Monkey Business

March 27, 2009 permalink

An earlier post expressed skepticism of the court's motives in offering to provide transcripts to Chris Carter at no cost. He reports that the transcript he received "was not altered in any way by his Honour", Mr Justice Hearn.

CAS is taking exception to the disclosure of an affidavit by Mr Carter. CAS fears that he may disclose family matters in violation of the court rules. While we have published details on other families, in Mr Carter's case we do not know his family issues, we have reported only on peripheral issues such as disclosure of documents and free speech.

Enclosed below is the latest affidavit against Mr Carter, along with two pictures, drawn from the website of Waterloo CAS, in which they violate the law by photo identifying five of their wards.

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My name is (full legal name) Kim Putman

I work in (municipality & province) Cambridge, Ontario

and I swear/affirm that the following is true: Set out the statements of fact in consecutively numbered paragraphs. Where possible, each numbered paragraph should consist of one complete sentence and be limited to a particular statement of fact. If you learned a fact from someone else, you must give that person's name and state that you believe the fact to be true.

1. I, Kimberley Putman, am Legal Counsel, employed by the Children's Aid Society of Regional Municipality of Waterloo and as such have knowledge of the matters Hereinafter deposed to.
2. On March 23, 2009 I viewed the website of "Dufferin VOCA (Voices of Children Alliance)" at fixcas.com.
3. The main page of the website has a link to "Synopsis of Dufferin cases." It then lists eleven specific cases by name, at least one of which occurred in the Regional Municipality of Waterloo. According to main page of the website, a. "We try to post as many documents as possible about Children's Aid. If you are willing to give us photocopies, please call."
4. The "Current News" link on the website opens a page containing the following entry:

   Speak No Evil

   March 15, 2009

   Children's aid says, in their own words, that warning others about the unfairness of CAS and family courts is a form of wrongdoing. Have they heard of free speech? The magna carta?

   The most damning statements about children's aid come not from journalists and critics, but from their own mouth. We encourage others to forward oppressive or ridiculous CAS statements to Dufferin VOCA.

   Below is an affidavit, verbatim except for the caption, sent by Chris Carter. The conclusion regarding free speech remains true even if, as Mr Carter says, there are many errors of fact in the document.

5. Linked to this entry appears the entire text of the affidavit of Chris Leslie, sworn March 11, 2009 (filed at Tab 27 of the Continuing Record) with the exception of the title of proceeding and Court file number. It is not possible from the manner of publication to determine who excerpted the title of proceeding - Mr. Carter or the website. Attached and marked as Exhibit "A" to this my Affidavit is a true copy of the entry and attached link and associated graphic.

   [ The exhibit copies the entire affidavit in the expand block and the picture of the monkeys. ]

6. Mr. Carter and Dufferin VOCA have published Mr. Leslie's Affidavit, and there is the possibility that Mr. Carter may seek to take similar steps with respect to this and other affidavit materials. I wish to take this opportunity to make it clear that Mr. Carter's allegation as recounted by Mr. Leslie (paragraph 7) that "one of the judges who usually presides during Society matters in Cambridge has never decided a case against the Society" is absolutely false and untrue.
7. On the basis of the forgoing, I believe that Mr. Carter has released, and may in the future release, materials in this proceeding to uninvolved third parties. I further believe there is a risk that confidential information may be released in contravention of section 45 (in particular section 45 (8) of the Child and Family Services Act.
8. I further believe on the basis of the forgoing that there is a risk, with respect to future documentary disclosure, that Mr. Carter will not comply with Rule 20(24) of the Family Law Rules.

-End of Document-

THIS IS EXHIBIT "A" referred to in the Affidavit of Kimberley Putman

Sworn before me this 23
day of March A.D. 2009

Yvonne Reade

/signed/

A Commissioner, etc.

HAZEL YVONNE READE, a Commissioner for
taking oaths and Affidavits in and for the PROVINCE
OF ONTARIO while in the employ of a Children's Aid
Society approved under The Child and Family Services
Act, and for work in connection with this Society only.
EXPIRY DATE: September 23, 2011.

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Here are photo-ids of five CAS wards from the Waterloo CAS website:

Source: Waterloo CAS Kick Off Event

Litigation Champion

In its 2002/2003 Agency Annual Report (pdf, local copy) Waterloo CAS says:

Family and Children's Services of Waterloo Region experiences higher volumes of litigation than any of the five Children's Aid Societies in Central-West Region.

In common with other children's aid societies, Waterloo has become more reticent about distributing its annual reports. The last one filed online is for 2005/2006. More recent reports have to be ordered by phone.