2019: SHELTER BUS
The Humanity First Shelter Bus is a Prevost coach, manufactured in Quebec. The coach has had many lives, from operating as an inter-city coach for the Quebec region, to being converted into an executive hockey coach to transport teams across North America. The coach is now in its third life and has undergone extensive exterior and mechanical repairs to bring it to the streets of the Greater Toronto Area. Features of ShelterBus:
20 convertible beds (leather and deep foam), to ensure easy clean and comfort
On-board kitchenette with microwave, mini-fridge and serving counter
6 on-board lounges to serve meals in a 4 seating configuration
7 TV screens on board to allow individuals to watch educational content or relax
Transport capability of up to 40 people
On-board washroom
Inverter power to charge interior power for HVAC and electrical components
Back-up generator for remote power for HVAC and electrical components
3 Large storage zones for individual content
https://shelterbus.ca/shelter-bus
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2013: Doug Ford Hands Out $20 Bills At Public Housing Building (VIDEO) The Huffington Post Canada
https://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2013/12/12/doug-ford-20-bills-public-housing-video_n_4433880.html
Recently Etobicoke North Councillor Doug Ford has apologized for handing out $20 cash to Ward 2 residents and announced that he will not run in the 2014 City of Toronto elections: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto...
Includes the WWF theme song Million Dollar Man Ted Dibiase http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vm4TG5...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ckIcOiJyH4
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Toronto’s winter ‘Shelter Bus’ for the homeless is as sensible as it is kind. 2019-12-05 via Toronto Star
Park ‘n’ sleep. Perchance to dream. Definitely to warm up and rest a while.
A city that often throws its down-and-out under the bus — despite the mega-millions also thrown at the chronic urban blight of homelessness — is just a little bit kinder today, a tiny bit more big-hearted.
Although the city — as in The City — has nothing to do with this particular gesture of benevolence towards the destitute.
What was once a transit bus, and most recently a coach for travelling hockey players in Quebec City, took to Toronto’s downtown streets on Tuesday evening.
The “Shelter Bus” it’s called — retrofitted with 20 sleeping spaces, a lounge area, kitchenette, washroom and bumper-to-bumper compassion.
From 8 p.m. to at least 8 a.m., throughout the winter, the full-size vehicle will pick up homeless and transients, the hungry and the shivering, in an undertaking so straight-up sensible one wonders why nobody ever thought about it before.
“We recognize that homelessness in particular is a critical issue here in Toronto during the winter months,” says Zubair Afzal, president of Ahmadiyya Muslim Youth Association, Canada’s largest Muslim youth organization, with chapters across the country and headquartered in Toronto. “The weather can be extremely cold, especially at night.
“The shelter bus will be travelling through downtown Toronto every night for the next three months, to pick up homeless individuals who do not have any shelter. And provide them with hot meals as well.”
There are, as per the most recent estimates, more than 9,200 people in this city of plenty who are homeless on any given night. Reasons for their indigent state cut across a broad spectrum — loss of employment, family breakup, family violence, mental illness, poor physical health, substance abuse, sexual abuse, to cite only a few of the underlying causes.
Most people, overwhelmingly, do not choose to be homeless, though there is a hardcore subset that prefers sleeping rough to the hardships associated with accessing a vast shelter system. A system with a nightly occupancy rate, in any event, of 98 per cent, with more than 100,000 on the subsidized housing waiting list. Seniors and youth comprise about 10 per cent of the homeless population.
In a city that can be cold-shouldered in so many ways.
“One of the fundamental teachings of Islam exemplified by the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, is to give charity and serve humanity, irrespective of race, religion and ethnicity,” says Afzal. “In line with these teachings, the Ahmadiyya Youth Association is taking on this bus shelter initiative. We hope and pray this initiative can make a difference in the lives of many Torontonians by providing those less fortunate with a comfortable place to sleep during the cold nights.”
First of its kind, to anybody’s knowledge, the genius idea of an association member employed as a city planning engineer. All those decommissioned buses taken out of service, why not give them a second life?
Read more
http://cutaactu.ca/en/news-media/latest-news/torontos-winter-shelter-bus-homeless-sensible-it-kind
https://www.blogto.com/city/2019/12/toronto-shelter-homeless-bus/
https://www.thestar.com/opinion/star-columnists/2019/12/03/torontos-winter-shelter-bus-for-the-homeless-is-as-sensible-as-it-is-kind.html
The winter months become a dire time for people living on the streets of Toronto. With freezing temperatures and damp air, homeless shelters are no longer a resource, but a means for survival.
https://www.blogto.com/city/2019/02/extreme-cold-weather-alert-issued-toronto-fierce-winds-ravage-city/
https://www.blogto.com/city/2019/01/homeless-shelter-tents-toronto/
Toronto Public Health reported that 101 people experiencing homelessness died in 2017, followed by 92 in 2018. This year there have been 57 deaths to date
https://www.toronto.ca/city-government/accountability-operations-customer-service/city-administration/staff-directory-divisions-and-customer-service/toronto-public-health/
That's why The Ahmadiyya Muslim Youth Association, in collaboration with Humanity First, have been working over the last year to repurpose a coach bus into a shelter on wheels.
The Shelter Bus was created to fill a gap in the way the city is able to serve the homeless community. The bus is able to go to the people who need it most, instead of having them seek out the bus.
"The Shelter Bus could be dispatched to any location to respond to urgent need. It can also reach remote areas and be used to house people who have been temporarily displaced," reads The Shelter Bus website.
The Shelter bus is on it's 'third life,' as the organization calls it. It started out as transit bus, and most recently was a coach bus for travelling hockey players in Quebec City.
Now it's on the streets of Toronto where it'll be on the road from 8 p.m. to at least 8 a.m., throughout the winter.
The full-size vehicle will pick up people who are looking for shelter, and can provide 20 sleeping spaces. The bus is also retrofitted with a lounge area, kitchenette, and a washroom.
https://shelterbus.ca/shelter-bus
According to Naeem Faroqui, the principal consultant on the project, 900 buses in Canada are disposed of every year, often in the middle of their full life.
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/humanity-first-shelter-bus-conception-execution-naeem-farooqi/
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2017: Youth homelessness linked to foster care system in new study.
FIRST NATIONAL PORTRAIT OF HOMELESSNESS AMONG 13-TO-24-YEAR-OLDS SUGGESTS THEY MAKE UP FIFTH OF HOMELESS
Jordan Press · The Canadian Press · Posted: Aug 09, 2017.
A first-of-its-kind study in Canada is drawing a link between youth homelessness levels and a foster care system that researchers say could be playing a more active role in keeping young people off the streets.
The study, to be released Wednesday, found nearly three out of every five homeless youth were part of the child welfare system at some point in their lives, a rate almost 200 times greater than that of the general population.
Of those with a history in the child welfare system, almost two of every five respondents eventually "aged out" of provincial or territorial care, losing access to the sort of support that could have kept them from becoming homeless, the study found.
Doctor hits the road to deliver palliative care to Toronto's homeless
What does it cost to help a homeless mentally ill Canadian?
Canada is creating a group of young people who are at higher risk of becoming homeless because they lack resources when coming out of foster care, said Stephen Gaetz, the study's co-author and director of the Canadian Observatory on Homelessness.
The report urges the federal government to focus on preventing youth homelessness — particularly among Indigenous youth — and provinces and territories to focus on "after care" by providing support as needed until age 25.
"We're not calling out child protection services. We're not pointing fingers going, 'It's horrible what you're doing,'" Gaetz said.
"Rather, we're saying this is an unintended consequence of a whole number of things, but it's something that we can identify as leading to bad outcomes when young people leave care."
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, the Liberal government's self-proclaimed minister for youth, may want to champion the issue himself to ensure system-wide changes, he added.
The study, based on a survey of 1,103 young people who were experiencing homelessness in 42 different communities in nine provinces and Nunavut, offers the first national portrait of Canada's population of homeless youth.
Aged 13 to 24, homeless youth make up about one-fifth of Canada's homeless population. In raw numbers, that means there are about 6,500 people in that age cohort experiencing homelessness on any given night.
NO ONE SIZE FITS ALL APPROACH
New census data released last week reported some 43,880 youth in foster care in 2016, a decline of about 4,000 from the 47,890 young people Statistics Canada counted in 2011, the first time such data was collected for the census.
The problem is particularly acute for Indigenous youth, who in 2011 made up nearly half of the children in care nationally. Statistics Canada is set to release more census details about Canada's Aboriginal population later this fall.
The study says that the problems with Indigenous child welfare, which governments have vowed to tackle, highlight the need for structural reforms to help marginalized populations in Canada, such as Aboriginals and new immigrants.
"None of these approaches can be a one-size-fits-all approach," said study co-author David French, director of policy and planning with A Way Home, a national, anti-youth homelessness coalition.
"So when you speak about Indigenous young people or young people who identify as LGBTQ2S, or new immigrant young people, each of them does require a targeted response underneath a specific strategy."
LGBTQ2S stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and two-spirit, the latter term referring specifically to members of the Indigenous community.
Last week's census figures also showed one in three Canadians aged 20-34 lived with at least one parent in 2016, an increase of five percentage points between 2001 and 2016.
The numbers were particularly acute in some of the country's hottest housing markets, with one in two young people living with at least one parent in Toronto last year.
Child protection legislation hasn't kept pace with these social and economic changes that have made it more difficult for young people to live independently, Gaetz said.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/health/homeless-youth-foster-care-1.4240121
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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
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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.)
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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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