Health promoters should respond to the Globe and Mail's (April 30) editorial indicating that the problem with
poor children and families in Canada is NOT lack of money,  but rather poor parenting skills.

Their fax number is 416-585-5085.

Below is my letter to the editor...

Dear Editor:

The strong links between poverty and children's poor health and school  performance are remarkably
consistent, I tell my students in community health.  The Globe and Mail editorial writers (Better policy for
better parents, April 30) would seem to agree. I also tell my students that those in positions of wealth and
power will not hesitate to blame the victims of such inequalities and injustices for their own plight.

In the Threepenny Opera,  Bertolt Brecht wrote: "...and though the rich create poverty, they can't bear to see
it."  Brecht would have appreciated, and I can only shake my head in wonder, as those who cannot face up
to their own role in causing and sustaining child poverty call for an increase in "hugs, milk, patience, and lots
of cooing." And "temper control."

Dennis Raphael
Associate Professor of Community Health
University of Toronto