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More on F21/03

April 21, 2007 permalink

Anne Marsden reports more on the family known only as F21/03. First, a letter to the editor:

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St Catherine's Standard

Child protection in Ontario ignores the child's needs

Letters to the Editor - Friday, April 20, 2007 Updated @ 9:50:15 AM

The problems with the Children's Aid Society and their association would have been fixed at least a decade ago if the responsible ministers had upheld the requirements of the Child and Family Services Act as they have committed to do.

There have been many opportunities for various ministers to step in and do the right thing. For example, the present minister has refused to appoint a judge and undertake a review of Section 67 of the Child and Family Services Act that our audits show has seen two little girls isolated from their family in Brantford since 2001, at public expense with not one scrap of evidence that these children are in need of protection from their family members.

Audit results in the hands of our politicians show judges, lawyers (both private and legal aid) and CAS workers have all ignored best interests, legislation and a responsibility to uphold the law as set out in the Child and Family Services Act. Isolation is abuse. NDP MPP Andrea Horwath and the ombudsman are both well informed on the situation, yet I hear nothing of their efforts to force the government's hand and have the review which would show the CAS is using our child protection dollars improperly - and certainly not in the best interests of our children.

Our position is they are all afraid that such review would be the first domino that would see the end of child protection being used as a means to an end that has nothing to do with best interests of children.

Anne Marsden
Ghent Avenue
Burlington

Source: St Catherine's Standard

Anne will be appearing before the Justice Policy Committee Queen's Park on April 25.

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URGENT PERSONAL ATTENTION ANDRE MARIN AND ATTORNEY GENERAL BRYANT

April 20, 2007

Now that the whole of Canada understands the value of an expert witness' opinion associated with the Toronto Hospital for Sick Children (The Dr. Charles Smith fiasco) rather than just me utilizing my McMaster Post-Graduate Course Critical Appraisal of Data credentials, perhaps the Ombudsman and Attorney General might pay some attention to the Brantford CAS issue that I have been pushing for at least a year now.

Our audits showed there was not one scrap of evidence that one would refer to as evidence if one checked it with the evidence standards that lawyers and judges are taught in law school, in the Brantford CAS case that has seen two sisters isolated from their brothers, mother, fathers, grandparents and each other, one for most of her life, she was born October, 2000 and the other all of her life she was born July, 2006.

The expert witness in this case whose "opinion" was relied on to "convict" a mother and grandmother of not being capable of parenting, despite them doing a grand job with the brothers of the two little Brantford girls, also happens to be from the Hospital for Sick Children (perhaps it should be called Sick Staff and not Sick Kids). He is the head of the Dept. of Pediatrics, or was last time I checked, and sells his opinions to the Brantford CAS so when they are low on evidence for a child they have in their care through fair means or foul, he is available to present his expert opinion in the form of a public monies paid for parenting capacity assessment that will say whatever it is that the CAS need him to say. Since when did we have the law of opinions used to convict... I am well credentialed in analysing such reports and my "expert testimony" about Dr. Wittenberg's two parenting capacity assessments that we, yes we, paid a very, very, large chunk of change for and as a consequence of, is that it is purely and simply non-evidenced character assassination that gave Judge Edward an opportunity to say..." see I was right" rather than what he should have said ... "the court apologizes for its actions that were improper and have cast a cloud of suspicion over all child protection cases in the Brantford court".

Judge Edward I am sure you both will agree acted completely outside of judicial standards when he strongly suggested to the CAS in a written endorsement that they bring in a protection application for a child, whose father was before him pleading for the court to return his child, who was in temporary care without the consent of her father and the judge, the CAS, all the lawyers involved knew that this was contrary to rule of law. If you look it up in the Criminal Code it is called abduction (taking a child out of a parent's supervision without lawful justification). Judge Edward then went on to sit in judgment on the child protection case he strongly suggested in his order the CAS bring in ... now how's that for impartiality...

The audit has been reviewed by a lawyer who says:

" if you are talking/emailing to Anne Marsden, let her know .. A LOT of the Society material consists of speculation, innuendo, gossip, double, triple and quadruple hearsay, opinions from people not qualified to make them and character assassination, plain and simple. In many cases, the affidavits are laughable. I think Anne's audit pointed out some very noteworthy deficiencies in the court process... Also a good lesson to the lawyers involved. "

One of those lawyers should be the Attorney General given he has a job to do with regard to do ensuring rule of law is upheld in the Ontario Courts and the best interests of children are protected and they are not taken out of their parent's protection without just cause. And, the Attorney General's job description would, as I understand it, also lend itself to ensuring a crown attorney looks at charges being laid when a child, sorry two children, are taken out of the supervision of their parents without any lawful justification. Further, when Senior Regional Justice, Timothy Culver, has been provided with the audit results, for almost a year now, and has ignored that at least one of his judges is affecting the best interests of children by acting outside rule of law, (not to mention the public purse) I believe that should also be the business of the Attorney General. Perhaps Justice Culver needs to sit down and watch Judgment at Nuremberg again, it may well have been a while since he saw it... the 1961 version I mean.

As you both know the Minister responsible has been asked on several occasions to undertake a Section 67 CFSA Review of this matter by appointing a judge. My letter in the St. Catherine's Standard today refers to my request which the Ombudsman was asked to support through a letter hand delivered to him by Andrea Horwath after my presentation at Queens Park where I was congratulated by my MPP now my Mayor, Cam Jackson, for my advocacy for children's best interests and my tenacity with regard to working for the best interests of children regardless of who they are and where they live... Until last Easter I had never heard of this Brantford family who now are like my own ... the kids call me Grannie Annie. It should not be a very large job for the judge appointed by the Minister given the audit documents are well organized and should be easy for him or her to follow. Mr. Marin, I would ask that you do everything you need to do to get the Attorney General and Minister to appropriately respond to this matter and undertake a Section 67 review at the very minimum.

I will be in Queens Park to appear before the Justice Policy Committee at 10:45 a.m. on April 25, 2007, I would appreciate the opportunity to meet with you both after my presentation to hand over the audit documents for this matter so you can both do what it is that you need to do to ensure our child protection agencies, judges and lawyers act in the best interests of children and only in the best interests of children when funded by our child protection dollars. .... I have more than done my job ..and my husband's responsibility for the expenses associated with this Brantford child protection audit should have ended several thousand dollars ago!

Anne Marsden (Mrs.)
Audit Manager
The Auditors
The Canadian Family Watchdog
308-1425 Ghent Avenue'
Burlington Ontario L7S 1X5
Tel. 905-639-5684

Source: email from a friend of Anne Marsden

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