker:At least in my opinion, we had a case where a kid was just, she
Speaker:called me from Southgate transit center in minus 30 degree weather
Speaker:in a very slight cotton shirt, and she was like shaking on the phone.
Speaker:This was before cell phones.
Speaker:So I went to pick her up and they had nowhere to put her or place her.
Speaker:So I took her over to Iris Evans office in Sherman park and just waited in the In
Speaker:her office, in her constituency office, and uh, this was in the early 2000s.
Speaker:She got mad at me and everybody got mad at me, but that, you know
Speaker:what, that kid found a place.
Speaker:They found that kid a place.
Speaker:And I've invited the CBC and Global and CTV and APTN and all of them to
Speaker:some of these child welfare offices when there's situations and I don't
Speaker:have any problem doing it in the future because I think this is our system.
Speaker:These are our children.
Speaker:The better they are, the better we are.
Speaker:If someone phones me about a child that's not being provided with, you know, I'm,
Speaker:that's the hill I'm going to die on.
Speaker:And I think a lot of people would like to do what I do, but they
Speaker:don't have that freedom, which is another complete podcast.
Speaker:It's about how we're independent and we're funded by the government,
Speaker:but we're not really independent.
Speaker:And, uh, there's a lot of that going around too.
Speaker:So.
Speaker:Anyways, I'm just venting now.
Speaker:Oh, excellent point.
Speaker:Thank you for saying those things.
Speaker:But I'll just put the pen in just for a second.
Speaker:I really do want to, even further emphasize, for bringing attention
Speaker:to these issues, bringing awareness to them, and if something changes,
Speaker:gets better, as, you know, you're in it to fix it, you said it yourself.
Speaker:So, at least you're doing your part in the position that you have, uh, to
Speaker:get, to keep the conversation going.
Speaker:Uh, about these, these, I won't say these issues, but because for each of
Speaker:these individual stories that you're telling, there are patterns to it for
Speaker:those who pay attention, and if it's government officials or whoever, where,
Speaker:um, not just you're helping, but, uh, Something can change, uh, with,
Speaker:with, with, within that process, uh, because like you say, the majority of
Speaker:the work that Children's Service has done, does, that ABRD, uh, does is good
Speaker:work, uh, but for the, the situations where they, they fall short, um, that
Speaker:deserves to be, uh, be highlighted.
Speaker:Be put on the news or what have you but even on a podcast we can talk
Speaker:about it But to get those conversations going to get conversations going to
Speaker:keep them accountable on August 23rd And I know we're going back a couple
Speaker:of months here He said there are many that there are many factors associated
Speaker:with the rise in aggression toward public servants like librarians What
Speaker:I see I'm quoting of course lack of social housing Reduction of wraparound
Speaker:supports, including mental health.
Speaker:Increase of meth use among the homeless population.
Speaker:Decrease of income, decrease in income supports, including AISH.
Speaker:Fear of our Edmonton police.
Speaker:Faith based services like, like Hope Mission that are overly
Speaker:intrusive about Christian ideology.
Speaker:Lack of day programs for the homeless population that causes
Speaker:a massive influx into libraries.
Speaker:Recent restrictions at City Hall, you say, are the best example, uh, and your last
Speaker:point is, uh, bent, uh, statistical, I can never say that word, information and
Speaker:government communicate, communications hiding or minimizing social problems
Speaker:and responsibilities within Edmonton.
Speaker:That's my opinion for what it's worth.
Speaker:That's quite the, uh, the tweet and kind of the list of concerns regarding the
Speaker:aggression towards public, uh, servants.
Speaker:You're a human being.
Speaker:You might have some organic issues, FASD, ADHD, um, you've
Speaker:had some trauma in your life.
Speaker:You're homeless.
Speaker:You haven't had a lot of supports.
Speaker:You going through the same emotions as we all go through.
Speaker:If I'm having a bad day, I can go home.
Speaker:I can kick my feet up.
Speaker:I can dim the lights.
Speaker:I can rest.
Speaker:And I have strategies to, to work through that.
Speaker:If you're homeless and you can't go anywhere, you can't sit
Speaker:anywhere, you can't sleep anywhere, you can't even stand anywhere.
Speaker:You don't have access to your medication.
Speaker:So your sugar levels are high.
Speaker:And because we're so crime aversive or risk aversive, the only really safe spot
Speaker:people can go to now are our libraries and thank God for our libraries or on
Speaker:our buses or in our transit centers.
Speaker:These places are.
Speaker:Designed to be wraparound services and, and provide basic
Speaker:needs to people in crisis.
Speaker:Um, they do provide work, positive social, socialization, but they don't
Speaker:know lack, they don't certainly have the, uh, the skillsets or the resources
Speaker:to deal with all your situations.
Speaker:And the, the agencies, again, this is again, my personal opinion, the agencies
Speaker:that we've millions of dollars in tax funding, uh, example, the whole mission.
Speaker:Um, is very Christian based, is very faith based, uh, and they expunge
Speaker:everybody out of their centers at eight 30 or whatever in the morning and,
Speaker:you know, go walk on the streets and there's nowhere for these people to go.
Speaker:We should have drop in centers.
Speaker:And because compounding this is that the, you know, Kate's kicked out Boyle street.
Speaker:Um, there's nowhere, Boyle street's kind of fragmented right now until they,
Speaker:they consolidate Whatever they're doing.
Speaker:Um, there's nowhere for people to go and socialize and sit and envelop
Speaker:themselves in these wraparound services.
Speaker:Even our welfare offices, our income support offices at one time, pre pandemic,
Speaker:you can go in there, even on occasion, get a cup of coffee and sit and warm
Speaker:and use the computers to job search and socialize with somebody and, uh, provided
Speaker:some respite and we had city hall.
Speaker:This, this is evolving to a call center, um, type of model where we don't
Speaker:want these people anywhere, anytime.
Speaker:You know, we have an encampment, we walk by with box cutters and we slit
Speaker:all the tents and we kick them all out.
Speaker:Uh, we're at city hall, now we've done all the security and you can't come in and sit
Speaker:there and twinkle on the piano anymore.
Speaker:If it's plus 38 degrees or minus 38 degrees, you know, you can't
Speaker:go sit in Winston Churchill.
Speaker:Besides you might be banned already from there because you
Speaker:were, you know, skateboarding or doing something inappropriate
Speaker:in the washrooms or whatever.
Speaker:So you've got all these bands and our buses aren't meant for this.
Speaker:The bus drivers and our librarians have become frontline social workers
Speaker:because People are going to go where their basic needs are going to be met.
Speaker:And that might be away from the heat or away from the cold, or be able to sit
Speaker:and pretend to be awake, but allowing you to get 20 minutes of rest or sleep.
Speaker:These are the only places that you can go now.
Speaker:And it's a big short, it's a big shortcoming.
Speaker:Uh, and it's not just in Edmonton and we've got really mean about it to
Speaker:cities and provinces and small towns.
Speaker:We used to have park benches and now we've put barrier and we put
Speaker:dividers in the park benches.
Speaker:So you can't even sleep on a park bench.
Speaker:We've got the sprinklers start turning on at all times of the day and night.
Speaker:Uh, sporadically to, you know, just make people's lives misery
Speaker:so they don't stay there.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:When we do look at a solution, it's always, you know, God's my co pilot.
Speaker:Let's find something with, with the word Jesus in it and give all our taxpayers
Speaker:money to something that's really.
Speaker:Faith based and, um, colonial and, and, uh, you know, let them figure it out.
Speaker:And, uh, hope mission in my personal opinion, just isn't up to snuff.
Speaker:It isn't really, uh, uh, best organization to deal with these complex problems.
Speaker:At least that's what I see.
Speaker:And, uh, again, people can challenge me.
Speaker:It's, it's why we all live in a free and democratic society.
Speaker:We all have different opinions and different feelings.
Speaker:I certainly in no way excuse public aggression toward anyone.
Speaker:I think servants having said that I can appreciate the pressures that people
Speaker:are under to get their basic needs met.
Speaker:So when people are going to libraries or transit centers or what have
Speaker:you to try and access resources and things that they need, as you
Speaker:say, bus drivers and librarians and whoever, um, are doing good work.
Speaker:But that's not what they're supposed to be doing.
Speaker:Certainly not to that extent.
Speaker:Uh, where, where, where, where they're front line workers basically.
Speaker:Uh, in dealing with these situations.
Speaker:So, uh, certainly no one wants the librarian to get yelled at
Speaker:or abused or anything like that.
Speaker:When the system is flawed to, to, to such an extent where these people
Speaker:aren't being taken care of, I can, Appreciate why these situations
Speaker:are happening and it made the news.
Speaker:I mean, you, you quoted, I think it was a CBC or CTV story to add your comments to.
Speaker:So, uh, hopefully that brought some attention and things.
Speaker:Might change, uh, now or later.
Speaker:I wanted to kind of talk about some monthly stats here, if we can.
Speaker:Uh, you said, in August, I tried to help 72 people.
Speaker:This included two newborns under a month, one 96 year old woman, uh,
Speaker:and 33 persons in custody who were homeless at the time of their arrest.
Speaker:I drove six people to treatment centers, including to
Speaker:Southern and Northern Alberta.
Speaker:I attended court 14 times and sat in the emergency room of
Speaker:every major hospital in Edmonton.
Speaker:And of course, as you say, I am a free service.
Speaker:What do your stats for September look like?
Speaker:I haven't looked at them yet.
Speaker:I've got to go through my journals and my calendars and my contacts.
Speaker:But it's more, it's greater because I mean, obviously I'm off in August.
Speaker:Yeah, it'd be more, but, uh, again, you're dealing with about, you know,
Speaker:between two and five people a day while you're dealing with, let's say 25 days.
Speaker:So yeah, it can be anywhere between some days you get in
Speaker:some months, you get into 150.
Speaker:I don't even know what the record is.
Speaker:I got to look at my Excel sheet and all that stuff again.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Could it be a busy month?
Speaker:It was a busy month.
Speaker:Sounds like it.
Speaker:So let us know what those, uh, what those stats are.
Speaker:Um, I was hoping to get you on video saying that, but maybe you can record an
Speaker:Instagram video and share that with us.
Speaker:Yeah, okay.
Speaker:Yeah, I will.
Speaker:I will do that.
Speaker:Yeah, those are, uh, some of my favorite videos as far as just
Speaker:putting context around things and just how busy you truly are.
Speaker:Um, people better understand that.
Speaker:Um, let's see.
Speaker:On September 12th, we're gonna talk about this.
Speaker:You had an aunt call you in a panic.
Speaker:Uh, she stated that her niece, a single mom of two children, one and
Speaker:eight years old, are freezing and wet.
Speaker:Mom had been on hold with income support for four hours.
Speaker:Um, mom had been on hold.
Speaker:Uh, according to the, to this aunt who called, I'll say that much, uh, for four
Speaker:hours outside with children in the rain.
Speaker:They needed income support to renew their emergency accommodation at a motel.
Speaker:The children are now in physical peril, you said, according
Speaker:to what you knew at the time.
Speaker:I have sent an email to senior managers.
Speaker:If no word or assistance is received in 30 minutes, you'll
Speaker:call the minister's office.
Speaker:You say it's unacceptable and a child protection issue.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:Um, shortly thereafter, you had an update, apparently the mum,
Speaker:the mum directly called you.
Speaker:Uh, thankfully she refused to leave the hotel room and stand outside
Speaker:with her children in the rain because they were already sick.
Speaker:Uh, however, the stress of having nowhere to live with
Speaker:small children is still terrible.
Speaker:So a little bit of miscommunication there.
Speaker:So I got the aunt calling me.
Speaker:This is what she relayed to me.
Speaker:And then I followed up when I was in communication with the mom, it was.
Speaker:It was not quite as dire, but still, uh, yeah, yeah.
Speaker:And the issue is that these are the scenarios that have developed or evolved,
Speaker:because again, you're dealing with a situation where you have to call in,
Speaker:you're at the mercy of who's ever going to pick up or how long the waiting list is.
Speaker:And you end up becoming, you know, you're on hold for three or four hours.
Speaker:And in that case, and this is what was so frustrating about it, was not
Speaker:only that the situation where the family was in stress and in crisis
Speaker:and that the children were potentially going to be in harm's way, was that
Speaker:they had been put up in the room, in the motel room by emergency social
Speaker:services because they were homeless.
Speaker:Now, it's been my experiences that in a lot of times, emergency social services.
Speaker:Nickels and dimes, they'll do this for one night or two nights or three nights.
Speaker:And sometimes you're dealing with children in the family that you're
Speaker:looking at eight or nine nights.
Speaker:You can't really.
Speaker:Phone and ask for an extension until you've run out.
Speaker:So you wait until you've run out of nights.
Speaker:And then that morning you have to leave the motel room by 11 in the
Speaker:morning and you pick up the phone at eight and no one's answering and
Speaker:it's noon and you've got the hotel staff telling you to get out, right?
Speaker:And so you're in a crisis, you're, you and your three children, maybe one's
Speaker:asthmatic and it's wildfire season outside, or one's diabetic and, uh,
Speaker:or you have to sterilize a bottle and you're being thrown out on the street.
Speaker:I wish emergency social services would do is, is, um, err on the side of
Speaker:caution and say, you know what, we're going to put it at for eight nights.
Speaker:And on the fifth night, if, If you still haven't found a place, give
Speaker:us a call or send us an email.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Why can't you just text emergency social services and they would
Speaker:automatically renew the rule, you know, and remove these stressors.
Speaker:And again, it's not the workers, it's the system.
Speaker:It's this frickin, and it's easy to blame someone, but it's
Speaker:more in this case, something.
Speaker:And I think we need to work on this problem and deal with it.
Speaker:Um, by.
Speaker:By changing policy saying when you get a motel room, it's going to be
Speaker:automatically for three or four days and on the second day you can reapply
Speaker:that gives that error and that cushion so that you're not throwing children
Speaker:out on the street, or I should say this motel or that motel is throwing
Speaker:children out on the street because, um, Did that mom, did that mom end up
Speaker:getting the income support, uh, Yes.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:She got ahold of me and of course I tweeted about it as it, uh, evolved,
Speaker:but I also send emails to a group of people within income support that,
Speaker:um, particularly one guy, it's called Jeff, who's very, very sympathetic
Speaker:and very good and very nice.
Speaker:Um, they're able to work because they work with incomes.
Speaker:They work inside income support.
Speaker:They're able to direct some.
Speaker:Attention or highlight the issue.
Speaker:And that got solved fairly quickly after I was contacted.
Speaker:So.
Speaker:So yeah, a more thoughtful, pragmatic, and practical approach on income support.
Speaker:Realistic.
Speaker:Nevermind that.
Speaker:Uh, yeah.
Speaker:So yeah, I wish I could just say it like you, three or four words.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:More pragmatic, more practical, more realistic approach for, uh,
Speaker:otherwise it's just stressful.
Speaker:On September 16th, uh, you said a sad indicator of how things are going
Speaker:is for the number of times I, I take single parents to the pawn shop.
Speaker:So they can pawn their electronics for grocery money.
Speaker:I try to help when I can, but the demand is so high, it is never enough.
Speaker:Today is no different.
Speaker:I mean, there's lots of factors to it.
Speaker:Again, um, cost of living, underlying issues, their rent, things like that,
Speaker:emergency expenses, pawn shops are the banks of many vulnerable people.
Speaker:That's where you get instant loans.
Speaker:That's where you get instant cash.
Speaker:That's where you can deal with your financial situation or
Speaker:emergency within 20 minutes.
Speaker:That's quite a cost.
Speaker:And it involves, you know, uh, you give your child a bicycle springtime and you're
Speaker:pawning it at s in summertime, and you don't make that pond, that bicycle's gone.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:. So it's a very precarious, precarious situation.
Speaker:It, it just really highlights what poverty is all about.
Speaker:And I don't think it's really anybody's fault.
Speaker:I think we certainly could be doing a lot of, a lot better in a lot of different
Speaker:areas, a situation of what poverty is.
Speaker:You know, uh, when I ran in for the NDP 2019
Speaker:for Greaseball, um, Greaseball, that area, which covered 95th street, 96th street,
Speaker:97th street, uh, in the inner city, that was one of the, one of the top 10 worst.
Speaker:areas in Canada for child poverty.
Speaker:I remember doing a number of interviews, doing some interviews for elections and
Speaker:that, I would bring up this fact or I'd door knock and I'd bring up this fact.
Speaker:So I went on, I forget what, uh, Statistic Canada, StatsCan, and
Speaker:found that Greasebaugh as a federal writing was one of the top 10 most,
Speaker:uh, Impacted child poverty, writings, there was in the country in the top 10.
Speaker:When I was doing these interviews with the local news and that I, or I was
Speaker:door knocking sometimes I bring up this fact that this writing is, is really
Speaker:as an issue with children's poverty, child poverty, no response people.
Speaker:Oh yeah, that's nice.
Speaker:But what about my taxes?
Speaker:Or what do you think about renewable energy and Jagmeet Singh's,
Speaker:you know, position on this?
Speaker:And I just think, yeah, it wasn't a big issue for people.
Speaker:And, uh, but the fact remains that.
Speaker:It still is a very impoverished area.
Speaker:I still do a lot of work there, uh, with a lot of families and
Speaker:their only access to getting food sometimes or paying a month's rent or
Speaker:getting medicine for their children.
Speaker:Is pawning, pawning things and pawn stores are the banks of, uh, the impoverished.
Speaker:Being the kind of IT person that I am, the first thing that jumped to mind
Speaker:for me when I, when I read that is, so they're pawning their electronics.
Speaker:Does that include cell phones that they might use to call 911?
Speaker:Or laptops that they might use to apply for something like income support?
Speaker:So they're pawning these things off potentially for grocery money.
Speaker:Is that, is that, is that right?
Speaker:Oh yeah, electronics.
Speaker:Electronics or jewelry, gold.
Speaker:Um, that's the two main things like tribes and jewelry tools, uh, work boots.
Speaker:Things that, so yeah, things like things of things that are practical value.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Things that they need to get to put the parting off to get the grocery money
Speaker:that, that they need to feed their kids.
Speaker:And it's always, it used to be Disney VHS movies.
Speaker:You can get quite a bit for some of the Disney movies.
Speaker:But I, I, again, I think of the, these phones, um, which the money got from
Speaker:you, from somebody else, but they're, they can't call 911 if they pawn it.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So to me, that's a, I want to say a safety concern, that phone can save
Speaker:their life, but they're having to pawn it off for grocery money in the moment,
Speaker:or again, they can't apply for income support or because they don't have a,
Speaker:the computer to, to go to the website to, to, to do that application and,
Speaker:um, or, and the, and these sorts of things, that's a double edged sword.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Um, all right.
Speaker:Uh, that's another one I wanted to bring up here.
Speaker:These two are kind of related in the sense of child welfare, so we'll go
Speaker:through these, uh, relatively quickly and then we'll do the donations.
Speaker:That, that'll do it.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:On September 16th, you said, gotta have a couple with me who are on the street.
Speaker:Let me start again.
Speaker:On September 16th, uh, that mark, you said that I have a couple
Speaker:with me who are on the street.
Speaker:They have a one week old daughter who is in hospital.
Speaker:Child welfare is involved, uh, and I'm here in my office filling out
Speaker:housing forms and providing hygiene products and some baby stuff.
Speaker:According to the parents, CW has done NOTHING, again in all caps, uh, to help.
Speaker:It is like they really want another indigenous child in care.
Speaker:Did you end up getting that sorted out with them?
Speaker:Yeah, that was part of the meeting that I had with Abert and Matt.
Speaker:That was just a situation where the baby was in the hospital and you've got
Speaker:the parents that are on the street and no one's really working and they were
Speaker:sleeping at the hospital when they could, but no one was working with the parents.
Speaker:Um, to get them in some to housing and to get them, um, some
Speaker:supports so that they could be the primary caregivers of this baby.
Speaker:Once the baby was released from the hospital, it was like, obviously
Speaker:if you're, it was a situation where it was either going to get
Speaker:dumped onto income support where.
Speaker:You know, here's your baby, leave the hospital and you'd have to phone
Speaker:emergency social services and get put in a hotel room and no way to
Speaker:sterilize your bottles again, or, or B, um, the baby would go into care.
Speaker:So my, my focus was to try to get children services again, from
Speaker:my perspective at that moment, doing nothing to doing everything.
Speaker:To ensure that that baby could thrive and, uh, could bond with mom and dad and
Speaker:the families, uh, could move forward.
Speaker:Did that happen?
Speaker:When I spoke to AVERT, uh, they were really focused on the issue.
Speaker:I gave my card, they had my phone number, they were texting me.
Speaker:Uh, but after I had my meeting with AVERT, I didn't hear back from the family.
Speaker:So in that case, no news is great news.
Speaker:Is it?
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I mean, things got sorted out.
Speaker:There weren't any more issues.
Speaker:So they were.
Speaker:They didn't need your help.
Speaker:Is that the idea?
Speaker:That's been the, usually the outcome when, in those scenarios
Speaker:when I don't hear from people.
Speaker:Is that it's been sorted out.
Speaker:No one wants to hang out with me, Kevin, unless they have to.
Speaker:I love hanging out with you, Mark.
Speaker:Sincerely.
Speaker:Uh, the next day, uh, September 17th, I'm at a meeting with a mom who has
Speaker:three children in care, all of whom are permanent words of the government,
Speaker:under, uh, unless circumstances change.
Speaker:Mom had some organic and environmental issues, including an abusive ex.
Speaker:Now, she has completed treatment, is on medication, and has an excellent
Speaker:support team, including family.
Speaker:Child welfare has been great on this file, working with the mom to revoke
Speaker:the PGO status, perhaps one day.
Speaker:So that sounds like a pretty good outcome, and child welfare seems to be on, at
Speaker:least at the time, was on top of the file so that she can, her children won't be,
Speaker:hence the word permanent, will no longer be permanent words of the government.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And, and I need to make this clear as well, because people get a hold of me
Speaker:because they're in conflict with systems.
Speaker:Child welfare isn't doing their job or I can't say this and that, and that's
Speaker:wrong with these systems and that system.
Speaker:But there are a lot, Kevin, there are a lot of families who, uh, interact
Speaker:with the systems, whether it be child welfare or the, uh, justice
Speaker:system or the, um, healthcare system.
Speaker:And have positive experiences.
Speaker:And this was, I wanted to highlight this because I think this is more
Speaker:of the rule than the exception, but you have some really great
Speaker:people that are trying to help.
Speaker:And if, and on many occasions it does happen, I would never hear
Speaker:about it or see about it because.
Speaker:If things are working again, why would you want to fool me and hang out with
Speaker:me if things are working when I maintain a relationship with a family over
Speaker:years or decades, sometimes, or even months, you get to see these successes.
Speaker:And, um, I just wanted to highlight that.
Speaker:That was a person I should be trying.
Speaker:The people that fool me on a Monday or Tuesday morning at three in the morning
Speaker:aren't there to share good news with me.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:He sat most of the time, sadly.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:But, uh, everybody wants to, would love to hang out with you, Mark, but
Speaker:I appreciate that they want to, that they have, many people have a reason,
Speaker:uh, why they're calling you as far as, uh, what they're facing at the time.
Speaker:That's understandable.
Speaker:But.
Speaker:You know, hopefully you're, you do have somebody, maybe not clients, but people
Speaker:calling you saying, want to go for coffee, want to hang out or what have you, I
Speaker:hope that your life isn't completely consumed by people calling you just,
Speaker:just for the, in those circumstances.
Speaker:It started to get too personal on you, but that, that's my, that's my hope.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Um, yeah.
Speaker:So, yeah.
Speaker:Okay, good.
Speaker:That's happening too.
Speaker:Good.
Speaker:I just have a bit of balance there.
Speaker:In addition to your family, of course.
Speaker:Um, talk to us about donations.
Speaker:How are things going?
Speaker:Um, well, donations are always, um, It's still It's still That's not
Speaker:what I'm hardwired for is, is asking people for money and, and donations.
Speaker:I really wish I could just do my work and never have to ask.
Speaker:I really do.
Speaker:Um, I just feel awkward and uncomfortable asking, but for me to succeed and
Speaker:for me to support and help, uh, there has to be some resources.
Speaker:Maybe this might be a really good subject material for the next podcast, but, uh,
Speaker:as being someone that's independent, I'm not reliant on government funding.
Speaker:And thus, the only sort of area that I can lean on is community funding.
Speaker:And that means people that are watching this or following
Speaker:me on Twitter or Instagram.
Speaker:And um, I just really depend on, it doesn't have to be a lot.
Speaker:It just could be monthly donations.
Speaker:It can be a one off if you want.
Speaker:And because we're a federally registered, uh, charity, you get a tax receipt.
Speaker:Know that that doesn't seem to be a big game changer for many people,
Speaker:but it's, it's there as well.
Speaker:I'm hoping that people will appreciate what I'm trying to do and support
Speaker:the efforts that I, that I put into this by providing some, some
Speaker:financial support or some in kind support such as, uh, cell phones.
Speaker:And things like that, Chromebooks, cell phones are the two big
Speaker:things I'm looking for right now.
Speaker:But I'm really dependent on donations and, um, for this to work.
Speaker:And I'll jump in there by saying unlocked factory reset phones
Speaker:because you can't use them otherwise.
Speaker:Most smartphones now have to come unlocked, like be unlockable.
Speaker:Um, under the new CRTC guidelines, uh, it's a lot easier, a lot
Speaker:easier to unlock a phone than it was three or four years ago.
Speaker:I don't want anybody knowing, seeing your baby pictures or
Speaker:your selfies at the restaurant.
Speaker:So it's really good to clean it off and unlock it and just, so
Speaker:you're right, Kevin, unlocked, cleaned out phones would be great.
Speaker:You don't want your personal information on any device that you're
Speaker:donating, no matter where it's going.
Speaker:It's a Google search away, quite honestly, uh, to figure out how
Speaker:to, uh, to wipe the device clean.
Speaker:And then.
Speaker:Giving it to, get in touch with Mark and give it to somebody who needs it.
Speaker:Particularly if it's an Android phone, the iPhones, I speak to my own experience
Speaker:where they hold the value pretty well and the trade and it's usually worth it.
Speaker:But for the kind of the older phones, some that aren't even that old.
Speaker:Where you can't get much for them, then at least, you know, it's not just recycling
Speaker:that you can give them to, to, to Mark and that doesn't even need a phone plan,
Speaker:don't need a SIM card, none of that.
Speaker:They could be used to call 9 1 1 and then people can use Chromebooks, for example,
Speaker:to, uh, apply for something like income support or do, or be on a Zoom call with
Speaker:family or what have you to, uh, to meet those needs because the internet and, uh,
Speaker:It's very much a utility as we, uh, as we all know, have donations been coming.
Speaker:Are you doing all right in that sense?
Speaker:Cause I know there was a couple of times this summer where you said you
Speaker:were kind of struggling in that regard.
Speaker:I had a okay months last month, but of course the more the better, right?
Speaker:I'm feeling awkward.
Speaker:That's the reality of it, Mark.
Speaker:You need the donation to do the work that you need to do and, uh, to, to again, help
Speaker:To use your words, as you've said many times, it's a bridge of those gaps to help
Speaker:those people in need that are, uh, aren't getting help, uh, in, in other ways.
Speaker:So, and the only way to do that in, in most cases, aside from advocacy,
Speaker:which you do quite a bit of, uh, but for the essentials that people
Speaker:need, hygiene products, uh, hence the video that you did and so forth,
Speaker:gasoline for the car, et cetera, right?
Speaker:The, the list goes on of the things that cost money, um, never mind helping people
Speaker:with some rent or, uh, other essentials.
Speaker:Um, that, that those come from donations.
Speaker:I don't want to downplay it.
Speaker:You need it to do, you need donations to do the work that
Speaker:you're doing to help these people.
Speaker:Period.
Speaker:Yeah, I do.
Speaker:Excellent.
Speaker:I know you don't like asking for it.
Speaker:Nobody likes to talk about money and many of us are struggling financially to a
Speaker:certain extent, cost of living, et cetera.
Speaker:So I can appreciate that.
Speaker:But if you could find five or 10 bucks a month, even this month, nevermind next
Speaker:month, everything helps Mark in terms of the people that you're helping and these
Speaker:various situations that that you describe.
Speaker:Everything costs money.
Speaker:It just does.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:All right, Mark.
Speaker:I mean, maybe we'll leave it there.
Speaker:We could clearly go on, but I don't want to exhaust us and I know it's
Speaker:been, um, an interesting week.
Speaker:Uh, but I know that August and September, you've been in high demand.
Speaker:Thank you for making the time to, to talk with me today and to share these stories
Speaker:because to your point a moment ago.
Speaker:I hate bringing this up, but I need to, where you, when you were door knocking,
Speaker:talking to people, uh, regardless if it's for that political campaign or
Speaker:not, um, people tend to understandably be focused on what's happening in
Speaker:their lives and what affects them.
Speaker:So by reminding people of these issues exist, they might not do something
Speaker:about it that moment or that day, but.
Speaker:You know, we need help, we need to help people in our community, help
Speaker:each other out in our communities.
Speaker:And it doesn't take a lot when we, it sounds cliche,
Speaker:but when we all work together,
Speaker:right?
Speaker:So we're always going to meet somebody, even know somebody who
Speaker:is in certain situations where they could use a little help.
Speaker:And it might be, and it might be you or I one day, hopefully not.
Speaker:But.
Speaker:Life tends to throw us curve balls.
Speaker:So whether it be a donor, something, uh, something you can donate money,
Speaker:you can donate, um, or listening to this podcast, sharing it, um,
Speaker:anything like that helps truly.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:You said you got to go.
Speaker:You have things to do, Mark.
Speaker:Thanks for taking the time today, Mark.
Speaker:Always a pleasure.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:You take care, Kevin.
Speaker:Thanks again.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:Talk to you later, Mark.
Speaker:Bye.
Speaker:As we wrap up Episode 4, Mark's stories remind us of the urgent need for change.
Speaker:From the mom forced to pawn her belongings to feed her kids, to the
Speaker:indigenous family struggling with the system, that seems stacked against them.
Speaker:These are not isolated incidents.
Speaker:They're part of a much bigger problem.
Speaker:As one of Mark's volunteers, Mark has graciously allowed me to take a
Speaker:moment to promote my home business.
Speaker:So I'm going to do that.
Speaker:One of the things I do for Mark as a volunteer is connect remotely to his
Speaker:laptop about once a month, sometimes more often, and perform a tune up.
Speaker:This includes Windows updates, program updates, and specific tune up
Speaker:related tasks to ensure his laptop, which he absolutely d Hands on, uh,
Speaker:for his work, it's working well.
Speaker:If you'd like me to do this sort of thing for you, uh, like a system
Speaker:cleanup or a monthly tune up and many other tasks that can be done remotely.
Speaker:Please check out my home business website at kevinthetechguy.
Speaker:ca.
Speaker:I will soon offer drop off computer repair services as well at my home in Red Deer.
Speaker:You can also check out my website for free blog posts.
Speaker:They're often walkthroughs, how tos that you can follow along with.
Speaker:But more to the point, there.
Speaker:Uh, they're a way for me to be transparent about the work I'm doing for you.
Speaker:When I talk about I'm going to do a system clean up or a monthly tune up or what have
Speaker:you, I've documented that on my website as much as I can possible because certain
Speaker:things are specific to each customer.
Speaker:But generally speaking, I've documented it there in those blog posts for, for
Speaker:you to read, for you to check out, uh, and that you know, you know what
Speaker:I'm doing, what work is being done.
Speaker:I do this so that you know what I'm doing.
Speaker:I'm not some guy at just any computer shop takes it into a back room.
Speaker:You don't know what's being done.
Speaker:I want you to trust me.
Speaker:I want you to know that I know what I'm doing and that I'm not doing anything.
Speaker:I'm not supposed to be doing.
Speaker:I hit that.
Speaker:That's why those blog posts are there.
Speaker:I also offer paid subscription content and you can purchase individual
Speaker:premium blog posts for 5 each.
Speaker:If you're not into the whole subscription thing.
Speaker:Again, I want to thank Mark for allowing me to promote my
Speaker:home business on this podcast.
Speaker:Mark's dead.
Speaker:Indication to helping people, whether it's advocating for parents, trying
Speaker:to regain custody or providing essentials like Baby Formula shows.
Speaker:This shows just how crucial community support is, how crucial your support is.
Speaker:We hope this episode and each episode we've done and will
Speaker:do and the clips we've shared.
Speaker:Because this could be heavy stuff, and it's probably easier to consume
Speaker:it in, uh, kinda smaller bits.
Speaker:But it encourages you to reflect on the gaps in our system, and the
Speaker:ways we can all pitch in to help.
Speaker:The biggest way, of course, is to donate, to support Mark's work.
Speaker:In episode 6, we're gonna take a slightly different approach.
Speaker:Mark and I will be doing a deep dive regarding child welfare
Speaker:since that's an ongoing theme in many of his tweets and stories.
Speaker:We'll discuss his concerns and why he also sees them as heroes.
Speaker:We'll focus on more stories from his tweets in episode 7 and do more deep
Speaker:dives on specific topics in the future.
Speaker:Thank you for watching and listening.
