NOT ALL SOCIAL WORKERS ARE CREATED EQUAL.

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



Frank Klees is a former politician in Ontario, Canada. He was a Progressive Conservative member of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario from 1995 to 2014. He was a cabinet minister in the governments of Mike Harris and Ernie Eves.



Social Work and Social Service Work Act, 1998, S.O. 1998, c. 31



https://www.ontario.ca/laws/statute/98s31



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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 unless a provincial government decides to make exceptions to circumvent those rights and protections .[4] It does not, however, apply to corporations[5] or parents accused of abusing or neglecting their children in Ontario.



#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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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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Canadian Criminal Procedure and Practice/Search and Seizure:



(for criminal matters but what about for alleged violations of government child welfare standards?)



Meaning of a "Search" Any police officer's (or child protection social worker's) 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 using the false pretense of just needing to ask a few questions, then once inside the home asking to have a quick look around looking under furniture and asking parents to open doors and cupboards and asking that parents take off a baby's diapers while threatening to apprehend children if the parents attempt in any way to assert their federal rights is an illegal search (in my opinion).[4]



Can there really be a less reasonable standard for reasonable grounds?



“Reasonable grounds” refers to the information that an average person, who is assumed to be using normal and honest judgment, would need in order to decide to report. This standard has been recognized by courts in Ontario as establishing a lower corporate threshold for reasonable grounds to make a report to the CAS who have been given the power to authorize the police to disregard the rights of Canadian citizens in Ontario on their personal say so.



What's lower than reasonable grounds to make a report to the CAS? Simple suspicion.



http://www.oacas.org/childrens-aid-child-protection/duty-to-report/



https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Canadian_Criminal_Procedure_and_Practice/Search_and_Seizure/Print_version



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Harassment is a form of discrimination. It includes any unwanted behaviour that offends, humiliates, degrades or marginalizes you. Generally, harassment is a behaviour that persists over time. Serious one-time incidents can also sometimes be considered harassment.



CRIMINAL HARASSMENT



Are you worried about your family's security because an overzealous fanatic is:



■ using a lower corporate standard for reasonable grounds for continually launching or reopening investigations into your personal life hoping for a different result …



■ refuses to let you review your file for inaccurate information…



■ ignores or suppresses any information or documentation that indicates happy healthy children…



■ refuses you an opportunity to address concerns…



■ threatens to arbitrary remove your children if you don't allow them to search your home without a warrant or threatens court action to remove your children if you fail sign consent forms and service agreements…



■ interviews your children in school without recording the interview...



■ is contacting you over and over by phone, email and knocking at your door multiple times every day…



■ is watching your home or workplace…



■ is making you or your family feel threatened...



■ is peeking through your windows…



■ or attempts to talk your very young children into unlocking the door for them when they don't think your in the immediate vicinity...



You are experiencing criminal harassment unless it's a CAS worker it’s a crime and you can get help...



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SELF REGULATION AND THE ONTARIO CHILDREN'S AID SOCIETY.



Industry self-regulation is the process whereby members of an industry, trade or sector of the economy monitor their own adherence to legal, ethical, or safety standards, rather than have an outside, independent agency such as a third party entity or in cases where the government doesn't provide the sole funding for the agency in question - a governmental regulator to monitor and enforce those standards.[1] Self-regulation may ease compliance and ownership of standards, but it can also give rise to conflicts of interest.



More CAS videos here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjZ_knKT_FWLiUecMh3FFbw



If any organization, such as a corporation or government bureaucracy, is asked to eliminate unethical behavior within their own group, it may be in their interest in the short run to eliminate the appearance of unethical behavior, rather than the behavior itself, by keeping any ethical breaches hidden, instead of exposing and correcting them.



An exception occurs when the ethical breach is already known by the public. In that case, it could be in the group's interest to end the ethical problem to which the public has knowledge, but keep remaining breaches hidden.



https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2013/03/15/province_in_talks_with_peel_childrens_aid_society_over_strategies_in_leaked_memo.html



Another exception would occur in industry sectors with varied membership, such as international brands together with small and medium size companies where the brand owners would have an interest to protect the joint sector reputation by issuing together self-regulation so as to avoid smaller companies with less resources causing damage out of ignorance. Similarly, the reliability of a professional group such as lawyers and journalists could make ethical rules work satisfactorily as a self-regulation if they were a pre-condition for adherence of new members.



https://www.thestar.com/opinion/editorials/2016/08/15/childrens-aid-societies-should-not-discriminate-against-poor-children-editorial.html



An organization can maintain control over the standards to which they are held by successfully self-regulating. If they can keep the public from becoming aware of their internal problems, this also serves in place of a public relations campaign to repair such damage. The cost of setting up an external enforcement mechanism is avoided. If the self-regulation can avoid reputational damage and related risks to all actors in the industry, this would be a powerful incentive for a pro-active self-regulation [without the necessity to assume it is to hide something].



I AM YOUR CHILDREN'S AD CAMPAIGN



http://www.oacas.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/1011annualreport.pdf



Self-regulating attempts may well fail, due to the inherent conflict of interest in asking any organization to police itself. If the public becomes aware of this failure, an external, independent organization is often given the duty of policing them, sometimes with highly punitive measures taken against the organization. The results can be disastrous, such as a military with no external, independent oversight, which may commit human rights violations against the public. Not all businesses will voluntarily meet best practice standards, leaving some users exposed.



https://www.attorneygeneral.jus.gov.on.ca/english/about/pubs/motherisk/



Governments may prefer to allow an industry to regulate itself but maintain a watching brief over the effectiveness of self-regulation and be willing to introduce external regulation if necessary. For example, in the UK, the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee in 2015 investigated the role of large accountancy firms in relation to tax avoidance and argued that "Government needs to take a more active role in regulating the tax industry, as it evidently cannot be trusted to regulate itself".



If the public becomes aware of this failure, an external, independent organization is often given the duty of policing them, sometimes with highly punitive measures taken against the organization.



The results can be disastrous, such as a child welfare society with no external, independent oversight, which may commit human rights violations against the public. Not all government funded private businesses will voluntarily meet best practice standards, leaving some or most families exposed.



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Corporatism is a political ideology which advocates the organization of society by corporate groups, such as agricultural, labour, military, scientific, or guild associations on the basis of their common interests.



Fascism's theory of economic corporatism involved management of sectors of the economy by government or privately-controlled organizations (corporations).[Ontario's children's aid societies] Each trade union or employer corporation would theoretically represent its professional concerns, especially by negotiation of labour contracts and the like. It was theorized that this method could result in harmony amongst social classes. However, authors have noted that historically de facto economic corporatism was also used to reduce opposition and reward political loyalty.



In Italy from 1922 until 1943, corporatism became influential amongst Italian nationalists led by Benito Mussolini. The Charter of Carnaro gained much popularity as the prototype of a "corporative state", having displayed much within its tenets as a guild system combining the concepts of autonomy and authority in a special synthesis. Alfredo Rocco spoke of a corporative state and declared corporatist ideology in detail. Rocco would later become a member of the Italian fascist regime.



https://www.britannica.com/topic/corporatism



Corporatism: Fascism's theory of economic corporatism involved management of sectors of the economy by government or privately-controlled organizations (corporations). Each trade union or employer corporation would theoretically represent its professional concerns, especially by negotiation of labor contracts and the like.



Marketization of law making is a process that enables the elites to operate as market oriented firms by changing the legal environment in which they operate in, in the best interest of the child according to a bunch of sociopathic child poaching funding predators...



One of the 14 characteristics of fascism is -



Corporate Power is Protected.



The industrial and business aristocracy of a fascist nation often are the ones who put the government leaders into power, creating a mutually beneficial business/government relationship and power elite.



The people in fascist regimes are persuaded that human rights and procedural protections can be ignored in certain cases because of special need.



When the people who have power in our society can have an influence in law making, the laws that get created will not maintain the appearance of equality and the elites in society can lobby and eventually criminalize the poor.



The laws will start to benefit the big corporations (elites). This is well illustrated in Stan Cohen’s concept of the moral panic. A moral panic refers to the reaction of a group within society (elite) to the activities of a non elite group. The targeted group is seen as a threat to society also referred to as the folk devil.



Today we can see child welfare law is not applied equally to everyone. In this particular instance the child welfare law is benefiting the people with means.



Comack states; “While the pivotal point in the rule of law is ‘equality of all before the law’, the provision of formal equality in the legal sphere does not extend to the economic sphere. Thus, the law maintains only the appearance of equality because, it never calls into question the unequal and exploitative relationship between capital and labour.” This statement implies that the law is in place to be neutral. Therefore, the law would apply equally to everyone, including both the working and elite class. It can be said that in today’s society we have the marketization of law making.



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We all want to believe that nonprofit corporations like the children's aid society are full of hard-working people committed to improving society. But even the most well-meaning nonprofits can get into financial hot water.



Unfortunately the temptation to cover up financial problems can be particularly seductive for nonprofit CAS directors and board members when they're being sued foster home sex cults and unqualified group home staff drugging children out of their minds.



In criminal law, due diligence is the only available defense to a crime that is one of strict liability (i.e., a crime that only requires an actus reus and no mens rea). Once the criminal offence is proven, the defendant must prove on balance that they did everything possible to prevent the act from happening.



"[A]buse of process (is) the intentional use of legal process for an improper purpose incompatible with the lawful function of the process by one with an ulterior motive in doing so, and with resulting damages."



"In its broadest sense, abuse of process may be defined as misuse or perversion of regularly issued legal process for a purpose not justified by the nature of the process."



Abuse of power, in the form of "malfeasance in office" or "official misconduct," is the commission of an unlawful act, done in an official capacity, which affects the performance of official duties. ... Abuse of power can also mean a person using the power they have for their own personal gain.



The act of using one's position of power in an abusive way. This can take many forms, such as taking advantage of someone, gaining access to information that shouldn't be accessible to the public, or just manipulating someone with the ability to punish them if they don't comply.



Covert and overt abuse of power: Covert: covert means that something is hidden, in the case of power, it would mean that someone is concealing their abuse of power from the public/other service users/other care workers. Covert abuse of power can happen in any setting.



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DEFINITION of 'Protected Cell Company (PCC)'



The basic principle behind cell organization is simple: By dividing the greater organization into many multi-person groups and compartmentalizing and concealing information inside each cell as needed, the greater organization is more likely to survive unchanged if one of its components is compromised and as such, they are remarkably difficult to penetrate and hold accountable in the same way the mafia families or terrorist organizations and the children's aid societies are.



A corporate structure in which a single legal entity is comprised of a core and several cells that have separate assets and liabilities. The protected cell company, or PCC, has a similar design to a hub and spoke, with the central core organization linked to individual cells. Each cell is independent of each other and of the company’s core, but the entire unit is still a single legal entity.



BREAKING DOWN 'Protected Cell Company (PCC)'



A protected cell company operates with two distinct groups: a single core company and an unlimited number of cells. It is governed by a single board of directors, which is responsible for the management of the PCC as a whole. Each cell is managed by a committee or similar group, with authority to the committee being granted by the PCC board of directors. A PCC files a single annual return to regulators, though business and operational plans of each cell may still require individual review and approval by regulators.



Cells within the PCC are formed under the authority of the board of directors, who are typically able to create new cells as business needs arise. The articles of incorporation provide the guidelines that the directors must follow.



The ministry is not contemplating amalgamation, said MacCharles, and is instead choosing to focus on a shared services approach.



https://www.thestar.com/news/queenspark/2015/02/10/ontario-rejects-call-to-merge-childrens-aid-societies.html



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.



In a National Post feature article in June 2009, Kevin Libin portrayed an industry in which abuses are all too common. One source, a professor of social work, claims that a shocking 15%-20% of children under CAS oversight suffer injury or neglect. Several CAS insiders whom Libin interviewed regard the situation as systemically hopeless. A clinical psychologist with decades of experience advocating for children said, “I would love to just demolish the system and start from scratch again.”



https://nationalpost.com/opinion/barbara-kay-the-problem-with-childrens-aid-societies



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CONSIDERING HOW CLOSELY THE CHILDREN'S AID SOCIETY WORKS WITH LAW ENFORCEMENT, THE GOVERNMENT AND THE COURTS - AND HOW OFTEN CHILD ARE HARMED OR WORSE IN ONTARIO'S CARE...



The Special Investigations Unit is the civilian oversight agency responsible for investigating circumstances involving law enforcement (and why not the super secretive powerful as god children's aid societies as well?) that have resulted in a death, serious injury, or allegations of sexual assault of a civilian in Ontario, Canada.



The mandate of the SIU is to maintain confidence in Ontario's services by assuring the public that official actions resulting in serious injury, death, or allegations of sexual assault are subjected to rigorous, independent investigations.Nov 1, 2019.



https://www.siu.on.ca/en/index.php



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Allan Hogan, the former executive director of Family and Children’s Services of Lanark, Leeds and Grenville, was asked later, during an interview at his Herriott Street office in Perth, on Monday, Sept. 21, if he was OK with his workers being filmed during interactions with families.



https://www.facebook.com/FamiliesUnitedOntario/videos/504782689731500/



“We…” he began saying, before pausing. “People do have the opportunity to record or videotape us.



For the rest of the story read the Smiths Falls Record News Obituary By Desmond Devoy.



https://www.insideottawavalley.com/news-story/5926359-cas-watchdog-opens-new-local-chapter/



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“Reasonable grounds” refers to the information that an average person, using normal and honest judgment, would need in order to decide to report. This standard has been recognized by courts in Ontario as establishing a lower corporate threshold for reporting simple suspicion to open files to meet funding goals.



(Can there really be two standards for reasonable grounds and still be reasonable?)



http://www.oacas.org/childrens-aid-child-protection/duty-to-report/



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“The price of freedom is eternal vigilance.”



It’s a question of education to teach people to be on their guard against the sort of verbal booby traps into which they are always being led, to analyze the kind of things that are said to them. I think it’s terribly important to insist on individual values, that every human being is unique. And it is, of course, on this genetic basis that the whole idea of the value of freedom is based.



https://blankonblank.org/interviews/aldous-huxley-on-technodictators-booby-traps-technology-drugs-brave-new-world-soma-overpopulation-presidents/#read-more



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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



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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



:::



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



:::



"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



:::



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



:::



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