Can we trust the Children's Aid Society?

2016: Frontline worker Nancy Simone, president of the Canadian Union of Public Employees local representing 275 workers at the Catholic Children’s Aid Society of Toronto, argues child protection workers already have levels of oversight that include workplace supervisors, family courts, coroners’ inquests and annual case audits by the ministry.



“Our work is already regulated to death.”



https://www.waterloochronicle.ca/news-story/6437856-children-s-aid-societies-launch-major-training-reforms/



http://thecaribbeancamera.com/training-for-childrens-aid-societies/



https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2016/04/03/childrens-aid-societies-launch-major-training-reforms.html



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2019: Global News is reporting that an Ontario county Children’s Aid Society failed to detect or act on the systemic abuses of countless vulnerable children in "several" foster care homes over a span of 8 years.



Teen ‘sexual cult’ in Ontario foster home known to Children’s Aid Society, victim says.



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/



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2018: Negligence charges for former child welfare official after kids abused in.



Criminal charges against Children's Aid Society administrators 'a rare thing'.



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vD7ZCA7A_Hw



https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/prince-edward-county-foster-care-abuse-negligence-charges-1.4723516



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2019: Former Prince Edward County CAS executive director to go to trial as AG forgoes preliminary hearing.



The Prince Edward County CAS was amalgamated with Highland Shores Children's Aid in 2013.



At the time of Sweet's arrest, Mark Kartusch, Executive Director for Highland Shores Children’s Aid stated that the matter involved a criminal proceeding and the Society respects the due process that must unfold.



https://globalnews.ca/news/5453400/prince-edward-county-cas-executive-director-trial-ag-preliminary-hearing/



https://www.intelligencer.ca/news/local-news/former-cas-director-heading-for-trial



https://inquinte.ca/story/former-cas-director-committed-to-stand-trial-in-superior-court



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2014: Three CAS cases settled.



Three former County foster children have reached out-of-court settlements with the Highland Shores Children’s Aid Society for damages stemming from sexual abuse sustained while they were in the society’s care.



An order dismissing further action against the child welfare agency has been approved by a judge at the Prince Edward County superior court where the lawsuit was filed in April 2013. Court staff confirmed only three of the five cases have been settled to date, leaving two outstanding plaintiffs.



Confidentiality provisions restrict the plaintiffs’ Belleville lawyer, John Bonn, from divulging details on the dollar amount of the compensation dispensed.



“It’s an order of the court dismissing the action on behalf of three of the plaintiffs, as against the children’s aid society,” Bonn said of the settlement. “They have resolved matters to their mutual satisfaction.”



Bonn added “there was no trial in this matter. They can’t talk about the terms of the resolution because there are confidentiality provisions in effect.”



When it was filed in 2013, the civil suits totalled $14 million ($2.8 million per plaintiff).



Each plaintiff initially claimed $350,000 for pain and suffering, in addition to $1 million each for loss of future earnings and another $1 million for punitive damages. They sought $100,000 in future care costs, plus $100,000 for special damages and $250,000 for aggravated damages.



https://www.intelligencer.ca/2014/10/21/three-cas-cases-settled/wcm/3fd07287-3f2a-1755-7386-1c8c2353c943



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2019: Belleville woman charged with sexual exploitation worked at Children’s Aid at time of alleged offences



https://globalnews.ca/news/4911321/belleville-woman-charged-historic-sexual-assaults-exploitation-minors/



https://globalnews.ca/news/4916584/woman-charged-with-sex-assault-of-minors-worked-at-male-cas-group-home-at-time-of-alleged-offences/



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2020: Three charged in connection with teen’s death.



Rumor is, after failing to show for court Sandra Forcier was involved in a murder of an 18 year old and charged.. A 20-year-old Belleville man has been charged with second degree murder and fail to comply with terms of a probation order.



A 49-year-old Belleville woman and a 16-year-old female resident of Belleville having been charged with criminal negligence causing death.



All three appeared for a bail hearing on April 7 at the Quinte Consolidated Court House. A publication ban was put in place at that time and no further information can be released.



Anyone with information about this investigation is asked to contact Belleville Police Service Detective McCambridge at 613-966-0882 X 2313 or by email at tmccambridge@police.belleville.on.ca or Quinte Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS(8477). 



https://inquinte.ca/story/three-charged-in-connection-with-teens-death 



https://globalnews.ca/news/6793585/belleville-man-homicide-murder-charges-police/ 



https://ottawasun.com/news/local-news/three-people-including-teenage-girl-charged-in-belleville-homicide/wcm/ca0c7bb7-701b-408a-a52d-aa89a3d735a6



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Ontario portrayed as pedophile paradise in U.S. ruse to capture predators.



A website set up by Homeland Security promoted the bogus firm Precious Treasure Holiday Co., which promised to arrange illegal encounters in Ontario for pedophiles. October 10, 2011.



U.S. authorities have defended their online portrayal of Ontario as a haven for child-sex tourism, saying the ploy helped them catch four predators.



A controversial website set up by the Department of Homeland Security promoted the bogus firm Precious Treasure Holiday Co., which promised to arrange illegal encounters in Ontario for pedophiles.



Four people — two Germans and two Americans — fell for the sophisticated ruse and signed up for a trip.



A pamphlet that came with the website offered one night hotel accommodations in Canada and travel under the guise of “boyfriend and girlfriend going to gamble at casino.”



The pamphlet said transportation to Cleveland, meals and “condoms, lube, etc. . . ” were not included in the travel package.



But it was the use of Canada as a safe haven for sex tourism that raised questions about how the country was portrayed in the sting.



“Canada made for a more plausible scenario,” Brian Moskowitz, the special agent in charge of the investigation, told Postmedia News shortly after the indictments were announced.



“It was never our intent to take anyone to Canada and no children were involved. It was merely part of a scenario that we built.”



He said that Canada wasn’t used in the scenario over any perceived weaknesses or legal vulnerability.



Canadian authorities, such as those in Windsor, across the river from the Detroit offices of Homeland Security where Moskowitz is based, are alerted whenever such a sting is underway to prevent them from wasting resources on chasing the American operation, he said.



Homeland Security first set up the website in 2009. It remained online in several reincarnations until it was finally outed in March as a government sting by The Smoking Gun website.



“Sex tourism is a scourge and must be combated with every available resource,” Moskowitz said in a release when the convictions were announced in early September.



“These cases show international borders are no longer a hindrance for predators.”



The two German men convicted in the sting paid up to $1,600 to have sex with girls and boys between the ages of 10 and 13. One, a 49-year-old doctor from Stuttgart, was allegedly found with lingerie, sex toys, bondage ropes, straps, a mask, lubricant, 17 condoms as well as four stuffed unicorns and a paint-by-number set, Homeland Security said.



Two Ohio men also pleaded guilty to sex trafficking offences and possession of child pornography as a result of the sting. In one case, a 38-year-old man tried to organize a sexual encounter with an eight-year-old girl. In the other case, a 25-year-old man wasn’t legally allowed to enter Canada because he was on parole for a molestation conviction, Homeland Security said.



https://nationalpost.com/news/ontario-portrayed-as-pedophile-paradise-in-u-s-ruse-to-capture-predators



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Ford's conservatives shut down 27 ongoing foster home investigations with the closure of the Child Advocate's Office.



2018 - Stalling Tactics: The Ontario government announced in its fall economic statement Thursday afternoon that it would be closing the child advocate office, moving its responsibilities to an expanded Ombudsman's office, one of several cuts announced by a government that has said Ontario faces a $14.5-billion deficit. Nov 16, 2018.



https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/child-advocate-office-closes-jobs-1.5029935



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2019: Ontario deficit sits at $7.4-billion, half of what Premier Doug Ford originally claimed.



https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-ontario-deficit-sits-at-74-billion-half-of-what-premier-doug-ford/



https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/ontario-deficit-update-1.5282527



https://financialpost.com/opinion/doug-fords-ontario-government-spent-billions-more-than-wynne-had-planned-in-2018-19



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2015: Teen’s death raises questions about secrecy surrounding kids in care.



“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 former and last advocate for children and youth. Between 90 and 120 children and youth connected to children’s aid die every year.



CHILDREN ARE DYING IN ONTARIO'S CARE AND THE FRONTLINE WORKERS ARE THE ONES BEING REGULATED TO DEATH?



https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2015/12/10/teens-death-raises-questions-about-secrecy-surrounding-kids-in-care.html



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2015: Shedding light on the troubles facing kids in group homes.



The Star obtained the reports in a freedom of information request and compiled them according to the type of serious event that occurred — something the ministry does not do.



They note everything from medication errors to emotional meltdowns to deaths.



Restraints were used in more than one-third of 1,200 serious occurrence reports filed in 2013 by group homes and residential treatment centres in the city, according to a Star analysis.



At one treatment facility, 43 of the 119 serious occurrence reports filed to the Ministry of Children and Youth Services include a youth being physically restrained and injected by a registered nurse with a drug, presumably a sedative.



How is a society that's against spanking isn't against tying children to their beds and drugging them?



The language used by some group homes evokes an institutional setting rather than a nurturing environment. When children go missing, they are “AWOL.” In one instance in which a child acted out in front of peers, he was described as a “negative contagion.” Often, the reasons for behaviour are not noted. Children are in a “poor space” and are counselled not to make “poor choices.”



Blame is always placed on the child.



Their stories are briefly told in 1,200 Toronto reports describing “serious occurrences” filed to the Ministry of Children and Youth Services in 2013. Most involve children and youth in publicly funded, privately operated group homes.



https://www.thestar.com/news/insight/2015/07/03/kids-in-toronto-group-homes-can-be-arrested-for-being-kids.html



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2016: The ministry doesn’t know how many children are being cared for in Ontario’s 389 licensed group homes. It’s working on a system that will eventually allow it to collect the information.



At the end of September 2017, the group homes had 2,914 beds, almost one-third of them operated by private, for-profit companies. The rest are run by non-profit agencies such as children’s aid societies.



Another 2,005 beds were in foster homes run by companies, where the limit is four kids to a home. A growing number of kids are also being placed in unlicensed homes with live-in staff.



“You know your system is based on the flimsiest of foundations when you have absolutely no standards on who can do this work,” adds Gharabaghi, director of Ryerson University’s school of child and youth care.



https://www.mykawartha.com/news-story/7974974-kids-are-going-through-trauma-staff-are-getting-assaulted-we-are-all-in-the-trenches-together-/



https://www.mcgill.ca/socialwork/channels/news/report-calls-better-oversight-residential-services-young-people-ontario-260997



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DEFINITION of 'Protected Cell Company (PCC)'



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



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, terrorist organizations and Ontario's children's aid socieities are.



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.



Here we can see here how child welfare law is not applied equally to everyone. In this particular instance the child welfare law is benefiting the people with means. The lawyers themselves.



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

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.



Children's Aid: A Glaring Omission In Provincial And Federal Privacy Laws:



As far back as 2004, Ontario's Privacy Commissioner has lobbied for oversight and accountability for the Children’s Aid Society and been completely ignored.



The Information and Privacy Commissioner is appointed by and reports to the Ontario Legislative Assembly, and is independent of the government of the day. The Commissioner's mandate includes overseeing the access and privacy provisions of the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act, the Municipal Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act, and the Personal Health Information Protection Act, and commenting on other access and privacy issues like ensuring confidential information is properly handled and secured.



In her 2004 annual report, which was released on June 22, 2005, the Commissioner called for amendments that would bring virtually all organizations that are primarily funded by government dollars under FOI for the purposes of transparency and accountability: This would include the various children’s aid agencies in the Province of Ontario.



In her annual report for 2013 released on June 17 there is just one paragraph on children's aid on page 12: In my 2004, 2009, and 2012 Annual Reports I recommended that Children’s Aid Societies, which provide services for some of our most vulnerable citizens – children and youth in government care, be brought under FIPPA.



Many parents and families complain about how difficult it is, if not impossible, to obtain information from children’s aid agencies. Many citizens complain that CAS agencies appear to operate under a veil of secrecy. CAS workers are making decisions which are literally destroying families, yet there is little or no accountability for their actions short of a lawsuit after the damage is done.



"As the law stands now clients of the Ontario Children's Aid Society under Wynne's liberals are routinely denied a timely (often heavily censored) file disclosure before the court begins making decisions and the clients can not request files/disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act nor can censored information reviewed by the Privacy Commissioner of Ontario or the federal counter-part."



Section 7 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms is a constitutional provision that protects an individual's autonomy and personal legal rights from actions of the government in Canada. This Charter provision provides both substantive and procedural rights. There are three types of protection within the section, namely the right to life, liberty, and security of the person. Denials of these rights are constitutional only if the denials do not breach what is referred to as fundamental justice.



“Each year,” said former Privacy Commissioner Ann Cavoukian , “my office has to tell Ontarians, again and again: ‘We’re sorry, but the situation you describe doesn’t fall under Ontario privacy legislation.’ Residents of several other Canadian provinces have more effective privacy protection than Ontarians. Ontario, Canada’s most populous province and the hub of business, needs a made-in-Ontario privacy law that will cover all of the private sector and non-government sectors, similar to laws in Alberta, B.C. and Quebec. This would be the final cornerstone statute for privacy protection in Ontario.”



I am disheartened by the complete lack of action to ensure transparency and accountability by these organizations that received significant public funding. As part of the modernization of the Acts, I call on the government to finally address this glaring omission and ensure that Children’s Aid Societies are added to the list of institutions covered.



“Hundreds of organizations that are recipients of large transfer payments from the government are not subject to the provincial or municipal Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Acts,” said the Commissioner, “which means they are not subject to public scrutiny.” Among the examples she cites are hospitals and Children’s Aid Societies. “Openness and transparency of all publicly funded bodies is essential – they should be publicly accountable.”



Her recommendations would include making changes to the law which would make a number of publicly funded organizations more accountable to the public, include Children’s Aid Agencies.



http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/beef-up-information-laws-ontario-privacy-czar-says/article1120573/



http://www.newswire.ca/news-releases/commissioner-cavoukian-calls-on-government-to-preserve-freedom-and-liberty-514463911.html



CAS actions are shrouded in secrecy, and media investigations are chilled by CAS (a multi-billion dollar private corporation) lawyers, who claim to be protecting the privacy rights of all involved to the exclusion of all other rights.



The GONE theory holds that Greed, Opportunity, Need and the Expectation of not being caught are what lay the groundwork for fraud. Greed and/or need provides the motive.



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2009: Open child-death files: NDP.



Queen's Park is "stonewalling" the provincial child advocate in his bid to get more information about 90 children in Ontario's child welfare system who died in 2007, says New Democratic Party Leader Howard Hampton.



"We are talking about children under the control of children's aid societies. These are troubled children, vulnerable children who are dying," Hampton said in the wake of Irwin Elman's annual report to the Legislature yesterday, which highlighted the deaths.



"As he says in his report, the government is stonewalling him, making it difficult for him to do his job," Hampton said.



Elman, who became the province's first independent child advocate last summer, said the government's refusal to share detailed information about the deaths with his office limits his ability to act.



"I'm not talking about doing investigations," he said yesterday. "I'm talking about having the information about my children and youth so I know what's going on with them."



He said he will "vigorously pursue" the issue by proposing an amendment to the provincial Coroner's Act to give him full access to all reports concerning the death of children and youth involved in the child welfare system.



In his report, Elman notes that the 90 deaths represent less than a quarter of all children who died in the province in 2007 and are a fraction of the 26,260 open cases of children's aid societies. But the number of deaths is "too high by any standard."



A sombre Premier Dalton McGuinty said the deaths are "troubling."



Continue reading here:



https://www.thestar.com/life/health_wellness/2009/02/24/open_childdeath_files_ndp.html



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2009: Why did 90 children die?



TORONTO - Ontario's advocate for youth and children says it's unacceptable that 90 children known to child protection services died in 2007.



Irwin Elman, who was appointed to the post last July, says the 2008 Coroner's report suggests most of these deaths were preventable.



Sixteen deaths were accidental, nine were suicides, four were homicides, eight were from natural causes and 22 causes were undetermined.



Another 17 deaths are still to be classified and 14 were not considered appropriate by the Coroner for investigation.



Where the manner of death is known, 45 per cent of the children who died were under one year of age and 32 per cent were between 12 and 18.



In his annual report, Elman says it could be argued that 90 deaths in a small number compared with the 26,260 cases at Children's Aid Societies, but he rejects that, saying the figure is "too high by any standard."



Elman says in his report that "blaming some individuals is not helpful" and that society needs to say that it "cannot accept this."



https://www.thestar.com/life/health_wellness/2009/02/23/why_did_90_children_die.html



https://toronto.ctvnews.ca/ninety-kids-known-to-ont-child-services-died-in-2007-1.373012



https://ottawa.ctvnews.ca/90-kids-known-to-ontario-s-child-services-died-in-07-1.373008



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2013: A CHILD IN CARE IS A CHILD AT RISK.



Between 2008/2012 natural causes was listed as the least likely way for a child in Ontario's care to die at 7% (only 15 children) out of the total deaths reviewed while "undetermined cause" was listed as the leading cause of death of children in Ontario's child protection system at 43% (92 children) of the total deaths reviewed over a four year period. The rest of the deaths were categorized as homicide, suicide and accidental.



http://www.mcscs.jus.gov.on.ca/english/DeathInvestigations/office_coroner/PublicationsandReports/PDRC/2013Report/PDRC_2013.html



http://www.mcscs.jus.gov.on.ca/sites/default/files/content/mcscs/images/195633-19.jpg



Undetermined means those 92 children had no pre-existing medical conditions and there was no rational reason for them to have died.



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2013: The inquest into Jeffrey Baldwin's death was supposed to shed light on the child welfare system and prevent more needless child deaths. Baldwin's inquest jury made 103 recommendations.



http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/inquest-into-boy-s-death-to-shed-light-on-child-welfare-system-1.1699846



Watch: Failing Jeffrey -Aired April 12 2006 on the fifth estate.



https://youtu.be/-jF2p_dAYFA



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2016: Nearly six months after the inquest into the death of Katelynn Sampson began, jurors delivered another 173 recommendations.



https://beta.theglobeandmail.com/news/toronto/inquest-into-death-of-7-year-old-girl-emphasizes-duty-to-report-abuse/article29798749/?ref=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.theglobeandmail.com



THAT'S 276 OFFICIAL REASONS FOR CONCERN ABOUT CHILDREN IN ONTARIO'S CARE.



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2019-2020 ANNUAL REPORT: DEATH AND SERIOUS BODILY HARM..



Children’s aid societies and licensed residential service providers are legally required to inform the Ombudsman’s Office within 48 hours of any death or serious bodily harm of any child who has sought or received services from a children’s aid society within the past 12 months. Because they must be filed within 2 days of the incident, these reports may involve preliminary information and not findings of investigations by the police, child protection authorities or the coroner.



Submitted online through a secure portal on our website, the purpose of these reports is to provide data that we review and analyze regularly to identify potential systemic issues; they are not the same as complaints or emergency calls, although we do flag any cases that require follow-up.



From May 1, 2019 to March 31, 2020, we received 1,663 reports about 1,433 incidents (some reports were duplicates, from multiple agencies reporting the same incident). These reports related to 122 deaths and 1,473 cases of serious bodily harm (defined as any situation where a young person requires treatment beyond basic first aid, including for physical, sexual or emotional harm). The Ombudsman will report in more detail on our analysis of these statistics in future reports.



TOP CASE TOPICS



1,458 Children’s aid societies

240 Youth justice centres

139 Residential licensees

26 Secure treatment



https://www.ombudsman.on.ca/resources/reports-and-case-summaries/annual-reports/2019-2020-annual-report



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IS BEING A COMBATANT IN A WAR ZONE SAFER THAN BEING A CHILD IN ONTARIO CARE?



“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...



158 CANADIANS SOLDIERS DIED IN AFGHANISTAN BETWEEN 2002 AND 2011.



Canada in Afghanistan - Fallen Canadian Armed Forces Members.



One hundred and fifty-eight (158) Canadian Armed Forces members lost their lives in service while participating in our country’s military efforts in Afghanistan. You can click on the names to explore their entries in the Canadian Virtual War Memorial.



https://www.veterans.gc.ca/eng/remembrance/history/canadian-armed-forces/afghanistan-remembered/fallen?filterYr=2009



“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.



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2020: Canada’s death investigation system needs an overhaul. Date: February 24.



In a medical examiner system, like in Alberta, all suspicious deaths are investigated by a medical examiner who is a trained forensic pathologist. Medical examiners review the deceased person’s medical information and the circumstances around the death, complete autopsies, and synthesize all of this information into their opinion on cause of death.



In the coroner’s system, a coroner is assigned to oversee death investigations and decides on the additional testing required before formulating an opinion as to an individual’s cause of death.



In Ontario, coroners are required to be physicians, usually general practitioners, and work closely with local forensics units to further delineate an individual’s cause of death.



In BC, coroners in charge of death investigation are not required to have formal medical training but they decide whether an autopsy by a pathologist is necessary. Ultimately, coroners make conclusions about cause of death based on the best information available to them. Given the lack of formal medical training, it is difficult to be confident that the accuracy of these conclusions will always be sound. And accurate information surrounding death has important implications for the living.



https://healthydebate.ca/opinions/death_investigation_feb2020



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2019: 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



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IS THE POT CALLING THE KETTLE BLACK??



Coroner’s panel calls for overhaul of Ontario child protection system.



By LAURIE MONSEBRAATEN Social Justice Reporter SANDRO CONTENTA Feature Writer Tues., Sept. 25, 2018



Vulnerable children are being warehoused and forgotten.



A scathing report from Ontario’s coroner presses the provincial government to reform a child protection system that “repeatedly failed” youths who died while in care for decades.



The report describes a fragmented system with no means of monitoring quality of care, where ministry oversight is inadequate, caregivers lack training, and children are poorly supervised.



https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2018/09/25/coroners-panel-calls-for-overhaul-of-ontario-child-protection-system.html



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2019: Ontario coroner getting data for massive analysis of child and youth deaths.



TORONTO – An Ontario youth court judge has granted the coroner’s office access to justice records that will be reviewed as part of a pilot project looking into thousands of deaths of children and young adults in the province.



Chief Coroner Dirk Huyer told Justice Sheilagh O’Connell on Tuesday that more than 7,000 people aged 10 to 24 years old have died in Ontario between 2007 and 2018. He said the project was an effort to better understand the factors at play.



“It’s very important research, so I commend you for this,” O’Connell said as she granted the coroner’s office access to the records.



READ MORE: More needs to be done to protect kids in Ontario’s child welfare system, coroner says



Huyer said outside court that one area of focus for researchers will be the more than 3,000 children and young people who died due to suicide or gun violence.



STORY CONTINUES BELOW:



https://globalnews.ca/news/6249678/ontario-coroner-child-youth-deaths-data/



:::



2019: Ontario's chief coroner reviewing 132 cases where coroners investigated the deaths of former patients.



The potential conflicts of interest were not declared in 95 per cent of those cases despite established policy, according to a nearly 60-page section of the Ontario auditor general's annual report released last week.



"These cases are concerning because there is a risk that the truth about a death will not come to light if the physician's treatment decisions while the patient was alive could have contributed to the patient's death," according to the report.



https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/ontario-s-chief-coroner-reviewing-132-cases-where-coroners-investigated-deaths-of-former-patients-1.5391065



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2011: Disgraced pathologist Charles Smith stripped of medical licence.



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.



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 including the deaths of all children in Ontario's care.



In 1999, a Fifth Estate documentary singled him out as one of four Canadians with this rare expertise.



For more than a decade, Mr. Smith enjoyed a stellar reputation as the country's leading pathologist when it came to infant deaths giving lectures to law enforcement, medical students and other coroners. Several complaints about his work had little effect.



https://youtu.be/f5-53FhGQ5A 



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]



The inquiry, led by Justice Stephen Goudge and concluding in October 2008, found that Smith "actively misled" his superiors, "made false and misleading statements" in court and exaggerated his expertise in trials.



Far from an expert in forensic child pathology, "Smith lacked basic knowledge about forensic pathology," wrote Goudge in the inquiry report.



While at Sick Children's Hospital, Smith lived on a farm in Newmarket. His marriage collapsed around the time that his pathology work at Sick Children's received heavy scrutiny.[4] Smith was briefly relocated to Saskatoon and since 2007, he has lived in Victoria, British Columbia, with partner Dr. Bonnie Leadbeater, director of the Centre for Youth and Society at the University of Victoria.



A 2008 inquiry on Smith’s work condemned his “flawed approach” and noted the he “lacked the requisite training and qualifications” to work as pediatric forensic pathologist.



Smith’s findings had helped convict more than a dozen people, some of whom spent years in prison and lost access to their children.



For 24 years, Smith worked at Toronto's Hospital for Sick Children. In the hospital's pediatric forensic pathology unit, he conducted more than 1,000 child autopsies and never found anything strange about hundreds of children in care or having some contact with the children's aid society dying every year in Ontario.



But Smith no longer practices pathology. An Ontario coroner's inquiry reviewed 45 child autopsies in which Smith had concluded the cause of death was either homicide or criminally suspicious.



The coroner's review found that Smith made questionable conclusions of foul play in 20 of the cases — 13 of which had resulted in criminal convictions. After the review's findings were made public in April 2007, Ontario's government ordered a public inquiry into the doctor's practices.



"Smith was adamant that his failings were never intentional," Goudge wrote. "I simply cannot accept such a sweeping attempt to escape moral responsibility."



"Dr. Smith expressed opinions ... that were either contrary to, or not supported by, the evidence," Ms. Silver told the hearing Tuesday, reading from an agreed statement of facts.



Smith had been in search of his own personal truths. He was born in a Toronto Salvation Army hospital where he was put up for adoption three months later. After years of looking for his biological mother, he called her on her 65th birthday. But she refused to take his call.



Smith's adoptive family moved often. His father's job in the Canadian Forces took them throughout Canada and to Germany. He attended high school in Ottawa, and graduated from medical school at the University of Saskatchewan in 1975.



"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 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.



Court of Appeal Justice Stephen Goudge is leading 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.



Johnson also related her attempts to get him to issue reports on surgical cases and autopsies more quickly, as doctors, coroners, police and relatives called incessantly for results. In one case, doctors had waited more than a month for pathology results on a biopsy of a live patient, urgently needed to help determine whether the child should receive radiation treatment.



Smith complained to others that he did not have enough secretarial support, but that was not the case, Johnson testified.



"We were always available and if Dr. Smith would simply give us the work, we would get (the reports) out," she said. "He loved to type them himself ... He wouldn't give them to us."



The consequences of Smith's cluttered existence at the hospital came to the fore as lawyers sought to review what is known at the inquiry as the Valin case.



William Mullins-Johnston had been convicted of murdering his niece largely on Smith's evidence. His conviction was overturned last month.



Defence lawyers were looking for tissue samples from the case so their pathologist could examine them. They were traced to Smith, but he did not know where they were.



Johnson and others set about scouring his office for them, found one on the first day, then another 20 two days later, in the same spot in the office where she had looked earlier.



She said Monday she assumed they had been placed there by someone after her first search, something she found "kind of strange."



Despite it all, however, Johnson called Smith a "great guy" with whom all the secretaries liked to work.



National Post



https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/porchlightcanada/dr-charles-smith-inquiry-t2479.html?t=2479



http:// (DEADLINK) www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/news/story.html?id=09ff97ef-b41b-4352-b535-636da8a5ee9a&k=16571



https://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2016/02/29/like-a-god-dr-charles-smith-left-poisoned-trail-behind-him_n_9350124.html



https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/disgraced-pathologist-charles-smith-stripped-of-medical-licence/article578634/



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2011: Death and Taxes: The Coroner's Inquest System Can't Change or Won't Change?.



It is shameful that the Coroner's Office is so poorly set up. There is a demand for it to change from an institution that has none of the hallmarks of public accountability to a body that responds to the needs of 21st-century Ontario.



https://www.huffingtonpost.ca/julian-falconer/coroners-inquests-ontario_b_913012.html



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