The child in the room | The Press

The shortage of children’s medicines has shocked many people. The crisis in pediatric emergencies has also upset more than one. Ultimately, it’s the lack of a sense of urgency that hurts us the most.


Although the drug shortage is coming to an end, everything indicates that the situation in hospitals should continue; winter has not even started. In addition, if the hypothesis of a temporary weakening of immunity due to COVID-19 proves to be true, we will inevitably have to make major arrangements so that our little ones, now subscribed to respiratory diseases, can be treated adequately.

Although worrying in themselves, these two “crises” actually hide a deeper childhood crisis that we already guessed existed in 2019 and that COVID-19 has only worsened.

From generation to generation, parents wish to offer a better life to their descendants. Some do not hesitate to move abroad and face all the dangers to achieve this. In our privileged societies, we see the end of a progress which we believed to be boundless. It cracks everywhere. All the indicators show that our progress is declining… For the first time in decades, life expectancy is declining. And the picture is hardly rosier in terms of the economy, education or the environment.

There is no shortage of sources of concern: the dilapidated state of schools and their inadequate ventilation, the worrying delays in school, the growing appeal of early work, the abuse of screens, the rise in violence, the omnipresence of firearms , rampant anxiety, poor access to first line and child care spaces, overmedication, isolation, obesity and a sedentary lifestyle that are gaining ground, pollution, the opioid crisis and so on.

Unfortunately, all of these topics are covered piecemeal. Indignation in a vacuum justifies our indefensible laxity. As an exasperated father recently suggested, we live in “a society that doesn’t care about its children”.

Awareness is needed.

After all, the greatness of a society is measured by how it treats the most vulnerable.

As everyone knows, we are not doing very well. Seniors and children are by far the most affected by this pandemic. These two groups share many similarities and would benefit from forming a common front to defend their rights.

However, there is a notorious difference between elders and children: the latter do not vote.

In a society where individualism and electoralism sometimes pull the strings, it goes without saying that this lack of voice is immeasurably harmful to our young people and their future.

Sooner or later, the relevance of a debate surrounding child suffrage will arise with vigor, but until then, each of us has a duty to exercise our right to vote by putting children first.

Of course, this responsibility also rests with elected officials.

The mayor of Quebec, Bruno Marchand, has also installed a small chair in the caucus room, in order to remind us of the importance of taking into account the well-being of future generations.

In reality, this is a more difficult task than it seems. Too often, decision-makers have their hands tied by the mistakes of the past; they are prisoners of a daily life that monopolizes everything.

What is more, the ardor of elected visionaries is frequently dampened by the almost immutable force that constitutes the status quo. Despite their endless calls for change, voters much prefer the comfort of continuity. Going against the tide of this inertia requires titanic political courage.

That said, if the world we wish to bequeath to our children becomes a priority public issue, it will be very different.

It’s up to us.


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