Bill for diabetic students fails at Queen's Park
March 09, 2009
Kevin Swayze
RECORD STAFF

CAMBRIDGE

Terry Bordman's hopes of better care for diabetic children in schools have been crushed in the Ontario legislature.

A private member's bill to make sure some school staff are trained to help diabetic children failed 26-13 on second reading.

"I wished they would have let me address the (House) -- so many of them have no clue what they're taking about with this disease," said Bordman, a Cambridge father of two diabetic girls.

Cambridge MPP Gerry Martiniuk picked up on Bordman's lobbying and proposed the legislation.

Bordman says teachers don't understand the risks a diabetic child faces.

He wants teachers trained to help children monitor their blood-sugar levels and to administer insulin or sugar if a pupil's levels get out whack.

"What is it going to take? Someone dying?"

Bordman listened to the debate at Queen's Park and said opponents of the bill were making the issue more complicated than it is.

He said it's not about giving needles, which is rarely needed, but about ensuring simple blood-sugar tests are done regularly and actions taken according to a chart.

It can be as simple as giving a child something sweet -- like apple juice -- to boost low sugar.

Children having a low-sugar crisis can drop into a coma without immediate action, Bordman said.

"This disease can sneak up on these kids, sometimes the symptoms catch up with them, and they can't do their blood-sugar checks."

If the bill had passed, it would have gone to a committee for more discussion and likely would have died there, Martiniuk said. He said he is certain the governing Liberals were under orders to vote against it.

Guelph MPP Liz Sandals, a Liberal, voted against the bill. She wasn't available for comment.

Bordman and Martiniuk aren't sure of the next step, but both wonder if it's time to bring nurses back to public schools.

"There are a tonne of nurses out there ready to retire . . . some of them would jump at the chance of a regular, 9-to-3 job," Bordman said.