The Cornwall Whitewash..
With $53 million dollars no one could find any signs of the respectable pedophile porn ring operating in Ontario, beside the first 34 victims and secret multi-million dollar settlements..
The Respectable Pedophiles of Ontario.
The 80's:
There were 34 victims in a Cornwall child-molestation scandal, but even after a four-year, $53 million public inquiry no one knows if an organized pedophile ring was operating in Eastern Ontario.
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.
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. Mr. Dunlop now lives in BC and refuses to return to Ontario.
Four of the accused are dead. One doctor went so far as to commit suicide (now - I don't know the actual facts surrounding the suicide but it honestly doesn't sound like the act of an innocent doctor wrongly accused)
The Cornwall Public Inquiry was urged to debunk rumors of pedophile ring and the only thing $53 million dollar, four year inquiry was able to determine as fact were, lawyers, doctors, police officers and Catholic clergymen, the children's aid society and other justice officials refused to co-operate with the inquiry and that there were 34 victims that were apparently passed around., Now the same lawyers, doctors, police officers and Catholic clergymen that had stood accused focused on services and programs to prevent the victimization of, or help the victims heal.
"There is no doubt that this commission was formed largely in response to the persistence of this story," David Sherriff-Scott, lawyer for the Diocese of Alexandria-Cornwall, submitted to the inquiry. "The commission, therefore, should unequivocally and unreservedly put the story to rest and declare that, after more than three years of probing, the story is false."
The last effort to track down the sex abusers was 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.
Commissioner G. Normand Glaude released his 2,396-page report Tuesday, exposing "a combination of systemic failures, insensitivity to complaints,
-> ->(and a) reluctance to act" on the part of church, school, the children's aid society, police and justice officials.!!!!
That fueled "speculation" (34 victims isn't just speculation) – stoked by the media, and politicians making supposedly "inaccurate" statements – of a child molesters' ring at large in the area for years.
"I heard evidence that suggested that there were cases of joint abuse, passing of alleged victims and possibly passive knowledge of abuse. I am not making a pronouncement on whether a ring existed or not," Glaude wrote in his report.
https://www.thestar.com/news/ontario/2009/12/16/huge_inquiry_fails_to_find_pedophile_ring_in_cornwall.html
https://www.attorneygeneral.jus.gov.on.ca/inquiries/cornwall/en/report/v4_en_pdf/E_Vol4_Ph1ExSummary.pdf
Barbara Kay. National Post.
http://www.barbarakay.ca/articles/view/114
Margaret Wente. The Globe and Mail.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/the-pedophiles-of-cornwall/article759924/
The Canadian Press. CBC news.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/cornwall-inquiry-urged-to-debunk-rumours-of-pedophile-ring-1.849104
Robert Benzie, Rob Ferguson. The Toronto Star.
https://www.thestar.com/news/ontario/2009/12/16/huge_inquiry_fails_to_find_pedophile_ring_in_cornwall.html
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Ex-Cornwall cop won't testify at abuse inquiry
By Dirk Meissner THE CANADIAN PRESS Wed., Jan. 9, 2008.
DUNCAN, B.C. – A former police officer credited with bringing to light explosive allegations of widespread child sexual abuse in eastern Ontario says he's convinced the dark stories that have divided the community are true – but he says he won't testify before a public inquiry because he says the justice system hasn't listened to him for 15 years.
https://www.attorneygeneral.jus.gov.on.ca/inquiries/cornwall/en/report/v1_en_pdf/E_Vol1_full_version.pdf
Perry Dunlop, a decorated former officer from Cornwall, Ont., has been scheduled to testify but he told The Canadian Press in an exclusive interview he won't be there because he's lost faith in the justice system.
He said he's prepared to face the consequences if he's arrested.
Dunlop, 46, was convicted of contempt of court last September for his earlier refusal to testify at the inquiry.
"I don't have much of a choice, really, so I'll face whatever," he said in an interview in a local coffee shop.
"I have a lot of reasons, but I'm not going to testify," he said.
"I'm saying our judicial system is broken and they haven't listened to me for 15 years, and I have no faith. Absolutely no faith, none."
The Ontario government inquiry was launched in February 2006 and is scheduled to conduct hearings until August 2008.
https://www.thestar.com/news/2008/01/09/excornwall_cop_won39t_testify_at_abuse_inquiry.html
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Legal fees and disbursements made up about 60 per cent of the $50.2 million cost of the Cornwall inquiry. (Emily Chung/CBC)
Lawyers for accused pedophiles, sexual abuse victims, the local Catholic diocese and other parties at the Cornwall Public Inquiry have cost Ontario taxpayers $30 million.
The commission charged with examining how public institutions responded to widespread allegations of child sexual abuse and rumours of a pedophile ring in Cornwall, Ont., spent $50.2 million by March 15, 2010 — three months after it released its final report — the Ministry of the Attorney General reported.
That makes the commission headed by Normand Glaude the most expensive in Ontario history.
Legal fees and disbursements made up around 60 per cent of the cost, CBC News has learned.
Based on figures from the Ministry of the Attorney General, of those legal costs:
$9.3 million was tied directly to the inquiry itself.
$6.2 million related to the Ontario Provincial Police.
$2.7 million related to the Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services.
$300,000 was for disbursements by the Ministry of the Attorney General.
$12 million related to other parties with standing, such as the Catholic Diocese of Alexandria-Cornwall, three local school boards, those accused of being pedophiles or their estates, victims’ groups, and the Children’s Aid Society of the United Counties of Stormont, Dundas and Glengarry.
The ministry said it was unable to release the detailed breakdown for the parties that were not Ontario government parties without giving them the opportunity to object, consent or make submissions to the information and privacy commissioner.
$12M in direct costs not specified
The direct costs of the commission totalled $28.7 million. Of that, $12 million was described as being tied to miscellaneous costs such as research, translation and editing, investigators, prisoner transport and IT services, but was not broken down in detail.
Of costs that were categorized, legal costs were the largest component, followed by counselling costs, staff salaries and benefits and leases and rentals. Glaude’s annual salary in 2009 was reported to be $263,009.68. The inquiry also spent more than $745,000 to design, produce, translate and print its final report.
Direct costs of the Cornwall Inquiry
[Sykvia’s note: The missing part of text in the orange portion of the pie is also missing on the CBC website]
The Cornwall Public Inquiry was established by Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty in 2005 after several police investigations into sexual abuse allegations dating back to the 1950s that surfaced decades later. Its main goals were to:
– Examine how public institutions responded to allegations of abuse and recommend changes to prevent similar situations in the future.
In the end, Glaude concluded that there were systematic failures in the way institutions responded, and that led to further harm to the victims. He made a long list of recommendations, urging institutions to record and investigate allegations of abuse and offer services for the victims promptly. However, he would not make a pronouncement on whether the rumoured pedophile ring existed.
With files from Mike Crawley
https://www.theinquiry.ca/wordpress/cornwall/cornwall-public-inquiry/cornwall-inquiry-billed-30m-in-legal-costs/
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2003: Ontario group-home owner faces sex assault charges
UPDATED APRIL 17, 2018
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.
The private, for-profit agency has operated in Peterborough for more than a decade, starting with a handful of homes and growing in a few years to 21 homes that opened their doors to troubled children no one else would take.
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/ontario-group-home-owner-faces-sex-assault-charges/article20448232/
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Cornwall sex abuse victims given large settlements..
Some victims of the Cornwall sex abuse scandal are receiving large financial settlements 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.
The Project Truth inquiry into a pedophile ring cover-up and sex abuse allegations in Cornwall ended in December 2009.
Former Conservative MPP Garry Guzzo predicts the settlements are in the millions.
Alleged victim Steve Parisien says the public has a right to know about large settlements paid out to sex abuse victims.
Although confidentiality agreements could mean taxpayers will never learn the true cost of the settlements, a former MPP predicts the payouts will total tens of millions of dollars.
:
"I would look at somewhere between $70-100 million," said Garry Guzzo, a former Conservative MPP who blew the whistle on the scandal and pushed for a public inquiry.
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"It's a lot of money coming from very few taxpayers, and the people of the Catholic Church are taxpayers."
While sources have told CTV the payouts are in the millions, alleged victim Steve Parisien says some individuals are getting less than $20,000.
"I think parishioners and taxpayers have a right to know how much has been paid out," he said.
A lawyer representing dozens of the victims wouldn't reveal how much money was paid. However, he confirmed several settlements have been reached with the Catholic diocese, the Ontario government and other Catholic organizations. There are also several cases in the works against the Children's Aid Society.
Cornwall's Catholic Diocese says it has settled all 16 of the lawsuits against the Catholic Church. The last lawsuit was settled a few weeks ago.
Bishop Paul-Andre Durocher says the total payouts from those lawsuits amount to $1.2 million. He adds none of those settlements involved confidentiality agreements.
"There's no doubt in my mind that these victims deserve this money," said Guzzo.
"You know the confidentiality agreement - never going to trial, never allowing it to become public - there's an element of hush money."
Although Parisien hasn't received a settlement, he is hoping to get some compensation for his experience.
He says while no amount of money will change his life, it will help validate what he went through.
"Just for my loss of wages - that's all I seek. I don't want nothing else from these people, they've done enough damage. And they have to sleep with themselves at night."
https://ottawa.ctvnews.ca/cornwall-sex-abuse-victims-given-large-settlements-1.521190
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2013: Project Spade.
How Police Cracked Canada's Largest Child Pornography Ring
Inside the year-long effort to take down a criminal organization hiding in plain sight
BY ROBERT KOLKER
Updated 9:15, Sep. 17, 2018
Many of the customers arrested occupied positions of authority and trust: forty teachers, six members of law enforcement, nine clergymen.
About 100 people were arrested in Canada in connection with the Azov case, most of them in Ontario and Quebec.
School teachers, doctors and actors were among those arrested, Beaven-Desjardins said. The investigation was known internally as Project Spade.
The United States Postal Inspection Service was closely involved in the investigation, as were authorities in Sweden, Spain, Australia, South Africa, and Hong Kong, among others. Several were represented at the Toronto news conference.
Among those present were Gerald O’Farrell, acting deputy chief inspector of the United States Postal Inspection Service, Insp. Brian Bone of the same agency, and Signy Arnason, associate executive director of Cybertip — the Canada Centre for Child Protection.
Inspector Joanna Beaven-Desjardins, head of Toronto’s Sex Crimes Unit, said they enlisted the help of the United States Postal Inspection Service since many of the videos were being exported to the U.S. and began a joint investigation.
After a seven-month long investigation, officers executed search warrants across the city of Toronto including at the business, located in the city’s West End.
Investigators catalogued hundreds of thousands of images and videos of “horrific sexual acts against very young children, some of the worst they have ever viewed,” Inspector Beaven-Desjardins said at the press conference.
As a result of the investigation thus far, 50 people were arrested in Ontario, 58 in the rest of Canada, 76 in the United States, and 164 internationally.
What was most alarming, Inspector Beaven-Desjardins said, was that many of the arrests were of people who worked with or closely interacted with children.
Among those arrested were 40 school teachers, nine doctors and nurses, six law enforcement personnel, nine pastors and priests and three foster parents, she said.
Det. Cst. Lisa Belanger of the Toronto police child exploitation section said many of the pictures and videos were shot in people's apartments, backyards and "dingy saunas."
“Sometimes they set up in backyards,” she said.
Beaven-Desjardin said that 24 Canadian children were rescued as a result of Project Spade. She said the children were not necessarily involved in the production of Azov material, and their exploitation was discovered when police were investigating people who bought material from the company.
Police said at the home of a retired teacher, they found 350,000 pictures and more than 9,000 video showing child sexual abuse. They say some of the children were known to the man, who is also accused of abusing a child in his family.
Spinoff investigations led to caches of images and hundreds of children from around the world.
At least two teachers and nine medical professionals were among the Canadians arrested.
Toronto police Chief Bill Blair called the investigation "extraordinary."
"There is no greater responsibility of those who serve and protect than the protection of our children," he said. "And exploitation of children is a crime for which law enforcement comes together united around the world to do our very best."
Project Spade arrests by the numbers
Ontario: 50
Rest of Canada: 58
United States: 76
International: 164
In Canada:
40 teachers
9 doctors and nurses
32 volunteers
6 law enforcement personnel
9 faith leaders
3 foster parents
https://thewalrus.ca/how-police-cracked-canadas-largest-child-pornography-ring/
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/hundreds-arrested-in-international-child-porn-case-1.2426176
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/nearly-400-children-rescued-348-adults-arrested-canadian-child-pornography-flna2D11599561
https://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/child-porn-probe-began-with-toronto-man-ends-with-348-people-arrested-police-1.1542666
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2016: 80 arrested, 274 charges laid in massive Ontario-wide child porn bust
“There’s always been a misconception that a lot of this material is produced in third world type countries,” OPP Det. Staff-Sgt. Frank Goldschmidt told reporters at a press conference Thursday morning.
“But it’s our experience and the investigations that we’ve completed, just as much of that material is produced right here in Ontario.”
https://globalnews.ca/news/2667299/arrests-made-in-ontario-wide-internet-child-porn-probe/
Child porn images will revictimize: Kingston Police
https://www.thewhig.com/2016/08/17/child-porn-images-will-revictimize-kingston-police/wcm/6d8766ab-9664-fd1c-c6df-598dd57e71b1
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2018: Ontario police charge 122 with child pornography offences in November, four from Kingston. By Steph Crosier. Published on: December 7, 2018.
Law enforcement agencies working in partnership against the creation and circulation of child pornography are celebrating the arrest of 122 people in Ontario this past November, four of whom are from Kingston.
The Provincial Strategy to Protect Children from Sexual Abuse and Exploitation on the Internet was created in August 2006. Since then, it has identified 2,009 victims of child pornography in Ontario and internationally.
“It is our fundamental and moral responsibility to ensure every child grows up safe,” Deputy Commissioner Rick Barnum of the Ontario Provincial Police’s Investigation and Support Bureau said in a news release sent out by the OPP. “On behalf of the OPP, I want to make this message very clear: we will not stand for anyone hurting our kids. We will do everything we can to reduce the threat child predators pose to our children.”
Last month, 551 charges were laid against the 122 accused, including 11 youth. The charges include: sexual assault, sexual interference, invitation to sexual touching, possessing of child pornography, making child pornography available, distributing child pornography, making child pornography, accessing child pornography, luring, and making sexually explicit material available to a child.
The investigations identified 55 victims. They have been referred to appropriate community-based resources for assistance. Police also seized a total of 17 firearms, three of which were loaded handguns.
In November alone, police found 843 unique IP addresses associated with the dark crimes. Police describe these numbers as the “tip of the iceberg” in relation to online child sexual exploitation in Ontario, the news release said.
Det. Joel Fisher of Kingston Police’s Internet Child Exploitation unit, said on Friday that the provincial strategy and his force’s administration supports his unit by purchasing investigative tools and funding cutting-edge training.
“[They also] allow us the time and space to run with the cases we think are important,” Fisher said. “Without both organizations being completely on board with what we’re doing, we wouldn’t be able to be as effective as we’ve shown we can be.”
When Kingston Police arrested and charged the four local men, they released the information to the public. In most of the cases, the men’s names were not released because the charges had not been sworn yet or there was a publication ban. The OPP released their names on Friday.
First on the list is 43-year-old Robert Burns, who has been charged with 11 counts of agreement or arrange to commit a sexual offence against a child, two counts each of failing to comply with a sexual offender information registration act condition and attempting to make child pornography, as well as one count each of possessing child pornography and making child pornography.
Then there is 31-year-old David Malcolm, charged with possessing, making and accessing child pornography, and 50-year-old Jody Macdonald, charged with possessing and accessing child pornography.
The fourth individual charged has since died, and the Whig-Standard will not be publishing his name as there is a publication ban on it.
From its inception in August 2006, the entire provincial strategy has completed 50,403 investigations and laid 20,901 charges against 5,686 people.
“Perpetrators of online sexual exploitation often minimize their actions by saying they were ‘just looking,’” Staff Sgt. Sharon Hanlon, OPP co-ordinator of the strategy, said in a news release. “Let me be clear: anyone who possesses, distributes, accesses or otherwise supports the supply and demand chain for child sexual abuse images are complicit in the sexual exploitation of children.”
https://www.thewhig.com/news/local-news/ontario-police-charge-122-with-child-pornography-offences-in-november-four-from-kingston
scrosier@postmedia.com
Twitter.com/StephattheWhig
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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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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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Ontario portrayed as pedophile paradise in U.S. as believable 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.
STORY CONTINUES BELOW
“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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Cornwall sex abuse victims given large settlements
Published Thursday, June 10, 2010 12:20PM EDT ctvottawa.ca
Some victims of the Cornwall sex abuse scandal are receiving large financial settlements 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.
The Project Truth inquiry into a pedophile ring cover-up and sex abuse allegations in Cornwall ended in December 2009.
Alleged victim Steve Parisien says the public has a right to know about large settlements paid out to sex abuse victims.
Although confidentiality agreements could mean taxpayers will never learn the true cost of the settlements, a former MPP predicts the payouts will total tens of millions of dollars.
"I would look at somewhere between $70-100 million," said Garry Guzzo, a former Conservative MPP who blew the whistle on the scandal and pushed for a public inquiry.
"It's a lot of money coming from very few taxpayers, and the people of the Catholic Church are taxpayers."
While sources have told CTV the payouts are in the millions, alleged victim Steve Parisien says some individuals are getting less than $20,000.
"I think parishioners and taxpayers have a right to know how much has been paid out," he said.
A lawyer representing dozens of the victims wouldn't reveal how much money was paid. However, he confirmed several settlements have been reached with the Catholic diocese, the Ontario government and other Catholic organizations. There are also several cases in the works against the Children's Aid Society.
Cornwall's Catholic Diocese says it has settled all 16 of the lawsuits against the Catholic Church. The last lawsuit was settled a few weeks ago.
Bishop Paul-Andre Durocher says the total payouts from those lawsuits amount to $1.2 million. He adds none of those settlements involved confidentiality agreements.
"There's no doubt in my mind that these victims deserve this money," said Guzzo.
"You know the confidentiality agreement - never going to trial, never allowing it to become public - there's an element of hush money."
Although Parisien hasn't received a settlement, he is hoping to get some compensation for his experience.
He says while no amount of money will change his life, it will help validate what he went through.
"Just for my loss of wages - that's all I seek. I don't want nothing else from these people, they've done enough damage. And they have to sleep with themselves at night."
With a report from CTV Ottawa's Catherine Lathem
https://ottawa.ctvnews.ca/cornwall-sex-abuse-victims-given-large-settlements-1.521190
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Three CAS cases settled.
When it was filed in 2013, the civil suits totalled $14 million ($2.8 million per plaintiff).
Each plaintiff initially claimed $350,000 for pain and suffering, in addition to $1 million each for loss of future earnings and another $1 million for punitive damages. They sought $100,000 in future care costs, plus $100,000 for special damages and $250,000 for aggravated damages.
Two outstanding plaintiffs will be addressed shortly, Bonn said.
“We continue to work on those,” he said. “We intend to mediate those.”
The suit directed at the CAS also targets four former foster parents, two are now serving prison terms for sexual abuse of children placed in their care. A third convicted predator’s case is now before the Ontario Court of Appeal.
“Like most of these issues, they’re difficult all the way through and deal with unpleasant issues, but the fact that we’ve been able to reach some form of agreement means that each side is able to live with it at some level,” Bonn said Tuesday.
Bonn filed the claims on behalf of the five female plaintiffs, now in their late teens and early 20s.
“With litigation done, it would bring an end to this piece of their involvement with the CAS,” Bonn said.
All complainants listed claim the Prince Edward County CAS (PECCAS) is liable for the abuse each of them suffered while in the care of PECCAS.
The County society is now part of the newly-amalgamated Highland Shores Children’s Aid Society, which also spans the societies of Hastings and Northumberland counties.
Mark Kartusch, the society’s executive director, was also tight-lipped about the settlement.
“I can’t disclose any of the details,” he said Tuesday. “However, we do hope this helps these youths move forward.”
Kartusch wouldn’t go as far as viewing the settlements as a form of closure for the plaintiffs.
“How does one ever have closure?” he said. “We believe in these young people and their future and want to support them in that.”
Before the 2013 merger, PECCAS was subjected to an extensive government probe which revealed a bevy of damning findings.
The investigation led by the Ministry of Child and Youth Services in Dec. 2011 – following a rash of child sex abuse charges against County foster parents – showed the agency was rife with significant internal conflicts recklessly placing vulnerable children in homes not properly screened and some cases not screened at all for months.
Kartusch said the agency has found better footing since the findings triggered amalgamation.
“I think we’re moving forward but will not forget the past,” he said.
Some concerns linger.
“I’m concerned that this may cause people to lose confidence in fostering or foster families,” he said, adding few bad apples aren’t representative of the whole bunch.
The 2013 statement of claims alleged “PECCAS is responsible, in fact and in law, for its own negligence and breaches of its statutory and fiduciary duties as well as for the negligence and breaches of duty committed by its servants, agents and employees,” states the claim, a copy of which was obtained by The Intelligencer in April 2013.
One statement of claim states, “PECCAS caused (the plaintiffs) permanent and extensive injuries and losses” ranging from alcohol and substance abuse to inability to trust, impairment of mental health, nightmares of abuse, suicidal thoughts and suicide attempts.
“They (plaintiffs) have incurred medical expenses and will continue to require therapy and medical attention,” the 2013 statement of claim adds.
Two of the former foster parents initially targeted in the claim were Walter Joseph Holm, 46, and his wife, Janet Holm, 49.
They pleaded guilty to several charges, including possession of child pornography, sexual assault and invitation to sexual touching and were sentenced in November 2011 to four- and three-year prison terms respectively.
Three of the five plaintiffs, now ages 21, 23, and 19, are linked to the Holms. It’s not known if they were the three of five now concluded.
Justice Geoff Griffin blasted the Holms for turning their home into a “sexual cult” while fostering 25 teenagers over the course of nine years.
The three plaintiffs further implied that PECCAS was “vicariously liable for the actions” of the Holms.
https://www.intelligencer.ca/2014/10/21/three-cas-cases-settled/wcm/3fd07287-3f2a-1755-7386-1c8c2353c943
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Woman charged with sex assault of minors worked at male Highland Shores Children's Aid Society group-home at time of alleged offences.
February 1, 2019 7:16 pm By Alexandra Mazur Online Reporter Global News.
https://globalnews.ca/news/4916584/woman-charged-with-sex-assault-of-minors-worked-at-male-cas-group-home-at-time-of-alleged-offences/
Woman charged with sexual exploitation worked at Children’s Aid at time of alleged offences.
Belleville police say two male victims came forward claiming incidents of sexual assault with the accused, 48-year-old Sandra Forcier.
https://globalnews.ca/video/4917374/woman-charged-with-sexual-exploitation-worked-at-childrens-aid-at-time-of-alleged-offences
Youth worker charged with historical sex assault.
Police in Belleville, Ont., have charged a 48-year-old woman with five counts of sexual assault dating back to 2012-2013, when she was employed as a youth worker.
The woman is charged with two counts of sexual assault, two counts of sexual exploitation of a youth under 18 and one count of sexual interference.
The woman was employed by the Highland Shores Children's Aid Society (CAS) when the alleged assaults took place. Police said a lengthy investigation resulted in two victims being identified.
Highland Shores CAS executive director Tami Callahan said the accused was a supervisor at a residence for youth run by the society before leaving in December 2013.
Callahan said Belleville police have not been in touch with the CAS, and she didn't know whether the complainants were in the society's care at the time of the alleged assaults.
The accused also worked at Belleville and Quinte West Community Health Centre as a counsellor. The centre's executive director, Sheila Braidek, said the accused has been on leave for an extended period of time.
The centre would not provide any further information, citing privacy concerns.
The woman is due back in court in February after being released from custody with numerous conditions.
Anyone with more information should contact Belleville police at 613-966-0882 ext. 2328
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/youth-worker-sex-assault-belleville-1.5001086
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Children’s Aid executive facing 20 charges in child abuse case. By Alexandra Mazur and Mike Postovit Global News. 2018.
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/
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2019: ‘No one listened’: How reports of sexual abuse in an Ontario foster home were allegedly dismissed for years.
Amber was only 10 years old when Prince Edward County Children’s Aid Society (now Highland Shores) placed her with a man she alleges sexually assaulted her.
What she didn’t know was that not long before she arrived, another 10-year-old foster child had reported the same man, Roy Minister, for sexually assaulting her. She says neither of the girls would be believed until a third foster child came forward half a decade later.
https://globalnews.ca/news/5428684/reports-of-sexual-abuse-foster-home-dismissed/
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2019: Drugs, theft, alcohol and inappropriate relationships alleged at Children’s Aid group home.
Several years back, Annie and her now-ex-husband took their 15-year-old son Nick to Highland Shores Children’s Aid Society, hoping to get him help. But almost a year after his death, they feel Nick’s time in the Belleville, Ont.-area Children’s Aid Society group home was the spark that led to a violent criminal streak and his eventual suicide.
A Global News investigation has uncovered stories from the Children’s Aid group home where Nick lived for a short time in 2012 and 2013, where already vulnerable teenage boys were allegedly taking and selling drugs, stealing from their classmates and using money from those exploits to buy tattoos, drugs and alcohol — and all of this was allegedly encouraged by one employee.
(Both Annie and Nick’s names have been changed to protect Nick’s identity. Nick’s father would not consent to an interview.)
In late January 2019, 48-year-old Sandra Forcier, a former supervisor of the youth home on Willett Road in Belleville, Ont., was charged with the historic sexual assault of two underage boys. Forcier’s case is still before the court, and a trial date has yet to be set.
Tami Callahan, executive director of Highland Shores, says the now-closed facility once held up to eight boys at a time.
Callahan was not executive director in 2013, when the closure was announced. In fact, Callahan was only made executive director just weeks before Forcier’s charges were laid. Kartusch was the executive director of Highland Shores from its creation in 2012 until mid-January 2019, when he took a position as the executive director of the Catholic Children’s Aid Society of Toronto.
Just a month after Forcier went on leave, in May 2013, Mark Kartusch, then executive director of Highland Shores, announced the closure of the Willett Road facility where Nick had stayed, citing financial issues.
For some, the timing of the closure announcement seemed suspect.
“I think it’s a bunch of hogwash,” said Jess, a current employee at Highland Shores. Her identity is being masked to protect her employment since Highland Shores staff have been threatened with termination by management if they speak to the media.
https://globalnews.ca/news/5334666/drugs-theft-alcohol-abuse-alleged-childrens-aid-group-home/
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Teen ‘sexual cult’ in Ontario foster home known to Children’s Aid Society, victim says.
The 15-year-old girl was seeking refuge when she came to Janet and Joe Holm’s house in the mid-2000s. The couple lived in a big white farmhouse on a sprawling property just minutes outside Bloomfield, Ont., a village in Prince Edward County/Highland Shores dotted with well-manicured homes from the 1800s.
M.K’s story is not unique. The Holms would eventually be convicted of treating the wards in their care as sexual playthings. Joe pleaded guilty to the sexual assaults of three foster girls in the home, and Janet pleaded guilty to one count of sexual exploitation, one count of permitting a person under 18 to engage in sexual activity in her home and one count of possession of child pornography in relation to three foster children in the home. Both were sentenced to jail in 2011.
A Global News investigation shows what happened at the Holm house was not an isolated case, but one of several foster homes chosen by the now-defunct Prince Edward County Children’s Aid Society where foster parents were convicted of abusing children between 2002 and 2010.
M.K. had been previously sexually abused when she arrived at the Holms’ as a foster child, hoping to find a safe, stable home. Instead, her stay turned into a nightmare. The couple groomed her under the guise of trying to heal her. They dressed her up, made her watch porn, and eventually she was sexually assaulted by Joe.
https://globalnews.ca/news/5360057/teen-sexual-cult-ontario-foster-home-childrens-aid-society/
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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.
NEWS 01:49 PM 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.
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."
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."
820 Lakeview Drive Kenora Ontario P9N 3P7 Canada Phone: 807-467-5437 Fax: 807-467-5539
Ontario's Child and Family Services Act, which governs children's aid societies, is also clear. "'Child' means a person under the age of eighteen years," it reads.
Kenora CFS refused to say when it became aware its lawyer had made the statement, but told the Star this week it disagrees with McCallum and called his position "inaccurate."
The agency also refused to say whether it plans to rectify the statement in court.
McCallum declined to comment to the Star, saying in an email that "I will not be making any statements on matters that are currently being litigated and I will not be making any statements inconsistent with those of my client."
The statement is part of a voluminous court record that stretches back years. It appears in a July 2018 affidavit in which McCallum states he is responding to the affidavit of the plaintiff's lawyer, Simona Jellinek, which McCallum said is "rife with errors, imprecisions, and misrepresentations." (Jellinek declined to comment to the Star.)
"She states that the alleged assaults took place while the plaintiff was 'in childhood,'" McCallum states before noting that the plaintiff's year of birth indicates she would have been about 14 or 15 in the early 1980s.
"A fourteen or fifteen (sic) girl is a sexually mature young woman, not a 'child,' as the term is conventionally understood," McCallum states.
The statement is again referenced in a January 2019 decision by Superior Court Justice Jessica Kimmel, who ruled that the plaintiff's action could proceed. In her decision, Kimmel makes no comment on the statement itself, other than to say it was identified as a "live" issue by McCallum surrounding the allegation of sexual assault.
As other lawyers have pointed out, McCallum's position — which has now been in the public record for about eight months since the affidavit was sworn in July 2018 — is effectively the agency's position, as he is acting for it in court.
"He's speaking on behalf of a children's aid society, so it's deeply concerning that there's a children's aid society out there that takes the view that youngsters of 14 or 15 are sexually mature," said lawyer Loretta Merritt, whose practice is almost exclusively focused on representing plaintiffs in civil cases involving sexual abuse.
"If that's their view, the view of an organization charged with responsibility for caring for vulnerable children, then that's deeply concerning to me."
Kenora CFS executive director Bill Leonard told the Star in an email exchange this week that he can't really comment as the court case is ongoing.
"Mr. McCallum's statement is before the court and as you point out, it has been before the court for some time," he said. "But to be clear my agency does, and always has, considered 14 and 15 year old young persons to be children as defined by legislation and as such are deserving of our full protection from any form of abuse."
It's "disappointing" if Kenora CFS didn't know at the time that their lawyer had made such a statement in court, said Allen Wynperle, president-elect of the Ontario Trial Lawyers Association, which represents lawyers acting for plaintiffs.
"I would have hoped that they would be aware of the comments that their lawyer is making, and certainly if they weren't, that's a problem and a concern," he said. "But certainly now that they are made aware of it, what are they going to do about it?"
Jacques Gallant is a Toronto-based reporter covering legal affairs. Follow him on Twitter: @JacquesGallant
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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Probe targeted business operators.
At the beginning of the investigation in 2012, investigators had focused on those who uploaded and downloaded images. But by 2014, police launched a separate probe, dubbed Project Blackheath, that targeted the operators of the business. The OPP had help from Toronto police, the RCMP and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
Police allege the online store was providing photos and videos of child pornography to 60,000 paying customers in at least 116 different countries around the world including Canada, and about 19,000 people purchased 30-day memberships.
All the names on the membership list have not been made public.
"We took the infrastructure used by the website out of operation," said Det. Insp. David MacDonald. "The OPP is proud of this precedent-setting investigation."
Police say they seized 32 servers from the Toronto office, comprising a total capacity of nearly a thousand terabytes of data.
They’ve charged five people, including three from Richmond Hill, one from Aurora and one from Toronto.
The accused have all been ordered to surrender their passports and are due in court in Toronto on Aug. 1.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/child-pornography-online-store-investigation-opp-1.5182615
https://globalnews.ca/news/5410972/opp-ontario-child-porn-investigation/
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Toronto violin teacher charged in child pornography investigation.
Investigators said the accused taught both adults and children at numerous residences in the Greater Toronto Area, including in his home and at private residences.
https://globalnews.ca/news/5362544/toronto-violin-teacher-charged-child-pornography/
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Guelph high school teacher charged with sexual offences.
Guelph police say a local high school teacher has been arrested as part of a sexual misconduct investigation.
Justin Lenssen was charged on Tuesday with possession of child pornography, sexual exploitation, luring a child, and making explicit material available.
The 32-year-old is a teacher at St. James Catholic High School on Victoria Road, according to his LinkedIn profile.
Wellington Catholic District School Board said Lenssen has been removed from the school.
https://globalnews.ca/news/4751797/guelph-teacher-sexual-offences/
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Ridgetown man arrested in Cambridge in child porn investigation.
Police say they executed a search warrant at a home on Drew Avenue on Cambridge on Wednesday.
https://globalnews.ca/news/4758589/ridgetown-man-arrested-cambridge-child-porn-investigation/
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IS JUSTICE BLIND OR A WILLING COLLABORATOR?
A Scheer-led government claims they would impose mandatory minimum for child abuse.
OTTAWA – Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer says that if his party wins the next election he would impose tougher sentences for people convicted of child sexual abuse, including imposing five-year mandatory minimum jail sentences for anyone who is convicted of a (serious?) sexual offence against a child.
Scheer said that the current sentences, which range based on the offence, are often too short. The Conservatives would update the laws to would make it so that sentences for these kinds of crimes take into account the length and severity of the abuse by adding aggravating factors to the Criminal Code.
https://www.ctvnews.ca/politics/a-scheer-led-government-would-impose-mandatory-minimum-for-child-abuse-1.4434194
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2015: Former Ontario education deputy minister pleads guilty to three child porn charges.
A man who was once Ontario's deputy minister of education has pleaded guilty to three child pornography-related charges in a Toronto court.
TORONTO — A man who was once Ontario’s deputy minister of education has pleaded guilty to three child pornography-related charges in a Toronto court.
Benjamin Levin, who was also a university professor, entered a guilty plea for making written child pornography, counselling a person to commit a sexual assault, and possession of child pornography.
He was originally charged with seven child-pornography-related offences.
The investigation that led to Levin’s July 2013 arrest began in mid-2012 after officials in Toronto were contacted by authorities in New Zealand and later police in London, Ont.
From late 2004 to early 2007, Levin held the post of deputy education minister in Ontario, and was on Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne’s transition team as she took office.
He also served as Manitoba’s deputy minister of advanced education and deputy minister of education, training and youth between 1999 and 2002.
Levin has been back in the spotlight in recent days as Ontario released an updated sex-education curriculum.
Conservative MP Cheryl Gallant has criticized the curriculum in Parliament, suggesting Levin may have had a hand in developing the document.
The claims have been met with derision from Ontario’s Liberal government, with Wynne calling comments by Gallant which linked the revised policy to pedophilia “disgusting.”
“Deputy ministers don’t write curriculum,” Wynne said COMPLETELY MISSING THE POINT.
“The curriculum as we have brought it forward was written by curriculum experts based on solid evidence that shows what kids need to know in order to be safe in our community.”
THE POINT IS...
WE DON'T WANT PEDOPHILES IN THE GOVERNMENT, IN POSITIONS OF ANY KIND OF AUTHORITY OR ANYWHERE NEAR EDUCATION CURRICULUM...
https://nationalpost.com/news/canada/former-ontario-education-deputy-minister-pleads-guilty-to-three-child-porn-charges
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2017: Ex-deputy education minister, jailed for child porn charges, out on parole.
***Warning: explicit language***
His prison sentence runs until May 28, 2018 but that could have been disgraced educator Benjamin Levin you saw walking around in Toronto.
The 65-year-old former Ontario deputy education minister and member of Premier Kathleen Wynne’s 2013 transition team was jailed in May 2015 for sickening and disturbing online child pornography activities.
Levin, it turns out, has been on parole for some time.
That was reported late last week by a group called Parents As First Educators (PAFE), who emailed supporters and posted details about Levin’s release on their Facebook site.
According to Parole Board of Canada documents the group obtained, Levin was granted day parole to a community-based residential facility in Aug. 2016 and full parole on Jan. 10 this year, some 18 months after being sentenced to a three-year prison term.
Levin’s previous lawyers Clayton Ruby and Patrick Barry had no comment on what was in the parole documents, nor did his wife, Barbara, who is mentioned in them.
“I am not aware of anything new and I don’t know if Ben is, either,” she said Wednesday. “I don’t know why are you are doing this now. I mean he’s been out on parole for ages. There is nothing new about any of this. This is like old history.”
Levin, who was a world-renowned educator before his shocking fall from grace, was jailed in May 2015 for creating and possessing child pornography and counselling others to commit a sexual assault.
At the time, Justice Heather McArthur wrote that Levin had a “hidden, dark side” that he had kept the secret from his family and political friends.
That hidden side included visiting chat rooms “devoted to topics of incest and the sexual exploitation of children,” something he’d done for years.
Levin was ultimately nabbed conversing with police officers posing as single moms. He encouraged them to sexually abuse their kids and in some cases shared photos.
In one case, Levin sent photographs to a New Zealand police officer, one showing a “close-up of the face of a crying child, her face smeared with black makeup.” Levin suggested to her the image was “hot,” according to parole board documents. Another photo he sent showed a young female bound and leashed, with a gag in her mouth and Levin commented, “Mmm, so hot to imagine a mother doing that to her girl to please her lover.”
The parole board’s written decision permitting his day parole on Aug. 12, 2016 detailed Levin’s willing and twisted online interactions, noting he had “joined a web site dedicated to child pornography and had conversations with others in a predatory, deviant and sadistic manner.”
The board also noted police discovered 79 files of child pornography on his computers and a word document with 1,750 people “whom you had been communicating online on the subject of subversive sexual interests, primarily related to sexual contact between parents and children.”
In its reasons for denying full parole in at that time, the board expressed “concern” over Levin’s “lack of understanding or insight into the true victims of your offending.”
“You continue to identify your family and social and past political network as victims,” the board decision states. “It was very concerning to the board that you appear to have little understanding that the children in the pornographic images you viewed and shared are the true victims of your offending. That they have been abused sexually, mentally and physically and will bear lifelong scars of this abuse inflicted on them for the sole gratification of people such as yourself.”
At the time of his trial, Levin’s defence lawyer, Ruby, suggested Levin’s “motive was to fulfil his own fantasy,” that he had been role playing and read an apology from Levin.
“I apologize unreservedly. I am deeply ashamed…and appalled every day that my behaviour fell so far below my own standards and previous actions, which led to the loss of my reputation and my livelihood,” Levin said in the statement.
The parole board accepted, as the court did, that Levin experienced and demonstrated remorse. The board also noted Levin was receiving ongoing treatment and counselling, had complied with all aspects of his incarceration plan, had stayed out of trouble in jail and was committed to not re-offending.
“You are considered, using actuarial measures, to be a low risk to re-offend,” and granted day parole.
Five months later on Jan. 10, 2017, having given Levin opportunity to address concerns about his insights into his victims and demonstrate a period of stability, he was granted full parole.
Levin was released with strict parole conditions, including prohibitions against viewing pornography, or even having access to the web. He basically can’t be anywhere near children without supervision by someone who knows about his past, but with supervision can be in the presence of his grandchildren.
The board found Levin had accepted “full responsibility” for his “criminal actions” and credited him with “being pro-active in accessing clinical interventions to address your offending and low risk to re-offend in their reasons.”
The board also noted Levin would return to his home and that he was receiving an “overwhelming amount of family support” from his “wife and two daughters,” who are “fully aware” of his crimes and terms of release.
Ben Levin is home.
jwarmington@postmedia.com
https://torontosun.com/2017/10/07/ex-deputy-education-minister-jailed-for-child-porn-charges-out-on-parole/wcm/0d5fc1be-152e-49d2-9f2f-5e4966ad3dbe
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Child pornography trial for Toronto criminal defence lawyer begins.
https://globalnews.ca/news/5323313/trial-begins-for-toronto-defence-lawyer-charged-with-accessing-possessing-child-porn/
https://globalnews.ca/video/5323329/child-pornography-trial-for-toronto-criminal-defence-lawyer-begins
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Sudbury doctor faces 9 child pornography charges.
https://globalnews.ca/news/5288781/sudbury-doctor-child-pornography-charges/
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3 men, 1 woman charged in Hamilton child porn case.
https://globalnews.ca/news/5301909/3-men-1-woman-charged-hamilton-child-porn-case/
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Niagara Falls man arrested after child pornography investigation: police.
https://globalnews.ca/news/5307545/niagara-falls-man-arrested-child-pornography-investigation-police/
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Cambridge man faces child pornography charges.
Waterloo Regional Police have arrested a 49-year-old Cambridge man in connection to a child pornography investigation.
Police say they searched a home in Cambridge on April 12 as a result of an investigation that began in February, when police discovered that a man was allegedly sharing “child exploitation material” online.
https://globalnews.ca/news/5360169/cambridge-man-child-pornography-charges/
READ MORE:
Waterloo man arrested in child pornography investigation faces 70 more charges.
Waterloo Regional Police say a man, who was already arrested in a child pornography investigation, is facing an additional 70 charges.
A 29-year-old was one of 10 people arrested in October and was the subject of 12 search warrants carried out throughout the Waterloo region.
https://globalnews.ca/news/5031431/waterloo-child-pornography-investigation/
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Toronto man charged in connection with child pornography investigation.
A Toronto man has been charged in connection with a child pornography investigation and police say they are concerned there may be more victims.
Toronto police allege that a man chatted online with a child on social media using a number of identities, including MasterM2424, Master G, matt g, 5389BV 5389BV, Mat Master, and matt_to6@hotmail.com.
On June 20, Toronto police officers executed a search warrant in the area of Brimley Road and McNicoll Avenue in Scarborough and took one suspect into custody.
https://toronto.ctvnews.ca/toronto-man-charged-in-connection-with-child-pornography-investigation-1.4480020
