I'M NOT A SOCIAL WORKER, I'M A CHILD PROTECTION WORKER!

What’s the difference between psychologist, psychological associate, registered psychotherapist, social worker, psychiatrist, therapist, counsellor and a child protection worker?

Some child protection workers have qualifications or minimal qualifications in social work but refuse to register or be accountable to anyone other than the ministry that holds the purse strings.. Should unregistered child protection workers with social worker qualifications have the same privilege registered social workers have? Social Workers are registered with the Ontario College of Social Workers and Social Service Workers. They have a Bachelor degree in Social Work. Social Workers provide assessment and psychotherapy to clients. They have knowledge of diagnostic criteria, and evidence-based treatments for mental health conditions. Social Workers often play an integral role in assessment and diagnosis under supervision of Psychologists and/or Psychiatrists. Often, Social Workers have a special interest in how individuals are impacted upon by society and factors such as discrimination. http://www.hamiltonpsych.ca/faq.html#:~:text=Social%20Workers%20are%20registered%20with,Workers%20and%20Social%20Service%20Workers.&text=Social%20Workers%20often%20play%20an,of%20Psychologists%20and%2For%20Psychiatrists. In the US: https://www.humanservicesedu.org/lcswvspsychologist.html#context/api/listings/prefilter 2017: Under suspicion: Concerns about child welfare (OHRC) Racial profiling is an insidious and particularly damaging type of racial discrimination that relates to notions of safety and security. Racial profiling violates people’s rights under the Ontario Human Rights Code (Code). People from many different communities experience racial profiling. However, it is often directed at First Nations, Métis, Inuit and other Indigenous peoples, Muslims, Arabs, West Asians and Black people, and is often influenced by the negative stereotypes that people in these communities face. http://www.ohrc.on.ca/sites/default/files/Under%20suspicion_research%20and%20consultation%20report%20on%20racial%20profiling%20in%20Ontario_2017.pdf In 2015, the Ontario Human Rights Commission (OHRC) began a year-long consultation to learn more about the nature of racial profiling in Ontario. Our aim was to gather information to help us guide organizations, individuals and communities on how to identify, address and prevent racial 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 racial 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 racial profiling in Ontario. We heard concerns about racial profiling in the child welfare sector, particularly affecting Black and Indigenous families. We heard that systemic racism was perceived to be embedded in this system, and that racial profiling that may take place in this sector targets mothers for over-scrutiny most often. We heard concerns that racialized and Indigenous parents are disproportionately subjected to surveillance and scrutiny, which contributes to families being reported to children’s aid societies (CASs). We also heard that once a referral to child welfare authorities takes place, families are more likely to have prolonged child welfare involvement, and be more at risk of having their children apprehended. Consultation participants suggested these experiences arise in part from referrers’ and child welfare authorities’ incorrect assumptions about risk based on race and related grounds, and intersections between these grounds and poverty. http://www.ohrc.on.ca/en/under-suspicion-concerns-about-child-welfare ::: 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 https://www.thespec.com/news-story/9552213-ontario-psychologist-used-obsolete-tests-in-expert-opinion-calling-for-parents-to-lose-their-kids-judge-says/ You can hear former 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" and they ignored that.. FORMER ONTARIO MPP FRANK KLEES EXPLAINS "A DISTINCTION WITHOUT A DIFFERENCE." I'M NOT A SOCIAL WORKER, I'M A CHILD PROTECTION WORKER! https://youtu.be/SA1YyWO0RTQ?list=PLsYhw09i3If44rMBDuZQ0ztayzSQU35Fy Two decades later... 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 :::

2016: Regulation of child protection workers by Ontario College of Social Workers and Social Service Workers: CUPE/FRONTLINE WORKERS respond.

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.

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

I wanted to share some facts and figures that I have learned along the way; I think they point to significant problems for low income families in particular: (see Motherisk Report)

• There are over 5,000 child protection workers in Ontario

• The College regulates about 17,000 social workers and social service workers

• Only 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.

But violating my rights to privacy and confidentiality will do nothing to achieve this goal.

(does any person employed by another person or agency for financial remuneration have the right to privacy anymore than a police officer does or Walmart cashier?)

Currently, workplace disciplines, complaints and other personnel matters at [CAS] are treated confidentially and are not published and until recently couldn't be accessed with a FOI request either.

But if child protection workers become subject to regulation by the College, previously confidential workplace matters will become matters of public record just like every other regulated professional.

My membership in the College would mean that anyone can see information about my status or complaints made against me – and under the College’s rules, there is no time limit in which to

make a complaint. Disciplinary hearings are open to the public and once a complaint is made, it is on file forever. There is no process for appeal. (yes there is)

Employers must also file a written report with the College if one of its registered members is terminated. This requirement conflicts with an employee’s right to grieve a termination under the

collective agreement or appeal it through arbitration, where a termination may be overturned.

(should complaints about workers be a matter for the regulating body or a matter for union arbitration?)

I also have concerns for my personal safety and that of my family, since college registration is open to public scrutiny and provides no protection from potentially violent involuntary clients.

(see motherisk final report)

None of the ways that the College deals with personal information, complaints, and discipline allow for a fair or safe process for child protection workers.

I am not a social worker; I don’t want to be a social worker. Had I wanted to be a social worker, I would have trained as one. If regulation through the College of Social Work is introduced, what

will happen to us child protection workers who don’t have degrees in social work (a BSW or MSW) or a social service worker diploma? After all, we make up to 50% of the child protection

workforce.

None of the options currently available to us is appealing: we can try to upgrade to the qualifications that will allow up to keep our jobs. We can move to a different job class. We can

accept termination or layoff.

What doesn’t seem to be an option is “grandfathering,” something that would allow child protection workers already in post to keep doing their current jobs. The College is quite specific that grandfathering is not on the table.

There are any number of measures that can be and ought to be taken to restore public confidence in child protection and keep at-risk children and youth safer. Regulation by the college is not one of them.

The Special Investigations Unit is the civilian oversight agency responsible for investigating circumstances involving police that have resulted in a death, serious injury, or allegations of sexual assault of a civilian in Ontario. https://www.siu.on.ca/en/index.php

One of the rationalizations for registration and regulation with the College of Social Workers and Social Service Workers is the restoration of public confidence in Ontario’s child protection

system. One of the reasons given for this change is that regulation will result in higher quality services and bring greater professionalism to the field and that this will improve the standard of child protection work in Ontario.

I would like to point out that a failure to meet standards of care in child protection work is very rarely the result of professional misconduct, incompetence or incapacity on the part of individual child protection workers.

The stated purpose of the College is to protect the public from unqualified, incompetent or unfit practitioners. But children’s aid societies already set those standards and ensure their adherence: they determine the job qualifications. They deal with employees they deem to be unqualified or incompetent. And CASs decide whether child protection work in their area can be performed by

someone who holds a Bachelor’s degree and has child welfare experience.

Professional registration is a red herring that ignores the real issues in the child protection sector. In order to improve the consistency and quality of child protection, the OACAS and Ministry of Children’s and Youth Services should focus on funding restraints, workload, violence in the workplace and the current insufficient investment in workers’ training.

I’m calling OACAS out on this spurious attempt to bring more oversight to our sector. Regulation will not make children safer; instead, it is distracting attention from what’s really needed to

improve safety for children and youth and I hope that [CAS] will back me up on that.

http://cupe2190.ca/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/SSWCC_CAS-letters-re-college-regulation_Nov.-2016.pdf

:::

The Special Investigations Unit is the civilian oversight agency responsible for investigating circumstances involving police that have resulted in a death, serious injury, or allegations of sexual assault of a civilian in Ontario.

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

:::

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

:::

2020: TORONTO -- Ontario's child welfare system will be redesigned to focus on prevention and early intervention, the provincial government said Wednesday.

"Child welfare should not be the system that is feared," Dunlop said in a news conference. "No one should be scared to lose their children for speaking to a children's aid society."

Associate Minister of Children and Women's Issues Jill Dunlop said the new strategy will also work to address the over-representation of Black and Indigenous families in the children's aid system.

She said children and youth in care experience worse outcomes than those in a family setting, including lower graduation rates, a higher risk of homelessness and more involvement with the justice system.

https://toronto.ctvnews.ca/ontario-plans-to-redesign-child-welfare-system-to-focus-on-prevention-1.5044299

:::

The new regulation was updated to only require Local Directors of Children’s Aid Societies to be registered with the College.

http://www.ocswssw.org/resources/legislation-submissions/

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.

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.

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.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2234353/

As a key stakeholder with respect to numerous issues covered in the CYFSA and the regulations, we were dismayed to learn just prior to the posting of the regulations that we had been left out of the consultation process. We have reached out on more than one occasion to request information about regulations to be made under the CYFSA regarding staff qualifications.

A commitment to public protection, especially when dealing with vulnerable populations such as the children, youth and families served by CASs, is of paramount importance. In short, it is irresponsible for government to propose regulations that would allow CAS staff to operate outside of the very system of public protection and oversight it has established through professional regulation.

Regulations under the CYFSA:

The College has worked with government to address its concerns about regulations under the new CYFSA which set out the qualifications of Children’s Aid Society (CAS) staff. Upon learning in late November that the proposed regulations would continue to allow CAS workers to avoid registration with the College, the College immediately engaged with MCYS and outlined its strong concerns in a letter to the Minister of Children and Youth Services and a submission to the Ministry of Children and Youth Services during the consultation period.

We are pleased to note that, while the new regulation does not currently require CAS supervisors to be registered, we have received a "commitment" FROM THE OUTGOING WYNNE GOVERNMENT to work with the College and the Ontario Association of Children’s Aid Societies toward a goal of requiring registration of CAS supervisors beginning January 2019.

Key concerns: The absence of a requirement for CAS child protection workers to be registered with the College: ignores the public protection mandate of the Social Work and Social Service Work Act, 1998 (SWSSWA); avoids the fact that social workers and social service workers are regulated professions in Ontario and ignores the College’s important role in protecting the Ontario public from harm caused by incompetent, unqualified or unfit practitioners; allows CAS staff to operate outside the system of public protection and oversight that the Government has established through professional regulation; and fails to provide the assurance to all Ontarians that they are receiving services from CAS staff who are registered with, and accountable to, the College.

The existing regulations made under the CFSA predated the regulation of social work and social service work in Ontario and therefore their focus on the credential was understandable.

However, today a credential focus is neither reasonable nor defensible. Social work and social service work are regulated professions in Ontario.

Updating the regulations under the new CYFSA provides an important opportunity for the Government to protect the Ontario public from incompetent, unqualified and unfit professionals and to prevent a serious risk of harm to children and youth, as well as their families.

As Minister Coteau said in second reading debate of Bill 89, "protecting and supporting children and youth is not just an obligation, it is our moral imperative, our duty and our privilege—each and every one of us in this Legislature, our privilege—in shaping the future of this province."

A "social worker" or a "social service worker" is by law someone who is registered with the OCSWSSW. Furthermore, as noted previously, the Ontario public has 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), that person is registered with the OCSWSSW.

The OCSWSSW also has processes for equivalency, permitting those with a combination of academic qualifications and experience performing the role of a social worker or social service worker to register with the College.

These processes address, among other things, the risk posed by "fake degrees" and other misrepresentations of qualifications, ensuring Ontarians know that a registered social worker or social service worker has the education and/or experience to do their job.

The review of academic credentials and knowledge regarding academic programs is an area of expertise of a professional regulatory body. An individual employer will not have the depth of experience with assessing the validity of academic credentials nor the knowledge of academic institutions to be able to uncover false credentials or misrepresentations of qualifications on a reliable basis.

Setting, maintaining and holding members accountable to the Code of Ethics and Standards of Practice. These minimum standards apply to all OCSWSSW members, regardless of the areas or context in which they practise. Especially relevant in the child welfare context are principles that address confidentiality and privacy, competence and integrity, record-keeping, and sexual misconduct.

Maintaining fair and rigorous complaints and discipline processes. These processes differ from government oversight systems and process-oriented mechanisms within child welfare, as well as those put in place by individual employers like a CAS. They focus on the conduct of individual professionals.

Furthermore, transparency regarding referrals of allegations of misconduct and discipline findings and sanctions ensures that a person cannot move from employer to employer when there is an allegation referred to a hearing or a finding after a discipline hearing that their practice does not meet minimum standards.

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

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.

ACCORDING TO OACAS'S NEW CEO IF YOU HAVE ANY QUESTIONS ABOUT THE QUALIFICATIONS OF A WORKER AT YOUR DOOR YOU SHOULD ASK TO SEE THEIR LANYARD AND THEN JUST ASK THEM WHAT QUALIFICATIONS THEY HAVE BEFORE TAKING THEM AT THEIR WORD AND ALLOWING THEM TO COME IN AND SEARCH YOUR HOME WITHOUT A WARRANT UNDER THE PRETENSE OF ONLY WANTING TO ASK A FEW QUESTIONS - AND DON'T WORRY ABOUT ANY COMPLAINTS THAT MAY HAVE BEEN MADE AGAINST THEM - IN CHILD WELFARE CIRCLES THAT'S COVERED BY THE UNREGISTERED WORKER'S RIGHT TO PRIVACY...

Code of Ethics and Standards of Practice.

The Code of Ethics and Standards of Practice Handbook sets out minimum standards of professional practice and conduct for members of the OCSWSSW. This is in accordance with one of the objects of the College as stated in the Social Work and Social Service Work Act, 1998 “to establish and enforce professional standards and ethical standards applicable to members of the College.” For the purposes of the Act (Section 26), and the Professional Misconduct Regulation (Ontario Regulation 384/00), these standards have been approved in a bylaw of the College as standards of practice for its members. The Standards of Practice are meant to be applied to members’ practice in conjunction with any applicable legislation and with their professional judgment.

http://www.ocswssw.org/professional-practice/code-of-ethics/

http://www.ocswssw.org/members/online-register/

http://www.ocswssw.org/

Updating the regulations under the new CYFSA provides an important opportunity for the Government to protect the Ontario public from incompetent, unqualified and unfit professionals and to prevent a serious risk of harm to children and youth, as well as their families.

As Minister Coteau said in second reading debate of Bill 89, "protecting and supporting children and youth is not just an obligation, it is our moral imperative, our duty and our privilege—each and every one of us in this Legislature, our privilege—in shaping the future of this province."

A "social worker" or a "social service worker" is by law someone who is registered with the OCSWSSW. Furthermore, as noted previously, the Ontario public has 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), that person is registered with the OCSWSSW.

The OCSWSSW also has processes for equivalency, permitting those with a combination of academic qualifications and experience performing the role of a social worker or social service worker to register with the College.

These processes address, among other things, the risk posed by "fake degrees" and other misrepresentations of qualifications, ensuring Ontarians know that a registered social worker or social service worker has the education and/or experience to do their job.

The review of academic credentials and knowledge regarding academic programs is an area of expertise of a professional regulatory body. An individual employer will not have the depth of experience with assessing the validity of academic credentials nor the knowledge of academic institutions to be able to uncover false credentials or misrepresentations of qualifications on a reliable basis.

Furthermore, transparency regarding referrals of allegations of misconduct and discipline findings and sanctions ensures that a person cannot move from employer to employer when there is an allegation referred to a hearing or a finding after a discipline hearing that their practice does not meet minimum standards.

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

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@ocswss

::: 2019: Executive director Elaina Groves does say it's important for the public to know that child protection workers investigate differently than police. Decisions are made on a "balance of probabilities" which often means there's not enough evidence for criminal charges let alone a conviction which is probably why child protection social workers in Ontario refused to comply with the social worker registration act claiming there are no practical benefits for them agreeing to register with a college of social work that also uses a "balance of probabilities" to determine the "facts.." The College of Social Work takes reports about concerns from the public and applies their own standard for investigating complaints as does the society and the same "balance of probabilities" making a ruling. Groves says some may think that sounds "subjective" but she says rulings on abuse are based on the "impressions" of the unqualified unregistered social worker, the opinions of questionable medical professionals, as well as other evidence like the fraudulent Motherisk Test. Balance of Probabilities Definition: Burden of proof in civil trials. The common distinction is made with the burden of truth in a criminal trial, which is beyond a reasonable doubt. In a civil trial, one party's case need only be more probable than the other. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/sudbury/cas-daycare-operator-dowling-sudbury-child-abuse-1.4826325 https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/sudbury/home-daycare-lawsuit-cas-police-investigation-1.4537023 ::: Expert Evidence and Assessments in Child Welfare Cases. Queen's University Legal Research Paper No. 063. Nicholas Bala Queen's University - Faculty of Law. 33 Pages Posted: 23 Dec 2015. Jane Thomson University of New Brunswick, Faculty of Law; Queen's University, Faculty of Law Date Written: December 8, 2015. Abstract: Expert evidence from mental health professionals and medical doctors can play a central role in child welfare cases, and this evidence needs to be carefully scrutinized before it is relied upon in making critical decisions about the future of parent-child relationships. In Ontario, concern about the reliability of expert evidence in child abuse and neglect cases was heightened by the 2014 decision of the Court of Appeal in R v. Broomfield, where a mother’s conviction on criminal charges related to giving her infant child cocaine based on testimony by an expert from the Motherisk Drug Testing Lab at the Toronto Hospital for Sick Children. In overturning the conviction, the Court of Appeal noted that “the trial judge made her decision unaware of the genuine controversy among the experts about the use of the testing methods relied upon by the Crown expert at trial to found a conclusion of chronic cocaine ingestion.” In the months following the Court of Appeal decision in Broomfield, the Attorney General of Ontario appointed a former justice of the Court of Appeal, Susan Lang, to undertake a Review to assess the adequacy and reliability of hair analysis evidence used in child protection and criminal proceedings (report to be released Dec. 15, 2015). https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2700906 ::: 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. https://nationalpost.com/posted-toronto/psychologist-got-degree-from-u-s-diploma-mill ::: 2016: Nov 24, 2016 - Although the Ontario Risk Assessment was a “state of the art” clinical tool at the... The purpose of the Child Protection Standards in Ontario (dated February 2007) is to promote consistently high quality service delivery to children, youth and their families receiving child protection services from Children’s Aid Societies across the province. http://www.children.gov.on.ca/htdocs/English/professionals/childwelfare/protection-standards-2007/childprotectionstandards.aspx ::: 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 ::: 2019: Ontario psychologist used ‘obsolete’ tests in expert opinion calling for parents to lose their kids, judge says. https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2019/08/15/ontario-psychologist-used-obsolete-tests-in-expert-opinion-calling-for-parents-to-lose-their-kids-judge-says.html ::: 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 ::: 2017: Motherisk hair test evidence tossed out of Colorado court 2 decades before questions raised in Canada A U.S. court laid out extensive problems with how hair-strand tests were being done at the Motherisk Drug Testing Lab at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto more than two decades before similar issues were uncovered in Canada. But the lab's work continued to be used in Canadian courts and relied upon in thousands of child protection cases, including ones in which children were permanently removed from their parents. From 1991 until 2015, Motherisk was performing what have now been determined to be unreliable and inadequate drug and alcohol tests on thousands of members of vulnerable families across Canada, with the results in some cases leading to child welfare decisions to separate children from their parents AND TENS OF THOUSANDS OF FILES BEING LEFT OPEN OR REOPENED AT WILL. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/motherisk-colorado-court-case-1.4364862 ::: 2017: Motherisk tests 'felt like junk science,' says lawyer in Colorado case Colorado prosecutor Eva Wilson exposed flaws in Motherisk's testing methodology and analysis during a murder trial in 1993. https://youtu.be/WIJqYz91ceU ::: Confronting Motherisk co-founder Dr. Gideon Koren. Fifth Estate co-host Mark Kelley confronts Dr. Gideon Koren, the founder and former director of Motherisk, at a medical conference in Windsor, England this month. https://youtu.be/3POTUUN2tXU ::: 2018: What separation from parents does to children: ‘The effect is catastrophic’ This is what happens inside children when they are forcibly separated from their parents. Their heart rate goes up. Their body releases a flood of stress hormones such as cortisol and adrenaline. Those stress hormones can start killing off dendrites — the little branches in brain cells that transmit mes­sages. In time, the stress can start killing off neurons and — especially in young children — wreaking dramatic and long-term damage, both psychologically and to the physical structure of the brain. “The effect is catastrophic,” said Charles Nelson, a pediatrics professor at Harvard Medical School. “There’s so much research on this that if people paid attention at all to the science, they would never do this.” Separating kids from parents a 'textbook strategy' of domestic abuse, experts say — and causes irreversible, lifelong damage even when there is 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 reemerge 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. ::: 2007: Nearly half of children in Crown care are medicated. The 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 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." 'whole range of disorders' Nowhere is concern greater than in Ontario, where the provincial government recently appointed a panel of experts to develop standards of care for administering drugs to children in foster care, group homes and detention centres. The move was made after the high-profile case last year of a now-13-year-old boy in a group home outside Toronto came to light. The boy was saddled with four serious psychiatric diagnoses, including oppositional defiant disorder and Tourette's syndrome, and doused daily with a cocktail of psychotropic drugs before his grandparents came to his rescue. Now living with his grandparents, he is free of diagnoses and drugs. Marti McKay is the Toronto child psychologist who, when hired by the local CAS to assess the grandparents' capacity as guardians to the boy, discovered 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." https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/nearly-half-of-children-in-crown-care-are-medicated/article687480/ ::: 2014: Use of 'behaviour-altering' drugs widespread in foster, group homes. In 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. “The medication problem is huge,” says Raymond Lemay, who retired this summer after 32 years as executive director of the Prescott-Russell children’s aid society. “It’s catastrophic. “We should be doing other things than medicating these kids,” he says, adding his agency discourages the use of psychotropic drugs. “Medication is inappropriate in many circumstances and will do these kids long-term damage.” MEET THE PUSHERS... At the Brant CAS, drugs make up 52 per cent of expenditures on health insurance claims. The top five drugs prescribed and paid for by insurance are all used to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), including Concerta, Strattera and Adderall. https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2014/12/12/use_of_behaviouraltering_drugs_widespread_in_foster_group_homes.html ::: 2015: Ontario Foster Care System Overmedicates, Underdiagnoses Kids. by Robert Franklin, Esq, Member, National Board of Directors, National Parents Organization Before you read this article and the following blog post, you might want to go back to Sunday’s post about Molly McGrath Tierney’s excellent TEDx talk in Baltimore last year (Toronto Star, 12/12/14). Her talk is just 11 minutes long, but she pretty much demolishes the system of foster care that we foist on so many children. Tierney’s a veteran of the child welfare system and a successful manager in Baltimore. But she’s clear that the system harms kids and is driven by money. The federal government pays states for each kid taken into care where they are all too often less well off than they were with their parents. Studies show that to be the case and when we ask children their preferences, they say they want to go home to their parents. The Star article is about the shocking overuse of psychotropic medication on children in foster care in Ontario. Mental health experts agree that kids are overmedicated, but that’s just the start of the problem. 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. The figures are found in “Looking After Children in Ontario,” a provincially mandated survey known as OnLAC. It collects data on the 7,000 children who have spent at least one year in care. After requests by the Star, the 2014 numbers were made public for the first time. Those percentages for kids in foster care dwarf those for kids in the general population. For youths in care, the rate of psychotropic drug use is significantly higher than the general population. A 2005 study in the Canadian Journal of Psychiatry estimated that only 2.5 per cent of Canadians aged 15 to 19 were on psychotropic medication. Of course it can be argued that kids in foster care are those with abusive family backgrounds, and are therefore more in need of medication. That’s probably true, but foster kids rarely receive proper mental health evaluations to determine whether they need medication. That means that kids who don’t need medication often get it anyway and those who do may be getting the wrong drugs or the wrong dosages. Ontario’s highly decentralized child-protection model — 46 private agencies funded largely by tax dollars — seems to make matters worse. Only half of children’s aid societies have a prescribed way of assessing the mental health needs of children, and barely 15 per cent of these use methods recommended by the provincial government, according to a 2009 survey sponsored by OACAS, the lobby group representing the agencies. The lack of standardization “likely means that many children in need are not identified and referred for treatment,” concludes the survey report, co-authored by Elisa Romano, professor of psychology at the University of Ottawa. The sheer number of kids in foster care and group homes, the lack of diagnostic resources and the need to maintain control of a population that’s experienced the worst of parental care inevitably leads to medicating children as a means of control. Unsurprisingly, the great majority of the medications given are for ADHD. MEET THE PUSHERS: At the Brant CAS, drugs make up 52 per cent of expenditures on health insurance claims. The top five drugs prescribed and paid for by insurance are all used to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), including Concerta, Strattera and Adderall. https://nationalparentsorganization.org/blog/22448-ontario-foster-care-system-overmedicates-underdiagnoses-kids ::: 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. “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. “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 ::: 2019: These Are The Most Dangerous & Heavily Promoted Prescription Drugs. 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/ ::: Could Ontario's Pharmacies And Pharmacists Do Anything To Protect Children In Care Of The CAS? A Rexall medication review provides the opportunity for you to sit down one on one with your Rexall Pharmacist to review your prescription and non-prescription medications. Unless your a child in Ontario's care this process will identify medication-related issues. Why Rexall Medication Review? The Rexall Medication Review was created specifically for people who are regularly taking multiple medications at a time. You can rely on your pharmacist or healthcare provider to let you know if medications you take have any unsafe interactions unless your a child in Ontario's care. Not only do certain prescription medications interact dangerously with one another, but they can also interact with over-the-counter medications, vitamin and mineral supplements, or even certain foods. In the US if the pharmacist doesn’t feel comfortable filling the prescription they can refuse to fill it. There are many reasons, including ethical and religious beliefs, for why a pharmacist may not feel comfortable filling a prescription. We saw this recently when a pharmacist refused to fill a prescription for misoprostol, a medication used to end a pregnancy. A pharmacist is technically allowed to decline filling your prescription based on their moral beliefs. If that happens, try seeing if there’s another pharmacist working at the pharmacy and speak with them. You can also try transferring your prescription to another pharmacy to be filled, although this can add some inconvenience. https://www.rexall.ca/pharmacy/med-management/medreview :::

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/ :::

2019-2020 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. 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 ::: IS BEING A COMBATANT IN A WAR ZONE SAFER THAN BEING A CHILD IN ONTARIO'S 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... A TOTAL OF 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. ::: 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 ::: 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 ::: 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 ::: 2017: Youth homelessness linked to foster care system in new study. 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. https://www.cbc.ca/news/health/homeless-youth-foster-care-1.4240121 :::

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 (and last) 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." https://www.thestar.com/life/health_wellness/2009/02/24/open_childdeath_files_ndp.html ::: 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 ::: 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. ::: 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 ::: 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. ::: 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/ ::: 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 ::: 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 ::: 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 ::: 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 ::: Ontario portrayed as pedophile paradise in U.S. ruse to capture 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. 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. https://nationalpost.com/news/ontario-portrayed-as-pedophile-paradise-in-u-s-ruse-to-capture-predators :::

2020: Canada’s death investigation system needs an overhaul. 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 ::: 2013: National review system needed to save lives: experts Each province has a separate system for failing to collect or hide data on child deaths in care, which makes it impossible to track trends across the country and undermines attempts to learn from tragic deaths.JOHN LUCAS / EDMONTON JOURNAL Leading advocates from across Canada say children’s lives could be saved if governments implement a national death review system that is independent, transparent and staffed with experts. Currently, each province has a separate system for collecting data, which makes it impossible to track trends across the country and undermines attempts to learn from tragic deaths. Gord Phaneuf, executive director of the Child Welfare League of Canada, said only comprehensive historical analysis can create the foundation for targeted, evidence-based system change that will actually prevent child deaths. “Any province can lead on that,” Phaneuf said. “What has happened historically, in jurisdiction after jurisdiction, is they deal with the tragedy of the moment. On a personal level we can understand that, but on a governmental level that’s completely inadequate. We need to move past being reactive.” http://www.edmontonjournal.com/news/edmonton/national+review+system+needed+save+lives+experts/9216992/story.html ::: 2020: NDP call on ombudsman to launch ‘emergency’ investigation into child welfare deaths. https://www.aptnnews.ca/national-news/ndp-call-on-ombudsman-to-launch-emergency-investigation-into-child-welfare-deaths/ ::: 2020: 11 Indigenous children died in last four months connected to Ontario’s child welfare system. https://www.aptnnews.ca/national-news/11-indigenous-children-died-in-last-four-months-connected-to-ontarios-child-welfare-system/ :::