Charles Pascal an excellent advocat for children.
Dr. Charles Pascal, executive director of the Atkinson Charitable Foundation, received the Annual Award for Excellence in Advocacy by the Ontario Coalition for Better Childcare and CUPE Ontario for his work 'With our Best Future in Mind'.
Photo/DAVID COOPER
Longtime Riverdale resident Dr. Charles Pascal has spent the last 40 years working for the welfare and success of Canada's children. It's no wonder the father of three and grandfather of five is this year's recipient of the Excellence in Advocacy award.
The Ontario Coalition for Better Childcare (OCBCC) and the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) Ontario handed out the Excellence in Advocacy award to Pascal on Wednesday, Oct. 21 - the ninth annual Childcare Worker and Early Childhood Educator Appreciation Day.
Pascal, the executive director of the Atkinson Foundation and the chair of the Education Quality and Accountability Office, received the special honour for a report he authored called With Our Best Future in Mind: Implementing Early Learning in Ontario.
Just under two years ago, Premier Dalton McGuinty appointed Pascal as a special advisor to recommend the best ways of implementing full-day learning for Ontario's four and five year olds. As a result of Pascal's recommendations, the province will begin phasing in full-day learning for four and five year olds next September.
Humbled by the honour, Pascal, a former president of Sir Sanford Fleming College in Peterborough and a former deputy minister in two provincial ministries (Community and Social Services, and Education and Training), said he's fortunate to be able to research and figure out the best ways to ensure student success.
He also said he's proud to be considered an advocate because the recommendations he's made are able to benefit Canadian society as a whole years down the line.
The best investment a government can make, he said, is to invest in its youth.
Despite all of his credentials and experiences, he said what really motivates him to fight for children's success is that he's also a father and a grandfather.
"My interest in early leaning started when I became a father for the first time," Pascal said, adding he felt it was essential to provide all of the opportunities possible for his children raised in a family where both parents worked.
"My work is a passion but my number one role is a parent."
One of his first efforts was to found the McGill Community Family Centre, the first of its kind full-service child care centre for children of faculty members in a Canadian university. He also created the Montreal university's Centre for Learning and Development among other things before moving to Toronto in the late 1970s.
Created in 2008, the Excellence in Advocacy award's first winner is current Parti Quebecois leader Pauline Marois. In 1998, Marois was instrumental in pioneering Quebec's universal $5-a-day childcare program.
Pascal learned of his win in a special letter from OCBCC President Tracy Saarikoski and CUPE Ontario President Sid Ryan on behalf of the Child Care Worker and ECE Appreciation Day organizing Committee.
"We believe that the vision from your recent report With Our Best Future in Mind is as transformative as the vision of Mme. Marois. If fully implemented, Ontario will dramatically improve the services available to all children from infancy to 12 years old," they wrote.
Saarikoski and Ryan went on to say Pascal's holistic vision of combining community resources at Best Start Child and Family Centres would greatly benefit Ontario's youngest children. They also praised his vision of full-day learning for four-and five-year-old children as well as after-school and summer programs for 6 to 12 year olds.
"Your report calls on all of us to be partners in creating a new system for all children in Ontario. You call on school boards to become community hubs, municipalities to create service plans that meet the needs of local communities and early learning and child care programs to create new integrated governance structures to better service families," the letter said.
"We support these goals...Thank you for all your work on behalf of children and families in Ontario."