CAS Overrules Judge

July 16, 2006 permalink

We have some comments following this Canada Court Watch report

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We can overrule a judge's decision CAS worker tells family. You must do what we say, not the judge, or else we will punish you and your child!

(July 16, 2006) A mother called Court Watch this weekend to tell us about some CAS workers who told that the CAS has the power to overrule a judge. Unregistered CAS workers had come to the conclusion that the woman's husband had mental issues and because of this had to move out of the family home. The workers told the woman that even if the judge was to find the father innocent and allow him to come home, that they still have the power to overrule the judge. The CAS workers told the mother that if the judge allows her husband to come home, that they will take her daughter out of the house and put the daughter into a foster home for teens. The mother says that she is frightened of the CAS and asks why they are so powerful and abusive to families. Her daughter is crying and just wants her daddy home! The legal proceedings have virtually bankrupted the family and taken all the money that would have paid for the child to go to university.

Source: Canada Court Watch

Dufferin VOCA has encountered this problem independently. A divorced woman was instructed by a CAS worker to refuse to send her child to his father for court-ordered visitation. When police arrived to enforce the judge's order, they took the word of the social worker before the judge, and refused to enforce visitation. Money judgments against CAS are not paid — they are appealed ad infinitum. A judge cannot remedy defiance, since the power of CAS comes from appropriated funds, and is outside of judicial control.