In a blog post, the Senator said that the Island’s failure to acknowledge child abuse had ‘damaged the lives of many’.
He said the Independent Jersey Care Inquiry’s report highlighted a political approach that in the past often failed to ask questions or learn from evidence ‘from the world beyond Jersey’.
Writing ahead of a States debate on the report on Thursday, he said Jersey had much to be proud of but, like many places, the authorities from the 1950s to early 2000s did not acknowledge the existence of child abuse.
‘The Oldham report acknowledges it was not intentional. However, it is clear that this attitude failed and damaged irrevocably the lives of many. There should have been more questioning by politicians.
‘There has been too much reliance on process and hierarchy…There has been a failure to take responsibility… There has been a failure to act… This has failed children and others for too long,’ he wrote.
The Senator goes on to say that, although some may disagree, he believes the phrase ‘the Jersey Way’, has always had too many associations with:
‘Isolationist’
‘Inward-looking’
‘Island nationalism’
‘Closed’
‘Segregation’
‘Detachment’
‘A blinkered parochial approach’
‘To small and narrow-mindedness’
‘Decisions which are short-sighted and short-term’
‘Illiberal, intolerant, prejudiced, bigoted and discriminatory’
The Senator said that politicians must now work together to create an open and transparent Island that protects and cares for all children and young people.
