Operation Elephant and the Child Welfare System

During the Second World War, there was a battle known as Operation Elephant. It ended in a massacre of our troops, in which hundreds of Canadian men, were wounded, and 89 more died for nothing. Before it began, the soldiers on the front line knew it was a completely impossible mission, but in the end, in the words of Major Jim Swayze, commander of the Lincoln and Welland Regiment, “You only demand so much, and then, you only do what you’re told.”

The soldiers and officers in the trenches knew their rifles would be frozen in the freezing weather, and that a plan for a surprise attack by canoe was ridiculous, given the river was going to freeze over. On-site reconnaissance was not adequate, with the forces having only arrived one day before. The men had no armoured troop carriers or tanks. And the Regiment was given only 6 days to build a “Whore’s Nightmare” of a bridge, which needed 10 full days to complete properly for its purpose.

The veteran commanders of the regiments were absent when the plan was drawn up and senior officers were not included in the planning. New or acting commanders had little influence. Best intelligence available was ignored regarding the superior position of the Germans. The front line knew they were sitting ducks but had to go forward because they were ordered to go ahead with the ill fated plan concocted by their generals.

Is there a lesson from Operation Elephant for the generals who lead us in the assault on problems in the Child Welfare System? We definitely have some amazing, compassionate, highly intelligent generals in place these days, trying to change laws, policies and practices in the interests of children who need government help to grow up. No question about this, in my opinion.

However, I am wondering if those very same generals have the correct information, listen to the right people, and consult the doctors, the teachers and the social workers in the trenches, who see the real factors at play? Indeed it is the men and women on the front line who know the problems and what needs to be seriously considered in drawing up a plan for children, which has a decent shot at success to conquer the enemy! Generals who give orders from afar, who listen to academics with no field experience, who listen to parents or identity group leaders with no field experience, or who respond to special interest cohorts, supported by media or those whose prime motivation is not about the children, and who also may have no field experience, are bound to make critical errors in their plans for laws, policies and practices!

Generals! Listen up! Listen up well!

I was a ‘Lifer’ in the service of children in Education and in Child Welfare. From my branch on the tree, I saw that every child in the foster care system needed help. Every single one of them needed a permanent, safe place to grow up with competent, caring, highly trained adults. Every single little one, regardless of race, gender, creed, linguistic or cultural group needed your help. Help, however, was but a mirage for most!

I follow with great interest the plans for Indigenous children, caught in the nefarious jaws of the foster care system. I read, watch and listen to the issues, presented and believed to be the truth, by the general public, journalists, and politicians. I cannot but think and compare it to Operation Elephant, unfortunately!

In my time on the battlefront I once had to supervise a child, dreadfully emotionally abused in a substitute parent’s care, drugged into a stupor by a caring but unsuspecting doctor listening to the complaints of a sadly abusive woman. I told my boss, who told her superior, who told her commanding officer. It went on up the chain of command and the orders came down. “We are not going there.”

Another two children, removed from drug addicted parents, given every chance to get it together, were slated to be parented for the long term by kin. I assessed the proposed kin over many interviews, and called the boss after each one. I delivered the same report. “I cannot recommend them and I will not recommend them.” The boss told her superior, the superior told the commander and it went on up the chain of command. The orders came down, “It will all work out. We are sending this kin family for training. We will proceed as planned.”

In my very first job on the front lines, I was given a summer replacement position with a Children’s Aid Society. I was fresh out of school, green around the edges and worked from about 8 AM steadily, sometimes arriving home at 10 PM at night, during that long stressful summer. I covered 90 cases for the agency and was required to take and investigate the emergency calls for the area, as well. I worried about keeping every single child on the three case loads I was responsible for, safe and alive those 90 days, every minute of every day. I assume this was normal staffing ratios approved by the generals.

I was like the soldiers in Operation Elephant. I faced an impossible task, with no armour, no weapons, no tanks, and no back up troops! It was a foolhardy and ridiculous expectation on a front line new graduate, idealistic as hell, following orders from generals, likely long out of touch with the realities of the war against the neglect and abuse of children!

I thought then, as many in the service of children think now, and like the men at Operation Elephant thought so long ago, “You only demand so much and then you only do what you”re told.”

Generals, with regard to your plans for children in foster care, may I give you a few facts from someone just home from the front lines of the battle?

Every Child Welfare social worker I have ever known has tried to keep children in their family, consistently giving the biological family every available support and time possible, to get it together for their children, even at the most basic level acceptable under the law. When the children are at severe risk for their safety, and often their survival, all stops are pulled to find them care within their extended families and kinship network. When no one can be identified, and the children are suffering in incredibly neglectful and abusive situations, social workers look for a home to move them to, to guarantee safety, if nothing else, as mandated under our laws. While it would be preferable to place children in foster homes which are a racial, religious, linguistic, or cultural match, they usually do not exist, and workers fearing sometimes for the very life of a child, are forced to take the first available foster home that can be identified in the system. In situations like this, social workers can only roll their eyes when they hear complainants or ideologues talk about the down side of placing children in transracial or transcultural foster care placements. When bombs are falling from the sky, bullets shooting the children in the back, ANY safe port in the storm must be taken and used. And every person who says they care about these children, should be thanking the people who step up and offer asylum, no matter their own colour, creed, language or culture!

My worry these days is a plan like Operation Elephant, being put in place for vulnerable children whose parents cannot raise them in safety. I care not about their colour, creed, language or culture right now. I am concerned about a plan for all the foster children in Canada. A plan that will guarantee them safety, permanence and competent caring adults in their lives. A plan based on the facts. A plan honed out of a realistic understanding of the issues and challenges in accomplishing that, for every single one of them.

May we learn from Operation Elephant.

Generals, you should ask the advice and listen to the soldiers just back from the front. Especially listen to those with long service and reputations of compassion, integrity and wisdom. Select at random, all kinds of front line soldiers in Child Welfare currently serving, guarantee anonymity and confidentiality and they will tell it like it is. They will tell you the good, the bad and the ugly of the foster care system, for every child in it.

Then my dear Generals, gather your front line officers and all the commanders and top brass together to make a decent plan for all the children in foster care in Canada now, and all the children who will need government help to grow up in the future. Make it based on facts and truth, make it based on a solid funding model, and make it in the primary interests of children, not their parents or identity group. Make it so every Canadian Child can grow up in guaranteed safety, permanently, with competent adults who can do the job.

After Operation Elephant, and the abject stupidity of so many decisions by those with power and influence in the Military, which resulted in a disastrous plan, the loss of many lives, and the accomplishment of none of the objectives, a front line soldier, Corporal Jake Weibe of the South Alberta Regiment was heard to say, “If only we had the wisdom of our generals.”

May this not be my own lament or that of my fellow social workers, the teachers and the health care professionals who currently serve or who are veterans of service for the Child Welfare System.

May our generals learn from Operation Elephant.

May all vulnerable children requiring foster care, benefit from their wisdom!