WOULD CHILDREN IN ONTARIO'S CARE BE SAFER IN A WAR ZONE?
Between 2008 and 2012 the PDRC choose to review the deaths of 215 children in care. In 92 of those cases the cause of death could not be determined while the majority of the remaining deaths were listed as homicides, suicide and accidental. The PRDC reported during that same time period only 15 children with pre-existing medical conditions in care had died of unpreventable natural causes.
158 CANADIANS SOLDIERS DIED IN AFGHANISTAN BETWEEN 2002 AND 2011 FIGHTING FOR WHAT?
Canada in Afghanistan - Fallen Canadian Armed Forces Members.
One hundred and fifty-eight (158) Canadian Armed Forces members lost their lives in service while participating in our country’s military efforts in Afghanistan. You can click on the names to explore their entries in the Canadian Virtual War Memorial.
https://www.veterans.gc.ca/eng/remembrance/history/canadian-armed-forces/afghanistan-remembered/fallen?filterYr=2009
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“There are lots of kids in group homes all over Ontario and they are not doing well — and everybody knows it,” says Kiaras Gharabaghi, a member of a government-appointed panel that examined the residential care system in 2016.
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“It is stunning to me how these children... are rendered invisible while they are alive and invisible in their death,” said Irwin Elman, Ontario’s advocate for children and youth. Between 90 and 120 children and youth connected to children’s aid die every year. (rendered invisible by the PDRC)
Between 2008/2012 natural causes was listed as the least likely way for a child in Ontario's care to die at 7% (only 15) out of the total deaths reviewed while "undetermined cause" was listed as the leading cause of death of children in Ontario's child protection system at 43% of the total deaths reviewed. The of the deaths were categorized as homicide, suicide and accidental.
43% equals 92 children out of just the deaths reviewed by the PDRC. 92 mystery deaths and like every other year no further action was taken to determine the cause...
Undetermined means those 92 children had no pre-existing medical conditions and there was no reason for them to have died.
http://www.mcscs.jus.gov.on.ca/english/DeathInvestigations/office_coroner/PublicationsandReports/PDRC/2013Report/PDRC_2013.html
http://www.mcscs.jus.gov.on.ca/sites/default/files/content/mcscs/images/195633-19.jpg
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Use of 'behaviour-altering' drugs widespread in foster, group homes.
2014.. Almost half of children and youth in foster and group home care aged 5 to 17 — 48.6 percent — are on drugs, such as Ritalin, tranquilizers and anticonvulsants, according to a yearly survey conducted for the provincial government and the Ontario Association of Children’s Aid Societies (OACAS). At ages 16 and 17, fully 57 per cent are on these medications.
In group homes, the figure is even higher — an average of 64 percent of children and youth are taking behaviour-altering drugs. For 10- to 15-year-olds, the number is a staggering 74 per cent.
“Why are these kids on medication? Because people are desperate to make them functional,” Baird says, and “there’s so little else to offer.
Yet if the parents take medication to help make them more "functional" it's a reason for to keep a file open or apprehend a child, not render assistance or relief.
The figures are found in “Looking After Children in Ontario,” a provincially mandated survey known as OnLAC. It collects data on the 7,000 children who have spent at least one year in care. After requests by the Star, the 2014 numbers were made public for the first time.
https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2014/12/12/use_of_behaviouraltering_drugs_widespread_in_foster_group_homes.html
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What’s worse is that the number of children prescribed dangerous drugs is on the rise. Doctors seem to prescribe medication without being concerned with the side-effects.
Worldwide, 17 million children, some as young as five years old, are given a variety of different prescription drugs, including psychiatric drugs that are dangerous enough that regulatory agencies in Europe, Australia, and the US have issued warnings on the side effects that include suicidal thoughts and aggressive behavior.
158 CANADIANS SOLDIERS DIED IN AFGHANISTAN BETWEEN 2002 AND 2011 FIGHTING FOR WHAT?
Canada in Afghanistan - Fallen Canadian Armed Forces Members.
One hundred and fifty-eight (158) Canadian Armed Forces members lost their lives in service while participating in our country’s military efforts in Afghanistan. You can click on the names to explore their entries in the Canadian Virtual War Memorial.
https://www.veterans.gc.ca/eng/remembrance/history/canadian-armed-forces/afghanistan-remembered/fallen?filterYr=2009
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“There are lots of kids in group homes all over Ontario and they are not doing well — and everybody knows it,” says Kiaras Gharabaghi, a member of a government-appointed panel that examined the residential care system in 2016.
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“It is stunning to me how these children... are rendered invisible while they are alive and invisible in their death,” said Irwin Elman, Ontario’s advocate for children and youth. Between 90 and 120 children and youth connected to children’s aid die every year. (rendered invisible by the PDRC)
Between 2008/2012 natural causes was listed as the least likely way for a child in Ontario's care to die at 7% (only 15) out of the total deaths reviewed while "undetermined cause" was listed as the leading cause of death of children in Ontario's child protection system at 43% of the total deaths reviewed. The of the deaths were categorized as homicide, suicide and accidental.
43% equals 92 children out of just the deaths reviewed by the PDRC. 92 mystery deaths and like every other year no further action was taken to determine the cause...
Undetermined means those 92 children had no pre-existing medical conditions and there was no reason for them to have died.
http://www.mcscs.jus.gov.on.ca/english/DeathInvestigations/office_coroner/PublicationsandReports/PDRC/2013Report/PDRC_2013.html
http://www.mcscs.jus.gov.on.ca/sites/default/files/content/mcscs/images/195633-19.jpg
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Use of 'behaviour-altering' drugs widespread in foster, group homes.
2014.. Almost half of children and youth in foster and group home care aged 5 to 17 — 48.6 percent — are on drugs, such as Ritalin, tranquilizers and anticonvulsants, according to a yearly survey conducted for the provincial government and the Ontario Association of Children’s Aid Societies (OACAS). At ages 16 and 17, fully 57 per cent are on these medications.
In group homes, the figure is even higher — an average of 64 percent of children and youth are taking behaviour-altering drugs. For 10- to 15-year-olds, the number is a staggering 74 per cent.
“Why are these kids on medication? Because people are desperate to make them functional,” Baird says, and “there’s so little else to offer.
Yet if the parents take medication to help make them more "functional" it's a reason for to keep a file open or apprehend a child, not render assistance or relief.
The figures are found in “Looking After Children in Ontario,” a provincially mandated survey known as OnLAC. It collects data on the 7,000 children who have spent at least one year in care. After requests by the Star, the 2014 numbers were made public for the first time.
https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2014/12/12/use_of_behaviouraltering_drugs_widespread_in_foster_group_homes.html
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What’s worse is that the number of children prescribed dangerous drugs is on the rise. Doctors seem to prescribe medication without being concerned with the side-effects.
Worldwide, 17 million children, some as young as five years old, are given a variety of different prescription drugs, including psychiatric drugs that are dangerous enough that regulatory agencies in Europe, Australia, and the US have issued warnings on the side effects that include suicidal thoughts and aggressive behavior.
According to Fight For Kids, an organization that “educates parents worldwide on the facts about today’s widespread practice of labeling children mentally ill and drugging them with heavy, mind-altering, psychiatric drugs,” says over 10 million children in the US are prescribed addictive stimulants, antidepressants and other psychotropic (mind-altering) drugs for alleged educational and behavioral problems.
In fact, according to Foundation for a Drug-Free World, every day, 2,500 youth (12 to 17) will abuse a prescription pain reliever for the first time (4). Even more frightening, prescription medications like depressants, opioids and antidepressants cause more overdose deaths (45 percent) than illicit drugs like cocaine, heroin, methamphetamines and amphetamines (39 percent) combined. Worldwide, prescription drugs are the 4th leading cause of death.
https://dailyhealthpost.com/common-prescription-drugs/
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Toronto group homes turning outbursts from kids into matters for police
https://www.thestar.com/news/insight/2015/07/03/toronto-group-homes-turning-outbursts-from-kids-into-matters-for-police.html
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Physical restraint common in Toronto group homes and youth residences. By Laurie Monsebraaten Social justice reporter. Sandro Contenta News Fri., July 3, 2015.
Strange that an agency that is against any form of corporal punishment isn't against giving children to people that are so willing deny children their rights as they drug, restrain and label them "problem children."
https://www.thestar.com/news/insight/2015/07/03/physical-restraint-common-in-toronto-group-homes-and-youth-residences.html
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Why are children in CAS care described like criminals?
https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2015/02/06/why-are-children-in-cas-care-described-like-criminals.html
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Ontario’s most vulnerable children kept in the shadows
https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2014/12/12/ontarios_most_vulnerable_children_kept_in_the_shadows.html
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Painkiller: Inside the Opioid Crisis.
Painkiller delves into the opioid epidemic. It features interviews with families who have lost loved ones, as well as healthcare workers and policy experts who question a health system that favours corporate profits over patients.
https://youtu.be/nLrUHrpjd2o
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The Progressive Conservative government recently announced that it would continue to fund the province’s supervised-injection and overdose-prevention sites. Some were surprised by the move: Doug Ford, after all, once said that he was “dead against” such sites — so much so that he put the opening of three overdose prevention sites on hold this summer, pending a review of Ontario’s drug strategy. Thankfully, the government seems to have drawn the same conclusion as many health experts: these sites save lives. But the good news came with caveats. A lot of them.
The 18 sites that received funding before the review will have to reapply to receive more. And the government has not only refused to fund pop-up services, such as tents: it has prohibited them. That’s an especially troubling move, considering the government has also capped the number of sites at 21. Almost 4,000 people in Canada died from opioid overdoses last year — the number is expected to rise in 2018.
Why would the government limit its ability to address the crisis?
https://www.tvo.org/article/if-ontario-really-wants-to-fight-the-opioid-crisis-it-needs-targeted-solutions-for-women
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Ontario Opioid Epidemic Plunges Children's Aid Societies Into Crisis.
Agencies from Sault Ste. Marie to Brantford are laying off workers as the number of kids who need care mounts.
Kim Streich-Poser has tried to reduce her staff with early retirement offers, but most of them are too dedicated to their work to take the bait.
"We've got people who are very, very committed to working with some of the most vulnerable children and families in our community," the executive director of the Children's Aid Society of Algoma told HuffPost Canada.
Streich-Poser, who is based in Sault Ste. Marie, says she's given layoff notices to six of her 141 employees and is negotiating other "displacements" with their union. She'll also close Algoma's office in Hornepayne, Ont. and reduce two full-service district offices in Wawa and Blind River into small satellite offices with one employee each.
https://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2019/03/29/ontario-opioid-epidemic-plunges-childrens-aid-societies-into-crisis_a_23702608/
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"A 14-year-old girl is a ‘sexually mature young woman,’ not a child, children’s aid society lawyer argues in sex abuse suit."
Kenora-Rainy River Districts Child and Family Services tells the Star it disagrees with what its lawyer argued in an ongoing sexual abuse court case, but refused to say whether it plans to rectify the statement in court.
Kenora-Rainy River Districts Child and Family Services. 820 Lakeview Drive Kenora Ontario P9N 3P7 Canada Phone: 807-467-5437 Fax: 807-467-5539.
NEWS Mar 24, 2019 by Jacques Gallant Toronto Star.
A 14- or 15-year-old girl is not a child, but rather a "sexually mature young woman," according to a lawyer for a Northern Ontario children's aid society.
The statement by Toronto lawyer Gary McCallum is contained in a July 2018 affidavit in an ongoing civil court case, in which a woman is suing Kenora-Rainy River Districts Child and Family Services, claiming she was sexually abused as a child by her foster father in the 1980s while under the care of the agency's predecessor organization.
Affidavit. ... In our Plain Language Legal Dictionary, we define affidavit as “A written statement of facts, sworn to and signed by a deponent before a notary public or some other authority having the power to witness an oath.”
It was again referenced in a January 2019 ruling from the lengthy case, which is playing out in a Toronto court.
The statement has been described to the Star by other lawyers and a professor of social work as "offensive," "shocking," and "appalling" — doubly so because it was made by the lawyer for the very agency charged with protecting the most vulnerable children.
"This is outrageous," said Melissa Redmond, assistant professor of social work at Carleton University. "You represent the organization that is responsible for protecting children in this community, protecting children from exactly the sorts of horrific circumstances that this child found herself in."
Read more:
Man from London, Ont., facing sexual exploitation, child porn charges
Police overwhelmed by rampant, 'hidden evil' of child exploitation online
Redmond, whose research interests include child protection policy, said she can't understand why there have not been consequences for the statement. "I don't understand how this is in the public record and (Kenora CFS) have not been seen to distance themselves as quickly as possible and to talk about how they value the children in the community and the children they have served in the past."
Read more:
https://www.thespec.com/news-story/9237081-a-14-year-old-girl-is-a-sexually-mature-young-woman-not-a-child-children-s-aid-society-lawyer-argues-in-sex-abuse-suit/
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2018: Children’s Aid executive facing 20 charges in child abuse case. By Alexandra Mazur and Mike Postovit Global News
OPP has charged William Sweet, a resident of Picton, Ont., after allegations of wrongdoing during his work as the executive director of the Prince Edward County Children’s Aid Society between 2002 and 2010.
After investigating cases of children placed with foster parents who themselves were convicted of child abuse, this led the OPP to look into Sweet’s involvement as executive director of the child care organization.
The 67-year-old Picton resident was charged with 10 counts each of criminal negligence causing bodily harm and failure to provide the necessities of life. The accused appeared at the Ontario Court of Justice in Picton on May 2.
Sgt. Carolle Dionne, provincial media relations coordinator, says that although Sweet never fostered any children of his own, he is being charged because as she said, “he ought to have known better” than to place children with the foster parents who have since been convicted in child abuse cases.
For a period of eight years, nine foster children were placed with six foster parents who have since been convicted of sexual abuse against those children.
According to Dionne, Sweet’s investigation encompassed a review of those previous abuse investigations and convictions between 2013 and 2016. Police then conducted additional interviews, executed search warrants and seized evidence to put before the court for Sweet’s charges.
OPP officers are not commenting on specific details of the allegations as the matter is now before the courts.
Children’s Aid Society moves on
Mark Kartusch is the current executive director of the Highland Shores Children’s Aid Society. In 2012, after the Ministry of Children and Youth Services reviewed the Prince Edward County Children Services, Sweet left his post, and his branch dissolved. What came from that was an amalgamation of several children’s aid offices, an organization which Kartusch now heads.
He says that Sweet’s charges are bringing up bad memories, but that he hopes people will have faith in the workers.
“We didn’t have a lot of people coming forward to become foster parents,” said Kartusch, although he said that things have changed in the last few years.
He also emphasized that events like those that happened to the children placed out of the Prince Edward County children’s aid are highly unusual.
“Kids are safe in foster homes,” Kartusch emphasized.
He finished by saying that although there are employees from the now defunct Prince Edward Country chapter working within the Highland Shores organization, they were not involved in any criminal activity.
“The charges are isolated with Bill,” said Kartusch about Sweet.
https://globalnews.ca/news/4182170/childrens-aid-executive-charged/
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/prince-edward-county-foster-care-abuse-negligence-charges-1.4723516
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2014: Three former County foster children have reached out-of-court settlements with the Highland Shores Children’s Aid Society for damages stemming from sexual abuse sustained while they were in the society’s care.
An order dismissing further action against the child welfare agency has been approved by a judge at the Prince Edward County superior court where the lawsuit was filed in April 2013. Court staff confirmed only three of the five cases have been settled to date, leaving two outstanding plaintiffs.
https://www.intelligencer.ca/2014/10/21/three-cas-cases-settled/wcm/3fd07287-3f2a-1755-7386-1c8c2353c943
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Ontario group-home owner faces sex assault charges.
MARGARET PHILP TORONTO PUBLISHED MARCH 26, 2003
The owner of a group-home agency with close to 40 of Ontario's most disturbed teenagers in its care has been charged with two counts of sexual assault, the latest sign of trouble in an industry looking after thousands of the province's children.
Stephen Mitchell, 40, the owner and executive director of Mitchell Group Homes, was charged by the Peterborough Lakefield Community Police Service this week, after two episodes of unwelcome sexual contact last fall with a female group-home worker who called police. The employee no longer works for the company.
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/ontario-group-home-owner-faces-sex-assault-charges/article20448232/
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Maple Ridge youth worker charged with sex assault, child pornography: (March 14, 2019)
A youth care worker with the Maple Ridge School District has been charged with production and possession of child pornography as well as sexual assault and sexual interference.
RCMP say the 52 year-old Daniel Jon Olson appeared in provincial court in Port Coquitlam BC for offences that are alleged to have occurred between 2008 and 2019.
:One count of possessing child pornography.
:One count of making, printing, publishing or
possessing for the purpose of publication
child pornography.
:Eight counts of sexual interference.
:Two counts of sexual assault with a weapon.
According to Ridge Meadows RCMP, the detachment's Serious Crime Unit is continuing to investigate Olson, who has been released from custody with conditions.
The school district says Olson worked in a number of elementary and secondary schools over the course of his employment..
Sylvia Russell, Maple Ridge-Pitt Meadows School District superintendent, sent a notice to parents in the district on Thursday. "The charges are very serious and deeply concerning, the notice reads."
The Maple Ridge-Pitt Meadows school district says in a letter to parents that Olson is a child and youth care worker who has worked in a number of elementary and secondary schools over the years.
It says Olson has been on unpaid leave since the district was notified of his arrest.
Superintendent Sylvia Russell says in the letter that the safety and well-being of students is the district’s first priority.
“While we have no first-hand knowledge about the charges, we are informing all our families out of an abundance of caution so that parents/guardians can direct any information they may have about this matter directly to the Ridge Meadows RCMP,” said Russell.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/maple-ridge-youth-worker-facing-sex-related-charges-1.5057578
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https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/suit-settled-in-horrific-case-of-child-abuse/article4290587/
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https://edmontonjournal.com/news/crime/alberta-childrens-services-worker-charged-after-thousands-of-child-porn-photos-found
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https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/youth-worker-sex-assault-belleville-1.5001086
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https://globalnews.ca/news/4916584/woman-charged-with-sex-assault-of-minors-worked-at-male-cas-group-home-at-time-of-alleged-offences/
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https://www.newstimes.com/news/article/DCF-case-worker-charged-with-sexual-assault-364951.php
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The inquest into Jeffrey Baldwin's death was supposed to shed light on the child welfare system and prevent more needless child deaths. Baldwin's inquest jury made 103 recommendations. Sep 06, 2013.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/inquest-into-boy-s-death-to-shed-light-on-child-welfare-system-1.1699846
Nearly six months after the inquest into the death of Katelynn Sampson began, jurors delivered another 173 recommendations. APRIL 29, 2016.
https://beta.theglobeandmail.com/news/toronto/inquest-into-death-of-7-year-old-girl-emphasizes-duty-to-report-abuse/article29798749/
276 OFFICIAL REASONS FOR CONCERN ABOUT THE WELFARE OF CHILDREN IN ONTARIO'S CARE - NOT INCLUDING THE RECOMMENDATIONS IN THE MOTHERISK REPORT OR THE 2018 CORONER'S REPORT.
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"Ontario’s child protection system fails children, again." By Star Editorial Board Wed., Sept. 26, 2018 .
Children should, at the very least, survive the attempts of Ontario’s child protection system to help them.
What an incredibly low bar that is, Ontario’s child advocate noted. And how shocking that, yet again, Ontario has failed to meet it.
A new and rightly scathing report by Ontario’s coroner is calling on the provincial government to overhaul the child protection system that keeps failing children.
The panel of experts appointed by Ontario’s chief coroner Dirk Huyer examined the tragic deaths of 12 youths who were placed in foster homes and group homes for their safety and well-being, and yet died while under provincial care.
Eight of the 12 were Indigenous, cut off from their communities in the north, and eight youth died by suicide. All 12 of these young people, who died over a three-and-a-half-year period, were known to have serious mental health challenges and yet the panel found little was done to help them.
“Despite complex histories and the high-risk nature of these young people’s lives, intervention was minimal and sometimes non-existent,” the report states.
Ministry oversight of homes is inadequate, caregivers lack proper training and vulnerable children are being warehoused and shuffled from one home to the next without getting the care they need. In fact, the child protection system can barely be called a system given its lack of co-coordinated services, Huyer said.
And what makes this worse is that it has all been said before.
To her credit, Children, Community and Social Services Minister Lisa MacLeod didn’t seek to dodge these findings. “From the CASs to group homes to my ministry, we all bear "some" responsibility,” she said, but there is only one captain of the ship, the premier of Ontario. “As the new minister, the buck stops with me and I will take action.”
Let’s hope this time it’s action that actually makes a difference in kids lives.
That means, as this expert panel has said, getting away from a “crisis driven and reactionary” response, to prevention-focused care that works with children and their families, whose troubles are often driven or compounded by poverty.
Just yanking kids from their homes, especially when they are placed into a system that has repeatedly proven incapable of dealing with their complex needs, isn’t a solution. (Out of the frying pan and into the child poaching funding predator's fire...)
The panel was struck by how often these kids were classified as “safe with intervention.”
The tragedy is that they were far from safe because they didn’t get the constructive intervention they needed.
https://www.thestar.com/opinion/editorials/2018/09/26/ontarios-child-protection-system-fails-children-again.html
https://www.thestar.com/news/cas.html
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Children’s aid societies should not discriminate against poor children: Star Editorial. Mon., Aug. 15, 2016.
Ontario needs to create social safety net policies that address the fact that some 550,000 children in this province live in poverty, and many of them are taken away from their parents.
It goes without saying that no one should lose their kids simply because they’re poor. But that some do is the distressing conclusion of a new study of Ontario children taken into care.
Indeed, the study of removal rates in 2013 found children whose families ran out of money for housing, food or utilities were twice as likely to be placed with foster parents or in group homes as their peers.
It’s got to stop. “These families struggle to put food on the table, they struggle to keep a roof over their heads. Some of them work two or three jobs,” said the co-author of the report, Deborah Goodman. But still their children are taken from them and put into care with foster families or in group homes.
Sadly, they may fare a lot worse there than they would have with their own families. In fact, one study indicated that just 46 per cent of Ontario children in foster care and group homes complete high school, compared with about 84 per cent of their peers with permanent families. As a result, they are more likely as adults to be poor and/or homeless, to suffer mental health problems and be involved in the criminal justice system.
So why are children being taken from their homes simply because their parents are poor? It’s a product of the former Ontario Conservative government’s actions in the 1990s, when it slashed welfare payments and social services while at the same time introducing the notion into children’s aid societies of maltreatment by “omission,” which included not having enough food in the home.
Not surprisingly, with those two factors occurring at the same time, the number of children taken into care spiked.
The solution is for the province to create social safety net policies that address the fact that some 550,000 children in this province live in poverty.
In the meantime, child-care workers shouldn’t have to remove kids from homes where parents are struggling to feed and house them. They should instead be able to access support programs to help parents provide for their children and get families back on their feet.
For far too long the province has ignored poverty as a factor in child removal rates. Goldman, a senior official with the Children’s Aid Society of Toronto, says officials have not even asked for data on poverty.
But now, thanks to Goldman and the co-author of the report, Kofi Antwi-Boasiako, they’ve got it. Now they must act to ensure that no parent loses a child simply because they are poor.
https://www.thestar.com/opinion/editorials/2016/08/15/childrens-aid-societies-should-not-discriminate-against-poor-children-editorial.html
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Under suspicion: Concerns about child welfare.
In 2015, the Ontario Human Rights Commission (OHRC) began a year-long consultation to learn more about the nature of racial profiling in Ontario. Our aim was to gather information to help us guide organizations, individuals and communities on how to identify, address and prevent racial profiling. We connected with people and organizations representing diverse perspectives. We conducted an online survey, analyzed cases (called applications) at the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario that alleged racial profiling, held a policy dialogue consultation, and reviewed academic research. We conducted focus groups with Indigenous peoples and received written submissions. Overall, almost 1,650 individuals and organizations told us about their experiences or understanding of racial profiling in Ontario.
Ways to address concerns about racial profiling in child welfare.
Preventing and addressing racial profiling is a shared responsibility. Government, child welfare organizations and other responsible organizations must take concrete action and decisive steps to prevent, identify and respond to racial profiling.
The OHRC has made many recommendations over several years to address racial profiling. These recommendations are included in our report, Under suspicion. Where applicable, they should be used to identify how racial profiling may be taking place in the child welfare system. They also identify specific approaches organizations should use to prevent and address racial profiling.
Overall, consultation participants agreed with the following broad strategies to prevent and address racial profiling:
Anti-bias training
Developing policies, procedures and guidelines
Effective accountability monitoring and accountability
mechanisms, including:
complaint procedures
disciplinary measures
collecting, analyzing and reporting on data
Holistic organizational change strategy
Leadership
Communication (external and internal)
Engagement with affected stakeholders.
The OHRC is also very concerned that the overrepresentation of Black and Indigenous children in the child welfare system is a possible indicator of systemic racism. We conducted a public interest inquiry to examine this issue. We requested that CASs across the province provide us with data on race and other information. In the preliminary analysis of the data, we found that for many CASs across the province, African Canadian and Indigenous children are overrepresented in care, compared to their census populations.
Next steps. The OHRC will:
Release the results of our public interest inquiry
Develop specific policy guidance to help individuals, community groups and organizations understand how racial profiling can be identified, prevented and addressed in the child welfare sector
Continue to call for the collection of race-based data and data on other Code grounds to better understand if racial disparities exist in this sector
Continue to work with community stakeholders to enhance public education on racial profiling.
For more information
To find out more about racial profiling in the child welfare and other sectors, the full Under suspicion report is available online at www.ohrc.on.ca.
To file a human rights claim (called an application), contact the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario at:
Toll Free: 1-866-598-0322
TTY Toll Free: 1-866-607-1240
Website: www.hrto.ca
If you need legal help, contact the Human Rights Legal Support Centre at:
Toll Free: 1-866-625-5179
TTY Toll Free: 1-866-612-8627
Website: www.hrlsc.on.ca
http://www.ohrc.on.ca/en/under-suspicion-concerns-about-child-welfare
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ABOUT DEATH AND SERIOUS BODILY HARM
Agencies and service providers funded by the Ministry of Children and Youth Services (MCYS) are legally required to inform the Ontario Child Advocate when they become aware of an incident where a child or youth who has had any involvement with a children’s aid society in the past 12 months dies or has suffered serious bodily harm. The agencies must provide this notification in writing without unreasonable delay.
https://www.provincialadvocate.on.ca/investigations/death-and-serious-bodily-harm
Ontario’s child advocate has 27 on-going investigations into foster homes as province shuts him down. National News | November 20, 2018 by Kenneth Jackson. APTN News.
After first dealing with the shock of learning through the media that his office was being axed by the Ford government, Ontario’s child advocate’s focus shifted and it was not about his future.
Irwin Elman began thinking of the children his office is trying to help.
More so the 27 individual investigations currently on-going into residential care, like group homes and foster care said Elman.
“I have been very clear what I think about this change. I absolutely do not agree with it. Now I have been working, thinking and turning my mind to how we can we preserve all the things we do,” said Elman, 61, Tuesday.
He said right now it is “unclear” what happens to those investigations if he isn’t able to complete them before new legislation is passed that will officially close his office.
“We’re talking to the ombudsman to ensure any investigation that isn’t wrapped up transfers over. We don’t know where the government’s mind is,” said Elman.
“We intend to complete them. Our office expects those investigations will go over if they are not completed. We will fight to ensure that happens.”
He also said more investigations are expected to start and that the province is notified each time one is opened.
Elman couldn’t speak specifically to any individual investigation, just that they are based on complaints his office received into group and foster care homes.
APTN News knows one of them appears to be Johnson Children’s Services (JCS) which operated three foster homes in Thunder Bay when Tammy Keeash died in May 2017.
APTN reported last week that the three homes were closed after Keeash’s death but had been investigated at least seven times within a year of her dying.
This was all found in an on-going court battle between two Indigenous child welfare agencies fighting over jurisdiction. In documents filed as part of the litigation the advocate’s office first wrote Dilico Anishinabek Family Care of its intention to investigate JSC in August 2016. It appears, from the court documents, Dilico asked the advocate’s office to wait until the agency first investigated JSC.
It was then again confirmed in documents the advocate’s office was investigating JSC following Keeash’s death.
“We can’t allow Indigenous children to fall through the cracks of saying ‘oh you called this ombudsman’s office’ and they’ll sit in Toronto and they’ll tell you use a complaints process. Tell that to a 15-year-old First Nations child, to use a complaint process. When our process is we will go out and stand with the child and walk them through some of the options they have to ensure their voices are heard,” said Elman.
“The ombudsman is not used to working with children. The ombudsman doesn’t have any ability, yet, or capacity, yet, to use an Indigenous lens in its work but we have strived to develop one.”
Elman’s term officially ends Friday as the child advocate. Before he learned his office was being closed he was supposed to be attending a meeting with the provincial government Nov. 26 to discuss what the province is going to do about problems with residential care.
He’s unsure if he’ll still be invited to that meeting if he’s told between now and Friday he is no longer the advocate.
The meeting was scheduled after Ontario’s chief coroner released the findings of the so-called expert panel report into the deaths of 12 children living at group or foster homes in Ontario between 2014 and 2017. Eight were Indigenous and included Keeash.
The panel of experts picked by the coroner reviewed each child’s death and provided recommendations after finding the system failed each of them and continues to do so.
But it wasn’t news to those that have been listening for the last 10 years since the child advocate’s office was first opened.
“This is not news,” said Elman of the report. “We supported the process but we were sort of astounded that people pretended like this is the first they ever heard about it.”
Regardless, if it created action by the government Elman supported that.
But the first move the Ontario government publicly made after the report was released in September was to announce the closure of his office.
That means Elman will be the first and last child advocate in the province.
kjackson@aptn.ca
Tags: child advocate, Featured, ford government, foster homes, Ontario, ontario government, tammy keeash, Thunder Bay.
https://aptnnews.ca/2018/11/20/ontarios-child-advocate-has-27-on-going-investigations-into-foster-homes-as-province-shuts-him-down/
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Ontario’s child protection system fails children, again.
By Star Editorial Board Wed., Sept. 26, 2018 .
Children should, at the very least, survive the attempts of Ontario’s child protection system to help them.
What an incredibly low bar that is, Ontario’s child advocate noted. And how shocking that, yet again, Ontario has failed to meet it.
A new and rightly scathing report by Ontario’s coroner is calling on the provincial government to overhaul the child protection system that keeps failing children.
The panel of experts appointed by Ontario’s chief coroner Dirk Huyer examined the tragic deaths of 12 youths who were placed in foster homes and group homes for their safety and well-being, and yet died while under provincial care.
Eight of the 12 were Indigenous, cut off from their communities in the north, and eight youth died by suicide. All 12 of these young people, who died over a three-and-a-half-year period, were known to have serious mental health challenges and yet the panel found little was done to help them.
“Despite complex histories and the high-risk nature of these young people’s lives, intervention was minimal and sometimes non-existent,” the report states.
Ministry oversight of homes is inadequate, caregivers lack proper training and vulnerable children are being warehoused and shuffled from one home to the next without getting the care they need. In fact, the child protection system can barely be called a system given its lack of co-coordinated services, Huyer said.
And what makes this worse is that it has all been said before.
To her credit, Children, Community and Social Services Minister Lisa MacLeod didn’t seek to dodge these findings. “From the CASs to group homes to my ministry, we all bear some responsibility,” she said. “As the new minister, the buck stops with me and I will take action.”
Let’s hope this time it’s action that actually makes a difference in kids lives.
That means, as this expert panel has said, getting away from a “crisis driven and reactionary” response, to prevention-focused care that works with children and their families, whose troubles are often driven or compounded by poverty.
Just yanking kids from their homes, especially when they are placed into a system that has repeatedly proven incapable of dealing with their complex needs, isn’t a solution.
The panel was struck by how often these kids were classified as “safe with intervention.”
The tragedy is that they were far from safe because they didn’t get the constructive intervention they needed.
https://www.thestar.com/opinion/editorials/2018/09/26/ontarios-child-protection-system-fails-children-again.html
https://www.thestar.com/news/cas.html
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2018: Vulnerable children are being warehoused and forgotten.
The report describes a fragmented system with no means of monitoring quality of care, where ministry oversight is inadequate, caregivers lack training, and children are poorly supervised.
By LAURIE MONSEBRAATEN Social Justice Reporter SANDRO CONTENTA Feature Writer. Tues., Sept. 25, 2018.
The expert panel convened by Ontario chief coroner Dirk Huyer found a litany of other problems, including:
Evidence that some of the youths were "at risk of and/or engaged in human trafficking."
A lack of communication between child welfare societies.
Poor case file management.
An "absence" of quality care in residential placements.
Eleven of the young people ranged in age from 11 to 18. The exact age of one youth when she died wasn't clear in the report.
Dr. Dirk Huyer said the need for change is starkly spelled out in a report commissioned by his office after 12 youth in the care of a children's aid society or Indigenous Child Wellbeing Society died over a three-and-a-half-year stretch from 2014 to mid 2017.
Two thirds of those children were Indigenous, most died by suicide, and all contended with mental health struggles while living away from home.
Of the 12 cases examined by the report, eight were Indigenous youth who came from families that showed signs of "intergenerational trauma." They also routinely dealt with the effects of poverty in their remote northern communities, including inadequate housing, contaminated drinking water, and lack of access to educational, health and recreational resources, the report said.
Once the child welfare system became involved, the report found many of the children bounced between numerous residential placements ranging from formal care arrangements with more distant relatives to group homes hundreds of kilometres away from family.
The report found the 12 children lived in an average of 12 placements each. One one young girl stayed in 20 different placements over 18 months, the report said.
All the children had a history of harming themselves, but most received little to no treatment for underlying mental health issues, it said.
Eight killed themselves, two deaths were ruled accidental, one was undetermined, and the death of one 14-year-old girl was ultimately deemed a homicide, the report said.
https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2018/09/25/coroners-panel-calls-for-overhaul-of-ontario-child-protection-system.html
https://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/ontario-coroner-s-report-highlights-need-for-changes-to-child-welfare-system-1.4109439
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/thunder-bay/ontario-coroner-expert-panel-report-1.4837245
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Neglect is one of the most common child protection concerns in Ontario.
Mary Ballantyne, CEO of the Ontario Association of Children’s Aid Societies, discusses how Children’s Aid Societies help families dealing with this issue.
How is neglect a form of child abuse?
A child who is neglected is consistently not having their vital needs met. That could mean poor nutrition, lack of attention to hygiene, and so on. From a child welfare perspective, neglect is a concern because it ultimately affects a child’s ability to thrive.
With very young children, neglect is obviously a real, immediate risk. Inadequate feeding can be life threatening, and lack of attention to hygiene can lead to serious illness. As children mature, neglect might not be a matter of life and death, but it does affect how a child manages day-to-day.
A hungry child will struggle in school and can be bullied and ridiculed by peers because of poor hygiene. As children enter adolescence, we start seeing the impacts of neglect on their behaviour, including lower self-esteem and an inability to engage in school because they lack the confidence and skills.
http://www.oacas.org/2015/09/q-a-with-oacas-ceo-about-neglect/
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A CHILD IN CARE IS A CHILD AT RISK.
Between 2014\15 the Ontario children's aid society claim to have spent $467.9 million dollars providing protective services that doesn't seem to extent to the 90 to 120 children that die in Ontario's foster care and group homes that are overseen and funded by the CAS.
In a National Post feature article in June 2009, Kevin Libin portrayed an industry in which abuses are all too common. One source, a professor of social work, claims that a shocking 15%-20% of children under CAS oversight suffer injury or neglect.
Several CAS insiders whom Libin interviewed regard the situation as systemically hopeless.
A clinical psychologist with decades of experience advocating for children said, “I would love to just demolish the system and start from scratch again.”
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http://cupe2190.ca/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/SSWCC_CAS-letters-re-college-regulation_Nov.-2016.pdf DRAFT Letter 2 – Professionalism I understand that there are plans in the works to force anyone who works in child protection to register with the Ontario College of Social Workers and Social Service Workers. One of the reasons given for this change is that regulation will result in higher quality services and bring greater professionalism to the field and that this will improve the standard of child protection work in Ontario. I would like to point out that a failure to meet standards of care in child protection work is very rarely the result of professional misconduct, incompetence or incapacity on the part of individual child protection workers. (ACCORDING TO WHO? THE CHILDREN'S AID SOCIETY'S SECRET INTERNAL COMPLAINT PROCESS?) The stated purpose of the College is to protect the public from unqualified, incompetent or unfit practitioners. But children’s aid societies already set those standards and ensure their adherence: they determine the job qualifications. They deal with employees they deem to be unqualified or incompetent. And CASs decide whether child protection work in their area can be performed by someone who holds a Bachelor’s degree and has child welfare experience. I may not hold a BSW or MSW degree, enjoy membership in the College or be subject to its regulation. But I am a professional practitioner in the child protection sector and, as such, I cannot countenance this move toward the regulation of the child protection workforce. I am resolved to fight it at every step of the way and instead campaign for the measures that will bring real benefits to at-risk youth, children and families. Sincerely, DRAFT Letter 6 – Privacy and discipline The move toward a regulated child protection workforce in Ontario gives me cause for serious concern about my privacy as a child protection worker. One of the rationalizations for registration and regulation with the College of Social Workers and Social Service Workers is the restoration of public confidence in Ontario’s child protection system. But violating my rights to privacy and confidentiality will do nothing to achieve this goal. >>>What right to privacy?<<< A person employed by or acting as an agent for another person, private agency or government is not on their own time and have no right to privacy PERSONAL OR OTHERWISE. :::: Should the life of any child or future of any family ever depend on not having a bad corporate child protection social worker sent to their home?
2013: Nancy Simone, a president of the Canadian Union of Public Employees local representing 275 workers at the Catholic Children’s Aid Society of Toronto, argued child protection workers already have levels of oversight that include unregistered unqualified workplace supervisors, family court judges, coroners’ inquests and annual case audits by the ministry and the union representing child protection workers is firmly opposed to ethical oversight from a professional college, and the Ministry of Children and Youth Services, which regulates and funds child protection, is so far staying out of the fight.. Nancy Simone says, “Our work is already regulated to death.”
How do you feel about child protection social workers taking off their lanyards and putting on their union pins to fight against professional regulation?
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The Motherisk Commission details years of rights infringements by courts. "If the same problems were identified in criminal court, there would be a huge public outcry." Tammy Law.
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Five things to know about Motherisk hair testing..
1. The tests were preliminary
The tests performed by Motherisk relied on the unconfirmed results of its enzyme-linked immuno-sorbent assay (ELISA) tests.
ELISA is often used as a screening tool before more in-depth tests are undertaken. It can be used in toxicology as a rapid presumptive screen for certain classes of drugs. It’s useful if you need to screen a large number of samples when the presumption that only a small percentage will test positive. But it’s not definitive and the results can be erroneously interpreted.
The Motherisk Lab did not follow-up its presumed positive ELISA results with follow-on in-depth tests. Therefore, the results simply could not be relied upon to provide the absolute certainty needed.
As Craig Chatterton, a forensic toxicologist and a proponent of hair sample testing, correctly explains in the CBC report on Motherisk, a preliminary test like ELISA can be spot on - but, tragically for the families implicated, it can be 100% incorrect, too.
Susan Lang’s report went on to say "No forensic toxicology laboratory in the world uses ELISA testing the way MTDL [Motherisk] did."
2. Motherisk had no written standard operating procedures
Having standard, professional operating procedures in place is one of the central pillars of any testing environment, not just hair sample testing.
In this regard, Motherisk failed egregiously. The Lang report found no evidence of any written standard operating procedures at Motherisk. This raises serious doubts about the reliability and, crucially, the standardisation of its testing procedures.
Both forensic and clinical laboratories should have standard operating procedures in place for each of the tests they perform. Motherisk had no clear, documented procedures which means the processes could have varied substantially in each individual case, calling into question, rightly, the integrity of the lab’s results.
3. No transparency
Motherisk’s next misstep was the lack of formal process and documentation meant that it was almost impossible for any third party to robustly assess its results.
When the entire process isn’t adequately captured, it becomes easy for the lab to skirt over anomalies and simplify conclusions.
At Cansford Labs, for instance, we share the evidence in full. This is an absolutely vital component when the test will be involved in a highly sensitive matter like child custody.
The fact that Motherisk offered no insight into how its results were arrived at beggars belief.
4. Inadequate training and oversight
The inadequacy and transparency issues within Motherisk seeped all the way into the employees at the lab.
From reading the Lang report, Motherisk scientists were operating without any forensic training or oversight. The ELISA tests were inadequate, but even if they weren’t, the individuals interpreting the results weren’t properly trained.
Nobody at Motherisk, including, rather incredibly, Dr. Koren himself, had the proper training.
The lack of training manifested in all manner of amateurish mistakes. Staff routinely failed to wash hair samples before analysis, for example. One mother tested positive for alcohol because her alcohol-laced hairspray had not been washed off the sample. With the right training and process, these issues could easily have been avoided.
5. A compromised chain of custody
In the CBC report into Motherisk, one mother recalls how her second test was conducted after she disputed the first test’s results: “With my second test, the hair was done in the social worker’s office with the scissors out of her desk, tape off her desk and cardboard from the trash.”
Her sample tested positive for crystal meth, but laughably when she next saw her “hair sample”, the hair that allegedly belonged to her was longer and a different colour.
It should go without saying, but any robust testing process requires professionalism throughout. It’s not just about testing the sample, but also about how the sample is collected and treated.
The chain of custody is of paramount importance. Trusted professionals need to be present at every stage of the process, guided by the lab that will do the testing, and the procedures need to be the same for every single case.
Motherisk was an aberration:
When things go as wrong as they did at Motherisk, it’s important not to stick our heads in the sand. Especially when it involves vulnerable individuals.
But Motherisk wasn't just an aberration IT WAS AN ABERRATION that SPECIFICALLY targeted impoverished families.
The science of hair sample testing remains a powerful tool when the analysis is done correctly, appropriately, with quality control and assurances and interpreted by qualified experts.
Indeed, it’s only right that for vulnerable individuals, that nothing but the best will do. A fact that Motherisk seemingly forgot.
https://blog.cansfordlabs.co.uk/the-drug-and-alcohol-testing-blog/5-reasons-why-the-motherisk-scandal-shouldnt-happen-again
http://projects.thestar.com/motherisk/part-2/
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Former Privacy Commissioner Ann Cavoukian wrote:
“I am disheartened by the complete lack of action to ensure transparency and accountability by these organizations that received significant public funding. As part of the modernization of the Acts, I call on the government to finally address this glaring omission and ensure that Children’s Aid Societies are added to the list of institutions covered.”
The only oversight for the province’s children’s aid agencies comes from Ontario’s Ministry of Children and Youth Services.
"As the law stands now clients of the Ontario Children's Aid Society under Wynne's liberals are routinely denied a timely (often heavily censored) file disclosure before the court begins making decisions and the clients can not request files/disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act nor can censored information reviewed by the Privacy Commissioner of Ontario or the federal counterpart."
In her 2004 annual report, which was released on June 22, 2005, the Commissioner called for amendments that would bring virtually all organizations that are primarily funded by government dollars under FOI for the purposes of transparency and accountability: This would include the various children’s aid agencies in the Province of Ontario. Many parents and families complain about how difficult it is, if not impossible, to obtain information from children’s aid agencies. Many citizens complain that CAS agencies appear to operate under a veil of secrecy. Unlicensed and untrained CAS workers are making decisions which are literally destroying families, yet there is little or no accountability for their actions short of a lawsuit long after the damage has been done.
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/beef-up-information-laws-ontario-privacy-czar-says/article1120573/
https://www.newswire.ca/news-releases/commissioner-cavoukian-calls-on-government-to-preserve-freedom-and-liberty-514463911.html
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Marketization of law making is a process that enables the elites to operate as market oriented firms by changing the legal environment in which they operate in.
When the people who have power in our society can have an influence in law making, the laws that get created will not maintain the appearance of equality and the elites in society can lobby and eventually criminalize (demonize) the poor.
The laws will start to benefit the big corporations (elites). This is well illustrated in Stan Cohen’s concept of the moral panic. A moral panic refers to the reaction of a group within society (elite) to the activities of a non elite group. The targeted group is seen as a threat to society also referred to as the folk devil.
Here we can see here how child welfare law is not applied equally to everyone. In this particular instance the child welfare law is benefiting the people with means.
Comack states; “While the pivotal point in the rule of law is ‘equality of all before the law’, the provision of formal equality in the legal sphere does not extend to the economic sphere. Thus, the law maintains only the appearance of equality because, it never calls into question the unequal and exploitative relationship between capital and labour.” This statement implies that the law is in place to be neutral. Therefore, the law would apply equally to everyone, including both the working and elite class. It can be said that in today’s society we have the marketization of law making.
Corporatism:
Fascism's theory of economic corporatism involved management of sectors of the economy by government or privately-controlled organizations (corporations). Each trade union or employer corporation would theoretically represent its professional concerns, especially by negotiation of labor contracts and the like.
One of the 14 characteristics of fascism is -
Corporate Power is Protected.
The industrial and business aristocracy of a fascist nation often are the ones who put the government leaders into power, creating a mutually beneficial business/government relationship and power elite.
The people in fascist regimes are persuaded that human rights and procedural protections can be ignored in certain cases because of special need.
https://ratical.org/ratville/CAH/fasci14chars.html
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“Harmful Impacts” is the title of the commission report written by the Honourable Judith C. Beaman after two years of study. After reading it, “harmful” seems almost to be putting it lightly. The 56 cases the commission examined in which the flawed Motherisk tests, administered by SickKids Hospital between 2005 and 2015, were determined to have a “substantial impact” on the decisions of child protection agencies, led to children being permanently removed from their families.
Lives were ruined. Parents’ lives, and quite possibly children’s lives. Siblings and grandparents and other family members’ lives, too. Irreversibly ruined. And in many cases, it seems this was allowed to happen primarily because people were poor.
“In many of the cases we reviewed, when a Motherisk hair test came back positive, CAS (Children’s Aid Society) workers focused solely on the apparent substance use instead of considering any actual effect on parenting,” Beaman writes. Use was considered proof of addiction, and addiction was considered proof of “an inability to parent.” That, sometimes in the absence of any other meaningful evidence at all, led to children being taken away from their parents.
“The underlying issue in many child protection cases before the court is poverty,” the report says. Much of the time, Beaman writes she heard what families most needed was help with groceries or babysitting, counselling or mental health treatment, help providing safe shelter.
What these parents and children needed, in other words, was help.
Helping struggling families takes billions of dollars in resources families need, like 5160 unregistered workers and large costly office buildings obviously of which OACAS admits in their own report over 1500 of them are not qualified by College standards. And as we see all too clearly, they are the systematic ruination of thousands of people’s lives.
What they got instead was the irrevocable breakup of their families. The loss for life of any contact at all with those in the world they loved most, and those who loved them most. They got harm, permanent harm.
It is hard to think of anything worse than that.
By EDWARD KEENAN Star Columnist Fri., March 2, 2018.
https://www.thestar.com/opinion/star-columnists/2018/03/02/motherrisk-reforms-show-struggling-families-dont-need-to-be-split-up-they-need-our-help.html
Respecting The Canadian Constitution And Our Procedural Safeguards..
The Motherisk Commission details years of rights infringements by courts. "If the same problems were identified in criminal court, there would be a huge public outcry." Tammy Law.
(put up your hand if you think CAS workers would recognize their own rights were being violated in a court of law)
There is a major power imbalance between an impoverished parent (we know that families of low socio-economic status are hugely over-represented in the child welfare system and race has little to do with it) and the state funded agency. To guard against such an imbalance, it is critical that our legal system respect the time-tested procedural safeguards developed to specifically ensure that the disadvantaged party is treated fairly.
Yet according to the Motherisk report, these safeguards were ignored. The report describes a litany of procedural injustices perpetrated on parents: parents were pressured to consent to testing; were not informed of their right to reject testing; they had adverse inferences drawn against them when they rejected testing; they were required to prove the unreliability of testing instead of the other way around; and they were refused the right to cross-examine Motherisk "experts" at summary judgment motions.
Removal from the home — permanent removal — is not supposed to be a move taken lightly. The report goes over the legal principles, laying out that it should be a last resort. It is the “capital punishment” of child protection, according to one citation, absolutely devastating to parents, and for children it is “often the beginning of a life sentence.”
Yet in the cases reviewed here, it is imposed, often apparently cavalierly and without even a trial, for reasons that amount to a punishment for being poor.
The Charter of Rights and Freedoms guarantees procedural fairness when the state interferes with fundamental personal rights, such as the right by parents to care for their children. Ironically enough, the issue of taking body samples (such as hair for testing) without proper consent for the purpose of criminal investigations was found to be an infringement of the Charter 20 years ago by the Supreme Court.
The problems detailed in the Motherisk report’s 278 pages are too numerous to go into in detail. They document the many problems with the SickKids lab’s testing and with the child protection system’s overreliance on those results. The hair testing process produced inconsistent and untrustworthy results despite being perceived as carrying the unimpeachable weight of scientific authority. That much we pretty much knew because of earlier reporting, though the detailed breakdown of it and the specific case references make the injustice of it sickeningly vivid.
According to the Toronto Star out of the cases they reviewed Motherisk reported positive results 93% of the time and lets say Motherisk only strongly influence decisions to apprehend children in 56 cases, how many times did Motherisk results strongly influence the decision to keep files open and how much did that cost the taxpayers?
The 2017-2018 Expenditure Estimates set out details of the operating and capital spending requirements of the Ministry of Children for the fiscal year commencing April 1, 2017.
Restated total operating expense $4,369,258,414
$4,306,237,616
https://www.ontario.ca/page/expenditure-estimates-ministry-children-and-youth-services-2017-18#section-2
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"Child, Youth and Family Services Act, 2017 proclaimed in force."
Ontarians have a right to assume that, when they receive services that are provided by someone who is required to have a social work degree (or a social service work diploma) — whether those services are direct (such as those provided by a child protection worker or adoption worker) or indirect (such as those provided by a local director or supervisor) — that person is registered with, and accountable to, the OCSWSSW.
As a key stakeholder with respect to numerous issues covered in the CYFSA and the regulations, we were dismayed to learn just prior to the posting of the regulations that we had been left out of the consultation process. We have reached out on more than one occasion to request information about regulations to be made under the CYFSA regarding staff qualifications.
A commitment to public protection, especially when dealing with vulnerable populations such as the children, youth and families served by CASs, is of paramount importance. In short, it is irresponsible for government to propose regulations that would allow CAS staff to operate outside of the very system of public protection and oversight it has established through professional regulation.
Regulations under the CYFSA:
The College has worked with government to address its concerns about regulations under the new CYFSA which set out the qualifications of Children’s Aid Society (CAS) staff. Upon learning in late November that the proposed regulations would continue to allow CAS workers to avoid registration with the College, the College immediately engaged with MCYS and outlined its strong concerns in a letter to the Minister of Children and Youth Services and a submission to the Ministry of Children and Youth Services during the consultation period.
The new regulation was updated to require Local Directors of Children’s Aid Societies to be registered with the College.
We are pleased to note that, while the new regulation does not currently require CAS supervisors to be registered, we have received a "commitment" FROM THE OUTGOING WYNNE GOVERNMENT to work with the College and the Ontario Association of Children’s Aid Societies toward a goal of requiring registration of CAS supervisors beginning January 2019.
Key concerns:
The absence of a requirement for CAS child protection workers to be registered with the College: ignores the public protection mandate of the Social Work and Social Service Work Act, 1998 (SWSSWA); avoids the fact that social workers and social service workers are regulated professions in Ontario and ignores the College’s important role in protecting the Ontario public from harm caused by incompetent, unqualified or unfit practitioners; allows CAS staff to operate outside the system of public protection and oversight that the Government has established through professional regulation; and fails to provide the assurance to all Ontarians that they are receiving services from CAS staff who are registered with, and accountable to, the College.
Since it began operations in 2000, the OCSWSSW has worked steadily and completely unseen to silently address the issue of child protection workers.
Unfortunately, many CASs have been circumventing professional regulation of their staff by requiring that staff have social work education yet discouraging those same staff from registering with the OCSWSSW.
The new regulation was updated to only require Local Directors of Children’s Aid Societies to be registered with the College.
The majority of local directors, supervisors, child protection workers and adoption workers have social work or social service work education, yet fewer than 10% are registered with the OCSWSSW.
The existing regulations made under the CFSA predated the regulation of social work and social service work in Ontario and therefore their focus on the credential was understandable.
However, today a credential focus is neither reasonable nor defensible. Social work and social service work are regulated professions in Ontario.
Updating the regulations under the new CYFSA provides an important opportunity for the Government to protect the Ontario public from incompetent, unqualified and unfit professionals and to prevent a serious risk of harm to children and youth, as well as their families.
As Minister Coteau said in second reading debate of Bill 89, "protecting and supporting children and youth is not just an obligation, it is our moral imperative, our duty and our privilege—each and every one of us in this Legislature, our privilege—in shaping the future of this province."
A "social worker" or a "social service worker" is by law someone who is registered with the OCSWSSW. Furthermore, as noted previously, the Ontario public has a right to assume that when they receive services that are provided by someone who is required to have a social work degree (or a social service work diploma), that person is registered with the OCSWSSW.
The OCSWSSW also has processes for equivalency, permitting those with a combination of academic qualifications and experience performing the role of a social worker or social service worker to register with the College.
These processes address, among other things, the risk posed by "fake degrees" and other misrepresentations of qualifications, ensuring Ontarians know that a registered social worker or social service worker has the education and/or experience to do their job.
The review of academic credentials and knowledge regarding academic programs is an area of expertise of a professional regulatory body. An individual employer will not have the depth of experience with assessing the validity of academic credentials nor the knowledge of academic institutions to be able to uncover false credentials or misrepresentations of qualifications on a reliable basis.
Setting, maintaining and holding members accountable to the Code of Ethics and Standards of Practice. These minimum standards apply to all OCSWSSW members, regardless of the areas or context in which they practise. Especially relevant in the child welfare context are principles that address confidentiality and privacy, competence and integrity, record-keeping, and sexual misconduct.
Maintaining fair and rigorous complaints and discipline processes. These processes differ from government oversight systems and process-oriented mechanisms within child welfare, as well as those put in place by individual employers like a CAS. They focus on the conduct of individual professionals.
Furthermore, transparency regarding referrals of allegations of misconduct and discipline findings and sanctions ensures that a person cannot move from employer to employer when there is an allegation referred to a hearing or a finding after a discipline hearing that their practice does not meet minimum standards.
Submission-re-Proposed-Regulations-under-the-CYFSA-January-25-2018. OCSWSSW May 1, 2018
https://www.ocswssw.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/OCSWSSW-Submission-re-Proposed-Regulations-under-the-CYFSA-January-25-2018.pdf
If you have any practice questions or concerns related to the new CYFSA, please contact the Professional Practice Department at 416-972-9882 or 1-877-828-9380 or email practice@ocswssw.org.
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Unlicensed Daycare Operator successfully sued for making a false report to the CAS...
In a decision delivered last month, Superior Court judge Lewis Richardson ruled Tammy Larabie’s call to the CAS was “unreasonable” and there “was nothing to suggest that (the baby) was in any danger.”
It’s a ruling which children’s advocates say ignores child care providers’ duty to report suspected child abuse or neglect to the CAS, and it could dissuade them from doing so for fear of a lawsuit.
“It’s hard enough to get people to report (to the CAS) and this will have a silencing effect,” said Mary Birdsell, executive director of Justice for Children and Youth. “The legislation is supposed to protect people from being sued if their report was reasonable.”
Before 2013 on average there were about 14 to 15 000 open files per year, by the end of 2014 after launching a government funded advertising campaign there were over 82 000 open files when the societies collectively reopen 20 000 previously closed files arbitrarily after not receiving enough reports to meet their funding goals as reported by the Toronto Star.
In a court transcript obtained by the Star, Richardson found the parents “to be competent, caring and capable” who “properly looked after the interests of their son.”
“There was no basis whatsoever to report them to the Children’s Aid,” he said. “(Larabie) acted selfishly and to protect her own interest, not for the benefit of the child.”
http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2015/03/27/daycare-operator-sued-for-calling-the-cas.html
2013: An internal memo from Peel Children’s Aid Society management asks staff not to close any ongoing cases during March, as part of a strategy to secure government funding due to what the society referred to as $67 million dollar funding shortfall.
According to the memo, when service volume is lower than projected, there is less money for the CAS.
Though the CAS claimed the purpose of the memo wasn't to inflate numbers, between 2011 and 2013 the 46 (at the time) separate societies opened files a combined total of 42 000 files or about 14 000 files per year, in 2014 - after the Peel Memo Leak - and launching a new government funded advertising campaign and reopening 20 000 previously closed files the societies opened a combined total of over 82 000 files to meet their funding goals.
Motherisk Report:
“The testing was imposed on people who were among the poorest and most vulnerable members of our society, with scant regard for due process of their rights to privacy and bodily integrity,” the report states.
https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2013/03/14/in_leaked_memo_peel_cas_staff_asked_to_keep_cases_open_to_retain_funding.html
2016: Report shines light on poverty’s role on kids in CAS system.
The effect of provincial policies on struggling families was especially apparent in the late 1990s, when the conservative government slashed welfare payments and social service funding at the same time it introduced in child protection the notion of maltreatment by “omission,” including not having enough food in the home. The number of children taken into care spiked.
A new report cites poverty as a key factor in families who come into contact with the child protection system.
“We’re able to tell a story of maltreatment, but we have not done a very good job in telling a story about poverty,” Goodman said, referring to Ontario’s 47 privately run children’s aid societies.
Goodman suggests silence suited the provincial government more than it suited the society's funding goals, in particular the Ministry of Children and Youth Services, which regulates child protection and funds societies with $1.5 billion annually.
On average, 15,625 Ontario children were in foster or group-home care in 2014-15. The latest figures indicate if your still willing to blindly take the society's word for it that only 2 percent of children are removed from their home due to sexual abuse and 13 percent for physical abuse. The rest are removed because of neglect, emotional maltreatment and exposure to violence between their parents or caregivers.
“The ministry has been pretty clear with us that advocacy is not part of our mandate,” Goodman said. “It’s not like they’re asking for the (poverty) data. They’re not.”
The poverty removal rates were extracted from the government-funded Ontario Incidence Study of Reported Child Abuse and Neglect, compiled in 2013. A team of researchers examined a representative sample of 4,961 child protection investigations conducted by 17 children’s aid societies. The cases involved children up to 14.
Co-author Kofi Antwi-Boasiako, a PhD student at the University of Toronto’s faculty of social work, will be expanding the report into a full-fledged study.
Goodman credited the report with revealing “the elephant in the room.” Children’s aid societies have long witnessed the grinding effect of poverty on families but have rarely spoken out about it or pressured policy makers.
https://www.ourwindsor.ca/news-story/6810640-report-shines-light-on-poverty-s-role-on-kids-in-cas-system/
A sociopath is a term used to describe someone who has antisocial personality disorder (ASPD). People with ASPD can't understand others' feelings. They'll often break rules or make impulsive decisions without feeling guilty for the harm they cause.
People with ASPD may also use “mind games” to control friends, family members, co-workers, and even strangers. They may also be perceived as charismatic or charming.
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"Passing the buck..."
CAS funded research indicates that many professionals overreport families based on stereotypes around racial identities. Both Indigenous and Africa-Canadian children and youth are overrepresented in child welfare due to systemic racism but for some reason a document called “Yes, You Can. Dispelling the Myths About Sharing Information with Children’s Aid Societies” was jointly released by the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario and the Ontario Provincial Advocate.
The document, targeted the same professionals who work with children that CAS research indicated already over-reported families, and was a critical reminder that a call to Children’s Aid is not a privacy violation when a professional claims it concerns the safety of a child.
http://www.oacas.org/childrens-aid-child-protection/duty-to-report/
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"It is unclear what additional role college registration would provide" says Her Royal Majesty Mary Ballantyne the First, Defender of the Children, CEO of OACAS, Bachelor of Applied Science from the University of Guelph and a Masters of Industrial Relations – Human Resource Management from Queens University and is a member of the completely independent and impartial PDRC.
You can hear former MPP Frank Klees say in a video linked below the very reason the social worker act was introduced and became law in 1998 was to regulate the "children's aid societies."
FORMER ONTARIO MPP FRANK KLEES EXPLAINS "A DISTINCTION WITHOUT A DIFFERENCE." I'M NOT A SOCIAL WORKER, I'M A CHILD PROTECTION WORKER!
https://youtu.be/SA1YyWO0RTQ?list=PLsYhw09i3If44rMBDuZQ0ztayzSQU35Fy
Why continue to fund the CAS with billions of dollars after the agency/private corporation refused regulation and professional third party (public) oversight in 1998?
Powerful As God - The Children's Aid Societies of Ontario is a documentary that delves into society's most controversial and secretive topics.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2234353/
Social Work and Social Service Work Act, 1998, S.O. 1998, c. 31
https://www.ontario.ca/laws/statute/98s31
According to Mary Ballantyne there are 5160 child protection social workers in Ontario, only 30% of them are qualified and according to the College of Social Workers less than 10% of them are registered with the College of Social Work.
Crown Ward Class Action (Children who suffered abuse before and while they were Crown wards, including in foster care and foster homes, and while in the care of the Children’s Aid Society (“CAS”)).
This class action claims that the Ontario government systematically failed to take all necessary steps to protect the legal rights and claims of children in its care.
In Ontario, a child may be removed from the care of his or her parents and put into the care of the Province for reasons that include physical, emotional, or sexual abuse, or neglect. In Ontario, permanent wards for whom the Province has legal responsibility are called Crown wards.
Crown wards were victims of criminal abuse, neglect and tortious acts as children, and as a result of which, were removed from the care of their families and placed under the care of the Province of Ontario. These children were also victims of abuse, neglect, and tortious acts while they were under the age of 18 and in the care of Ontario.
As a result of the crimes and torts committed against them prior to and during their Crown Wardship, the class members were entitled to apply for compensation from the Criminal Injuries Compensation Board and to commence proceedings for civil damages.
The suit claims the province failed to take all necessary steps to protect the rights of Crown wards to apply for compensation from the Criminal Injuries Compensation Board or to file personal injury claims for children who were abused prior to or while in the care of the Province.
The class action seeks to include all persons who became Crown Wards in Ontario on or after January 1, 1966, the date that the Province of Ontario voluntarily accepted legal responsibility and guardianship of Crown wards.
https://kmlaw.ca/cases/crown-ward-class-action/
Please contact Koskie Minsky LLP with any questions:
Email: ocwclassaction@kmlaw.ca
Toll Free Hotline: 1.866.778.7985
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Ontario portrayed as pedophile paradise in U.S. ruse to capture predators.
A website set up by Homeland Security promoted the bogus firm Precious Treasure Holiday Co., which promised to arrange illegal encounters in Ontario for pedophiles. October 10, 2011.
U.S. authorities have defended their online portrayal of Ontario as a haven for child-sex tourism, saying the ploy helped them catch four predators.
A controversial website set up by the Department of Homeland Security promoted the bogus firm Precious Treasure Holiday Co., which promised to arrange illegal encounters in Ontario for pedophiles.
Four people — two Germans and two Americans — fell for the sophisticated ruse and signed up for a trip.
A pamphlet that came with the website offered one night hotel accommodations in Canada and travel under the guise of “boyfriend and girlfriend going to gamble at casino.”
The pamphlet said transportation to Cleveland, meals and “condoms, lube, etc. . . ” were not included in the travel package.
But it was the use of Canada as a safe haven for sex tourism that raised questions about how the country was portrayed in the sting.
“Canada made for a more plausible scenario,” Brian Moskowitz, the special agent in charge of the investigation, told Postmedia News shortly after the indictments were announced.
“It was never our intent to take anyone to Canada and no children were involved. It was merely part of a scenario that we built.”
He said that Canada wasn’t used in the scenario over any perceived weaknesses or legal vulnerability.
Canadian authorities, such as those in Windsor, across the river from the Detroit offices of Homeland Security where Moskowitz is based, are alerted whenever such a sting is underway to prevent them from wasting resources on chasing the American operation, he said.
Homeland Security first set up the website in 2009. It remained online in several reincarnations until it was finally outed in March as a government sting by The Smoking Gun website.
“Sex tourism is a scourge and must be combated with every available resource,” Moskowitz said in a release when the convictions were announced in early September.
“These cases show international borders are no longer a hindrance for predators.”
The two German men convicted in the sting paid up to $1,600 to have sex with girls and boys between the ages of 10 and 13. One, a 49-year-old doctor from Stuttgart, was allegedly found with lingerie, sex toys, bondage ropes, straps, a mask, lubricant, 17 condoms as well as four stuffed unicorns and a paint-by-number set, Homeland Security said.
Two Ohio men also pleaded guilty to sex trafficking offences and possession of child pornography as a result of the sting. In one case, a 38-year-old man tried to organize a sexual encounter with an eight-year-old girl. In the other case, a 25-year-old man wasn’t legally allowed to enter Canada because he was on parole for a molestation conviction, Homeland Security said.
https://nationalpost.com/news/ontario-portrayed-as-pedophile-paradise-in-u-s-ruse-to-capture-predators
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Pediatrician charged with sexual assault of a child allowed to see patients. Dr. Ramneek Kumar has agreed to monitoring by independent chaperone..
(So, he's getting supervised visits with assorted children?)
Janice Johnston · CBC News · Posted: Apr 02, 2019.
A St. Albert pediatrician charged with sexually assaulting an eight-year-old girl will be allowed to keep treating children.
Dr. Ramneek Mohinder Kumar allegedly sexually assaulted the child between Aug. 1 and Aug. 31, 2015, at Waterton Lakes National Park.
The complainant was not a patient of Kumar's, and the alleged assault and sexual contact took place while the doctor was on a family holiday.
Kumar is also facing two counts of sexual interference with a person under the age of 16.
St. Albert pediatrician charged with sexual assault of child
Kumar practises at the Rivercrest Medical Clinic in St. Albert. Last week the Alberta College of Physicians and Surgeons asked Kumar to voluntarily withdraw from practice.
In a news release issued Tuesday, the college said Kumar refused to voluntarily withdraw, so now the registrar is "considering future practice restrictions ... which can include suspension of a regulated health professional."
In the meantime, Kumar has agreed to be monitored by a college-appointed independent chaperone whenever he sees patients. According to the college, Kumar must disclose the chaperone condition to all patients.
A college spokesperson told CBC News they cannot force the Rivercrest Medical Clinic to tell patients about the criminal charges laid against Kumar.
"We do not regulate clinics, only the physicians that work therein," Jessica McPhee said. "However, it could be that another oversight body could mandate it."
The Rivercrest Medical Clinic is part of the St. Albert and Sturgeon Primary Care Network.
"It's obviously a very concerning situation and we want to do our best to make sure that everything relating to this is looked after, especially for his patients — current and patients that he has yet to see," said PCN board president Dr. Ashan Fernando.
The network will support the medical clinic by making referrals to other pediatricians if requested, but would leave it up to Kumar to choose whether or not to let patients know he's been criminally charged, Fernando said.
Kumar is free on bail and will make his first court appearance in Pincher Creek in southwestern Alberta in two weeks.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/pediatrician-sex-charges-seeing-patients-1.5081897
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Janice Johnston
Janice Johnston is an award-winning journalist in Edmonton who has covered the courts and crime for more than two decades. You can reach her at janice.johnston@cbc.ca or on Twitter at @cbcjanjohnston
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Trevor Doyle allegedly arranged for sex with FBI agent pretending to be 13-year-old girl.
Bell Media says radio host has been suspended from his job at Capital FM. Hadeel Ibrahim, Jordan Gill · CBC News · Posted: Apr 05, 2019.
A Fredericton radio host is accused of arranging a sexual encounter with an undercover FBI agent he believed to be a 13-year-old girl.
Trevor L. Doyle was charged Wednesday in Carolina, Puerto Rico, with attempted sexual enticement of a minor.
Doyle is a longtime morning show host for Capital FM, a radio station owned by Bell Media.
Court documents obtained by CBC News include an affidavit from FBI Special Agent Brian P. O'Sullivan that says Doyle used a messaging app to arrange to meet with the agent where she could perform oral sex on him.
Arrested on beach
O'Sullivan said Doyle and the agent arranged a meeting on a beach in the Isla Verde area of Carolina after almost three days of messaging. He was arrested on the beach early Wednesday morning.
Doyle, 44, was arrested by agents with the FBI's San Juan task force on child exploitation and human trafficking.
A Bell Media spokesperson didn't comment on Doyle's legal situation but confirmed he has been suspended from his job at the station.
The exchanges started after the undercover agent posted an image on an anonymous messaging app saying, "Just a girl in [Puerto Rico] who is booooored," on March 31.
The FBI affidavit alleges Doyle began messaging with the undercover agent on that day and continued to message her after she brought up her age "repeatedly" as 13. It says Doyle brought up her age as well.
If convicted, Doyle could receive a sentence of 10 years to life in prison, the FBI said.
Allegedly advised deleting messages
The affidavit alleges Doyle asked the agent to perform oral sex on him and asked if she'd be willing to have vaginal sex.
The two continued messaging and arranged to meet on an Isla Verde beach on April 3.
Doyle asked the agent if her parents checked her phone and said she should delete their messages so they don't get caught, the affidavit says. He also offered her cab fare to and from their meeting place.
After Doyle was arrested, the affidavit says, he "stated he knew his conduct was wrong."
Assigned public defender
The FBI allegations have not been tested in court.
Doyle has been assigned a U.S. public defender. He is in custody at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Puerto Rico and will have a bail hearing on Monday.
Supervisory Special Agent Luis Rivera-Santana said the arrest was part of the bureau's effort to reduce online child sexual exploitation.
"We're working … online to apprehend people that travel across state lines to engage in such activity," he said.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/trevor-doyle-charged-puerto-rico-1.5085820
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Ontario Teacher Who Filmed Students Guilty Of Voyeurism, Supreme Court Rules.
Ryan Jarvis secretly filmed students using a pen camera.
Jim Bronskill Canadian Press NEWS 02/14/2019 11:27 EST | Updated 02/14/2019 11:27 EST
OTTAWA — The Supreme Court of Canada says an Ontario high-school teacher who used a pen camera to surreptitiously take videos of female students is guilty of voyeurism.
In a ruling today, the high court says the teenage students were entitled to a reasonable expectation they would not be secretly recorded by their instructor.
Teacher Ryan Jarvis was charged with voyeurism after discovery of more than two dozen videos on his pen, many of which focused on the chests and cleavage area of students at the London, Ont., school.
Trial judge said videos not clearly for sexual purpose
During 2010 and 2011, Jarvis made the recordings in different locations around the school, including in hallways, classrooms, the cafeteria, staff offices and outside the building.
The videos range from six seconds in length to just over two-and-a-half minutes, often involving a conversation between Jarvis and the student. In most, the camera is on the girl's face but also focuses for a considerable amount of time on her chest area.
Jarvis was acquitted when the trial judge found that while the students had a reasonable expectation of privacy, it was not clear the videos were taken for a sexual purpose.
The Ontario Court of Appeal dismissed the Crown's challenge of the ruling, although for different reasons.
A majority of the appeal court concluded the videos were indeed taken for a sexual purpose, noting at least five of them featured close-up, lengthy views of cleavage from angles both straight on and from above. However, the court said the students should not have an expectation of privacy in areas of the school where they congregate or where classes are taught.
One of the appeal court judges dissented, opening the door to a hearing before the Supreme Court.
The explicit focus of the videos on the bodies of the students recorded, including their breasts, leaves me in no doubt that the videos were made in violation of the students' reasonable expectations of privacy.
Richard Wagner, Chief Justice
All nine judges of the high court agreed in today's ruling that Jarvis should be found guilty. However, they provided two sets of reasons in coming to that unanimous conclusion.
In writing for a majority of the court, Chief Justice Richard Wagner said a student attending class, walking down a school hallway or speaking to her teacher certainly expects she will not be singled out by the instructor and made the subject of a secretive, minutes-long recording focusing on her body.
"The explicit focus of the videos on the bodies of the students recorded, including their breasts, leaves me in no doubt that the videos were made in violation of the students' reasonable expectations of privacy."
https://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2019/02/14/ontario-teacher-filmed-students-guilty_a_23669710/
In November 2015, Superior Court Justice Andrew Goodman found Jarvis not guilty of voyeurism, and ruled that while the students had a reasonable expectation of privacy, he wasn’t convinced the videos were sexually motivated. In his decision, Goodman stated that while the recordings were most likely made for a sexual purpose, “there may be other inferences to be drawn.” https://globalnews.ca/.../4960477/teacher-student-voyeurism/
On appeal, the Crown argued that the trial judge had erred in finding that the filming was not done for a sexual purpose. All of the appellate judges agreed that the judge had indeed erred. The majority noted that the trial judge had failed to identify any other possible inferences in his reasons. They also noted that his description of the teacher’s behavior as “morally repugnant” was “inconsistent with the trial judge’s conclusion that the videos might not have been taken for a sexual purpose.” (Court of Appeal decision at para 47) The majority noted that “[t]his was an overwhelming case of videos focused on young women’s breasts and cleavage” (at para 53), and they concluded that there was no reasonable inference other than that the videos were taken for a sexual purpose. Clearly, the teacher was not checking for skin cancer.
The Ontario Court of Appeal dismissed the Crown's challenge of the ruling, although for different reasons.
A majority of the appeal court concluded the videos were indeed taken for a sexual purpose, noting at least five of them featured close-up, lengthy views of cleavage from angles both straight on and from above. However, the court said the students should not have an expectation of privacy in areas of the school where they congregate or where classes are taught.
One of the appeal court judges dissented, opening the door to a hearing before the Supreme Court.
TEACHER WITH CAMERA PEN ACQUITTED OF VOYEURISM OVERTURNED. September 20, 2018.
R. v. Jarvis, 2017 ONCA 778
https://blg.com/en/News-And-Publications/Publication_5398
Canada’s top court has ruled students have a reasonable right not to have their faces and breasts filmed without their consent at school.
https://globalnews.ca/news/4960477/teacher-student-voyeurism/
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Supreme Court finds teacher who used camera pen guilty of voyeurism not sexual exploitation... Reasonable expectation of privacy at centre of Thursday morning's unanimous decision. Catharine Tunney · CBC News · Posted: Feb 14, 2019.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/high-school-teacher-camera-pen-privacy-supreme-court-judgment-1.5019012
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OTTAWA — The Supreme Court of Canada says an Ontario high-school teacher who used a pen camera to surreptitiously take videos of female students is guilty of voyeurism.
In a ruling today, the high court says the teenage students were entitled to a reasonable expectation they would not be secretly recorded by their instructor.
Teacher Ryan Jarvis was charged with voyeurism after discovery of more than two dozen videos on his pen, many of which focused on the chests and cleavage area of students at the London, Ont., school.
Trial judge said videos not clearly for sexual purpose.
During 2010 and 2011, Jarvis made the recordings in different locations around the school, including in hallways, classrooms, the cafeteria, staff offices and outside the building.
The videos range from six seconds in length to just over two-and-a-half minutes, often involving a conversation between Jarvis and the student. In most, the camera is on the girl's face but also focuses for a considerable amount of time on her chest area.
Jarvis was acquitted when the trial judge found that while the students had a reasonable expectation of privacy, it was not clear the videos were taken for a sexual purpose.
The Ontario Court of Appeal dismissed the Crown's challenge of the ruling, although for different reasons.
A majority of the appeal court concluded the videos were indeed taken for a sexual purpose, noting at least five of them featured close-up, lengthy views of cleavage from angles both straight on and from above. However, the court said the students should not have an expectation of privacy in areas of the school where they congregate or where classes are taught.
One of the appeal court judges dissented, opening the door to a hearing before the Supreme Court.
The explicit focus of the videos on the bodies of the students recorded, including their breasts, leaves me in no doubt that the videos were made in violation of the students' reasonable expectations of privacy.
Richard Wagner, Chief Justice.
All nine judges of the high court agreed in today's ruling that Jarvis should be found guilty. However, they provided two sets of reasons in coming to that unanimous conclusion.
In writing for a majority of the court, Chief Justice Richard Wagner said a student attending class, walking down a school hallway or speaking to her teacher certainly expects she will not be singled out by the instructor and made the subject of a secretive, minutes-long recording focusing on her body.
"The explicit focus of the videos on the bodies of the students recorded, including their breasts, leaves me in no doubt that the videos were made in violation of the students' reasonable expectations of privacy."
When it comes to women, their bodies, and their rights, justice is rarely swift. In 2010 and 2011, Ryan Jarvis, a high-school English teacher in London, used a pen cam to secretly record his students’ cleavage. Before he was caught, Jarvis managed to film 27 students aged 14 to 18. Though it was clear that Jarvis had made the videos, a judge found him not guilty of voyeurism, stating that, as the videos did not contain sexual activity or nudity, they had not been sexually motivated. On appeal, Jarvis was found not guilty again. Though the appeal judges did conclude that the videos had, in fact, been sexually motivated, the majority held that the girls had had no reasonable expectation of privacy at school, as it was a public place.
Last week, the Supreme Court of Canada rejected both acquittals, finally convicting Jarvis. It’s good news for women, to be sure, but it’s also worth asking why it took so long. So much about this case seems cut and dried. A teacher should not be able to surreptitiously film his students’ breasts at school. It’s creepy, and it’s wrong. High school is hard enough without having to worry that your teacher is recording your cleavage as you’re talking about Romeo and Juliet. What the appeals-court judges argued — that there are cameras everywhere in the school, that “visual interaction is part of everyday life” — shouldn’t matter. There’s a difference between security cameras and losing your sense of security.
As the Women’s Legal Education and Action Fund stated in its factum to the Supreme Court, initial decisions on the case placed the onus on women to protect themselves — essentially by withdrawing from public life. Women can expect privacy in their own home, the appeals-court ruling suggests, but anywhere else, and it’s game on for men. Such a location-based concept of privacy, adds LEAF, “denies women access to the robust privacy protections that would facilitate their participation in social, cultural, and political life.” It also harkens back to a time when good, moral women stayed inside the home. Those who ventured outside, presumably, deserved what they got.
The Supreme Court decision fixes some of that antiquated thinking. As the judges wrote in their decision: “Had Mr. Jarvis placed himself in the position of the pen-camera and simply observed the students, they would undoubtedly have recoiled.” No kidding. The decision also notes that privacy, with respect to intimate or sexualized parts of our bodies, is “sacrosanct.” It goes on to state the should-be-obvious: people going about their day — attending school, travelling to work, running errands — should reasonably be able to expect that their breasts or genitals aren’t being secretly filmed. Anyone who is secretly filming others is unequivocally engaging in criminal behaviour, not merely being gross.
But the decision doesn’t fix everything. As world-righting as it is, in some ways, it’s also a missed opportunity. The Supreme Court could have clearly defined voyeurism as gender-based violence. As Pam Hrick and Moira Aikenhead write in the Globe and Mail, its failure to do so undercuts any discussion of equality. Voyeurism is almost universally a crime against girls and women. Of the 59 voyeurism cases with publicly available decisions that LEAF examined, only three were not recorded as having involved women or girls — and that was because the gender of the victims hadn’t been recorded.
Women and girls can often feel as if they’re under scrutiny. It isn’t uncommon for those around us to engage with our bodies in public in ways that are unwanted, uncomfortable, and even violent. The Canadian Women’s Foundation reports that more than 70 per cent of Canadian women experience street harassment before they turn 15. A couple of weeks ago, for example, an older man passed by me on a Toronto streetcar very slowly, pressing his groin against my behind; the car was not crowded. The worst part about it was how unsurprised I was.
Lauren McKeon is the digital editor of The Walrus. She's the author of F-Bomb: Dispatches from the War on Feminism, published by Goose Lane Editions.
Author Lauren McKeon is the digital editor of The Walrus.
https://www.tvo.org/article/why-voyeurism-should-be-treated-as-gender-based-violence
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Why voyeurism should be treated as gender-based violence.
OPINION: The fact that the case of the voyeuristic high-school teacher had to go to the Supreme Court tells you all you need to know about how society values women’s privacy, writes Lauren McKeon.
https://www.tvo.org/article/why-voyeurism-should-be-treated-as-gender-based-violence
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Ontario Court of Appeal finds high school girls have no reasonable expectation of privacy in surreptitious filming of their breasts by teacher at school.
Written by Teresa Scassa. Oct. 2017.
In the 2010-2011 school year, a teacher at a London, Ontario high school used a pen camera to make surreptitious video recordings of female students, with a particular emphasis on their cleavage and breasts. A colleague noticed his activity and reported it to the principal, who confiscated the pen camera and called the police. The police found 19 videos on the camera’s memory card, featuring 30 different individuals, 27 of whom were female. A warrant was obtained a week later to search the teacher’s home – the police found nothing beyond a computer mysteriously missing its hard drive. The teacher was ultimately charged with voyeurism.
The offense of voyeurism requires that there be a surreptitious observation (recorded or not) of a “person who is in circumstances that give rise to a reasonable expectation of privacy”. It also requires that the “observation or recording is done for a sexual purpose” (Criminal Code, s. 162(1)(c)). The trial judge had found that the students had a reasonable expectation of privacy in the circumstances, but he inexplicably found that the Crown had not met its burden of showing, beyond a reasonable doubt, that the recordings of their cleavage and breasts was done for a sexual purpose. He stated: “While a conclusion that the accused was photographing the student’s [sic] cleavage for a sexual purpose is most likely, there may be other inferences to be drawn that detract from the only rationale [sic] conclusion required to ground a conviction for voyeurism.” (Trial Decision at para 77) He did not provide any information about what those other inferences might conceivably be.
On appeal, the Crown argued that the trial judge had erred in finding that the filming was not done for a sexual purpose. All of the appellate judges agreed that the judge had indeed erred. The majority noted that the trial judge had failed to identify any other possible inferences in his reasons. They also noted that his description of the teacher’s behavior as “morally repugnant” was “inconsistent with the trial judge’s conclusion that the videos might not have been taken for a sexual purpose.” (Court of Appeal decision at para 47) The majority noted that “[t]his was an overwhelming case of videos focused on young women’s breasts and cleavage” (at para 53), and they concluded that there was no reasonable inference other than that the videos were taken for a sexual purpose. Clearly, the teacher was not checking for skin cancer.
However, the accused had appealed the trial judge’s finding that the students had a reasonable expectation of privacy. The majority of the Court of Appeal agreed, leading to the overall appeal of his acquittal being dismissed. The majority’s reasoning is disturbing, and has implications for privacy more broadly. In determining what a ‘reasonable expectation of privacy’ entailed, the majority relied on a definition of privacy from the Oxford English Dictionary. That learned non-legal tome defines privacy as “a state in which one is not observed or disturbed by other people; the state of being free from public attention.” (at para 93). From this, the majority concluded that location was a key component of privacy. They stated: “A person expects privacy in places where the person can exclude others, such as one’s home or office, or a washroom. It is a place where a person feels confident that they are not being observed.” (at para 94) The majority accepted that there might be some situations in which a person has an expectation of privacy in a public setting, but these would be limited. They gave the example of upskirting as one “where a woman in a public place had a reasonable expectation of privacy that no one would look under her skirt” (at para 96). Essentially, the tent of a woman’s skirt is a private place within a public one.
The trial judge had found a reasonable expectation of privacy in the circumstances on the basis that a student would expect that a teacher would not “breach their relationship of trust by surreptitiously recording them without there consent.” (at para 103). According to the majority, this conflated the reasonable expectation of privacy with the act of surreptitious recording. They stated: “Clearly students expect that a teacher will not secretly observe or record them for a sexual purpose at school. However, that expectation arises from the nature of the required relationship between students and teachers, not from an expectation of privacy.” (at para 105) This approach ignores the fact that the nature of the relationship is part of the context in which the reasonableness of the expectation of privacy must be assessed. The majority flattened the concept of reasonable expectation of privacy to one consideration – location. They stated that “if a person is in a public place, fully clothed and not engaged in toileting or sexual activity, they will normally not be in circumstances that give rise to a reasonable expectation of privacy.” (at para 108)
Justice Huscroft, in dissent is rightly critical of this impoverished understanding of the reasonable expectation of privacy. He began by situating privacy in its contemporary and technological context: “Technological developments challenge our ability to protect privacy: much that was once private because it was inaccessible is now easily accessible and capable of being shared widely.” (at para 116). He observed that “whether a person has a reasonable expectation of privacy is a normative or evaluative question rather than a descriptive or predictive one. It is concerned with identifying a person’s legitimate interests and determining whether they should be given priority over competing interests. To say that a person has a reasonable expectation of privacy in some set of circumstances is to conclude that his or her interest in privacy should be prioritized over other interests.” (at para 117)
Justice Huscroft was critical of the majority’s focus on location as a means of determining reasonable expectations of privacy. He found that the majority’s approach – defining spaces where privacy could reasonably be expected – was both over and under-inclusive. He noted that there are public places in which people have an expectation of privacy, even if that expectation is attenuated. He gave the example of a woman breastfeeding in public. He stated: “Privacy expectations need not be understood in an all-or-nothing fashion. In my view, there is a reasonable expectation that she will not be visually recorded surreptitiously for a sexual purpose. She has a reasonable expectation of privacy at least to this extent.” (at para 125) Justice Huscroft also noted that the majority’s approach was over-inclusive, in that while a person has a reasonable expectation of privacy in their home, it might be diminished if they stood in front of an open window. While location is relevant to the privacy analysis, it should not be determinative.
Justice Huscroft found that the question to be answered in this case was “should high school students expect that their personal and sexual integrity will be protected while they are at school?” (at para 131). He noted that schools were not fully public in the sense that school officials controlled access to the buildings. While the school in question had 24-hour video surveillance, the cameras did not focus on particular students or particular body parts. No access was permitted to the recordings for personal use. The school board had a policy in place that prohibited teachers from making the types of recordings made in this case. All of these factors contributed to the students’ reasonable expectation of privacy. He wrote:
No doubt, students will be seen by other students, school employees and officials while they are at school. But this does not mean that they have no reasonable expectation of privacy. In my view, the students' interest in privacy is entitled to priority over the interests of anyone who would seek to compromise their personal and sexual integrity while they are at school. They have a reasonable expectation of privacy at least to this extent, and that is sufficient to resolve this case. (at para 133)
Justice Huscroft observed that the majority’s approach that requires the reasonable expectation of privacy to be considered outside of the particular context in which persons find themselves would unduly limit the scope of the voyeurism offence.
This case provides an ugly and unfortunate window on what women can expect from the law when it comes to voyeurism and other related offenses. In the course of his reasons, the trial judge stated that ““[i]t may be that a female student’s mode of attire may attract a debate about appropriate reactions of those who observe such a person leading up to whether there is unwarranted and disrespectful ogling” (Trial decision, at para 46). The issue is not just about public space, it is about the publicness of women’s bodies. The accused was acquitted at trial because of the trial judge’s baffling conclusion that the teacher might have had some motive – other than a sexual one – in making the recordings of female students’ breasts and cleavage. Although the Court of Appeal corrected this error, the majority found that female students at high school do not have a reasonable expectation of privacy when it comes to having their breasts surreptitiously filmed by their teachers (who are not allowed, under school board policies, to engage in such activities). The majority fixates on location as the heart of the reasonable expectation of privacy, eschewing a more nuanced approach that would consider those things that actually inform our expectations of privacy.
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Project Spade, massive international child porn bust centred on Toronto, nets 348 arrests in ‘horrific sexual acts.’
The Toronto man at the heart of the investigation was allegedly running a company since 2005 that distributed child pornography videos
November 14, 2013 10:46 AM EST
“It’s a first for the magnitude of the victims saved,” said Insp Joanna Beaven-Desjardins, of the force’s Sex Crimes Unit. “The amount of arrests internationally, also a first.”
At least 348 people were arrested around the world as part of Project Spade, including 50 in Ontario and 58 from other parts of Canada.
School teachers, doctors, nurses, police officers, pastors and foster parents are among those facing charges in the wide-ranging operation that can be traced back to a business operating out of Toronto’s west end, police said.
“Its success has been extraordinary,” Beaven-Desjardins said of the investigation which spanned more than 50 countries.
https://nationalpost.com/news/canada/at-least-386-victims-rescued-after-project-spade-a-massive-child-porn-bust-that-started-in-toronto
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In the 1980s, Canadians were shocked into awareness of the widespread evil of child sexual abuse. In Ontario alone, the names Cornwall, Prescott and London became synonymous with "respectable" pedophile rings -- lawyers, doctors, police officers and Catholic clergymen -- that for decades preyed on society's most vulnerable boys.
http://www.nationalpost.com/story.html?id=a207da2a-b5ed-433e-9d69-c9624338159a
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Officer guilty of contempt for refusal to testify.
National Post ·
TORONTO - An Ontario Divisional Court yesterday found a former Cornwall police officer, whose investigation of an alleged pedophile ring touched off a sex scandal in the eastern Ontario city, guilty of contempt.
However, the court gave Perry Dunlop, who now lives and works in British Columbia, the chance to "purge" the contempt finding by testifying on Jan. 14 before the Cornwall judicial inquiry into the way authorities responded to allegations of child sexual abuse.
That is something he has steadfastly refused to do.
A panel of three judges issued an order compelling Mr. Dunlop to testify, finding he had provided no legal reason for refusing to co-operate.
The matter was dealt with in the Ontario Divisional court rather than at the Cornwall inquiry because the inquiry commissioner, Justice Normand Glaude, does not have the authority to issue contempt orders.
If Mr. Dunlop refuses to co-operate on Jan. 14, he will be found in contempt of the divisional court order and face a punishment ranging anywhere from a fine to imprisonment.
Even if he does agree to testify, he could still face penalties for refusing to testify on two previous occasions in September and October.
"Prior disobedience has not been removed by [Mr. Dunlop] deciding to testify," argued Brian Gover, a lawyer representing the inquiry.
Mr. Dunlop was not in court and did not send counsel to appear on his behalf.
He did send a letter asking the court to adjourn the matter to another date but was denied.
In his submissions, Mr. Gover said Mr. Dunlop's refusal to co-operate
was a blatant disregard of the commission and diminished public confidence in the inquiry.
"While Mr. Dunlop may have concerns or doubts about the inquiry's effectiveness, it does not amount to a legal excuse," Mr. Gover argued.
Peter Engelmann, lead counsel for the inquiry, said from the start Mr. Dunlop was not a co-operative witness but his testimony was considered "very important" to the inquiry's mandate.
"What's important is not just to hear from institutions about what Mr. Dunlop said or did, or not just to hear from alleged victims, but to hear from him so his side can be put forward as well," Mr. Engelmann said after the hearing.
The Cornwall inquiry has heard from more than 90 witnesses during 160 days and has amassed more than 80,000 pages of documents.
Originally, Mr. Dunlop had been given until Oct. 10 to decide whether to testify, after he refused to answer questions during a September appearance.
But when he appeared in October, Mr. Dunlop said he would read into the record the 110-page report he prepared for the police force seven years ago.
He said he took four months to prepare the report, with another 300 pages of supporting documents.
"It was my best recollection of events at that time," Mr. Dunlop said, reading from a prepared statement.
"I can do no more," he continued. "I will do no more."
Mr. Engelmann said Mr. Dunlop's reports were not enough because lawyers would not be able to question him about inconsistencies between his notes, and evidence he had given in other proceedings.
Attempts to reach Mr. Dunlop yesterday were unsuccessful.
http://www.nationalpost.com/news/story.html?id=f00a470d-fd09-41b9-894b-7d1888079333
Story #4
The pedophiles of Cornwall
The little city of Cornwall, Ont., is not a place you'd expect unspeakable secrets to lurk. But for the past seven years, it has been racked by a dark drama that has shredded reputations and driven men to suicide. The villains, it's alleged, are that most loathsome form of human life -- pedophiles. The pedophiles allegedly include Catholic priests and the city's leading citizens.
The so-called pedophile ring has sparked endless charges of cover-ups and corruption in high places. The local MP is demanding a provincial inquiry. Some people even think the police may be in cahoots with the guilty. "The hysteria has been palpable," says Jacques Leduc, a respected lawyer who has lived in Cornwall all his life. "It has been a rather dark moment in our region's history."
The latest effort to track down the sex abusers is called Project Truth. It was launched in 1997 by the Ontario Provincial Police after the local police force was torn apart by the controversy. Since then, Project Truth has laid more than 100 charges against 14 men. But, so far, there has been not a single conviction. Six of the cases have yet to proceed. Four of the accused are dead. One man was acquitted; one was found unfit to stand trial; one had his charges dropped last fall. And one case was thrown out of court last week after a spectacular prosecutorial debacle. That case was Jacques Leduc's.
It all began in 1992, when the local Catholic church, in an effort to avert a criminal case, paid $32,000 in a private settlement to someone who said he was abused as an altar boy by a parish priest. The priest's guilt or innocence has never been tested in court.
Then along came a crusading cop named Perry Dunlop. Mr. Dunlop was scandalized that his own police force had decided there wasn't enough evidence to nail the priest. It was personal; Mr. Dunlop was a fervent convert to Catholicism, and the priest was his family priest.
His bosses told Mr. Dunlop to mind his own business. But he became obsessed, convinced that Cornwall's children were in peril from the priest and other predators. "If a loose cannon is protecting children, then I'm a loose cannon," he told the CBC's fifth estate in 1995. "We need to protect our children no matter what the rules say." He and his wife, Helen, launched their own private investigations and scoured the town for more victims. Eventually, other men came forward with stories of abuse by priests, probation officers, even a judge. The Dunlops claimed the Cornwall pedophile ring went back for decades. They were depicted as heroes in Chatelaine and, last month, in The Report magazine. CBC Radio aired other stories that left no doubt that something evil had happened in Cornwall.
Meantime, another loose cannon named Dick Nadeau cranked up a crackpot Web site full of wild conspiracy theories and lists of alleged perpetrators. Three of the many men accused in the past few years have killed themselves.
Why would any accuser (none of whom can be identified) level false allegations? An obvious answer is money. In the past decade, people claiming to have been abused as children by men in positions of power have won millions of dollars in civil settlements. Some of these claims were legitimate; many were not. A dozen men from Cornwall are currently suing the province for $4.8-million.
Jacques Leduc was the church's lawyer in 1992. For conspiracy theorists, that was proof enough; they believed he was at the heart of the cover-up. In 1998, he was arrested after two men claimed he'd assaulted them while they were teenagers doing casual jobs around his house. "I am not a man who is faint of heart," says Mr. Leduc. "But this was devastating."
His trial began in January. Then, last week, came a stunning revelation: The crusading cop's fingerprints were all over the case. The mother of a witness testified that Mr. Dunlop had told her the best way to bleed Mr. Leduc dry was through a civil action. After that, her son went after Mr. Leduc for $2-million. (In a different trial last year, a witness described how Mr. Dunlop had coached him to perjure himself.) What's more stunning, the Crown attorney knew of the Dunlop connection but concealed it.
The judge declared that Mr. Leduc's chance for a fair trial had been ruined, and threw out the case. "The two of them," he said, referring to Mr. Dunlop and Mr. Nadeau, "have the capacity to destroy lives and wreck cases."
Jacques Leduc and his family can now get on with their lives. Perry Dunlop, perhaps sensing the heat, has moved to B.C., where he continues his rants. But he leaves behind a legion of converts who were furious at the judge's ruling. They're still convinced that an army of child molesters roams free in Cornwall.
So far, Project Truth has found as many real pedophiles in Cornwall as there were real witches in Salem. But as Jacques Leduc and many other blameless men know, that is one truth that Project Truth is not deterred by.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/the-pedophiles-of-cornwall/article759924/
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Cornwall sex abuse victims given large settlements.
Some victims of the Cornwall sex abuse scandal are receiving large financial settlements to keep quiet after decades of allegations that a cover-up of a pedophile ring existed in the eastern Ontario city, CTV Ottawa has learned.
The sex abuse scandal was uncovered in the early 1990s. A public inquiry ended in December 2009 after four years. The inquiry found the Catholic Church, police, the Ontario government and the legal system all failed to protect children from sexual predators.
Now, Ontario's attorney general has confirmed to CTV that several financial settlements have been reached with victims, and more lawsuits are outstanding.
READ MORE HERE:
https://ottawa.ctvnews.ca/cornwall-sex-abuse-victims-given-large-settlements-1.521190
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Cornwall inquiry fails to dispel or confirm respectable pedophile ring.
The Canadian Press Published Tuesday, December 15, 2009 3:55 PM EST.
CORNWALL, Ont. -
Rumours that swirled for years that children were abused at the hands of a pedophile ring in eastern Ontario were neither put to rest nor given credence Tuesday by a $53-million public inquiry report four years in the making.
The Cornwall inquiry's official mandate was to examine institutional responses to historical claims of sexual abuse, and the sensational allegation that fuelled it went unresolved in the more than 1600-page report.
"Throughout this inquiry I have heard evidence that suggested that there were cases of joint abuse, passing of alleged victims, and possibly passive knowledge of abuse," Commissioner G. Normand Glaude wrote.
"I want to be very clear that I am not going to make a pronouncement on whether a ring existed or not."
The Ontario Provincial Police spent four years investigating allegations of sexual abuse, an investigation Glaude criticized in the report. Police laid 115 charges against 15 people under Project Truth, though only one was convicted.
The police declared there was no evidence of a ring, but that failed to quell the suspicion and fear in the community.
"There is good reason why certain members of the public were less than satisfied with the OPP's unequivocal position about the non-existence of a ring," Glaude wrote.
"I find that the OPP did not conduct a full-scale investigation into the linkages between victims and perpetrators."
Glaude made the point, however, of noting "much of what I have heard about linkages remain allegations that have not been proven beyond a reasonable doubt."
The report found institutional response to reports of sexual abuse was, in large part, inadequate and failed to protect the vulnerable. Among the commissioner's recommendations was to expand training and mandatory education for professionals such as public servants, those in the justice system, teachers and others having contact with children or adults who may have been sexually abused.
Bishop Paul-Andre Durocher of the Diocese of Alexandra-Cornwall was at the release of the report to offer an apology.
"I am truly and deeply sorry for the pain that has been visited upon some of our young people and their families," he said.
"On behalf of the Catholic diocese that I lead I want to apologize to you for the suffering and indignity caused by those in a position of trust and authority who have robbed you of your innocence."
https://ottawa.ctvnews.ca/cornwall-inquiry-fails-to-dispel-or-confirm-pedophile-ring-1.464739
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Maybe if the government ever told the truth we'd had a reason to trust them...
DZSURDZSA: Ottawa sets up “Ministry of Truth” to monitor online news, but not mainstream media.
In another blatant attack on Canada’s freedom of the press, the federal government plans on spending $7 million to create a department that will monitor online news for falsehoods.
The move comes just months ahead of the 2019 election and is based on the fear of foreign interference in Canada’s electoral process. The definitely-not-Orwellian-sounding “Critical Election Incident Public Protocol” was announced by the Minister of Democratic Institutions Karina Gould, alongside Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale and Defense Minister Harjit Sajjan.
While the government assures us that the “fact-checkers” have no political motivation, it’s hard to believe that a group getting their paycheques from the Liberal government won’t have a skewed viewpoint.
If you ask who the Liberal government is appointing to monitor what you’re allowed to read, you’ll be hard pressed to get any answers.
https://www.thepostmillennial.com/dzsurdzsa-ottawa-sets-up…/
Well how very Orwell of them..
Not the mainstream media now but what about later?
Stage one.. Get us used to the idea.
Stage two.. Give us lots of bullshit reasons to trust them.
Stage three.. Overt take over of all media.
https://www.thepostmillennial.com/dzsurdzsa-ottawa-sets-up-ministry-of-truth-to-monitor-online-news-but-not-mainstream-media/
Statement by the Prime Minister on World Press Freedom Day.
Ottawa, Ontario - May 3, 2018
The Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, today issued the following statement on World Press Freedom Day:
“Today, on World Press Freedom Day, we celebrate the important work journalists do around the world to promote and protect democracy. We also take a hard look at the current state of press freedom, and remember those who have lost their lives in defence of facts, uncovering truth and shining light on stories that would otherwise not be told.
“This year’s theme ‘Keeping Power in Check: Media, Justice, and the Rule of Law,’ highlights the importance of having an open and transparent environment – safeguarded by an independent judiciary – that protects freedom of the press. It also underlines the role that media play as champions of accountability and the rule of law.
“While in Canada we recognize freedom of the press as a fundamental freedom, many journalists working in other areas around the world face threats and dangers in their mission to inform the public. The arrest of two Reuters journalists, Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo, in Myanmar last December is a vivid reminder of the ongoing need to advocate for a strong and free press as the cornerstone of any healthy democracy.
“Canada will always defend journalistic freedom and stand against any violence, intimidation, censorship, and false arrests used to silence journalists. From international broadcasters that bring the world into our homes, to local newspapers that empower us to shape the communities we live in – we know that a free press helps build stronger and healthier societies.
“On behalf of Canadians, I thank all the journalists in this country and around the world who seek out truth, unravel fact from fiction, bring clarity and fairness to public debate, and encourage us to open ourselves to new perspectives.”
https://pm.gc.ca/eng/news/2018/05/03/statement-prime-minister-world-press-freedom-day
Thousands of bystanders caught in Toronto police sweep of cellphone data. By Kate Allen Science and Technology Reporter. Sun., March 24, 2019.
Toronto police and RCMP officers deploying controversial “Stingray” surveillance technology over a two-month period swept up identifying cellphone data on more than 20,000 bystanders at malls, public parks and even a children’s toy store.
As police sought cellphone data for 11 suspects in a 2014 investigation, they deployed a Stingray — also known as an IMSI catcher — at three dozen locations, including the middle of Yorkville, at the Dufferin Mall, at Vaughan Mills Mall, near Trinity Bellwoods Park, near Kensington Market, and at a Toys ‘R’ Us store in Richmond Hill.
https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2019/03/24/thousands-of-bystanders-caught-in-toronto-police-sweep-of-cellphone-data.html
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One year ago, the Guardian published its first bombshell story based on leaked top-secret documents showing that the National Security Agency was spying on American citizens.
At the time, journalist Glenn Greenwald and the Guardian never mentioned that they had a treasure trove of other NSA documents, nor that they came from one person. Then three days later, the source surprisingly unmasked himself: His name was Edward Snowden.
https://mashable.com/2014/06/05/edward-snowden-revelations/
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Police in Canada Are Tracking People’s ‘Negative’ Behavior In a ‘Risk’ Database.
The database includes detailed, but “de-identified,” information about people’s lives culled from conversations between police, social services, health workers, and more.
Police, social services, and health workers in Canada are using shared databases to track the behaviour of vulnerable people—including minors and people experiencing homelessness—with little oversight and often without consent.
Documents obtained by Motherboard from Ontario’s Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services (MCSCS) through an access to information request show that at least two provinces—Ontario and Saskatchewan—maintain a “Risk-driven Tracking Database” that is used to amass highly sensitive information about people’s lives. Information in the database includes whether a person uses drugs, has been the victim of an assault, or lives in a “negative neighborhood.”
Read a lot more here:
https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/kzdp5v/police-in-canada-are-tracking-peoples-negative-behavior-in-a-risk-database
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‘Project Wide Awake’: How the RCMP Watches You on Social Media.
Exclusive: How police are using new software to expand surveillance of citizens’ activities.
By Bryan Carney 25 Mar 2019 | TheTyee.ca
Bryan Carney is director of web production at The Tyee. You can follow his very occasional tweets at @bpcarney.
The RCMP has been quietly running an operation monitoring individuals’ Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and other social media activity for at least two years, The Tyee has learned.
The existence of Project Wide Awake has never been reported.
And The Tyee investigation revealed that the RCMP has moved from a “reactive” approach — analyzing specific social media accounts as part of a criminal investigation — to a “proactive approach,” which the RCMP said aims to “help detect and prevent a crime before it occurs.”
That involves ongoing wide-scale monitoring of individuals’ social media use and could pose a threat to Canadians’ privacy and charter rights, say experts.
In February 2018 the RCMP began using software provided by Carahsoft, which supplies governments, including intelligence and defence agencies. The contractor is located just west of Washington, D.C. in an area described by the Washington Post as “Top Secret America.”
The developer of the software, Salesforce, boasts of the power of its Social Studio monitoring application on its website.
“Ever wished you could be a fly on the wall in the homes of consumers? That’s kind of what social media monitoring is,” the company claims.
The Tyee learned of the monitoring after obtaining a non-public June 2017 letter from Gilles Michaud, RCMP deputy commissioner of federal policing, to the federal privacy commissioner.
Michaud assured the commissioner then that RCMP monitoring didn’t use “mass surveillance techniques or technologies” or “broad-based internet monitoring” nor “scenario-based targeting.”
The program was strictly “reactive,” as opposed to “proactive or predictive,” Michaud wrote in 2017, suggesting that social media history was then queried only in response to specific investigations.
But that’s no longer true, based on recent RCMP written responses to Tyee questions.
RCMP spokesperson Sgt. Tania Vaughan said since the 2017 letter the force has expanded its program and made a “shift towards a proactive and reactive approach” to “fully embrace the value of open source social media content.”
“The RCMP had used limited social media analysis in ongoing investigations,” Vaughan wrote. “Today, analysis of open source social media content can help proactively identify threats to public safety.”
“Police are learning that social media analysis can help proactively identify crimes in progress (the movements of rioters, for example) or planned criminality. Project Wide Awake has demonstrated to the RCMP the utility of social media analysis to investigate and prevent crime.”
Given a specific example by The Tyee — a demonstration — the RCMP elaborated on the distinction between proactive and reactive approaches.
“A reactive approach would be analyzing social media to solve a crime that occurred at the protest,” it said. “A proactive approach would be to analyze social media to see if there are any indications that predict a crime may occur at the protest and take steps to prevent it from happening, such as increasing police presence.”
The software lets police identify and monitor activity on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and other social platforms by entering keywords, Vaughan told The Tyee.
READ MORE HERE:
https://thetyee.ca/News/2019/03/25/Project-Wide-Awake/
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COPS ARE PEOPLE TO AREN'T THEY?
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Niagara cop charged with attempted murder in shooting of officer.
Postmedia News Service Published: 12 hours ago.
https://www.thechronicleherald.ca/news/canada/niagara-cop-charged-with-attempted-murder-in-shooting-of-officer-296083/
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Ontario cop charged with attempted murder for allegedly shooting suspect
https://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/ontario-cop-charged-with-attempted-murder-for-allegedly-shooting-suspect-1.4195917
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Ontario Police Watchdog Charges Waterloo Officer With Attempted Murder
It's a first for the SIU. By Samantha Beattie 11/29/2018.
https://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2018/11/29/siu-attempted-murder-charge_a_23604819/
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You got to wonder how often guns are involved when cops go bad.
What are the chances if a cop goes bad the officer will use a gun?
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Toronto police officer to be charged in connection to Bruce McArthur investigation VICTORIA GIBSON PUBLISHED FEBRUARY 1, 2019.
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/toronto/article-toronto-police-officer-to-be-charged-in-connection-to-bruce-mcarthur/
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Court of Appeal upholds conviction for Toronto cop who shot Sammy Yatim
By Wendy Gillis Crime Reporter. Mon., April 30, 2018.
https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2018/04/30/court-of-appeal-upholds-conviction-for-toronto-cop-who-shot-sammy-yatim.html
Enhanced audio/video - Shooting of Sammy Yatim by Toronto Police Const. Forcillo on July 27, 2013.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lG6OTyjzAgg
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Smiths Falls police officer charged with spousal assault and domestic mischief
NEWS Jun 11, 2018 by Evelyn Harford Smiths Falls Record News
https://www.insideottawavalley.com/news-story/8654570-smiths-falls-police-officer-charged-with-spousal-assault-and-domestic-mischief/
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Off-duty OPP officer in Smiths Falls accused of pointing a firearm in a domestic incident.
The suspended officer has been a member of the OPP for 24 years, and is a member of the OPP's Organized Crime Enforcement Bureau.
Nov 2, 2018 4:23 PM by: Ottawa Matters Staff.
The Ontario Provincial Police's Professional Standards Bureau has arrested and charged an off duty OPP officer in relation to a domestic incident in Smiths Falls.
Officers were called to a home on October 26 to investigate the alleged incident.
The man has been charged with pointing a firearm, under section 87 (1) of the Criminal Code.
The accused was released from custody following a court appearance. He is scheduled to appear in the Ontario Court of Justice in Brockville at a later date, and has been suspended with pay, in accordance with the Police Services Act of Ontario.
The investigation by the OPP PSB is ongoing.
The identity of the accused is not being released in order to protect the identity of the victim.
https://www.ottawamatters.com/police-beat/off-duty-opp-officer-in-smiths-falls-accused-of-pointing-a-firearm-in-a-domestic-incident-1108874
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Police officer charged with refusing blood sample after off-duty crash
MEGAN GILLIS Updated: August 14, 2018
https://ottawacitizen.com/news/local-news/officer-charged-with-refusing-sample-after-off-duty-crash
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List of excessive police force incidents in Canada
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_excessive_police_force_incidents_in_Canada
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NIAGARA BLUES: NRP has history of corruption, brutality.
December 3, 2018
https://torontosun.com/news/provincial/niagara-blues-nrp-has-history-of-corruption-brutality
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Something must be done about the Thunder Bay police
An unprecedented report says ‘systemic racism’ exists within the force, and that there was ‘neglect of duty’ among investigators. Is it beyond fixing? by Kyle Edwards Dec 12, 2018.
https://www.macleans.ca/news/canada/something-must-be-done-about-the-thunder-bay-police/
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Corrupt Hamilton police officer sentenced to more than 12 years in prison. MOLLY HAYES. MAY 29, 2018.
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-corrupt-hamilton-police-officer-sentenced-to-more-than-12-years-in/
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5 Stories That Prove Police Are Just as Terrifying in Canada.
https://www.cracked.com/blog/5-stories-that-prove-police-are-just-as-terrifying-in-canada/
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LATEST MONTREAL POLICE CORRUPTION NEWS
CANADA January 26, 2018 6:20 pm
https://globalnews.ca/tag/montreal-police-corruption/
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Police corruption scandal: Montreal appears light-years behind on oversight measures.
https://montrealgazette.com/news/assessing-the-good-father-policy-of-montreal-police-department
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Toronto police officer among 4 arrested in ongoing corruption investigation CBC/Radio-Canada 2018-10-17.
https://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/canada/toronto-police-officer-among-4-arrested-in-ongoing-corruption-investigation/ar-BBOujhk
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17 B.C. police officers under investigation for 'serious' misconduct allegations
https://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/17-b-c-police-officers-under-investigation-for-serious-misconduct-allegations-1.2241987
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OPP officer now charged in widening corruption probe: police.
York, Toronto officers already charged in investigation
NEWS Oct 19, 2018 by Lisa Queen Newmarket Era.
https://www.yorkregion.com/news-story/8976384-opp-officer-now-charged-in-widening-corruption-probe-police/
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Do unto other as you would have them do unto you...
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TO READ A LOT MORE ABOUT ONTARIO'S CHILDREN'S AID SOCIETY PLEASE VISIT "FAMILIES UNITED ONTARIO" ON FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/FamiliesUnitedOntario/
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