Kids see group homes as 'gateways to jail': child advocate
Almost half of Ontario's young offenders in detention for minor crimes came through the child welfare system, a report from the Office of Child and Family Service Advocacy shows.
The trend is a concern for child advocates across the country and Ontario Child Advocate Judy Finlay said many of the province's young people are beginning to think of group homes as "gateways to jail."
"We're taking them out of very difficult family circumstances, bringing them into state care and then we're charging them for their behaviour. It's very concerning to me," Finlay said.
The report, which was obtained by CBC News, lays much of the blame on group homes that rely too heavily on police to resolve problems that could be handled by staff.
Kids have been charged for everything from refusing to read a book or hitting someone with a tea towel, Finlay said. One group home in Ontario called police 400 times in a single year.
Don't call police for minor disturbances: minister
Ontario's Children and Youth Services Minister Mary Anne Chambers says calling police in to deal with trivial problems is never justified and would not happen if those children were living at home.
"It's veryimportant to understand that these kids should be treated as though they're in homes, not in institutions," said Chambers. "When we have children in, for example,the province's child protection system, we the province are their parents."
While some in the child welfare field have said low wages and poor training of group home workers are part of the problem, Chambers rejected the claims.
"I don't think you should need any special training to understand that some of those behaviours are quite minor, maybe a little anti-social, but minor," said Chambers, adding that rates of pay in group homes are "not shabby."
Another problem facing the often troubled and vulnerable children entering group homes is the lack of mental health support, says Jeanette Lewis, the executive director of Ontario's Association of Children's Aid Societies.
"The childrens' mental health centres are facing some very long waiting lists and child welfare clients, even though they are children who are wards of the state, often do not get to the top of these lists," saidLewis, adding she wasn't surprised by the child advocacy office's statistics.
Teen says workers provoked him
Ontario is not the only province that needs to fix the system, Finlay's report says.
A sampling of facilities across Canada found that 57 per cent of young offenders had a connection to the child welfare system, the report said. In British Columbia, a recent study put that number at 73 per cent.
While some teens acknowledge the more serious charges may be warranted, they complain that too often, staff lack the training to deal with troubled kids and resort to calling police.
Ateen, who can't be named under federal law, said workers would often provoke him. After he was charged, group home workers had an easy way to threaten him by suggesting abreach of his bail or probation conditions would meana return to a young offenders facility.
"They threaten you and say you better read that book or you're going back to jail. Come on, what kind of system is this?" the teen said.
Finlay is calling on the province to collect data on police calls from group homes and the charges that result.
She also wants to see a mental health worker attached to each group home and higher standards for an industry that costs taxpayers more than $200 million a year.
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2019: There’s no rule on who can write assessments that ‘effectively decide’ if an Ontario parent loses their child. Experts say that must change
https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2019/08/02/theres-no-rule-on-who-can-write-assessments-that-effectively-decide-if-an-ontario-parent-loses-their-child-experts-say-that-must-change.html
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2019: Province orders children’s aid societies to review credentials of experts used in child welfare cases
https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2019/08/23/province-orders-childrens-aid-societies-to-review-credentials-of-experts-used-in-child-welfare-cases.html
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2019: Expert who gave more than 100 assessments in Ontario child protection cases lied about credentials for years, judge finds
https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2019/07/31/expert-who-gave-more-than-100-assessments-in-ontario-child-protection-cases-lied-about-credentials-for-years-judge-finds.html
2017: All of us can be harmed': Investigation reveals hundreds of Canadians have phoney degrees
A Marketplace investigation of the world's largest diploma mill has discovered many Canadians could be putting their health and well-being in the hands of nurses, engineers, counsellors and other professionals with phoney credentials.
Fake diplomas are a billion-dollar industry, according to experts, and Marketplace obtained business records of its biggest player, a Pakistan-based IT firm called Axact. The team spent months combing through thousands of degree transactions, cross referencing personal information with customers' social media profiles.
The investigation revealed more than 800 Canadians could have purchased a fake degree.
"Keep in mind this is just the one operation," said Allen Ezell, a former FBI agent who investigated diploma mills for decades. "This does not give you totality of how many are being sold throughout Canada by all schools that are operating."
Ezell, who co-wrote the book Degree Mills: The Billion-Dollar Industry That Has Sold Over a Million Fake Diplomas, estimates half of new PhDs issued every year in the U.S. are fake.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/diploma-mills-marketplace-fake-degrees-1.4279513
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2010: Psychologist got degree from U.S. 'diploma mill'
A psychologist with the Durham Children’s Aid Society has pleaded guilty to professional misconduct for misrepresenting himself and for making multiple unqualified diagnoses of mental illness.
Gregory Carter, 63, appeared before the College of Psychologists of Ontario’s disciplinary committee on Tuesday. He and the college agreed on the terms of the penalty, which includes a three-month suspension, a recorded reprimand and one year of supervised practice under an approved practitioner.
In his practice with the Children’s Aid Society, Mr. Carter’s expertise was used to determine child custody cases.
A Whitby man who lost his children, now aged 7 and 9, said Tuesday’s judgment is a good starting point.
“The problem I have is that it didn’t really do anything to fix the problems that he’s caused,” said Mr. S., whose full name cannot be revealed to protect his children’s identities. “It’s like a child who creates a mess: He created a mess, then just gets a time-out.”
Lawyer George Callahan said the criminal charges against Mr. Carter seem to be piling up and a civil suit with multiple complainants likely will proceed concurrently.
“A side issue to all of this is that the CAS took steps based upon Gregory Carter’s report,” he said.
Mr. Carter’s credentials with the college still remain in question. On its website Mr. Carter is listed as qualified to practise clinical psychology. However Mr. Carter is a psychological associate and not a clinical psychologist, since the province requires clinical psychologists to obtain a doctoral degree.
Mr. Carter completed his master’s degree at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education in 1978 and got a PhD in 1991 from California’s Pacific Western University, which the U.S. government in 2004 accused of being a “diploma mill.”
An investigation into Mr. Carter started in November 2008, when a Durham man lost custody of his granddaughter, now 11.
https://nationalpost.com/posted-toronto/psychologist-got-degree-from-u-s-diploma-mill
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Here are some facts and figures I think point to significant problems for the child welfare sector and for CAS in particular when it comes to reviewing the credentials of their "hand picked" experts who provide the results they want when they want them:
• There are over 5,000 child protection workers in Ontario (5160)
• The College regulates about 17,000 social workers and social service workers
• In Ontario, only 7% of College-registered social workers are employed by a CAS
• Only 4% of members of the Ontario Association of Social Workers work for a CAS
• Between 30% and 50% of Ontario’s child welfare workers do NOT hold a BSW
• Only 63% of direct service staff in CASs have a BSW or MSW (in 2012, it was 57%)
• Only 78% of direct service supervisors have a BSW or MSW (in 2012, it was 75.5%)
• The 2013 OACAS Human Resources survey estimates that 70% of relevant CAS job classifications would qualify for registration with the College (so about 1500 CAS currently employed workers would be unable to register with the College)
• From 2002 to 2014, 41 child welfare employees who did not hold a BSW or MSW submitted equivalency applications to register as social workers; only 16 were successful and 25 were refused. (was the test to hard for them and cause for concern, are those 25 who couldn't pass the test still loose on the streets...?)
SEE: http://cupe2190.ca/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/SSWCC_CAS-letters-re-college-regulation_Nov.-2016.pdf
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The Ontario government doesn't require CAS workers to obtain warrants to conduct searches of private homes and allows unqualified unregistered CAS workers to authorize the police to act without a warrant on their behalf.
Canadian Criminal (or alleged violations of government standards?) Procedure and Practice/Search and Seizure: Meaning of a "Search"
Any police officer's (child protection social worker?) conduct interfering with a reasonable expectation of privacy is a "search".[1]
Any "inspection is a search" where a "person has a reasonable privacy interest in the object or subject matter of the state action and the information to which it gives access".[2]
Knocking at the door for an investigative purpose is not a search.[3]
However, going onto private property and peering into windows while attempting to detect signs of child abuse or neglect can constitute a search.[4]
https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Canadian_Criminal_Procedure_and_Practice/Search_and_Seizure/Print_version
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Section 7 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
Purpose. Section 7 of the Charter requires that laws or state actions (or government funded multi-billion dollar private corporations?) that interfere with life, liberty and security of the person conform to the principles of fundamental justice — the basic principles that underlie our notions of justice and fair process (Charkaoui v. Canada (Citizenship and Immigration), [2007] 1 SCR 350 at paragraph 19).
The wording of section 7 says that it applies to "everyone". This includes all people within Canada, including non-citizens.[4] It does not, however, apply to corporations.[5]
#5 Right to silence. In R v Hebert the court held that the right to silence was a principle of fundamental justice. Statements of the accused may not be achieved through police (worker?) trickery and silence may not be used to make any inference of guilt.
WHY THE RIGHT TO SILENCE?
Loaded questions are similar to leading questions in that they subtly (or not so subtly) push the user toward a particular response. The defining feature of this question type is the assumption about the respondent that is included implicitly in the question. Loaded questions can seem pretty benign at a first glance.
A leading question is when the question suggests the desired answer. "Did he hit you with a shovel?"
A loaded question means any yes or no answer would incriminate the responder. "Have you stopped beating your wife?"
Section 7 rights can also be violated by the conduct of a party other than a Canadian government body. The government need only be a participant or complicit in the conduct threatening the right, where the violation must be a reasonably foreseeable consequence of the government actions.[6]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Section_7_of_the_Canadian_Charter_of_Rights_and_Freedoms
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"Child, Youth and Family Services Act, 2017 proclaimed in force."
The new regulation was updated to only require Local Directors of Children’s Aid Societies to be registered with the College.
The majority of local directors, supervisors, child protection workers and adoption workers have social work or social service work education, yet fewer than 10% are registered with the OCSWSSW.
Unfortunately, many CASs have been circumventing professional regulation of their staff by requiring that staff have social work education yet discouraging those same staff from registering with the OCSWSSW.
Ontarians have a right to assume that, when they receive services that are provided by someone who is required to have a social work degree (or a social service work diploma) — whether those services are direct (such as those provided by a child protection worker or adoption worker) or indirect (such as those provided by a local director or supervisor) — that person is registered with, and accountable to, the OCSWSSW.
Submission-re-Proposed-Regulations-under-the-CYFSA-January-25-2018. OCSWSSW May 1, 2018
https://www.ocswssw.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/OCSWSSW-Submission-re-Proposed-Regulations-under-the-CYFSA-January-25-2018.pdf
http://www.ocswssw.org/resources/legislation-submissions/
If you have any practice questions or concerns related to the new CYFSA, please contact the Professional Practice Department at 416-972-9882 or 1-877-828-9380 or email practice@ocswssw.org.
Without the deterrents professional regulation provides what prevents child protection social workers from being or becoming a danger to children and their families?
The union representing child protection social workers is firmly opposed to oversight from a professional college and the Ministry of Children and Youth Services, which regulates and funds child protection, is so far staying out of it.
The report Towards Regulation notes that the “clearest path forward” would be for the provincial government to again legislate the necessity of professional regulation, which would be an appallingly heavy-handed move according to OACAS/Cupe.
http://joincupe2190.ca/files/2015/10/Professional-regulation-at-childrens-aid-societies.pdf
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FORMER ONTARIO MPP FRANK KLEES EXPLAINS "A DISTINCTION WITHOUT A DIFFERENCE.
You can hear former conservative MPP Frank Klees say in a video linked below the very reason the social worker act was introduced and became law in 1998 was to regulate the "children's aid societies."
I'M NOT A SOCIAL WORKER, I'M A CHILD PROTECTION WORKER!
https://youtu.be/SA1YyWO0RTQ?list=PLsYhw09i3If44rMBDuZQ0ztayzSQU35Fy
Powerful As God - The Children's Aid Societies of Ontario is a documentary that delves into society's most controversial and secretive topics.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2234353/
Social Work and Social Service Work Act, 1998, S.O. 1998, c. 31
https://www.ontario.ca/laws/statute/98s31
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Under suspicion: Concerns about child welfare.
In 2015, the Ontario Human Rights Commission (OHRC) began a year-long consultation to learn more about the nature of profiling in Ontario. Our aim was to gather information to help us guide organizations, individuals and communities on how to identify, address and prevent profiling. We connected with people and organizations representing diverse perspectives. We conducted an online survey, analyzed cases (called applications) at the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario that alleged profiling, held a policy dialogue consultation, and reviewed academic research. We conducted focus groups with Indigenous peoples and received written submissions. Overall, almost 1,650 individuals and organizations told us about their experiences or understanding of profiling in Ontario.
If you need legal help, contact the Human Rights Legal Support Centre at:
Toll Free: 1-866-625-5179
TTY Toll Free: 1-866-612-8627
Website: www.hrlsc.on.ca
http://www.ohrc.on.ca/en/under-suspicion-concerns-about-child-welfare
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Considering how closely the societies work with law enforcement who does have the powers and the "particular set of skills" to investigate crimes against children in care? The SIU does..
The Special Investigations Unit is the civilian oversight agency responsible for investigating circumstances involving police (and child protection social workers, why not) that have resulted in a death, serious injury, or allegations of sexual assault of a civilian/child in Ontario, Canada.
https://www.siu.on.ca/en/index.php
AND MAYBE IT'S TIME FOR THE GOVERNMENT TO ACCESS A DIFFERENT KIND OF CHILD WELFARE EXPERT?
See: Robert D. Hare, C.M. (born 1934 in Calgary, Alberta, Canada) is a researcher in the field of criminal psychology. He developed the Hare Psychopathy Checklist (PCL-Revised), used to assess cases of psychopathy. Hare advises the FBI's Child Abduction and Serial Murder Investigative Resources Center (CASMIRC) and consults for various British and North American prison services.
He describes psychopaths as 'social predators', while pointing out that most don't commit murder. One philosophical review described it as having a high moral tone yet tending towards sensationalism and graphic anecdotes, and as providing a useful summary of the assessment of psychopathy but ultimately avoiding the difficult questions regarding internal contradictions in the concept or how it should be classified.
Hare received his Ph.D. in experimental psychology at University of Western Ontario (1963). He is professor emeritus of the University of British Columbia where his studies center on psychopathology and psychophysiology. He was invested as a Member of the Order of Canada on December 30, 2010.
Hare wrote a popular science bestseller published in 1993 entitled Without Conscience: The Disturbing World of the Psychopaths Among Us (reissued 1999).
http://www.psychology-criminalbehavior-law.com/2015/01/hare-psychopath/
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Motherisk Is A Symptom Of A Larger Problem In Child Protection Work.
“The testing was imposed on people who were among the poorest and most vulnerable members of our society, with scant regard for due process of their rights to privacy and bodily integrity,” the report states.
Without checks, balance or judicial oversight all of the parents who were tested were powerless to resist because they weren't testing people with the resources their own lawyer or to get a second opinion. Poor disadvantaged parents told us that they submitted to the testing under duress, in fear of losing custody of or access to their children” only to lose access or custody anyway.
The ministry sidestepped a question emailed by the Toronto Star on whether it would impose the requirement to register their 5000 plus employees with the College of Social Work, stating instead that it is funding the authorization process and leaving the society to police themselves with secret internal processes.
Respecting Procedural Safeguards:
There is a major power imbalance between an impoverished parent (we know that families of low socio-economic status are hugely overrepresented in the child welfare system) and a state agency. To guard against such an imbalance, it is critical that our legal system respect the time-tested procedural safeguards developed to specifically ensure that the disadvantaged party is treated fairly.
Yet according to the Motherisk report, these safeguards were ignored. The report describes a litany of procedural injustices perpetrated on parents: parents were pressured to consent to testing; were not informed of their right to reject testing; they had adverse inferences drawn against them when they rejected testing; they were required to prove the unreliability of testing instead of the other way around; and they were refused the right to cross-examine Motherisk "experts" at summary judgment motions.
The Charter of Rights and Freedoms guarantees procedural fairness when the state interferes with fundamental personal rights, such as the right by parents to care for their children. Ironically enough, the issue of taking body samples (such as hair for testing) without proper consent for the purpose of criminal investigations was found to be an infringement of the Charter 20 years ago by the Supreme Court.
It is unconscionable that these protections are available to accused persons, but were never considered applicable to parents at the mercy of child protection services.
There is nothing new about the commission's finding that many parents were explicitly or implicitly told that there would be negative consequences if they did not undergo hair testing. In fact, this type of coercive action continues to happen: parents are often given messages that if they do not consent, for example, to a finding that the child is in need of protection, that there will be negative consequences. For example, they may be prevented from bringing further motions, or — more damning in CAS work — labelled as being "uncooperative."
One would have thought that post-Motherisk, we would want parents and children to have more procedural protections and safeguards, and yet, it looks like the opposite is happening again.
In the wake of Motherisk, children's aid societies have continued to emphasize working with parents outside of court on a "voluntary" basis, which might include parents giving up their children to the agency under a temporary care agreement. These agreements are usually signed without lawyers and circumvent the court, which is the only place the powers of the CAS can be kept in check.
To me, Motherisk is a symptom of a larger problem in child protection work. The Motherisk scandal came about because of the failure of the legal system to protect parents and families. Somehow, we have forgotten that the desire to do good cannot be done at the expense of rights violations.
The balance between protecting children from the risk of harm and protecting parents' and children's basic rights to fairness is a challenging one. It is easy to fall too heavily on the side of overriding a parent's rights in favour of efficiency and expediency. But to ensure that something like Motherisk never happens again, it is something to which everyone involved in child welfare — lawyers, judges and caseworkers — must strive.
Tammy Law is a lawyer practicing in child protection, family and criminal law in Toronto. This column is part of CBC's Opinion section. For more information about this section, please read this editor's blog and our FAQ.
http://www.canada24news.com/opinion/the-motherisk-saga-is-a-symptom-of-a-larger-problem-in-child-protection-work/71858-news
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Experts All Over The World Excluding Canadian Experts Warn There's a Huge Problem With How Mental Health Problems Are Diagnosed.
(kiss child welfare's bread and butter good-bye, no more getting the results they want when they want them)
A new study, published in Psychiatry Research, has concluded that psychiatric diagnoses are scientifically worthless as tools to identify discrete mental health disorders.
The study, led by researchers from the University of Liverpool, involved a detailed analysis of five key chapters of the latest edition of the widely used Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM), on 'schizophrenia', 'bipolar disorder', 'depressive disorders', 'anxiety disorders' and 'trauma-related disorders'.
Diagnostic manuals such as the DSM were created to provide a common diagnostic language for mental health professionals and attempt to provide a definitive list of mental health problems, including their symptoms.
The main findings of the research were:
Almost all diagnoses mask the role of trauma and adverse events.
Psychiatric diagnoses all use different decision-making rules...
There is a huge amount of overlap in symptoms between diagnoses.
Diagnoses tell us little about the individual patient and what treatment they need.
The authors conclude that diagnostic labelling represents 'a disingenuous categorical system'.
Lead researcher Dr Kate Allsopp, University of Liverpool, said: "Although diagnostic labels create the illusion of an explanation they are scientifically meaningless and can create stigma and prejudice. I hope these findings will encourage mental health professionals to think beyond diagnoses and consider other explanations of mental distress, such as trauma and other adverse life experiences."
Professor Peter Kinderman, University of Liverpool, said: "This study provides yet more evidence that the biomedical diagnostic approach in psychiatry is not fit for purpose. Diagnoses frequently and uncritically reported as 'real illnesses' are in fact made on the basis of internally inconsistent, confused and contradictory patterns of largely arbitrary criteria. The diagnostic system wrongly assumes that all distress results from disorder, and relies heavily on subjective judgments about what is normal."
Professor John Read, University of East London, said: "Perhaps it is time we stopped pretending that medical-sounding labels contribute anything to our understanding of the complex causes of human distress or of what kind of help we need when distressed."
https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2019-07/uol-sfp070819.php
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/07/190708131152.htm
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0165178119309114?via%3Dihub
https://www.sciencealert.com/the-way-we-diagnose-psychiatric-conditions-is-scientifically-meaningless-researchers-argue
https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/325723.php#1
https://www.thenewamerican.com/culture/item/32842-study-psychiatric-diagnoses-worthless-and-scientifically-meaningless
https://neurosciencenews.com/meaningless-psychiatric-diagnosis-14434/
https://repository.uel.ac.uk/item/86w8q
https://www.studyfinds.org/study-psychiatric-diagnoses-are-scientifically-meaningless/
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The full study, entitled 'Heterogeneity in psychiatric diagnostic classification', can be found here:
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychres.2019.07.005
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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.
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CONSENT TO INTERCEPTION - CANADA.
Documenting the facts is not a crime...
Broadly speaking, Canadians can legally record their own conversations with other people, but not other peoples' conversations that they are not involved in.
183.1 Where a private communication is originated by more than one person or is intended by the originator thereof to be received by more than one person, a consent to the interception thereof by any one of those persons is sufficient consent for the purposes of any provision of this Part. [1993, c.40, s.2.]
The Criminal Code, R.S.C. 1985, c. C-46 [Criminal Code] imposes a general prohibition on interception (recording) of private communications, but then provides an exception where one of the parties to the private communication consents to the interception of that communication. Thus, broadly speaking, Canadians can legally record their own conversations with other people, but not other people's conversations that they are not involved in.
Other legislation in Canada protects various privacy rights, but does not prevent Canadians from recording their own conversations with others.
http://www.legaltree.ca/node/908
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Ontario 2007: Nearly half of children in Crown care are medicated.
Researchers have found that not only were psychotropic drugs prescribed to a clear majority of the current and former wards interviewed, but most were diagnosed with mental-health disorders by a family doctor, never visited a child psychiatrist or another doctor for a second opinion, and doubted the accuracy of their diagnosis.
A Toronto Star investigation has found Ontario’s most vulnerable children in the care of an unaccountable and non-transparent protection system. It keeps them in the shadows, far beyond what is needed to protect their identities.
“When people are invisible, bad things happen,” says Irwin Elman, Ontario’s now former and last advocate for children and youth with the closure of the Office.
In Ontario the CAS has turned themselves into a multi-billion dollar private corporation using any excuse to compel parents into submitting to a fake drug testing to justify removing children or keeping files open keeping that government funding flowing.
While the same time they've taking the thousands of children to specific CAS approved doctors who are all to happy to prescribe medication based on the workers assessments of the child's condition..
That's why there are no follow ups with qualified medical and psychiatric doctors and not because the CAS lack the funding, staff or attention span to care properly for the children. Another case of "The results they wanted when they wanted them.."
A disturbing number, the network's research director, Yolanda Lambe, added, have traded the child-welfare system for a life on the street.
"A lot of people are using drugs now," she said. "There's a lot of homeless young people who have been medicated quite heavily."
Marti McKay is a Toronto child psychologist was hired by a CAS to assess the grandparents' capacity as guardians only to discover a child so chemically altered that his real character was clouded by the side effects of adult doses of drugs.
"There are lots of other kids like that," said Dr. McKay, one of the experts on the government panel. "If you look at the group homes, it's close to 100 per cent of the kids who are on not just one drug, but on drug cocktails with multiple diagnoses.
"There are too many kids being diagnosed with ... a whole range of disorders that are way out of proportion to the normal population. ... It's just not reasonable to think the children in care would have such overrepresentation in these rather obscure disorders."
“There are lots of kids in group homes all over Ontario and they are not doing well — and everybody knows it,” says Kiaras Gharabaghi, a member of a government-appointed panel that examined the residential care system in 2016.
Psychotropic drugs are being prescribed to nearly half the Crown wards in a sample of Ontario children's aid societies, kindling fears that the agencies are overusing medication with the province's most vulnerable children.
According to documents obtained by The Globe and Mail under Ontario's Freedom of Information Act, 47 per cent of the Crown wards - children in permanent CAS care - at five randomly picked agencies were prescribed psychotropics last year to treat depression, attention deficit disorder, anxiety and other mental-health problems. And, the wards are diagnosed and medicated far more often than are children in the general population.
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/nearly-half-of-children-in-crown-care-are-medicated/article687480/
Ontario 2014: "Use of 'behaviour-altering' drugs widespread in foster, group homes."
Almost half of children and youth in foster and group home care aged 5 to 17 — 48.6 per cent — are on drugs, such as Ritalin, tranquilizers and anticonvulsants, according to a yearly survey conducted for the provincial government and the Ontario Association of Children’s Aid Societies (OACAS). At ages 16 and 17, fully 57 per cent are on these medications.
In group homes, the figure is even higher — an average of 64 per cent of children and youth are taking behaviour-altering drugs. For 10- to 15-year-olds, the number is a staggering 74 per cent.
https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2014/12/12/use_of_behaviouraltering_drugs_widespread_in_foster_group_homes.html
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What’s worse is that the number of children prescribed dangerous drugs is on the rise. Doctors seem to prescribe medication without being concerned with the side-effects.
Worldwide, 17 million children, some as young as five years old, are given a variety of different prescription drugs, including psychiatric drugs that are dangerous enough that regulatory agencies in Europe, Australia, and the US have issued warnings on the side effects that include suicidal thoughts and aggressive behavior.
According to Fight For Kids, an organization that “educates parents worldwide on the facts about today’s widespread practice of labeling children mentally ill and drugging them with heavy, mind-altering, psychiatric drugs,” says over 10 million children in the US are prescribed addictive stimulants, antidepressants and other psychotropic (mind-altering) drugs for alleged educational and behavioral problems.
In fact, according to Foundation for a Drug-Free World, every day, 2,500 youth (12 to 17) will abuse a prescription pain reliever for the first time (4). Even more frightening, prescription medications like depressants, opioids and antidepressants cause more overdose deaths (45 percent) than illicit drugs like cocaine, heroin, methamphetamines and amphetamines (39 percent) combined. Worldwide, prescription drugs are the 4th leading cause of death.
https://dailyhealthpost.com/common-prescription-drugs/
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Standards of Care for the Administration of Psychotropic Medications to Children and Youth Living in Licensed Residential Settings.
Summary of Recommendations of the Ontario Expert Panel February 2009.
http://www.children.gov.on.ca/htdocs/English/documents/specialneeds/residential/summary_report.pdf
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“Harmful Impacts” is the title of the Motherisk commission's 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.
WHAT ARE THE HARMFUL IMPACTS?
Separating kids from parents a 'textbook strategy' of domestic abuse, experts say — and causes irreversible, lifelong damage even when there seems to be no other choice.
“Being separated from parents or having inconsistent living conditions for long periods of time can create changes in thoughts and behavior patterns, and an increase in challenging behavior and stress-related physical symptoms,” such as sleep difficulty, nightmares, flashbacks, crying, and yelling says Amy van Schagen - California State University.
The Science Is Unequivocal: Separating Families Is Harmful to Children
In news stories and opinion pieces, psychological scientists are sharing evidence-based insight from decades of research demonstrating the harmful effects of separating parents and children.
In an op-ed in USA Today, Roberta Michnick Golinkoff (University of Delaware), Mary Dozier (University of Delaware), and Kathy Hirsh-Pasek (Temple University) write:
“Years of research are clear: Children need their parents to feel secure in the world, to explore and learn, and to grow strong emotionally.”
In a Washington Post op-ed, James Coan (University of Virginia) says:
“As a clinical psychologist and neuroscientist at the University of Virginia, I study how the brain transforms social connection into better mental and physical health. My research suggests that maintaining close ties to trusted loved ones is a vital buffer against the external stressors we all face. But not being an expert on how this affects children, I recently invited five internationally recognized developmental scientists to chat with me about the matter on a science podcast I host. As we discussed the border policy’s effect on the children ensnared by it, even I was surprised to learn just how damaging it is likely to be.”
Mia Smith-Bynum (University of Maryland) is quoted in The Cut:
“The science leads to the conclusion that the deprivation of caregiving produces a form of extreme suffering in children. Being separated from a parent isn’t just a trauma — it breaks the relationship that helps children cope with other traumas.
Forceful separation is particularly damaging, explains clinical psychologist Mia Smith-Bynum, a professor of family science at the University of Maryland, when parents feel there’s nothing in their power that can be done to get their child back.
For all the dislocation, strangeness and pain of being separated forcibly from parents, many children can and do recover, said Mary Dozier, a professor of child development at the University of Delaware. “Not all of them — some kids never recover,” Dr. Dozier said. “But I’ve been amazed at how well kids can do after institutionalization if they’re able to have responsive and nurturing care afterward.”
The effects of that harm may evolve over time, says Antonio Puente, a professor of psychology at the University of North Carolina, Wilmington who specializes in cultural neuropsychology. What may begin as acute emotional distress could re emerge later in life as PTSD, behavioral issues and other signs of lasting neuropsychological damage, he says.
“A parent is really in many ways an extension of the child’s biology as that child is developing,” Tottenham said. “That adult who’s routinely been there provides this enormous stress-buffering effect on a child’s brain at a time when we haven’t yet developed that for ourselves. They’re really one organism, in a way.” When the reliable buffering and guidance of a parent is suddenly withdrawn, the riot of learning that molds and shapes the brain can be short-circuited, she said.
In a story from the BBC, Jack Shonkoff (Harvard University) discusses evidence related to long-term impacts:
Jack P Shonkoff, director of the Harvard University Center on the Developing Child, says it is incorrect to assume that some of the youngest children removed from their parents’ care will be too young to remember and therefore relatively unharmed. “When that stress system stays activated for a significant period of time, it can have a wear and tear effect biologically.
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http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2015/03/27/daycare-operator-sued-for-calling-the-cas.html
https://www.thestar.com/news/insight/2014/12/12/losing_a_child_to_cas_should_be_much_harder_keenan.html
https://www.insideottawavalley.com/news-story/5926359-cas-watchdog-opens-new-local-chapter/
https://kmlaw.ca/cases/crown-ward-class-action/
https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2019/08/23/in-a-rare-legal-case-toronto-teen-gets-green-light-to-sue-childrens-aid-for-negligence.html
https://nypost.com/2019/06/12/childrens-aid-society-in-canada-turned-a-blind-eye-to-sexual-abuse-report/
https://nationalpost.com/opinion/chris-selley-motherisk-is-the-ontario-liberals-unacknowledged-and-worst-scandal
https://globalnews.ca/news/5360057/teen-sexual-cult-ontario-foster-home-childrens-aid-society/
https://www.intelligencer.ca/2014/10/21/three-cas-cases-settled/wcm/3fd07287-3f2a-1755-7386-1c8c2353c943
https://ottawa.ctvnews.ca/cornwall-sex-abuse-victims-given-large-settlements-1.521190
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/suit-settled-in-horrific-case-of-child-abuse/article4290587/
https://nationalpost.com/opinion/barbara-kay-childrens-aid-societies-gone-rogue
https://lfpress.com/2014/04/14/cas-vows-to-defend-ruling-of-bad-faith/wcm/e7867b5c-7d22-73c4-0e36-450327791eeb
https://www.osler.com/en/blogs/appeal/october-2014/children-s-aid-society-of-london-and-middlesex-v
https://globalnews.ca/news/5360057/teen-sexual-cult-ontario-foster-home-childrens-aid-society/
https://nypost.com/2019/06/12/childrens-aid-society-in-canada-turned-a-blind-eye-to-sexual-abuse-report/
https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2015/03/27/daycare-operator-sued-for-calling-the-cas.html
https://www.cbc.ca/news/health/homeless-youth-foster-care-1.4240121
https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2014/12/12/use_of_behaviouraltering_drugs_widespread_in_foster_group_homes.html
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/nearly-half-of-children-in-crown-care-are-medicated/article687480/
https://www.thestar.com/opinion/contributors/2019/05/13/a-system-should-not-raise-a-child-families-should.html
https://www.intelligencer.ca/2014/08/27/former-foster-parent-conviction-concerning-for-highland-shores-cas/wcm/9f07f58b-e46f-2a49-4e7f-969368a305a3
https://ottawa.ctvnews.ca/ontario-child-advocate-stands-by-report-on-90-deaths-1.378721
https://aptnnews.ca/2018/03/14/ontario-coroner-finds-potential-crime-review-foster-care-deaths/
https://blackburnnews.com/windsor/windsor-news/2017/09/01/layoffs-windsor-essex-childrens-aid-society/
https://lfpress.com/2015/03/16/child-welfare-agency-found-to-have-wasted-money-on-office-renovations-consultants-and-bloated-management/wcm/e32079bc-4395-7c5e-70ec-378d688f0b6a
https://www.thestar.com/news/insight/2016/11/10/cas-managers-charged-more-than-106000-in-unreasonable-expenses.html
https://windsorstar.com/news/childrens-aid-gets-4-3-million-cash-boost-from-province
https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2019/08/23/province-orders-childrens-aid-societies-to-review-credentials-of-experts-used-in-child-welfare-cases.html
Discredited hair-testing program harmed vulnerable families across Ontario, report says.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/health/motherrisk-commission-1.4552160
https://blog.cansfordlabs.co.uk/5-reasons-why-the-motherisk-scandal-shouldnt-happen-again
http://projects.thestar.com/motherisk/
https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2016/02/12/head-of-motherisk-probe-had-ties-to-sick-kids.html
https://www.cbc.ca/news/opinion/motherisk-child-protection-1.4559905
2013: Nancy Simone, a president of the Canadian Union of Public Employees local representing 275 workers at the Catholic Children’s Aid Society of Toronto, argued child protection workers already have levels of oversight that include unregistered unqualified workplace supervisors, family court judges, coroners’ inquests and annual case audits by the ministry and the union representing child protection workers is firmly opposed to ethical oversight from a professional college, and the Ministry of Children and Youth Services, which regulates and funds child protection, is so far staying out of the fight.. Nancy Simone says, “Our work is already regulated to death.”
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2019: Province orders unregulated unqualified children’s aid societies to review credentials of experts used in child welfare cases.
he Ontario government has ordered all children’s aid societies to immediately review the credentials of experts used to assess whether parents should lose their children.
The directive comes in the wake of an ongoing Star investigation into parenting capacity assessments, expert reports which can be heavily relied on in child protection proceedings when deciding whether children should be permanently removed from their parents’ care.
The assessments typically examine parents’ ability to address the needs of their children and whether there are supports available. As the Star’s investigation has found, there are no qualifications required to do a parenting capacity assessment, no rules around methodology and testing, and no oversight body that tracks assessors’ performance.
The investigation was sparked by a Halton region child protection case in which a judge found that psychologist Nicole Walton-Allen — who testified she has done more than 100 parenting capacity assessments — had lied about her credentials for years.
Walton-Allen is authorized by the College of Psychologists to practise in school psychology but, the judge noted at the time, materials including her CV and website listed her as a clinical psychologist.
“I became convinced that she had been intentionally using the clinical designation to increase her credibility as a psychologist,” Ontario Court Justice Penny Jones wrote in her December ruling, tossing Walton-Allen’s assessment, which had supported the society’s position that five children in one family should be placed in CAS care.
Jill Dunlop, associate minister of children and women’s issues, said the ministry directive was sent to the societies Thursday. It is “unacceptable” that children and families may have been affected by Walton-Allen’s misrepresentation of her credentials, Dunlop said, speaking at the Jewish Family & Child CAS in North York on Friday.
She shared news of the directive while announcing a government review of the child welfare system that will include an online survey for youth, families and front-line workers. The government will also be bringing on a third party to provide independent advice “on modernizing services,” according to a news release.
The directive — which advocates have already criticized as inadequate — orders societies to identify all parenting capacity assessments that are in progress or that have been completed in cases that are still before the courts, and to verify the assessor’s credentials.
For example, if an assessor is a psychologist registered with the College of Psychologists or a psychiatrist registered with the College of Physicians and Surgeons, the CAS must verify with the college that the individual is who they say they are, and are in good standing with their regulatory body.
If the society has concerns with an assessor’s credentials, and remains concerned after speaking with the individual, the society must file a complaint with the assessor’s respective college, the directive says. The society must also keep a record of the steps it has taken to verify the credentials, as well as a record of any complaint filed and its outcome.
In the Halton case involving Walton-Allen, it was lawyer Novalea Jarvis, representing the mother in the case, who discovered on the College of Psychologists’ website that Walton-Allen was only authorized to practise in school psychology.
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RELATED STORIES
A judge found this Ontario psychologist ‘misrepresented’ her credentials. Here are four times she said a child should be taken from their parents
https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2019/08/23/province-orders-childrens-aid-societies-to-review-credentials-of-experts-used-in-child-welfare-cases.html
Expert who gave more than 100 assessments in Ontario child protection cases lied about credentials for years, judge finds
https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2019/07/31/expert-who-gave-more-than-100-assessments-in-ontario-child-protection-cases-lied-about-credentials-for-years-judge-finds.html
Lead Ontario children’s aid agency in chaos as top managers pushed out (?), or are they rats fleeing the sinking ship...
https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2019/07/29/lead-ontario-childrens-aid-agency-in-chaos-as-top-managers-pushed-out.html
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Despite being told of this find, Halton CAS still tried to have Walton-Allen’s assessment admitted, but the judge rejected her opinion. (Paying for the results they want when they want them no different than the Motherisk Test.)
Lead Ontario children’s aid agency in chaos as top managers pushed out
Halton deferred to the Ontario Association of Children’s Aid Societies (OACAS), which declined to comment on the case.
Going forward, each society must have a process in place for verifying an assessor’s credentials, the directive says. All societies are required to report back to the ministry by Sept. 30 that they have followed the directive’s requirements.
In a statement to the Star, the CEO of the OACAS said that the association and CAS leadership have been reviewing measures to improve the process for finding qualified professionals who do parenting capacity assessments and that “these measures are well-aligned with the ministry’s recent directive.
“We are confident that Ontario’s children’s aid societies are well-positioned to undertake the actions described in the ministry’s directive efficiently and effectively,” said Nicole Bonnie.
Tammy Law, the president of the Toronto chapter of the Association of Child Protection Lawyers, said the directive fails to address many of the concerns around parenting capacity assessments, including the qualifications necessary to do an assessment in the first place and the types of tests that should be used on the parents and children.
“It’s like putting a Band-Aid on a cut on a broken arm, and not treating the broken arm,” she told the Star. “It doesn’t address the root issues.”
Meanwhile, the ministry said in a statement that it is continuing “to understand the scope of the work conducted by this individual,” referring to Walton-Allen. The ministry has so far refused to say whether it will launch an independent review into parenting capacity assessments, which lawyers, advocates and the official opposition have said is necessary.
Irwin Elman, the former provincial advocate for children and youth, said he was struck by the fact that such a directive was not already in place.
Elman’s office was abolished by the Ford government last year; its investigative powers were transferred to the ombudsman’s office, but not its advocacy mandate. He said an independent, restorative inquiry into the child welfare system could help come up with guidelines and qualifications for these assessments.
“For me, the fact that there was no such directive or thinking in the past, and the fact that the ministry has still not made any declarative statement about what our children and families connected to child welfare can expect, is a sign that the government yet again has not taken the whole child protection system seriously,” he told the Star.
Jacques Gallant is a Toronto-based reporter covering legal affairs. Follow him on Twitter: @JacquesGallant
https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2019/08/23/province-orders-childrens-aid-societies-to-review-credentials-of-experts-used-in-child-welfare-cases.html
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TORONTO - A secretary who worked alongside Dr. Charles (The Ghoul) Smith for years says she found a bag of dried human tissue, a dish containing bones and a child's hospital bracelet during one of her frequent searches of the pathologist's ramshackle office.
Maxine Johnson, an administrative co-ordinator at Sick Children's Hospital, told a public inquiry she once had pictures taken of the chronically messy office to try to prod Smith to keep his quarters neater. It did not work, she said.
It was during a 2005 audit of tissue samples requested by the chief coroner's office that Johnson and a colleague made the unusual discoveries in the pathologist's room.
"We found some dried-out tissue in plastic bags ... skeletal bones in another little dish," she said.
As well, they discovered a bead bracelet of the kind given to young patients at hospital. (Read more about this below)
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2010: Dr. Charles Smith, a pediatric forensic pathologist whose work is being reviewed by the coroner's office, has resigned from his post at the Hospital for Sick Children. Once considered Ontario's leading expert on pediatric forensics, Dr. Smith has been surrounded by controversy in recent years.
In 1992, the Ontario Coroner's Office created a pediatric forensic pathology unit at Hospital for Sick Children and Smith was appointed director. He had become almost solely responsible for investigating suspicious child deaths in Ontario.
In this period he conducted hundreds of autopsies and testified in court multiple times. He conducted training sessions for lawyers on how to examine and cross-examine expert witnesses, and training for law-enforcement and medical staff on detecting child abuse.[5]
In 2003, he was removed from the five-person team that conducts autopsies for the coroner's office after judges and medical authorities criticized his methods and conclusions. He continued to work as a pathologist at the hospital, earning a salary of $290,000 last year. But earlier this year officials discovered that evidence crucial to criminal cases had gone missing in his office.
A hospital spokeswoman gave no reason for his departure, but said he resigned in July. No announcement was made.
In June, Chief Coroner Barry McLellan launched a review into 40 homicide and suspicious-death cases handled by Dr. Smith since 1991. (PDRC?) It was to be conducted by a panel of independent experts and was expected to examine whether Dr. Smith's autopsies and consultation reports in a number of sensitive cases were reliable. At the time, Dr. McLellan said the review was necessary to maintain public confidence in the coroner's office.
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/embattled-pathologist-no-longer-at-sick-kids/article18247696/
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Workers found human tissue in disgraced pathologist's office, inquiry told
Tom Blackwell, CanWest News Service Published: Monday, December 17, 2007
TORONTO - A secretary who worked alongside Dr. Charles (The Ghoul) Smith for years says she found a bag of dried human tissue, a dish containing bones and a child's hospital bracelet during one of her frequent searches of the pathologist's ramshackle office.
Maxine Johnson, an administrative co-ordinator at Sick Children's Hospital, told a public inquiry on Monday she once had pictures taken of the chronically messy office to try to prod Smith to keep his quarters neater. It did not work, she said.
It was during a 2005 audit of tissue samples requested by the chief coroner's office that Johnson and a colleague made the unusual discoveries in the pathologist's room.
"We found some dried-out tissue in plastic bags ... skeletal bones in another little dish," she said.
As well, they discovered a bead bracelet of the kind given to young patients at hospital.
https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/porchlightcanada/dr-charles-smith-inquiry-t2479.html
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Ontario's Deaths Under Five Committee By Disgraced Pathologist Charles Randal Smith. (The webs they weave can be unraveled ...)
Introduction
The Deaths Under Five Committee (DU5C) of the Office of the Chief Coroner (OCC) meets at least five times per year for the purpose of comprehensively reviewing the deaths of children less than five years of age investigated by coroners in Ontario.
It is a secret multi-disciplinary committee and members include forensic pathologists, coroners, police detectives, child maltreatment and child welfare experts, crown attorneys, a Health Canada product safety specialist and executive staff from the OCC and at one time the CEO of OACAS Mary Ballantyne eld a voluntary seat on the independent of something committee. (I wonder how many experts are on this committee aren't fake)
Attendance for knowledge enhancement is common, including learners from different stages of medical education and detectives from police services that are not active committee members. The membership is balanced to reflect Ontario’s geography. It also includes members from several police agencies that provide diversity in terms of geographic area, size of police service and the skill set of the investigators.
Scope and Mandate
The DU5C reviews all cases investigated by a coroner involving the deaths of children under five years of age including neonatal cases where the death was potentially linked to parental behaviour (e.g. sleep circumstances/unsafe sleep environment, maternal substance use, neglect, domestic violence, etc.) and those in which a children’s aid society or Indigenous child wellbeing society (“Society”) was involved at time of the death. The committee does not review neonatal deaths that occur prior to discharge from hospital where no substantive issues have been identified.
The mandate of the DU5C is to determine the cause and manner of death for all cases meeting the criteria for review. Case-specific recommendations for additional investigation, further laboratory/pathologic testing, evaluative testing of relatives or systemic improvements may arise during the review.
DU5 Review Process
Cases are referred to the DU5C by the relevant Regional Supervising Coroner. Case reviews are not confined to deaths that occurred during the calendar years of this Annual Report. Given the complexities involved in paediatric death investigations, the investigations sometimes take a long time to complete, delaying the DU5C review.
The DU5C review is a two-tiered “triaging” process involving an Executive Team Review and/or Full Committee Review.
Executive Team
The Executive Team reviews cases of deaths under five that are:
Natural deaths with defined illnesses and no issues (i.e. the deaths are “all natural” and there are no police or child welfare concerns)
Accidental deaths that are well documented where no issues have been identified (e.g. motor vehicle collision, drowning)
Homicides or criminally suspicious deaths where the case is still under active police investigation or before the courts.
The cases are received, tracked and triaged by the Executive Team, whose membership includes the DU5C Chair, Executive Lead and other individuals as necessary.
Full Committee
The full DU5C includes the multiple disciplines noted above. The full committee reviews cases of deaths under five including:
All cases where the cause of death remains undetermined after a complete investigation
Deaths where the sleep circumstances\unsafe sleep environment may have been a potential contributor
Potential cases of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS)
Natural deaths with complex medical presentations where potential investigative or pathologic issues that may affect the cause and/or manner of death have been identified
Accidental deaths involving unusual circumstances
Deaths resulting from head injuries that are not well documented accidental deaths (i.e. motor vehicle collision)
Homicides (when the investigation and court process has been completed)(Most homicides are reviewed by the Executive Team and presented to the committee prior to completion of the court process given the time period until resolution in the criminal justice system)
Cases referred to the DU5C undergo a comprehensive and detailed review of investigative materials including (but not limited to):
Post mortem examination, toxicology results and other investigative findings
Photographs (of the scene and post mortem examination)
Coroner’s Investigation Statement
Investigation Questionnaire for Sudden and Unexpected Deaths in Infants
Police and other investigative reports (e.g. Fire Marshal and children’s aid society/Indigenous child wellbeing society reports, etc.)
Chart 6 Illustrates that over the past seven years, the full DU5C reviewed between 55 and 108 cases. The manner of death for the majority of cases was “undetermined.”
Chart 6: DU5C - Full Committee Reviews Based on Manner of Death 2010-2017 Chart 6.
Year Natural Accident Homicide Undetermined Total
2010 17 14 4 73 108
2011 3 13 3 79 98
2012 6 2 9 75 92
2013 3 3 0 49 55
2014 7 4 0 53 64
2015 7 3 0 45 55
2016 2 1 0 58 61
2017 4 2 0 51 57
https://www.mcscs.jus.gov.on.ca/english/Deathinvestigations/OfficeChiefCoroner/Publicationsandreports/PDRCDU52017Report.html
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NO REASONABLES TO EVER DOUBT THE ACCURACY OR INTEGRITY OF THE PDRC REPORTS ON THE DEATHS OF CHILDREN IN CARE. NOPE NOTHIN' TO SEE HERE.. MOVE ALONG...
Report of the Paediatric Death Review Committee and Deaths Under Five Committee Office of the Chief Coroner Province of Ontario.June 2009.
The Inquiry into Pediatric Forensic Pathology in Ontario
On October 1, 2008, Commissioner Stephen T. Goudge released the Report of the Inquiry into Pediatric Forensic Pathology in Ontario.
Background
The Inquiry into Pediatric Forensic Pathology in Ontario was established under the Public Inquiries Act by an Order in Council signed by the Lieutenant Governor of Ontario on April 25, 2007. The Honourable Stephen T. Goudge was appointed Commissioner with a mandate to conduct a systemic review and an assessment of the policies, procedures, practices, accountability and oversight mechanisms, quality control measures and institutional arrangements of pediatric forensic pathology in Ontario from 1981 to 2001 as they relate to its practice and use in investigations and criminal proceedings. The Commissioner was asked to make recommendations to address systemic failings and restore and enhance public confidence in pediatric forensic pathology in Ontario.
The inquiry was announced after Dr. Barry McLellan, then Chief Coroner of Ontario, released the results of a review of 45 criminally suspicious/homicide cases dating back to 1991 where Dr. Charles Smith had performed an autopsy or provided an opinion in consultation. This review was undertaken to determine
whether the conclusions reached by Dr. Smith in his autopsy or consultation reports, or provided during his testimony where applicable, could be supported by the information from materials available for independent review.
WHY WERE NONE OF DR. SMITH'S PDRC FINDINGS EVER REVIEWED?
https://www.ncfrp.org/wp-content/uploads/Publications/PDRC_Annual_Report_2009.pdf
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Dr. Charles Randal Smith was long regarded as one of Canada's best in forensic child pathology. A public inquiry was called after an Ontario coroner's inquiry questioned Smith's conclusions in 20 of 45 child autopsies.
Court of Appeal Justice Stephen Goudge is lead the inquiry into how the use of faulty forensic pathology evidence by Ontario prosecutors may have led to as many as 13 people being wrongfully convicted of killing children.
THIS ARTICLE CONTINUED BELOW:
While Dr Smith was wrongfully accusing the innocent how often might he have let the guilty go? Please watch this short video to get a clue.
https://youtu.be/C9AcaPxUj_k
RELATED ARTICLES: 2009: Why did 90 children die?
Ninety children known to Ontario's child welfare system died in 2007, according to the latest report from the chief coroner's office – a number the province's new child advocate says is shocking and should trouble us all.
Equally disturbing, says Irwin Elman in his first annual report to the Legislature today, is the government's refusal to share detailed information on these deaths with his office.
By Laurie Monsebraaten SOCIAL JUSTICE REPORTER
https://www.thestar.com/life/health_wellness/2009/02/23/why_did_90_children_die.html
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2013 PDRC REPORT REDACTED.
Between 2008/2012 natural causes was listed as the least likely way for a child in Ontario's care to die at 7% of the total deaths reviewed (15 children) while "undetermined cause" was listed as the leading cause of death of children in Ontario's child protection system at "43%" of the total deaths reviewed (92 children).
http://www.mcscs.jus.gov.on.ca/sites/default/files/content/mcscs/images/195633-19.jpg
http://www.mcscs.jus.gov.on.ca/english/DeathInvestigations/office_coroner/PublicationsandReports/PDRC/2013Report/PDRC_2013.html
“It is stunning to me how these children... are rendered invisible while they are alive and invisible in their death,” said Irwin Elman, Ontario’s advocate for children and youth. Between 90 and 120 children and youth connected to children’s aid die every year.
Irwin Elman says he still wants inquests for every child who dies while in care of child welfare.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/thunder-bay/irwin-elman-11-youth-review-1.4421690
https://www.thestar.com/opinion/contributors/2018/11/19/eliminating-the-ontario-child-advocates-office-a-mistake.html
https://www.nationalobserver.com/2019/04/01/news/ontario-child-advocate-wonders-whether-doug-ford-just-made-your-children-invisible
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SEE ALSO: A PLAUSIBLE SOUNDING COVER STORY BY OACAS.
Paediatric Death Review Committee 2008 Annual Report (according to OACAS).
Coroner recommends public education on safe sleeping for infants and children. By Marie-Lauren Gregoire, OACAS Communications Coordinator.
Click here to download this report.Dr. Bert Lauwers and Karen Bridgman-Acker presented the report of the Paediatric Death Review Committee (PDRC) to child welfare professionals on the last day of the conference.
http://www.oacas.org/pubs/external/prdcannualreport08.pdf
The Associate Deputy Coroner indicated the most common causes of child deaths are natural, however, other causes include accident, homicide and undetermined.
One of the main causes of child deaths is unsafe sleeping environments. Unsafe sleeping practices include:
Adult beds used at home or for napping when visiting relatives or friends
Bed sharing or co-sleeping - room sharing is encouraged
Couches and sofas should not be used as sleep surfaces for babies
Crowded cribs are dangerous – keep cribs clear of toys, pillows, blankets, stuffed animals, and bumper pads
The safest sleeping environment for an infant is on its back in an empty crib with a firm mattress
The PDRC, a multidisciplinary committee of the Office of the Chief Coroner of Ontario, reviews all child deaths in Ontario including those child deaths where a child welfare agency has had some involvement with the child and/or family within the previous year. In 2007, the Paediatric Death Review Committee examined the circumstances surrounding the deaths of 91 children between the ages of 0 and 18 years. The Deaths Under Five Committee reviewed 117 deaths. The presentation focused on the issues and themes raised in 35 cases reviewed by the PDRC in 2007 where a Children’s Aid Society (CAS) was involved with the family during the preceding 12 months.
The purpose of review is to analyze the circumstances of the death, the services provided to the family, and to make recommendations for possible prevention of future deaths under similar circumstances. The recommendations are focused on promoting best practices within the child welfare and medical systems and educating the public on child safety measures. The Annual Report produced by the PDRC summarizes the findings, statistics, recommendations, trends and themes identified in these reviews.
The main recommendation of this report is increased public education about safe sleeping practices. CASs educate parents about safe sleeping practices and ensure child protection workers complete safety assessments of the child’s home, especially the sleeping areas for infants. Ontario’s CASs need the support of community partners and professionals to educate parents about safe sleeping practices, positive parenting and the duty to report.
Previous article: An Evening to Remember
Next article: Youth report on improving the well-being of youth in care
http://www.oacas.org/pubs/oacas/journal/2008June/paediatric.html
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2001: DEAD WRONG.
How the faulty findings of an eminent pathologist led to erroneous murder charges and ruined lives. JANE O’HARA. macleans.ca
When Dr. Charles Randal Smith settled into the witness box of the Kingston, Ont., courtroom, he looked perfectly at home. He'd brought along his teenage daughter to watch him testify at this preliminary hearing, even though it was not exactly family fare. The tall, grey-haired pathologist, who since 1992 has run the Ontario pediatric forensic pathology unit at Toronto's Hospital for Sick Children.
Crown prosecutors viewed the case as one of the most sensational child murders ever in Canada. Their theory was straightforward: on June 12, 1997, Louise Reynolds, a 28-year-old single mother from Kingston, had killed her seven-year-old daughter, Sharon, by stabbing her more than 80 times with a pair of scissors. Reynolds’s motive? Prosecutors argued she was angry at the child for having head lice.
For Kingston police and Crown prosecutors, Smith’s opinion was crucial.
His 10-page report on the autopsy he performed on Sharon’s perforated body was the linchpin of the second-degree murder case. But it didn’t hold. Just over three months ago, in late January, Smith’s theory was totally discredited when the Crown abruptly dropped the murder charges against Reynolds. This, after numerous experts—some hired by the Crown—disagreed with Smith and concluded instead that a powerful dog had mauled the girl.
By then Reynolds had spent 3'/2 years in custody because of the outlandish charge. Now she is suing the 51-year-old Smith, Toronto dental oncologist Robert Wood (who advised the prosecution that the marks did not look like dog bites) and the Kingston police force for $7 million. But as damning as that case sounds, it is just one ofat least six to cast doubt on Smiths expertise.
Now, the alarm bells are going off. Smith himself has voluntarily stopped doing autopsies for the coroners office - and asked for a review of his work in the Reynolds case and in another Toronto child death case that depended on his testimony.
And the provincial coroner’s office has taken possibly unprecedented steps to restore faith in the system. Ontario’s deputy chief coroner, Dr. James Cairns, has had Crown prosecutors and defence lawyers informed that his office is “more than
willing” to have independent experts examine Smiths findings. The reviews Smith requested, he added, would have happened in any case. “It has to be done,” said Cairns, “but it’s obviously not something one does jumping up and down for joy.”
READ LOTS MORE HERE:
http://archive.macleans.ca/article/2001/5/14/dead-wrong
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Dr. Charles Smith: 5 examples of the wrongfully accused.
https://globalnews.ca/news/2548081/dr-charles-smith-5-cases-of-the-wrongfully-accused/
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Doctors who supervised disgraced pathologist Charles Smith never faced disciplinary hearing.
https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2015/02/28/doctors-who-supervised-disgraced-pathologist-never-faced-disciplinary-hearing.html
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Death in the family: The story of disgraced doctor Charles Smith and the families he destroyed.
Author John Chipman on the tragic miscarriage of justice that impelled him to investigate Ontario's most notorious pediatric pathologist. By TVO Current Affairs - Published on February 9, 2017.
https://www.tvo.org/article/death-in-the-family-the-story-of-disgraced-doctor-charles-smith-and-the-families-he-destroyed
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Dr. Charles Smith: The man behind the public inquiry.
Charles Randal Smith is a disgraced former Canadian pathologist who was the head pediatric forensic pathologist at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, Ontario, from 1982 to 2003. The quality of his autopsies, and the resulting criminal charges and convictions of thirteen people, have been called into question and a full public inquiry was ordered. The inquiry found there to be fundamental errors made on the part of Smith and many of the cases in which he had testified are now being re-examined and appealed.[1] [2]
In 2008, the chief forensic pathologist for Ontario began a public inquiry into 220 cases of shaken baby syndrome to determine if anyone was wrongfully convicted in the babies' deaths.[3] Smith proclaimed that he had "a thing against people who hurt children", while critics said that "he was on a crusade and acted more like a prosecutor" than a pathologist.[4]
(Did Dr. Charles Randal Smith ever hold a seat on the Ontario PDRC and/or did the PDRC ever access his expertise? See more below.)
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/dr-charles-smith-the-man-behind-the-public-inquiry-1.864004
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Goudge Inquiry: From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Inquiry into Pediatric Forensic Pathology in Ontario, commonly known as the Goudge Inquiry, was created to address serious concerns over the way criminally suspicious deaths involving children are handled by the Province of Ontario in Canada. The inquiry was primarily the result of evidence that arose in regards to discredited pathologist Charles Smith.[1]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goudge_Inquiry
https://www.attorneygeneral.jus.gov.on.ca/inquiries/goudge/policy_research/pdf/Sossin_Accountability-and-Oversight.pdf
https://www.attorneygeneral.jus.gov.on.ca/inquiries/goudge/schedule/witnesses.html
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SOMETHING STILL STINKS IN THE CORONER'S OFFICE...
Christie Blatchford: 'Bullying' Ontario chief forensic pathologist accused of interfering with cases.
Dr. Jane Turner, who worked almost two years at the Hamilton Regional Forensic Pathology Unit, made the allegations in a letter to the Solicitor General
Dr. Michael Pollanen, Chief Forensic Pathologist for Ontario. "No one is allowed to challenge his views." a former colleague says.Geoff Robins/Postmedia/File.
In a case that parallels a scathing judge’s decision about Ontario’s chief forensic pathologist two years ago, Dr. Michael Pollanen has been accused of interfering in the work of the province’s other forensic pathologists, pressing them to change their findings in suspicious deaths and undermining those who disagree with him.
Dr. Jane Turner, a forensic pathologist who worked for almost two years at the Hamilton Regional Forensic Pathology Unit and is now working as a consultant in St. Louis, Mo., made the allegations in an Aug. 12 letter to Ontario Solicitor General Sylvia Jones.
“My complaint against Dr. Pollanen is not that I am always right and Dr. Pollanen is always wrong, but rather that his interference, bullying and insistence on compliance threaten the integrity of the system of death investigation,” Turner told Jones.
“No one is allowed to challenge his views.”
READ MORE HERE:
https://nationalpost.com/opinion/christie-blatchford-bullying-ontario-chief-forensic-pathologist-accused-of-interfering-with-cases
READING MUSIC:
https://youtu.be/TuCGiV-EVjA
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Ontario's chief forensic pathologist wants to see autopsies done in Thunder Bay.
(HERE COMES THE COVERUP SQUAD)
Michael Pollanen says OIPRD's call for Thunder Bay forensic pathology unit 'directly aligns' with his vision.
Ontario's chief forensic pathologist says he agrees with the recommendation made by Ontario's independent police watchdog that calls for the capacity for autopsies to be done in Thunder Bay but adds it's ultimately up to the province's community safety ministry whether a forensic pathology unit is set up in the northwestern Ontario city.
Ontario Independent Police Review Director (OIPRD) Gerry McNeilly released a highly-critical, 200-plus page report in December into systemic racism in the Thunder Bay Police Service which makes dozens of recommendations. Most are aimed at the local force but several call on the chief coroner's and chief forensic pathologist's offices to improve communication and coordination between each other and police investigators when probing deaths in Thunder Bay.
'Racist attitudes' contributed to poor Indigenous death investigations by Thunder Bay police, report says
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/thunder-bay/thunder-bay-oiprd-report-1.4942388
'As tragic as it is unsurprising': leaders react to report on systemic racism in Thunder Bay police
https://www.cbc.ca/news/indigenous/thunder-bay-police-report-systemic-racism-reaction-1.4942775
One of those recommendations calls for a forensic pathology unit in the city so autopsies can be performed locally. McNeilly's report stated that "there are significant challenges affecting the ultimate quality and timeliness of [police] investigations in not having a forensic pathology unit in Thunder Bay and in the requirement that [police] officers must be sent to Toronto for autopsies."
"The suggestion or the recommendation of producing a regional forensic pathology in Thunder Bay directly aligns with our vision for the death investigation system," Dr. Michael Pollanen, Ontario's chief forensic pathologist told CBC News.
"We will work with the Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services and our senior management team to progress that recommendation."
Currently, the vast majority of autopsies ordered on deaths in Thunder Bay are done in Toronto.
Ontario does have a system of regional units, usually set up in partnership with teaching hospitals and medical schools, Pollanen said but in the north, there are only two such units in Sudbury and Sault Ste. Marie. Having "regional capacity" for autopsies helps to keep the death investigation process running smoothly, he added.
https://www.psychologytoday.com/ca/blog/wicked-deeds/201907/facts-and-fictions-about-serial-killers
"It also allows for the seamless communication because the autopsies are occurring in the geographical area where the police are present, where the Crown Attorneys are present, where the local defence bar is present," he said.
"So in other words ... this regional or community approach is a highly effective way of delivering service."
Pollanen added that, ultimately, he'd like to see the regional model extended to include Kenora as well.
Chief coroner, forensic pathologist 'embrace' OIPRD recommendations
Improving communication between police, coroners and pathologists, while front-and-centre in McNeilly's recommendations to Pollanen and chief coroner Dirk Huyer, has already started, Huyer said.
A specific framework, or set of guidelines, for death investigations was developed while the police oversight body was conducting its investigation, Huyer said, adding that the framework effectively focuses on how best to manage communication and information-sharing between agencies.
That's crucial for investigations in Thunder Bay, officials said, due to the geographical distance from Toronto.
"We identified challenges that had occured both in our experience with investigations of death but also identified by the OIPRD and we've specifically outlined those, we've highlighted those," Huyer said. "We've pointed out the structure and the approach that should be — must be — taken for each of the death investigations that have the high attention ... type of case management."
"By bringing in a framework, it puts a structure in place, it's applied across the board and that way that allows us to address the issues in a systematic way."
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/thunder-bay/oiprd-report-coroner-pathologist-1.4985926
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Death as Expected: Inside a child welfare system where 102 Indigenous kids died over 5 years. National News | September 25, 2019 by Kenneth Jackson
https://aptnnews.ca/2019/09/25/inside-a-child-welfare-system-where-102-indigenous-kids-died-over-5-years/
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Archive for the Accountability Category: Child Welfare Sector Response to Auditor General Report 2015 On December 2, 2015 / Accountability, Children's Aid Societies, Featured, Government.
The Ontario Association of Children’s Aid Societies (OACAS) and its members welcome the 2015 report of the Office of the Auditor General of Ontario. The safety and protection of children is the first priority of Ontario Children’s Aid Societies (CASs). As noted by the Auditor General, child
Read more →
https://www.oacas.org/category/accountability/page/8/
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Former child advocate's investigation finds deplorable conditions at now-closed Thunder Bay foster homes
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/thunder-bay/irwin-elman-report-thunder-bay-1.5118129
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'No standard of care,' former Ontario child advocate says of foster care system in call for overhaul
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/thunder-bay/irwin-elman-thunder-bay-report-1.5118815
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Shocking conditions at now shuttered Thunder Bay foster homes detailed in child advocate’s final report
https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2019/04/30/shocking-conditions-at-now-shuttered-thunder-bay-foster-homes-detailed-in-child-advocates-final-report.html
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Province shuts down three Thunder Bay foster homes
https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2017/06/13/province-shuts-down-three-thunder-bay-foster-homes.html
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Ontario child advocate wonders whether Doug Ford just made your children 'invisible again'
https://www.nationalobserver.com/2019/04/01/news/ontario-child-advocate-wonders-whether-doug-ford-just-made-your-children-invisible
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Something must be done about the Thunder Bay police
An unprecedented report says ‘systemic racism’ exists within the force, and that there was ‘neglect of duty’ among investigators. Is it beyond fixing?
by Kyle EdwardsDec 12, 2018
https://www.macleans.ca/news/canada/something-must-be-done-about-the-thunder-bay-police/
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Thunder Bay police officer now ‘off duty’ as investigation into Saturday’s incident begins
https://aptnnews.ca/2018/12/04/thunder-bay-police-officer-now-off-duty-as-investigation-into-saturdays-incident-begins/
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Thunder Bay: Police in Thunder Bay, Ont., reopen investigations into deaths of 9 Indigenous people.
Cases will be reviewed by multi-disciplinary, multi-agency team.
(MULTI-DISCIPLINARY: THE WE KNOW ALL THE EXCUSES SQUAD)
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/thunder-bay/thunder-bay-investigations-reopened-1.5180092
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'Racism exists at all levels' of Thunder Bay, Ont., police service, review finds.
https://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/racism-exists-at-all-levels-of-thunder-bay-ont-police-service-review-finds-1.4214534
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Ontario 2007: Nearly half of children in Crown care are medicated.
Researchers have found that not only were psychotropic drugs prescribed to a clear majority of the current and former wards interviewed, but most were diagnosed with mental-health disorders by a family doctor, never visited a child psychiatrist or another doctor for a second opinion, and doubted the accuracy of their diagnosis.
A Toronto Star investigation has found Ontario’s most vulnerable children in the care of an unaccountable and non-transparent protection system. It keeps them in the shadows, far beyond what is needed to protect their identities.
“When people are invisible, bad things happen,” says Irwin Elman, Ontario’s now former and last advocate for children and youth with the closure of the Office.
In Ontario the CAS has turned themselves into a multi-billion dollar private corporation using any excuse to compel parents into submitting to a fake drug testing to justify removing children or keeping files open keeping that government funding flowing.
While the same time they've taking the thousands of children to specific CAS approved doctors who are all to happy to prescribe medication based on the workers assessments of the child's condition..
That's why there are no follow ups with qualified medical and psychiatric doctors and not because the CAS lack the funding, staff or attention span to care properly for the children.
(Another case of "The results they wanted when they wanted them..")
A disturbing number, the network's research director, Yolanda Lambe, added, have traded the child-welfare system for a life on the street.
"A lot of people are using drugs now," she said. "There's a lot of homeless young people who have been medicated quite heavily."
Marti McKay is a Toronto child psychologist was hired by a CAS to assess the grandparents' capacity as guardians only to discover a child so chemically altered that his real character was clouded by the side effects of adult doses of drugs.
"There are lots of other kids like that," said Dr. McKay, one of the experts on the government panel. "If you look at the group homes, it's close to 100 per cent of the kids who are on not just one drug, but on drug cocktails with multiple diagnoses.
"There are too many kids being diagnosed with ... a whole range of disorders that are way out of proportion to the normal population. ... It's just not reasonable to think the children in care would have such overrepresentation in these rather obscure disorders."
“There are lots of kids in group homes all over Ontario and they are not doing well — and everybody knows it,” says Kiaras Gharabaghi, a member of a government-appointed panel that examined the residential care system in 2016.
Psychotropic drugs are being prescribed to nearly half the Crown wards in a sample of Ontario children's aid societies, kindling fears that the agencies are overusing medication with the province's most vulnerable children.
According to documents obtained by The Globe and Mail under Ontario's Freedom of Information Act, 47 per cent of the Crown wards - children in permanent CAS care - at five randomly picked agencies were prescribed psychotropics last year to treat depression, attention deficit disorder, anxiety and other mental-health problems. And, the wards are diagnosed and medicated far more often than are children in the general population.
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/nearly-half-of-children-in-crown-care-are-medicated/article687480/
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Ontario 2014: "Use of 'behaviour-altering' drugs widespread in foster, group homes."
Almost half of children and youth in foster and group home care aged 5 to 17 — 48.6 per cent — are on drugs, such as Ritalin, tranquilizers and anticonvulsants, according to a yearly survey conducted for the provincial government and the Ontario Association of Children’s Aid Societies (OACAS). At ages 16 and 17, fully 57 per cent are on these medications.
In group homes, the figure is even higher — an average of 64 per cent of children and youth are taking behaviour-altering drugs. For 10- to 15-year-olds, the number is a staggering 74 per cent.
https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2014/12/12/use_of_behaviouraltering_drugs_widespread_in_foster_group_homes.html
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What’s worse is that the number of children prescribed dangerous drugs is on the rise. Doctors seem to prescribe medication without being concerned with the side-effects.
Worldwide, 17 million children, some as young as five years old, are given a variety of different prescription drugs, including psychiatric drugs that are dangerous enough that regulatory agencies in Europe, Australia, and the US have issued warnings on the side effects that include suicidal thoughts and aggressive behavior.
According to Fight For Kids, an organization that “educates parents worldwide on the facts about today’s widespread practice of labeling children mentally ill and drugging them with heavy, mind-altering, psychiatric drugs,” says over 10 million children in the US are prescribed addictive stimulants, antidepressants and other psychotropic (mind-altering) drugs for alleged educational and behavioral problems.
In fact, according to Foundation for a Drug-Free World, every day, 2,500 youth (12 to 17) will abuse a prescription pain reliever for the first time (4). Even more frightening, prescription medications like depressants, opioids and antidepressants cause more overdose deaths (45 percent) than illicit drugs like cocaine, heroin, methamphetamines and amphetamines (39 percent) combined. Worldwide, prescription drugs are the 4th leading cause of death.
https://dailyhealthpost.com/common-prescription-drugs/
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Standards of Care for the Administration of Psychotropic Medications to Children and Youth Living in Licensed Residential Settings.
Summary of Recommendations of the Ontario Expert Panel February 2009.
http://www.children.gov.on.ca/htdocs/English/documents/specialneeds/residential/summary_report.pdf
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“Harmful Impacts” is the title of the Motherisk commission's 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.
WHAT ARE THE HARMFUL IMPACTS?
Separating kids from parents a 'textbook strategy' of domestic abuse, experts say — and causes irreversible, lifelong damage even when there seems to be no other choice.
“Being separated from parents or having inconsistent living conditions for long periods of time can create changes in thoughts and behavior patterns, and an increase in challenging behavior and stress-related physical symptoms,” such as sleep difficulty, nightmares, flashbacks, crying, and yelling says Amy van Schagen - California State University.
The Science Is Unequivocal: Separating Families Is Harmful to Children
In news stories and opinion pieces, psychological scientists are sharing evidence-based insight from decades of research demonstrating the harmful effects of separating parents and children.
In an op-ed in USA Today, Roberta Michnick Golinkoff (University of Delaware), Mary Dozier (University of Delaware), and Kathy Hirsh-Pasek (Temple University) write:
“Years of research are clear: Children need their parents to feel secure in the world, to explore and learn, and to grow strong emotionally.”
In a Washington Post op-ed, James Coan (University of Virginia) says:
“As a clinical psychologist and neuroscientist at the University of Virginia, I study how the brain transforms social connection into better mental and physical health. My research suggests that maintaining close ties to trusted loved ones is a vital buffer against the external stressors we all face. But not being an expert on how this affects children, I recently invited five internationally recognized developmental scientists to chat with me about the matter on a science podcast I host. As we discussed the border policy’s effect on the children ensnared by it, even I was surprised to learn just how damaging it is likely to be.”
Mia Smith-Bynum (University of Maryland) is quoted in The Cut:
“The science leads to the conclusion that the deprivation of caregiving produces a form of extreme suffering in children. Being separated from a parent isn’t just a trauma — it breaks the relationship that helps children cope with other traumas.
Forceful separation is particularly damaging, explains clinical psychologist Mia Smith-Bynum, a professor of family science at the University of Maryland, when parents feel there’s nothing in their power that can be done to get their child back.
For all the dislocation, strangeness and pain of being separated forcibly from parents, many children can and do recover, said Mary Dozier, a professor of child development at the University of Delaware. “Not all of them — some kids never recover,” Dr. Dozier said. “But I’ve been amazed at how well kids can do after institutionalization if they’re able to have responsive and nurturing care afterward.”
The effects of that harm may evolve over time, says Antonio Puente, a professor of psychology at the University of North Carolina, Wilmington who specializes in cultural neuropsychology. What may begin as acute emotional distress could re emerge later in life as PTSD, behavioral issues and other signs of lasting neuropsychological damage, he says.
“A parent is really in many ways an extension of the child’s biology as that child is developing,” Tottenham said. “That adult who’s routinely been there provides this enormous stress-buffering effect on a child’s brain at a time when we haven’t yet developed that for ourselves. They’re really one organism, in a way.” When the reliable buffering and guidance of a parent is suddenly withdrawn, the riot of learning that molds and shapes the brain can be short-circuited, she said.
In a story from the BBC, Jack Shonkoff (Harvard University) discusses evidence related to long-term impacts:
Jack P Shonkoff, director of the Harvard University Center on the Developing Child, says it is incorrect to assume that some of the youngest children removed from their parents’ care will be too young to remember and therefore relatively unharmed. “When that stress system stays activated for a significant period of time, it can have a wear and tear effect biologically.
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http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2015/03/27/daycare-operator-sued-for-calling-the-cas.html
https://www.thestar.com/news/insight/2014/12/12/losing_a_child_to_cas_should_be_much_harder_keenan.html
https://www.insideottawavalley.com/news-story/5926359-cas-watchdog-opens-new-local-chapter/
https://kmlaw.ca/cases/crown-ward-class-action/
https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2019/08/23/in-a-rare-legal-case-toronto-teen-gets-green-light-to-sue-childrens-aid-for-negligence.html
https://nypost.com/2019/06/12/childrens-aid-society-in-canada-turned-a-blind-eye-to-sexual-abuse-report/
https://nationalpost.com/opinion/chris-selley-motherisk-is-the-ontario-liberals-unacknowledged-and-worst-scandal
https://globalnews.ca/news/5360057/teen-sexual-cult-ontario-foster-home-childrens-aid-society/
https://www.intelligencer.ca/2014/10/21/three-cas-cases-settled/wcm/3fd07287-3f2a-1755-7386-1c8c2353c943
https://ottawa.ctvnews.ca/cornwall-sex-abuse-victims-given-large-settlements-1.521190
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/suit-settled-in-horrific-case-of-child-abuse/article4290587/
https://nationalpost.com/opinion/barbara-kay-childrens-aid-societies-gone-rogue
https://lfpress.com/2014/04/14/cas-vows-to-defend-ruling-of-bad-faith/wcm/e7867b5c-7d22-73c4-0e36-450327791eeb
https://www.osler.com/en/blogs/appeal/october-2014/children-s-aid-society-of-london-and-middlesex-v
https://globalnews.ca/news/5360057/teen-sexual-cult-ontario-foster-home-childrens-aid-society/
https://nypost.com/2019/06/12/childrens-aid-society-in-canada-turned-a-blind-eye-to-sexual-abuse-report/
https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2015/03/27/daycare-operator-sued-for-calling-the-cas.html
https://www.cbc.ca/news/health/homeless-youth-foster-care-1.4240121
https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2014/12/12/use_of_behaviouraltering_drugs_widespread_in_foster_group_homes.html
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/nearly-half-of-children-in-crown-care-are-medicated/article687480/
https://www.thestar.com/opinion/contributors/2019/05/13/a-system-should-not-raise-a-child-families-should.html
https://www.intelligencer.ca/2014/08/27/former-foster-parent-conviction-concerning-for-highland-shores-cas/wcm/9f07f58b-e46f-2a49-4e7f-969368a305a3
https://ottawa.ctvnews.ca/ontario-child-advocate-stands-by-report-on-90-deaths-1.378721
https://aptnnews.ca/2018/03/14/ontario-coroner-finds-potential-crime-review-foster-care-deaths/
https://blackburnnews.com/windsor/windsor-news/2017/09/01/layoffs-windsor-essex-childrens-aid-society/
https://lfpress.com/2015/03/16/child-welfare-agency-found-to-have-wasted-money-on-office-renovations-consultants-and-bloated-management/wcm/e32079bc-4395-7c5e-70ec-378d688f0b6a
https://www.thestar.com/news/insight/2016/11/10/cas-managers-charged-more-than-106000-in-unreasonable-expenses.html
https://windsorstar.com/news/childrens-aid-gets-4-3-million-cash-boost-from-province
https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2019/08/23/province-orders-childrens-aid-societies-to-review-credentials-of-experts-used-in-child-welfare-cases.html
Discredited hair-testing program harmed vulnerable families across Ontario, report says.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/health/motherrisk-commission-1.4552160
https://blog.cansfordlabs.co.uk/5-reasons-why-the-motherisk-scandal-shouldnt-happen-again
http://projects.thestar.com/motherisk/
https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2016/02/12/head-of-motherisk-probe-had-ties-to-sick-kids.html
https://www.cbc.ca/news/opinion/motherisk-child-protection-1.4559905
2013: Nancy Simone, a president of the Canadian Union of Public Employees local representing 275 workers at the Catholic Children’s Aid Society of Toronto, argued child protection workers already have levels of oversight that include unregistered unqualified workplace supervisors, family court judges, coroners’ inquests and annual case audits by the ministry and the union representing child protection workers is firmly opposed to ethical oversight from a professional college, and the Ministry of Children and Youth Services, which regulates and funds child protection, is so far staying out of the fight.. Nancy Simone says, “Our work is already regulated to death.”
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2019: Province orders unregulated unqualified children’s aid societies to review credentials of experts used in child welfare cases.
he Ontario government has ordered all children’s aid societies to immediately review the credentials of experts used to assess whether parents should lose their children.
The directive comes in the wake of an ongoing Star investigation into parenting capacity assessments, expert reports which can be heavily relied on in child protection proceedings when deciding whether children should be permanently removed from their parents’ care.
The assessments typically examine parents’ ability to address the needs of their children and whether there are supports available. As the Star’s investigation has found, there are no qualifications required to do a parenting capacity assessment, no rules around methodology and testing, and no oversight body that tracks assessors’ performance.
The investigation was sparked by a Halton region child protection case in which a judge found that psychologist Nicole Walton-Allen — who testified she has done more than 100 parenting capacity assessments — had lied about her credentials for years.
Walton-Allen is authorized by the College of Psychologists to practise in school psychology but, the judge noted at the time, materials including her CV and website listed her as a clinical psychologist.
“I became convinced that she had been intentionally using the clinical designation to increase her credibility as a psychologist,” Ontario Court Justice Penny Jones wrote in her December ruling, tossing Walton-Allen’s assessment, which had supported the society’s position that five children in one family should be placed in CAS care.
Jill Dunlop, associate minister of children and women’s issues, said the ministry directive was sent to the societies Thursday. It is “unacceptable” that children and families may have been affected by Walton-Allen’s misrepresentation of her credentials, Dunlop said, speaking at the Jewish Family & Child CAS in North York on Friday.
She shared news of the directive while announcing a government review of the child welfare system that will include an online survey for youth, families and front-line workers. The government will also be bringing on a third party to provide independent advice “on modernizing services,” according to a news release.
The directive — which advocates have already criticized as inadequate — orders societies to identify all parenting capacity assessments that are in progress or that have been completed in cases that are still before the courts, and to verify the assessor’s credentials.
For example, if an assessor is a psychologist registered with the College of Psychologists or a psychiatrist registered with the College of Physicians and Surgeons, the CAS must verify with the college that the individual is who they say they are, and are in good standing with their regulatory body.
If the society has concerns with an assessor’s credentials, and remains concerned after speaking with the individual, the society must file a complaint with the assessor’s respective college, the directive says. The society must also keep a record of the steps it has taken to verify the credentials, as well as a record of any complaint filed and its outcome.
In the Halton case involving Walton-Allen, it was lawyer Novalea Jarvis, representing the mother in the case, who discovered on the College of Psychologists’ website that Walton-Allen was only authorized to practise in school psychology.
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RELATED STORIES
A judge found this Ontario psychologist ‘misrepresented’ her credentials. Here are four times she said a child should be taken from their parents
https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2019/08/23/province-orders-childrens-aid-societies-to-review-credentials-of-experts-used-in-child-welfare-cases.html
Expert who gave more than 100 assessments in Ontario child protection cases lied about credentials for years, judge finds
https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2019/07/31/expert-who-gave-more-than-100-assessments-in-ontario-child-protection-cases-lied-about-credentials-for-years-judge-finds.html
Lead Ontario children’s aid agency in chaos as top managers pushed out (?), or are they rats fleeing the sinking ship...
https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2019/07/29/lead-ontario-childrens-aid-agency-in-chaos-as-top-managers-pushed-out.html
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Despite being told of this find, Halton CAS still tried to have Walton-Allen’s assessment admitted, but the judge rejected her opinion. (Paying for the results they want when they want them no different than the Motherisk Test.)
Lead Ontario children’s aid agency in chaos as top managers pushed out
Halton deferred to the Ontario Association of Children’s Aid Societies (OACAS), which declined to comment on the case.
Going forward, each society must have a process in place for verifying an assessor’s credentials, the directive says. All societies are required to report back to the ministry by Sept. 30 that they have followed the directive’s requirements.
In a statement to the Star, the CEO of the OACAS said that the association and CAS leadership have been reviewing measures to improve the process for finding qualified professionals who do parenting capacity assessments and that “these measures are well-aligned with the ministry’s recent directive.
“We are confident that Ontario’s children’s aid societies are well-positioned to undertake the actions described in the ministry’s directive efficiently and effectively,” said Nicole Bonnie.
Tammy Law, the president of the Toronto chapter of the Association of Child Protection Lawyers, said the directive fails to address many of the concerns around parenting capacity assessments, including the qualifications necessary to do an assessment in the first place and the types of tests that should be used on the parents and children.
“It’s like putting a Band-Aid on a cut on a broken arm, and not treating the broken arm,” she told the Star. “It doesn’t address the root issues.”
Meanwhile, the ministry said in a statement that it is continuing “to understand the scope of the work conducted by this individual,” referring to Walton-Allen. The ministry has so far refused to say whether it will launch an independent review into parenting capacity assessments, which lawyers, advocates and the official opposition have said is necessary.
Irwin Elman, the former provincial advocate for children and youth, said he was struck by the fact that such a directive was not already in place.
Elman’s office was abolished by the Ford government last year; its investigative powers were transferred to the ombudsman’s office, but not its advocacy mandate. He said an independent, restorative inquiry into the child welfare system could help come up with guidelines and qualifications for these assessments.
“For me, the fact that there was no such directive or thinking in the past, and the fact that the ministry has still not made any declarative statement about what our children and families connected to child welfare can expect, is a sign that the government yet again has not taken the whole child protection system seriously,” he told the Star.
Jacques Gallant is a Toronto-based reporter covering legal affairs. Follow him on Twitter: @JacquesGallant
https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2019/08/23/province-orders-childrens-aid-societies-to-review-credentials-of-experts-used-in-child-welfare-cases.html
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2017: Sexual, physical abuse 'rampant' at Ontario training schools, suit alleges.
TORONTO -- A man who says he was badly abused at one of Ontario's now-defunct training schools is spearheading a proposed class-action against the province that seeks $600 million on behalf of other children and youth sent to the provincial facilities.
In his unproven statement of claim, Kirk Keeping, 64, alleges the schools were festering cesspools of sexual, physical and psychological abuse perpetrated by unsupervised and unqualified staff on hapless kids.
"The training schools contained a toxic environment in which degrading and humiliating treatment of children in the Crown's care was the norm," the claim states. "Physical, sexual and psychological abuse was rampant, and residents of training schools were systematically denied their dignity and basic human rights."
The provincial training schools for boys and girls aged eight to 16 operated between 1931 until they were finally shut down in 1984. Those sentenced to the facilities were children found begging on the streets, runaways, truants, those deemed "incorrigible," those convicted of petty offences, or those who, for various reasons, had inadequate adult supervision. Once there, they became wards of the Crown and were cut off from any family support.
While the idea was to provide support, correction and vocational training for troubled youth, the claim alleges the reality was far more sinister -- one of "fear intimidation and brutality."
Staff forced children to beat up on other children or meted out physical punishment themselves. Youth were thrown into solitary confinement in shackles, not allowed to go to the washroom, were forced to scrub floors with toothbrushes or sleep on floors, and were forced into sexual acts, according to the claim.
Attempting to report the abuse would lead to retaliation in the form of longer sentences, the claim alleges.
Keeping, of Thunder Bay, Ont., was an unmanageable runaway when a judge in 1968 sent the 15 year old to Pine Ridge in Bouwmanville. During his two years there, he was sexually abused by a woman in the kitchen where he was given work and later, on a dairy farm, he says, by a man.
"I've held it inside myself for going on 50 years and it's been a long time," Keeping, now a father and grandfather, told The Canadian Press from Thunder Bay. "I grew up in a time when things like that were kept in the closet and you were ashamed -- you didn't want people to know things like that."
He said he lived in fear for a lot of years -- even after he left Pine Ridge -- and still suffers from nightmares and post-traumatic stress disorder.
The suit filed last week in Ontario Superior Court in Thunder Bay, has yet to be certified as a class action or proven in any court.
"I just feel it's time," Keeping said. "It's time that people understood what happened to us young boys in that training school."
Among other things, the claim states, the provincial government knew or ought to have known what was happening in the schools but failed to do anything about the situation.
It seeks $500 million in general damages and another $100 million in punitive damages, alleging the province was negligent, failed in the expected standard of care, and breached its duty toward its young charges.
"The Crown conducted its affairs with wanton and callous disregard for the class members' interests, safety and well-being," the claim states.
Attorney General Yasir Naqvi said he couldn't discuss a lawsuit that is before the courts but expressed sympathy for the victims.
"As a parent and as an Ontarian, my heart goes out to all the children who suffered those abuses," Naqvi said on Tuesday. "Those parents entrusted their children to those institutions and those type of abuses should never have happened."
According to a report from former Quebec judge Fred Kaufman in 2002, Ontario reached settlements with survivors of three schools -- St. Joseph's, St. John's and Grandview -- decades ago. Former premier Dalton McGuinty formally apologized to some of those students in 2004.
The new suit seeks to represent those who attended 12 others in places such as Oakville, Galt, Lindsay, Port Bolster, Bowmanville, Simcoe, Hagersville, Cobourg and Guelph.
https://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/sexual-physical-abuse-rampant-at-ontario-training-schools-suit-alleges-1.3718044
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Ontario 2007: Nearly half of children in Crown care are medicated.
Researchers have found that not only were psychotropic drugs prescribed to a clear majority of the current and former wards interviewed, but most were diagnosed with mental-health disorders by a family doctor, never visited a child psychiatrist or another doctor for a second opinion, and doubted the accuracy of their diagnosis.
A Toronto Star investigation has found Ontario’s most vulnerable children in the care of an unaccountable and non-transparent protection system. It keeps them in the shadows, far beyond what is needed to protect their identities.
“When people are invisible, bad things happen,” says Irwin Elman, Ontario’s now former and last advocate for children and youth with the closure of the Office.
In Ontario the CAS has turned themselves into a multi-billion dollar private corporation using any excuse to compel parents into submitting to a fake drug testing to justify removing children or keeping files open keeping that government funding flowing.
While the same time they've taking the thousands of children to specific CAS approved doctors who are all to happy to prescribe medication based on the workers assessments of the child's condition..
That's why there are no follow ups with qualified medical and psychiatric doctors and not because the CAS lack the funding, staff or attention span to care properly for the children.
(Another case of "The results they wanted when they wanted them..")
A disturbing number, the network's research director, Yolanda Lambe, added, have traded the child-welfare system for a life on the street.
"A lot of people are using drugs now," she said. "There's a lot of homeless young people who have been medicated quite heavily."
Marti McKay is a Toronto child psychologist was hired by a CAS to assess the grandparents' capacity as guardians only to discover a child so chemically altered that his real character was clouded by the side effects of adult doses of drugs.
"There are lots of other kids like that," said Dr. McKay, one of the experts on the government panel. "If you look at the group homes, it's close to 100 per cent of the kids who are on not just one drug, but on drug cocktails with multiple diagnoses.
"There are too many kids being diagnosed with ... a whole range of disorders that are way out of proportion to the normal population. ... It's just not reasonable to think the children in care would have such overrepresentation in these rather obscure disorders."
“There are lots of kids in group homes all over Ontario and they are not doing well — and everybody knows it,” says Kiaras Gharabaghi, a member of a government-appointed panel that examined the residential care system in 2016.
Psychotropic drugs are being prescribed to nearly half the Crown wards in a sample of Ontario children's aid societies, kindling fears that the agencies are overusing medication with the province's most vulnerable children.
According to documents obtained by The Globe and Mail under Ontario's Freedom of Information Act, 47 per cent of the Crown wards - children in permanent CAS care - at five randomly picked agencies were prescribed psychotropics last year to treat depression, attention deficit disorder, anxiety and other mental-health problems. And, the wards are diagnosed and medicated far more often than are children in the general population.
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/nearly-half-of-children-in-crown-care-are-medicated/article687480/
Ontario 2014: "Use of 'behaviour-altering' drugs widespread in foster, group homes."
Almost half of children and youth in foster and group home care aged 5 to 17 — 48.6 per cent — are on drugs, such as Ritalin, tranquilizers and anticonvulsants, according to a yearly survey conducted for the provincial government and the Ontario Association of Children’s Aid Societies (OACAS). At ages 16 and 17, fully 57 per cent are on these medications.
In group homes, the figure is even higher — an average of 64 per cent of children and youth are taking behaviour-altering drugs. For 10- to 15-year-olds, the number is a staggering 74 per cent.
https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2014/12/12/use_of_behaviouraltering_drugs_widespread_in_foster_group_homes.html
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What’s worse is that the number of children prescribed dangerous drugs is on the rise. Doctors seem to prescribe medication without being concerned with the side-effects.
Worldwide, 17 million children, some as young as five years old, are given a variety of different prescription drugs, including psychiatric drugs that are dangerous enough that regulatory agencies in Europe, Australia, and the US have issued warnings on the side effects that include suicidal thoughts and aggressive behavior.
According to Fight For Kids, an organization that “educates parents worldwide on the facts about today’s widespread practice of labeling children mentally ill and drugging them with heavy, mind-altering, psychiatric drugs,” says over 10 million children in the US are prescribed addictive stimulants, antidepressants and other psychotropic (mind-altering) drugs for alleged educational and behavioral problems.
In fact, according to Foundation for a Drug-Free World, every day, 2,500 youth (12 to 17) will abuse a prescription pain reliever for the first time (4). Even more frightening, prescription medications like depressants, opioids and antidepressants cause more overdose deaths (45 percent) than illicit drugs like cocaine, heroin, methamphetamines and amphetamines (39 percent) combined. Worldwide, prescription drugs are the 4th leading cause of death.
https://dailyhealthpost.com/common-prescription-drugs/
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Standards of Care for the Administration of Psychotropic Medications to Children and Youth Living in Licensed Residential Settings.
Summary of Recommendations of the Ontario Expert Panel February 2009.
http://www.children.gov.on.ca/htdocs/English/documents/specialneeds/residential/summary_report.pdf
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“Harmful Impacts” is the title of the Motherisk commission's 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.
WHAT ARE THE HARMFUL IMPACTS?
Separating kids from parents a 'textbook strategy' of domestic abuse, experts say — and causes irreversible, lifelong damage even when there seems to be no other choice.
“Being separated from parents or having inconsistent living conditions for long periods of time can create changes in thoughts and behavior patterns, and an increase in challenging behavior and stress-related physical symptoms,” such as sleep difficulty, nightmares, flashbacks, crying, and yelling says Amy van Schagen - California State University.
The Science Is Unequivocal: Separating Families Is Harmful to Children
In news stories and opinion pieces, psychological scientists are sharing evidence-based insight from decades of research demonstrating the harmful effects of separating parents and children.
In an op-ed in USA Today, Roberta Michnick Golinkoff (University of Delaware), Mary Dozier (University of Delaware), and Kathy Hirsh-Pasek (Temple University) write:
“Years of research are clear: Children need their parents to feel secure in the world, to explore and learn, and to grow strong emotionally.”
In a Washington Post op-ed, James Coan (University of Virginia) says:
“As a clinical psychologist and neuroscientist at the University of Virginia, I study how the brain transforms social connection into better mental and physical health. My research suggests that maintaining close ties to trusted loved ones is a vital buffer against the external stressors we all face. But not being an expert on how this affects children, I recently invited five internationally recognized developmental scientists to chat with me about the matter on a science podcast I host. As we discussed the border policy’s effect on the children ensnared by it, even I was surprised to learn just how damaging it is likely to be.”
Mia Smith-Bynum (University of Maryland) is quoted in The Cut:
“The science leads to the conclusion that the deprivation of caregiving produces a form of extreme suffering in children. Being separated from a parent isn’t just a trauma — it breaks the relationship that helps children cope with other traumas.
Forceful separation is particularly damaging, explains clinical psychologist Mia Smith-Bynum, a professor of family science at the University of Maryland, when parents feel there’s nothing in their power that can be done to get their child back.
For all the dislocation, strangeness and pain of being separated forcibly from parents, many children can and do recover, said Mary Dozier, a professor of child development at the University of Delaware. “Not all of them — some kids never recover,” Dr. Dozier said. “But I’ve been amazed at how well kids can do after institutionalization if they’re able to have responsive and nurturing care afterward.”
The effects of that harm may evolve over time, says Antonio Puente, a professor of psychology at the University of North Carolina, Wilmington who specializes in cultural neuropsychology. What may begin as acute emotional distress could re emerge later in life as PTSD, behavioral issues and other signs of lasting neuropsychological damage, he says.
“A parent is really in many ways an extension of the child’s biology as that child is developing,” Tottenham said. “That adult who’s routinely been there provides this enormous stress-buffering effect on a child’s brain at a time when we haven’t yet developed that for ourselves. They’re really one organism, in a way.” When the reliable buffering and guidance of a parent is suddenly withdrawn, the riot of learning that molds and shapes the brain can be short-circuited, she said.
In a story from the BBC, Jack Shonkoff (Harvard University) discusses evidence related to long-term impacts:
Jack P Shonkoff, director of the Harvard University Center on the Developing Child, says it is incorrect to assume that some of the youngest children removed from their parents’ care will be too young to remember and therefore relatively unharmed. “When that stress system stays activated for a significant period of time, it can have a wear and tear effect biologically.
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http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2015/03/27/daycare-operator-sued-for-calling-the-cas.html
https://www.thestar.com/news/insight/2014/12/12/losing_a_child_to_cas_should_be_much_harder_keenan.html
https://www.insideottawavalley.com/news-story/5926359-cas-watchdog-opens-new-local-chapter/
https://kmlaw.ca/cases/crown-ward-class-action/
https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2019/08/23/in-a-rare-legal-case-toronto-teen-gets-green-light-to-sue-childrens-aid-for-negligence.html
https://nypost.com/2019/06/12/childrens-aid-society-in-canada-turned-a-blind-eye-to-sexual-abuse-report/
https://nationalpost.com/opinion/chris-selley-motherisk-is-the-ontario-liberals-unacknowledged-and-worst-scandal
https://globalnews.ca/news/5360057/teen-sexual-cult-ontario-foster-home-childrens-aid-society/
https://www.intelligencer.ca/2014/10/21/three-cas-cases-settled/wcm/3fd07287-3f2a-1755-7386-1c8c2353c943
https://ottawa.ctvnews.ca/cornwall-sex-abuse-victims-given-large-settlements-1.521190
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/suit-settled-in-horrific-case-of-child-abuse/article4290587/
https://nationalpost.com/opinion/barbara-kay-childrens-aid-societies-gone-rogue
https://lfpress.com/2014/04/14/cas-vows-to-defend-ruling-of-bad-faith/wcm/e7867b5c-7d22-73c4-0e36-450327791eeb
https://www.osler.com/en/blogs/appeal/october-2014/children-s-aid-society-of-london-and-middlesex-v
https://globalnews.ca/news/5360057/teen-sexual-cult-ontario-foster-home-childrens-aid-society/
https://nypost.com/2019/06/12/childrens-aid-society-in-canada-turned-a-blind-eye-to-sexual-abuse-report/
https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2015/03/27/daycare-operator-sued-for-calling-the-cas.html
https://www.cbc.ca/news/health/homeless-youth-foster-care-1.4240121
https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2014/12/12/use_of_behaviouraltering_drugs_widespread_in_foster_group_homes.html
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/nearly-half-of-children-in-crown-care-are-medicated/article687480/
https://www.thestar.com/opinion/contributors/2019/05/13/a-system-should-not-raise-a-child-families-should.html
https://www.intelligencer.ca/2014/08/27/former-foster-parent-conviction-concerning-for-highland-shores-cas/wcm/9f07f58b-e46f-2a49-4e7f-969368a305a3
https://ottawa.ctvnews.ca/ontario-child-advocate-stands-by-report-on-90-deaths-1.378721
https://aptnnews.ca/2018/03/14/ontario-coroner-finds-potential-crime-review-foster-care-deaths/
https://blackburnnews.com/windsor/windsor-news/2017/09/01/layoffs-windsor-essex-childrens-aid-society/
https://lfpress.com/2015/03/16/child-welfare-agency-found-to-have-wasted-money-on-office-renovations-consultants-and-bloated-management/wcm/e32079bc-4395-7c5e-70ec-378d688f0b6a
https://www.thestar.com/news/insight/2016/11/10/cas-managers-charged-more-than-106000-in-unreasonable-expenses.html
https://windsorstar.com/news/childrens-aid-gets-4-3-million-cash-boost-from-province
https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2019/08/23/province-orders-childrens-aid-societies-to-review-credentials-of-experts-used-in-child-welfare-cases.html
Discredited hair-testing program harmed vulnerable families across Ontario, report says.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/health/motherrisk-commission-1.4552160
https://blog.cansfordlabs.co.uk/5-reasons-why-the-motherisk-scandal-shouldnt-happen-again
http://projects.thestar.com/motherisk/
https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2016/02/12/head-of-motherisk-probe-had-ties-to-sick-kids.html
https://www.cbc.ca/news/opinion/motherisk-child-protection-1.4559905
2013: Nancy Simone, a president of the Canadian Union of Public Employees local representing 275 workers at the Catholic Children’s Aid Society of Toronto, argued child protection workers already have levels of oversight that include unregistered unqualified workplace supervisors, family court judges, coroners’ inquests and annual case audits by the ministry and the union representing child protection workers is firmly opposed to ethical oversight from a professional college, and the Ministry of Children and Youth Services, which regulates and funds child protection, is so far staying out of the fight.. Nancy Simone says, “Our work is already regulated to death.”
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‘Justice is long overdue’ for training school survivors, says MP who spent three ‘painful’ years at one.
https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2018/01/19/justice-is-long-overdue-for-training-school-survivors-says-mp-who-spent-three-painful-years-at-one.html
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2016: Survivors of Ontario 'training schools' say their suffering is being erased by redevelopment project
Clarington is set to refurbish and repurpose the Jury Lands, home for more than 50 years to a correctional facility for children who were deemed 'unmanageable'
CLARINGTON, Ont. — Survivors of a shadowy chapter in the history of Canada’s prison system say the legacy of the alleged abuse they endured as children is being ignored, if not erased.
They point to a recent decision by the town of Clarington, Ont., to refurbish and repurpose the Jury Lands, most commonly known as the site of Camp 30 — a prisoner-of-war camp for captured high-ranking Nazis during the Second World War.
For more than 50 years, it was also the site of the Pine Ridge Training School — a correctional facility for children, mostly boys, aged eight to 18 who were deemed “unmanageable.”
The schools — about a dozen in Ontario — were shuttered in the early 1980s.
Wikipedia: The revitalization plan will see the site, located about 75 kilometres east of Toronto, transformed into an economic centre, complete with offices, restaurants and shops.
But the plan is not sitting well with some of those who allege they suffered horrific physical and sexual abuse in the hands of their minders.
“It’s not fair that this real estate company is going to put all this money into it and glorify what it wasn’t,” said Steve G., of Markham, Ont., who, on his lawyer’ advice, did not want his last name used.
“I’d have every boy’s name or girl’s name on that wall somewhere,” he said in a recent interview.
Steve G. said he was sent to Pine Ridge as a young teen after being caught breaking and entering. He said he had a “difficult” childhood: his parents separated when he was young, his mother was a “partier” and he was forced to steal to provide for his sister.
When he first arrived at the school, Steve G. recalls looking at the white picket fence, which he would jump over in a number of escape attempts in the coming months.
Then came “the hole,” a solitary confinement cell where he would spend days at a time — his feet shackled, his wrists cuffed.
Wikipedia: “It was a caged room — three walls of concrete and bars. I had a bed, toilet, sink, that was it,” he said. “That was your introduction to training school.”
Once, he was sent to “the hole” after an escape attempt in which he caught poison ivy.
“I had blisters all over me. I couldn’t move. And the hole temperature was about 110 (Fahrenheit, or 43 Celsius),” he said. “I remember it was so friggin’ hot. And I was sittin’ there at the sink, filling it up with water and splashing myself.”
The emotional and mental abuse was even worse, he said.
“They’re trying to ruin you. Break you down.”
Steve G. also alleges that he was sexually assaulted twice after he was transferred from Pine Ridge to the Sprucedale Training School in Hagersville, Ont.
He had escaped to Toronto, where he overdosed, and then was taken to he hospital, where he was eventually picked up by a couple of guards from the school, he said.
They allegedly put him in a pickup truck and drove out of the city.
“They beat me, they sodomized me, they did what they wanted with me,” he said, adding that he doesn’t remember all of the specifics because he was recovering from the overdose.
Steve G.’s allegations of sexual and physical abuse have not been tested in court. He said he is in the early stages of launching a lawsuit against the province.
As an adult, Steve G. said he’s struggled with alcohol and drug addictions. He’s had seven convictions, some for drinking and driving, and, on several occasions, he’s attempted suicide, he said.
They beat me, they sodomized me, they did what they wanted with me
But in the last few years, Steve G. said he’s turned his life around. He’s started going to church, is more open about his past, and he’s in a happy, stable, long-term relationship.
But he said he’s upset that Pine Ridge will only be recognized for its role in the Second World War, while the hundreds of children who were allegedly abused there will be forgotten.
Loretta Merritt, a lawyer who has represented hundreds of training school survivors in civil court, said only one person has been convicted related to abuse at Ontario’s network of secular training schools.
In January 2000, Raymond Arthur Elder, a former supervisor at White Oaks Training School in Hagersville, was found guilty of two charges, including gross indecency and breach of trust. Both charges related to oral sex acts which Elder had admitted to, and which involved one victim.
Elder was acquitted on nine other charges. He did not respond to requests for comment.
Sanford Cottrelle was at White Oaks, a training school for younger boys, when Elder was working there as a housemaster.
Google Maps: He was interviewed by police years ago about his time at the school, but was never called upon to testify at Elder’s trial.
“(Elder) would get a hold of me and he would nibble on my ear,” Cottrelle alleged in an interview.
He also alleged he was beaten by a staff member when he was on his way to bed. The attack came out of nowhere, he said.
“I don’t know what it was, if it was because I was a native kid or what,” Cottrelle said.
Since leaving the schools, Cottrelle says life hasn’t been easy. He’s been through the prison system, where he said he heard about more cases of abuse from inmates who had attended training schools in the province.
For much of his life, he says he’s had suicidal thoughts, starting from the time he was at White Oaks.
Merritt said that many of the training school survivors are now in prison, some for violent crimes.
“I’ve been in most of the maximum-security facilities in this province, with some guys who have criminal records that go on for 10 pages,” she said.
Catherine Classen, a clinical psychologist at the University of Toronto who specializes in therapy for people who have experienced trauma, called Ontario’s training school legacy a “tragedy” on several fronts.
It was a caged room — three walls of concrete and bars. I had a bed, toilet, sink, that was it. That was your introduction to training school
“If we actually would address the impact of trauma in childhood, of abuse in childhood, we would empty our prisons,” she said.
“So many of these behaviours really are about these people trying to cope in the best way they know how, and we never really help them figure out better ways of coping.”
Sometimes, Classen said, trauma survivors can be so consumed by what they experienced, they relive it in real time, through flashbacks.
Merritt said that’s something she sees in her clients in prison.
“I see the 12-year-old who was beaten and sexually abused and had no one and nowhere to turn. That’s who I’m meeting with,” she said.
“That’s where they go, when they talk to me. They go back to that child they were and they talk about what happened to them.”
Merritt said her clients that have taken the province through the civil courts have received payouts that range from tens of thousands of dollars to just over $100,000.
Representatives from the Office of the Attorney General, Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services and Ministry of Children and Youth Services declined to comment on the training school system.
https://nationalpost.com/news/canada/survivors-of-ontario-training-schools-say-their-suffering-is-being-erased-by-redevelopment-project
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2018: Lawsuit arising from alleged abuse at Ont. training school certified as class action.
TORONTO -- A lawsuit against the Ontario government arising from alleged sexual and physical abuse at the province's now-defunct training schools has been certified as a class action.
The provincial government did not oppose certification of the suit, launched by Kirk Keeping, a man who alleges he was badly abused at one of the schools.
"This is an important milestone for the boys and girls from the training schools," Keeping said in a statement. "We have all lived with this for years and we are glad this case is moving forward."
Related Stories
Training school survivor haunted for decades: What happened to James Forbes?
https://toronto.ctvnews.ca/training-school-survivor-haunted-for-decades-what-happened-to-james-forbes-1.3798782
Police to try to find out what happened to Ontario training school boy
https://toronto.ctvnews.ca/police-to-try-to-find-out-what-happened-to-ontario-training-school-boy-1.4178610
The $600-million claim, which has not been proven, takes in 13 of the facilities on behalf of "all persons who were alive as at Dec. 8, 2015, who resided at any of the training schools between Jan. 1, 1953, and April 2, 1984, during the time periods set out for each facility," according to the certification order from Superior Court Justice Danial Newton in Thunder Bay, Ont.
Keeping, in his mid-60s, alleges the schools were festering cesspools of sexual, physical and psychological abuse perpetrated by unsupervised and unqualified staff on hapless kids.
"The training schools contained a toxic environment in which degrading and humiliating treatment of children in the Crown's care was the norm," the claim states. "Physical, sexual and psychological abuse was rampant, and residents of training schools were systematically denied their dignity and basic human rights."
Newton set out six questions to be answered at trial. They include whether Ontario failed to protect the children and youth from "actionable" mental or physical harm and whether the province is liable for any harms done them.
Toronto-based lawyer Jonathan Ptak said about 21,000 people are survivors of the schools.
"We are pleased that the case now has been certified as a class proceeding, so that we can now litigate this case on the merits," Ptak said in a statement.
The certification decision obviates the need for a two-day hearing that had been scheduled for next week.
The reform schools for boys and girls aged eight to 16 operated between 1931 until they were shut down in 1984. Those sentenced to the facilities were children found begging, runaways, truants, those deemed "incorrigible," those convicted of petty offences, or those who, for various reasons, had inadequate adult supervision.
While the idea was to provide support, correction and vocational training, the claim alleges the reality was far more sinister -- one of "fear intimidation and brutality."
Staff forced children to beat up on other children or meted out physical punishment themselves. Youth were thrown into solitary confinement in shackles, not allowed to go to the washroom, were forced to scrub floors with toothbrushes or sleep on floors, and were forced into sexual acts, according to the claim.
Attempting to report the abuse would lead to retaliation, the claim alleges.
One survivor, Rick Brown, has told The Canadian Press that he believes a supervisor at the Brookside training school in Cobourg, Ont., may have beaten one of his young class mates James Forbes to death in 1963. Police recently said they were looking at opening an investigation.
The suit seeks $500 million in general damages and another $100 million in punitive damages, alleging the province was negligent, failed in the expected standard of care, and breached its duty toward its young charges.
According to a report from former Quebec judge Fred Kaufman in 2002, Ontario reached settlements with survivors of three schools -- St. Joseph's, St. John's and Grandview -- decades ago. Former premier Dalton McGuinty formally apologized to some of those students in 2004.
The new suit seeks to represent those who attended schools in places such as Oakville, Galt, Lindsay, Port Bolster, Bowmanville, Simcoe, Hagersville and Guelph.
https://toronto.ctvnews.ca/lawsuit-arising-from-alleged-abuse-at-ont-training-school-certified-as-class-action-1.4205620
https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2017/12/08/they-say-they-suffered-cruel-and-sadistic-abuse-as-kids-at-ontario-training-schools-and-the-province-paid-them-to-keep-quiet.html
https://www.ctvnews.ca/w5/it-felt-like-a-prison-for-kids-w5-investigates-allegations-of-abuse-at-ontario-training-schools-1.4327718
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