Re: Teachers entitled to due process, Letter Oct. 2. 2011.
As a retired Ontario teacher and onetime executive member of the local Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario, I was underwhelmed by the letter from the three teachers federations regarding the Sept. 30 article “Bad teachers, Ontario’s secret list.”
I was with them when they stated their abhorrence of the behaviours described, and that teachers are entitled to due process.
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Why shouldn't teachers put best interest of the child before an accused teacher's right to due process when these same teachers have no problem at all working with the CAS, an agency that as a matter of routine opens files and denies parents the same right to due process (fundamental justice) they themselves demand.
The CAS opens files on families based on nothing more than the alleged concerns of a teacher, concerns that are most often uncorroborated by any factual evidence of neglect or abuse one could show a judge to obtain a warrant before demanding to search private homes and questioning parents and children without informing the parents of the rights or any legal representation present while threatening to removed children for a failure to consent forms and service agreements.
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Likewise it is also true that these behaviours do not reflect the behaviour of the vast majority of teachers.
https://www.thestar.com/opinion/letters_to_the_editors/2011/10/08/more_reaction_to_teachers_series.html
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School boards shut out consultant who asked for information.
An Ottawa consultant who filed freedom of information requests to school boards across Ontario learned the hard lesson that some boards can — and do — refuse to answer.
Monika Ferenczy asked 76 boards for information and got 28 answers (with 10 more available if she was willing to spend thousands of dollars in extra fees.)
Her experience highlights the hit-and-miss nature of trying to get information from school boards in Ontario, where the province’s Freedom of Information and Privacy Act (FIPPA) is supposed to open most school records to the public. And she gives the system an F.
Ferenczy is a former special-education teacher who now operates Horizon Educational Consulting, helping families of children with special needs to navigate the school system.
In early 2017 she was trying to find out the scope of how many cases end up in a legal showdown, either in court or before one of Ontario’s tribunals on either education or human rights. She tried asking several boards, but they told her she would have to file a Freedom of Information request.
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So she did. She filed 76 such requests to school boards, public and Catholic, across Ontario and to public school authorities that operate in children’s treatment centres.
She paid each of them a $5 application fee and asked them how many cases had gone to court or a tribunal, and what the board had paid in legal fees. A group of law students from the University of Ottawa helped her.
Ontario rules say she was supposed to get information in 30 days. The reality was much less successful.
• Of the 76 boards, 28 gave her information. It wasn’t always all the information she asked for; for instance some told her the number of cases (usually only a handful) but not the amount of legal fees. But at least she got something.
• Another 23 never responded at all, not even to confirm receipt of her request. They mostly cashed her cheques, however.
• Ten boards told her she could have the information — but only if she paid extra to cover their search and preparation time. The fees they wanted ranged from $150 to $2,100 (from the Dufferin-Peel Catholic board.) She decided these fees were more than she could afford.
• Six told her a flat No. Some of these said it would violate solicitor-client privilege, like the Peterborough, Victoria, Northumberland and Clarington Catholic board which wrote that it had found the legal invoices but, “We are unable to provide an index of those records to you, however, because the records are protected by legal privilege.”
The Grand Erie District School Board turned her down because it did not know the answer: “While we would not generally object to providing you with this information, we do not track such information based on subject matter and, as such, have no means to provide you with same.”
• The remaining nine she has marked as “pending,” meaning that when she wrapped up her research in April of that year, they had not yet supplied the information.
None of the boards returned her $5 application fee.
In some cases Ferenczy may have been a victim of her own phrasing. One of her students asked the Peterborough, Victoria, Northumberland and Clarington board for its legal costs “on a file by file basis.”
That, says board spokesman Galen Eagle, made the matter “anything but simple.”
Problem 1: There are many bills with many different codings, and it would have been a major task to sort through them all and provide the level of detail and exact time period that Ferenczy’s student asked for.
Problem 2: Itemizing the various legal bills would have revealed “detailed legal invoices” on a level that crossed the line into solicitor-client privilege.
Eagle recalls trying to negotiate the question’s wording, a common process “to get at the information they’re looking for without running into some of the exemptions,” or topics that are off limits.
“In this case, this was handed over to the University of Ottawa law department. We were provided a (phone) number … and multiple attempts to clarify the request went unanswered.” He said the board likely would have agreed to provide a total amount of legal fees, without the details.
Ferenczy said it is chronically difficult to get information from Ontario school boards — not just through FOI requests but simply by asking questions.
“I think it’s ridiculous,” she said. “I think it’s actually shameful actually in our day and age, when we have legislation to request information, that it is not provided. It comes back mangled and redacted, so there is clearly no willingness for transparency.
“But I have to say that the biggest problem we have with school boards and compliance is that there is no oversight anymore” by the province. “And when you complain, when parents complain to the ministry, they (ministry staff) push it back and say, ‘Oh, that’s an operational issue. Go back to the school board and complain there.’
“Well parents have already exhausted that avenue. That is why it’s ending up before tribunals and the courts.”
Ontario’s information and privacy commissioner responded in an email that “it is unacceptable for an institution to let two years lapse before responding to a request.” Where institutions can’t meet the 30-day deadline, Brian Beamish wrote, “they must respond (within 30 days) indicating they need a time extension.”
Beamish has not dealt with this case specifically but adds that “we encourage any requester who has not received a response within 30 days to contact our office. We have an expedited process to deal with these situations, which we call ‘deemed refusals.’”
And he added: “We have often dealt with cases where public organizations have refused to disclose the total amount of legal fees spent on a particular topic. Generally we order that figure to be disclosed.”
TOM SPEARS. Updated: June 7, 2019.
https://ottawacitizen.com/news/local-news/school-boards-shut-out-consultant-who-asked-for-information
tspears@postmedia.com - twitter.com/TomSpears1
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Bad teachers: Ontario's secret list. By Kevin Donovan Staff Reporter. Thu., Sept. 29, 2011.
Here are some of the people licensed in Ontario to teach your children.
A teacher who disciplined students by warning they would “spend time with a pedophile” and if the behaviour got worse it “would be without vaseline.”
https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2011/09/29/bad_teachers_ontarios_secret_list.html
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Project Spade arrests by the numbers.
In Canada:
40 teachers (no surprises here)
9 doctors and nurses (no surprises here)
32 volunteers (volunteers for who?)
6 law enforcement personnel (no surprises here)
9 faith leaders (priests and pastors)
3 foster parents (big surprise it wasn't more)
Ontario: 50
Rest of Canada: 58
United States: 76
International: 164
https://www.macleans.ca/general/huge-child-porn-ring-busted-toronto-police-say-348-arrested-in-project-spade/
https://www.toronto.com/news-story/4219011-toronto-police-s-project-spade-results-in-international-child-porn-arrests/
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/almost-350-suspects-nabbed-in-huge-child-porn-bust/
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MOTHERISK:
The Motherisk hair testing was imposed on vulnerable parents with little regard for due process or their rights to privacy and bodily integrity.
CASs and the courts often drew negative inferences about parents who did not go for testing or disputed the results.
CASs and the courts often used hair test results as a proxy for assessing parenting.
The use of testing generally reflected a narrow approach to substance use, focussed on abstinence.
Test results were often admitted into evidence without the usual checks and balances of the legal system and given excessive weight by CASs and the court.
https://www.attorneygeneral.jus.gov.on.ca/english/about/pubs/motherisk/
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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. Out of the over 16 000 tests the commission only examined 56 cases of the flawed Motherisk tests, administered by the Motherisk lab between 2005 and 2015 and were determined to have a “substantial impact” on the decisions of child protection agencies to keep files open or led to children being permanently removed from their families and keep files open.
Parents rights were ripped out by the roots...
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.
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.
Rich parents who are alcoholics, after all, are not having their children taken from them after a single relapse. Few rich parents, in fact, are having their children taken from them at all.
“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
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MOTHERISK RECOMMENDATIONS: Accessibility of Legal Aid funds.
Legal Aid Ontario should in authorizing disbursements to parents’ counsel related to expert evidence, consider the complexity of child protection cases and the miscarriages of justice that could result from failing to vigorously challenge expert evidence; expand its Big Case Management program to child protection cases; and expand its Complex Case Rate policy to child protection counsel.
The Ministry of the Attorney General should ensure that the total funding available to Legal Aid Ontario is sufficient to enable the Recommendations in this Report to be implemented.
Specialty legal clinic for child protection
Legal Aid Ontario should establish an independent specialty legal clinic focused on child protection that could accept “hard to serve” clients, provide research and mentoring for private practitioners, engage in advocacy, and bring test case litigation to protect and enhance the rights of parents in child protection proceedings.
FULL LENGTH VERSION HERE:
https://hunchneck.blogspot.com/2019/05/motherisk-recommendations-accessibility.html
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Lake 88.1 “In Focus”interview with LAO’s Andreas Von Cramon and Nathalie Champagne: Date: April 8, 2014.
Description: Transcript of April 8th, 2014 “In Focus” interview by Bob Perreault from Lake 88.1 FM in Perth and Andreas Von Cramon, Supervisory Duty Counsel Criminal/Family Law and Nathalie Champagne, District Area Director, Ottawa Region.
Anderas von Cramon Supervisory Duty Counsel Family, Criminal Law in Brockville, Lanark, Leeds and Grenville and is married to the CAS in house lawyer for FCSLLG, Karynn Von Cramon.
FCSLLG Manager of Legal Services Karynn Von Cramon
$112,779.01 ($158.34 per hour)
https://www.ontario.ca/page/public-sector-salary-disclosure-2017-organizations-no-salaries-disclose
Anderas von Cramon operates a free family law clinic for families dealing with the CAS out of the courthouse to provide advice to people and to help them to prepare for family law cases, or to try to resolve their family cases outside the court. (sign consent forms and service agreement)
Parents go in praying for competent representation and good advice and instead get someone willing to bill legal aid to guide the parents through the process of having all their rights, dignity and children stipped away from them. According to legal aid right now family lawyers willing to accept legal aid bill an average of $40 000 dollars per case for not filing documents or filing them after the court has already granted the society a supervision order.. Or the society requests the judge order the parents to sign consent or service agreements after the parents have refused to sign anything and the judges oblige the society by ordering the parents to just cooperate.
Anderas von Cramon also gives basic help drafting documents. Basic means what? It means no help swearing in and filing documents or serving the document before the deadline - which means he does less than nothing.
I'm willing to bet if we could check, nobody Anderas von Cramon has ever "helped" has ever had anything filed before or after the deadlines have passed unless it was to submit to FCSLLG..
https://www.legalaid.on.ca/en/news/newsarchive/downloads/2014-04-08_In%20Focus%20interview.pdf?t=1495843200036
Just by failing to file the required paperwork by the deadline before a first appearance in family court on a child protection matter will potentially earn a legal aid lawyer a minimum of $40 000 according to legal aid Ontario.
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Disclosure
The Family Rules Committee should amend the Family Law Rules to require children’s aid societies to provide automatic, ongoing, thorough and timely disclosure to parents.
Education for judges on gatekeeping role in child protection
The National Judicial Institute, the Superior Court of Justice in Ontario, and the Ontario Court of Justice should enhance their efforts to provide education programs and resources on expert evidence in child protection proceedings. Education should emphasize the skills judges need in order to perform their gatekeeper function in the unique context of child protection.
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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
A landlord in BC evicting a tenant in Ontario feels her right to make anonymous reports to the children's aid society from BC allegedly based on reports from a property manager were violated when her name was disclosed to the family. As child welfare law does not prohibit the recording of child welfare social workers, it does not prohibit the children's aid societies from releasing the names of persons making reports. Attempts to prevent recording and refusal to release the names of accusers are corporate policies, not law.
The rules on reporting concerns about children in Ontario say something about the person with the concerns must report their concerns themselves, yes?
https://youtu.be/xi3GSzkJlAg
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Ontario Association Of "Alleged" Child Protection Lawyers.
The OACPL as an organization seeks to: provide an organized body of Recognized (by who?) Child Protection Lawyers that advocate politically and socially on Child Welfare Matters in Ontario.
The most important things to remember about this bunch of "lawyers" is, #1: were it left up to them the children's aid societies would still be using a fraudulent drug test to justify apprehending and needlessly interfering in tens of thousands of children's lives every year using what the society calls a "lower standard" for reasonable grounds..
#2: we wouldn't know about the "rights violations" going on behind the closed doors and sealed records of the family courts mentioned in the Motherisk report or in other simpler words - impoverished parents right to a fair hearing before a judge had been violated for decades and the family court judges had no problem allowing it to happen anymore than the lawyers billing legal aid to represent the parents did.
And if it were not for the former Privacy Commissioner we wouldn't know parents were being denied their court disclosures receiving a copy of the worker's sworn affidavit and a date to appear in the family court or forfeit their children...
What rights were violated?
The right to a" fair" hearing in front of an impartial judge...
https://oacpl.org/
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Forensic Evidence, Motherisk and Miscarriages of Justice.
Speakers: Philip M. Epstein, Brian H. Greenspan, Dr. Dirk Huyer, the Honourable Susan Lang, James Lockyer, Rachel Mendleson, Dr. Michael Pollanen
About the event: This continuing professional development event was webcast on June 06, 2016 from the Law Society of Upper Canada in Toronto. Materials covered include:
- An outline of the role flawed forensic pathology and other forensic evidence has played in miscarriages of justice in Canada
- An overview of the Broomfield case, the Motherisk Hair Analysis Independent Review and the mandate of the Motherisk Commission
- How lawyers should and should not use experts to prevent miscarriages of justice in their cases
- A demonstration by some of Toronto’s best lawyers of how to qualify, examine in chief and cross examine experts
https://vimeo.com/172786436?fbclid=IwAR0TsLWZIQ91-ldIvIwIpK-PZEeByL_9odG1ea1avsg0kaRD2zlAMTUsP4Y
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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 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. The lawyers themselves.
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. (SEE FORD: SEE WYNNE AND ALL THE REST OF THEM!)
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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Protected Cell Company
The basic principle behind cell organization is simple: By dividing the greater organization into many multi-person groups and compartmentalizing and concealing information inside each cell as needed, the greater organization is more likely to survive unchanged if one of its components is compromised and as such, they are remarkably difficult to penetrate and hold accountable in the same way the mafia families or terrorist organizations and Ontario's children's aid societies are.
DEFINITION of 'Protected Cell Company (PCC)
A corporate structure in which a single legal entity is comprised of a core and several cells that have separate assets and liabilities. The protected cell company, or PCC, has a similar design to a hub and spoke, with the central core organization linked to individual cells. Each cell is independent of each other and of the company’s core, but the entire unit is still a single legal entity.
BREAKING DOWN 'Protected Cell Company (PCC)
A protected cell company operates with two distinct groups: a single core company and an unlimited number of cells. It is governed by a single board of directors, which is responsible for the management of the PCC as a whole. Each cell is managed by a committee or similar group, with authority to the committee being granted by the PCC board of directors. A PCC files a single annual return to regulators, though business and operational plans of each cell may still require individual review and approval by regulators.
Cells within the PCC are formed under the authority of the board of directors, who are typically able to create new cells as business needs arise. The articles of incorporation provide the guidelines that the directors must follow.
The current hierarchical corporate structures that dominate our economies have been in place for over 200 years and were notably supported and defined by Max Weber during the 1800s. Even though Weber was considered a champion of bureaucracy, he understood and articulated the dangers of bureaucratic organisations as stifling, impersonal, formal, protectionist and a threat to individual freedom, equality and cultural vitality.
CAS actions are shrouded in secrecy, and media investigations are chilled by CAS (a multi-billion dollar private corporation) lawyers, who claim to be protecting the privacy rights of all involved.
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Expert reports
The Family Rules Committee should amend the Family Law Rules to require that, where a party wishes to introduce medical or scientific test results in a proceeding, the results be accompanied by a report from an expert explaining the meaning of the test results and the underlying science behind the testing; and require the content of expert reports to include the requirements in Rule 52.2 of the Federal Courts Rules, and in addition, require these reports to include the known or possible impacts of gender, socioeconomic status, culture, race, and other factors in the testing or assessment of results, as well as an explanation of what steps, if any, the expert took to address these impacts.
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Motherisk review should be expanded: Innocence Project.
https://www.osgoode.yorku.ca/osgoode_news/motherrisk-review-expanded-innocence-project/
By Rachel MendlesonNews reporter Tues., Feb. 10, 2015.
https://www.thestar.com/news/crime/2015/02/10/motherisk-review-should-be-expanded-innocence-project.html
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Ensuring the reliability of expert evidence
CASs offered Motherisk test results as expert evidence in the legal proceedings to determine whether children were in need of protection and if so, who should care for them. Child protection law has "special rules of evidence" that recognize the need to protect children and to make decisions about their care as quickly as possible based on little or no factual evidence at all of abuse or neglect.
However, the relaxed approach to admitting the test results in the cases we reviewed pushed these less rigorous standards of evidence beyond what could reasonably be considered necessary or fair.
I have recommended a number of amendments to the legislation and rules governing the use of expert evidence in child protection, as well as changes to strengthen the representation of parents. I have also recommended enhanced education for judges on their important role as gatekeepers for expert evidence in the child protection context.
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Judge rejects proposed class-action over Motherisk drug-testing scandal.
By RACHEL MENDLESON Investigative Reporter. Thu., Nov. 2, 2017.
https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2017/11/02/judge-rejects-proposed-class-action-over-motherisk-drug-testing-scandal.html
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Parents lose second bid to launch class-action suit against Motherisk over flawed hair tests.
By RACHEL MENDLESON Investigative Reporter. Tues., Nov. 27, 2018.
https://www.thestar.com/news/investigations/2018/11/27/parents-lose-second-bid-to-launch-class-action-suit-against-motherisk-over-flawed-hair-tests.html
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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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Motherisk hair test evidence tossed out of Colorado court 2 decades before questions raised in Canada.
A Motherisk expert testified for the defense in a Colorado murder case. The judge mocked the lab’s processes. But the case remained virtually unknown in Ontario until now.
For more than two decades, Motherisk performed flawed hair-strand tests on thousands of vulnerable families across Canada, influencing decisions in child protection cases that separated parents from their children and sometimes children from their siblings. (CBC)
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/motherisk-colorado-court-case-1.4364862
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The more things change the more they stay the same...
NOTHING PERVERSE ABOUT THAT...
2013: Children’s Aid Society funding model with “perverse incentives” set to change this year
https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2013/03/15/childrens_aid_society_funding_model_with_perverse_incentives_set_to_change_this_year.html
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Could you spot a pedophile? Here are the warning signs.
SOME child molesters jump out of bushes and molest your child on the way home from school.
But more likely, he is your friendly neighbor or attentive shopkeeper.
He could be a charming relative or the son of a friend who is all too willing to babysit your children.
The pedophile in your midst may be the schoolteacher, the bus driver, the youth worker or the lay preacher at your church.
The Australian Royal Commission into institutionalized child sex crimes, running since April, has entered a new round of hearings and a concurrent inquiry is continuing into child sex offences in the Catholic Church's NSW Hunter Valley diocese.
Child-related workers
While pedophiles can work anywhere, they do find ways to be around children as often as possible.
It may not be their principal profession, such as a teacher or priest, but a voluntary or weekend position as a sports coach, camp counsellor, school bus driver, daycare worker, Boy Scout leader, church or secular youth worker can provide the contact with children they need.
Some well-known pedophiles have placed themselves as teachers or leaders of artistic bodies such as dance schools, where they have surrounded themselves with adoring and aspiring performers.
Andrew Manners was a convicted pedophile who had committed offences against minors in Queensland in 1998. He was on parole and prohibited from working with children when he surfaced in 2002.
Manners turned up as a fill-in teacher at his mother's Scottish dance school, where he was spotted by an observant parole officer.
Former performing arts schoolteacher, Peter Gerard Boys, was also a band leader of the musical troupe the Marching Koalas in the NSW Hunter Valley region when, aged in his 40s, he began having a sexual relationship with four of his students.
He was convicted and sentenced to eight child sex offences against girls aged 10-16 years, and on his release from prison is believed to have subsequently married one of the girls who had come of age during his incarceration.
Watch out for teacher adoration beyond the bounds of a normal crush, accompanied by "secret" phone calls and special individual attention.
The every-man
When looking out for a child sex offender, don't be fooled by a person's appearance, outward respectability or importance in the community.
Pedophiles are almost always men, more often married adult males and they work in a very wide range of occupations, from unskilled work up to corporate executives.
What to look out for is someone who relates better to children than to adults, and has either very few adult friends or whose friends might also be sex offenders.
Signs to watch for: pedophiles usually prefer children in one specific age group, such as infants and toddlers, children between six and ten years old, or "tweens" and young teenagers up to the age of 16.
Pedophiles can be bisexual but more commonly will prefer children or the one gender, males or females.
https://www.news.com.au/national/could-you-spot-a-paedophile-here-are-the-warning-signs/news-story/a0502e8c3edd265972204ce6fb435982
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A Letter to Justice LeSage about the Ontario College of Teachers
C4A Editorial, Whistleblowers in Canada / By Ian Bron
Some of you may be aware that we have been following the case of Ontario teacher Jim Black. Jim spoke out about the Ontario College of Teachers reinstating of teacher with criminal records – records that involved sex with minors. He did this before most people knew it was a problem, and he was punished by the OCT for his effort. Last year, however, public outcry became loud enough that the government forced the OCT to conduct an independent inquiry of its mandate and functions (read a fuller explanation of his role on the OCT website).
We put together a letter for Mr. LeSage and sent it to him directly – avoiding the filter of the OCT. In the past, the OCT has prevented us from commenting on Mr. Black’s case in their magazine, Professionally Speaking.
Besides the letter below, I also encourage you to read the summary of Mr. Black’s case on our Cases and Issues page.
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7 February 2012
Hon. Patrick J. LeSage CM, OOnt, QC
1 First Canadian Place
100 King Street West , Suite 1600
Toronto ON M5X 1G5
Re: Ontario College of Teachers review of investigation and disciplinary procedures and outcomes and dispute resolution program
Dear Mr. LeSage:
I am writing you to provide input into your review of the Ontario College of Teachers procedures and programs. Canadians for Accountability is an organization created by a group of grassroots whistleblowers and accountability activists. Our mission is to advance integrity and accountability and to help and advocate for whistleblowers in all parts of our society.
We are interested in your inquiry as we have been approached by a number of Ontario teachers with concerns about the OCT’s handling of complaints regarding unethical behaviour at schools and at the College itself. Some of them fit our definition of whistleblowers and have faced reprisals – in one notable case, by the College.
One case in particular caught our attention: that of James Black, an award winning teacher who spoke out and was punished for doing so. Mr. Black was contacted by the Ontario Ministry of Education in 2004 and asked to provide a critique of the Ontario College of Teachers. As his experience there was troubling, he produced a four-page report that was very critical of the College – notably in its allowing sexual offenders back into the classroom – and recommended some significant changes. Following this, he reports a series of escalating reprisals. He retired in 2006 and made his report more public. This resulted in media attention, which in turn led to disciplinary action by the College.
Mr. Black went through a Kafka-esque pseudo-legal nightmare, charged with vague offences and threatened with fines and suspension – despite the fact that he had retired. Principles of natural justice were ignored and in July 2009, Mr. Black was fined $1000 and suspended from teaching for 24 months – despite the lack of clear evidence. His name and case was published in the College magazine Professionally Speaking, which is circulated to some 220,000 teachers. Nowhere in the description of his case does it mention that the complaint was laid by an individual convicted of sexual offences against students, and the standard of proof described is a travesty.
The case against Mr. Black has the hallmarks of a personal vendetta and the quality of the investigation and disciplinary process appalling. We attempted to intervene on his behalf, but were ignored. And, as far as we can determine, no action has been taken to address the problems that Mr. Black reported. Even when the more recent investigations were done validating Mr. Black’s concerns, his case was not re-examined.
You can find a summary of Mr. Blacks case on our website at http://acac.onefishcreative.ca/acac/issues-and-cases/#jb. I have attached a letter which we sent to the College: it summarizes our concerns about his case.
We are also familiar with another case, a teacher in southern Ontario who has blown the whistle on four teachers. One was ultimately convicted of theft in a very public prosecution, yet had been fervently defended. The whistleblower, meanwhile, faced reprisals for speaking out. Interestingly, the teacher who was prosecuted – Wes McConnell – was never disciplined by the College.
See http://www.lfpress.com/sports/columnists/morris_dalla_costa/2011/03/16/17645961.html for the London Free Press story.
Based on these cases and others we have observed, it is our opinion that the OCT is deficient in performing its functions in respect to investigative and disciplinary processes and decisions.
Part of the problem, we feel, is that the College is a self-regulating body with no oversight. Canadians for Accountability is opposed to such bodies on principle as we feel all bodies should have oversight – especially those where professionals may be judging their colleagues and inappropriate influence is possible. We would like to see the Ontario Ombudsman have the authority to investigate and make findings against the College as a precaution against such potential abuses.
As you are no doubt aware, the Province of Quebec maintains an oversight function via the Office des professions, and publishes annual reports on the findings of its reviews in the Montreal Gazette and other pubic media. Such an office could serve as an alternative to the Ombudsman.
In addition, we are concerned that professional training and standards for investigators and disciplinary panel members may not be deficient. The outcome of the cases above certainly suggests so. There are professional accreditations in investigation available – perhaps these should be requirement, particularly given the fact that children are the ones vulnerable to any misconduct that may occur.
I hope that this information is helpful to you. Should you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact us directly.
Yours truly,
Ian Bron
Managing Director
cc: Ontario College of Teachers
http://acacanada.ca/2012/03/23/a-letter-to-justice-lesage-about-the-ontario-college-of-teachers/
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2011: Soft-porn writing teacher resigns from watchdog.
The former head of the discipline committee of the Ontario College of Teachers (OCT) is facing professional misconduct charges for his role in co-authoring a sexually explicit novel for teens.
Jacques Tremblay resigned his position as chair of the OCT’s disciplinary committee, a position that involves overseeing sexual assault cases, in 2011 after his part in writing a soft porn novel titled “The Sexteens and the Fake Goddess” was exposed in a Toronto Star investigation.
The book “is a lurid tale of striptease, breast fondling, bum grabbing, orgasms, drugs and blackmail,” reported the Star’s Kevin Donovan in the exposé.
The cover of the book depicts the backs of a boy and a girl naked from the waist up looking at a silhouette of the CN Tower.
The other authors of the book are identified as Tremblay’s wife, Marie-Ange Gagnon, and Frederic Tremblay.
Following Jacques Tremblay’s resignation the OCT launched an investigation into the situation, although the teachers’ watchdog had earlier maintained that Tremblay’s writing did “not have an impact on his ability to act in the public interest.”
Tremblay himself had argued that his book was “entirely separate” from his work at the College and service to the public, saying the book was meant to “empower teenagers, to encourage them to be strong and resist or avoid peer pressure.”
However, in an article on his website Tremblay says the purpose of his novel is to help teens “find their inner voice” which will affect their “future sex life” because “having higher self-esteem below the belt leads to better sex.”
He also warns teens that having negative attitudes about sex could have a “direct impact on orgasm.”
https://mychristiandaily.com/teen-sex-novel-lands-former-ontario-teachers-disciplinary-head-in-hot-water/
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Ontario’s top teacher watchdog has quit.
Jacques Tremblay, who the Star reported was a writer of soft porn replete with questionable administrator-teacher-student conduct, resigned Tuesday. He was the chairperson for five years of the Ontario College of Teachers’ disciplinary panel, which sits in judgment on hundreds of teachers accused of misconduct.
In the novel, main character Leila Montana is introduced as a “young teen” just starting high school. She is also joining a group called the Sexteens’ Select Society.
As she awaits initiation into this mysterious alliance, the book describes her appearance as follows: “Her half-open shirt divulges the roundness of her gorgeous bosom. Leila’s particularly short skirt exposes her barely fleshy buttocks.”
There are several other detailed references throughout the book about the bodies of Leila and other girls.
Taking an oath to the mysterious society, Leila promises to “develop my teenage life at my own rhythm inspired by the aphrodisiac cult, which is based on the power of love and the emancipation of my sexuality.”
On the day after the initiation, “Leila wakes up and feels a new energy swelling within her. . . . Despite her efforts, however, Leila can’t remember what really happened. She is peaceful and undisturbed by this lapse of memory. Meanwhile, Leila feels a very light, but quite pleasant, tingling on her upper right buttock.”
(Nothing at all creepy about this is there and everything about this little scenario is perfectly normal, right?)
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Date rape drugs facts: It’s Not Just Roofies Anymore.
Date rape drugs are drugs used to assist in a sexual assault, which is any type of sexual activity a person does not agree to.
These drugs can affect you very quickly and cause victims to become weak, confused, and even pass out. You may not remember what happened while you were drugged.
The most common date rape drugs -- also called "club drugs" -- are flunitrazepam (Rohypnol), also called roofies; gamma hydroxybutyric acid (GHB), also called liquid ecstasy; and ketamine, also called Special K.
These drugs may come as pills, liquids, or powders.
Alcohol may also be considered a date rape drug because it affects judgment and behavior and can be used to help commit sexual assault.
The club drug "ecstasy" (MDMA) has also been used to commit sexual assault.
Protect yourself by not accepting drinks from others, not sharing drinks, watching your drink, and by avoiding creepy societies and having a non-drinking friend with you to make sure nothing happens.
If you suspect you have been exposed to a date rape drug or have been sexually assaulted, call 911 and get to an emergency room immediately.
Date rape drugs can also cause seizures and even death.
Adverse Effects of Club Drugs
Uncertainties about the sources, chemicals, and possible contaminants used to manufacture many club drugs make it extremely difficult to determine toxicity and associated medical consequences. Nonetheless, we do know that:
Coma and seizures can occur following use of GHB.
Combined use with other drugs such as alcohol can result in nausea and breathing difficulties. GHB and two of its precursors, gamma butyrolactone (GBL) and 1,4 butanediol (BD), have been involved in poisonings, overdoses, date rapes, and deaths.
Rohypnol may be lethal when mixed with alcohol and/or other CNS depressants.
Ketamine, in high doses, can cause impaired motor function, high blood pressure, and potentially fatal respiratory problems.
https://nationalpost.com/news/canada/chairman-of-teachers-discipline-committee-resigns-over-blue-teen-novel
https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2011/10/05/top_teacher_watchdog_who_wrote_porn_resigns.html
https://www.thespec.com/news-story/2221198-soft-porn-writing-teacher-resigns-from-watchdog/
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BORIS BYTENSKY DEFENDS ONE OF THE LARGEST CHILD PORNOGRAPHY RINGS EVER.
KITCHENER — A local software security entrepreneur is caught up in a global bust of one of the largest child pornography rings ever seen, a network that circulated graphic images of kids as young as five.
Kitchener’s Paul Anton Sop, 42, is accused of being a customer of the child porn website Azovfilms.com, which was exposed this week after a three-year probe called Project Spade involving detectives in Toronto, investigators in the United States and police overseas.
Sop is fighting three charges — two counts of downloading child porn and one count of possessing child porn, dating back to 2010. His criminal lawyer, Boris Bytensky, described the allegations against his client as purchasing “naturist videos.”
Also charged in the widespread sting is a 62-year-old Guelph man, Terence Keleher, who’s already sitting in a U.S. jail for possession of child porn.
More than 100 Canadians were swept up in the massive probe. Another 76 were arrested in the U.S. Police say paying customers included teachers, police officers, coaches, clergy and doctors.
https://youtu.be/XioDjGGwYHc
https://crimlawcanada.com/boris-bytensky-defends-one-largest-child-pornography-rings-ever/
Project Spade arrests by the numbers
In Canada:
40 teachers (no surprises here)
9 doctors and nurses (no surprises here)
32 volunteers (volunteers for who?)
6 law enforcement personnel (no surprises here)
9 faith leaders (priests and pastors)
3 foster parents (big surprise it wasn't more)
Ontario: 50
Rest of Canada: 58
United States: 76
International: 164
https://www.macleans.ca/general/huge-child-porn-ring-busted-toronto-police-say-348-arrested-in-project-spade/
https://www.toronto.com/news-story/4219011-toronto-police-s-project-spade-results-in-international-child-porn-arrests/
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/almost-350-suspects-nabbed-in-huge-child-porn-bust/
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Great material. It was hard to read as large blank spaces appeared between each line of your typed material. Thanks for your effort to fix a major problem in our society.
ReplyDeleteI don't know where the extra spacing is coming from.. I've tried to delete them out..
DeleteNo adding spacing in this copy https://www.facebook.com/FamiliesUnitedOntario/photos/a.421920498017720/1076546309221799/?type=3
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