Canada: ALBERTA: Determined Woman

Chunky Charlotte Whitton is one of the best-known social workers in Canada; she is also one of the most determined women in the Dominion. Last spring, when Dr. Whitton criticized Alberta’s penny-saving welfare system, Provincial Health Minister W. W. Cross shrugged her off as just “a human talking machine.” He would run his department as before. Cracked Dr. Whitton: “Didn’t Hitler say his empire would endure 1,000 years?”

With Arrogance. Last week, Minister Cross had a reminder never to underestimate the power of Charlotte Whitton. She issued a smashing summary of a four-month survey of the Alberta welfare system (conducted with the help of the Imperial Order of the Daughters of the Empire). A full 200-page report is promised soon, but even the summary gave Albertans plenty to think about.

The Whitton report found fault with almost every phase of the Alberta welfare system (“incredibly centralized and bureaucratic . . . operating of its own volition with arrogance”). But its most scathing criticism was aimed at the Alberta child-adoption system, presided over by Superintendent of Child Welfare Charles B. (“Uncle Charlie”) Hill.

Hill’s business is booming. There were 650 adoptions in the province last year. According to Hill, everybody concerned is happy—the natural parents (in illegitimacy cases), the foster parents and the children. Dr. Whitton called Alberta’s adoption system “unhappily casual.” In particular she struck at Uncle Charlie’s “export traffic in Alberta babies,” reported that ten percent of all adopted Alberta babies last year went to U.S. applicants, many of whom arranged the whole thing by mail. Dr. Whitton suspected that some babies had “again changed hands . . . and for a consideration” in the U.S. adoption black market.

In any case, wrote Dr. Whitton: “If these babies are suitable for adoption, they are a valuable national asset and the whole Alberta policy is puzzling; if they are not suitable for placement, it is a dastardly thing to send them to foster homes in a friendly neighboring country.” Her suggested remedy: recasting of Alberta’s Child Welfare Act to reduce the “unjustifiable powers” of province officials.

With Dignity. In Edmonton, Health Minister Cross was not talking. One day before the Whitton summary was released, his government set up a three-man commission headed by Chief Justice William Robinson Howson to conduct a “full investigation” into the policies of the Child Welfare Branch of the Ministry. Minister Cross said he would await the findings of the commission.

Charlotte Whitton thinks the investigating committee may do some good. “At least,” said she, “the matter will be dealt with in dignity and justice.” But neither Charlotte Whitton nor the Daughters of the Empire will rest the case there. They are planning indignation meetings all over Alberta.