help

collapse

Press one of the expand buttons to see the full text of an article. Later press collapse to revert to the original form. The buttons below expand or collapse all articles.

expand

collapse

CAS Alters Evidence

August 29, 2007 permalink

Canada Court Watch has posted a report of the CAS altering the transcript of a video tape to delete exculpatory evidence. Following is an abridged version of the report.

expand

collapse

Toronto Children's Aid Society misleads court

(August 27, 2007) Court Watch has reviewed video tapes and notes from the Toronto CAS which reveal that a CAS worker omitted significant portions of evidence from transcripts of a videotape intend[ing] to mislead the court in a child protection matter. The evidence removed by the CAS worker help[s] protect the credibility a grandmother who was making false allegations of sexual abuse. [The] child told police that the grandmother had lied to police during the police investigation. Evidence that the grandmother had lied to police was removed by the CAS worker in the transcripts.

Although CAS workers had a copy of the videotape in their files for over a year, CAS workers refused to provide a copy of the videotape of the child's testimony to the father who was the subject of the false allegations. Thousands of taxpayer's dollars were wasted to keep the father from having a copy of the videotape. According to the father, both Justice Zuker and Justice Brownstone obstructed justice by refusing to allow the father to examine the videotape. Once a copy of the videotape was obtained however, it was revealed that the child indicated that she had been forced to attend the interview against her wishes and also that police lied to the child during the interview in addition to providing leading questions during the interview itself. Not only was the videotaped interview flawed but when CAS made a transcript of the tape, [it] removed the portion where the child said that her grandmother was lying to police.

Source: Canada Court Watch

sequential