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Alberta CFS Sued

February 6, 2013 permalink

Mother Andrea Lee Badger is suing Alberta Child and Family Services for a million dollars damages after her estranged husband Jason Bruce Cardinal killed their two sons in December 2010. At the time both his wife and CFS were trying to take away his children.

An older article also enclosed names the deceased boys as Caleb Cardinal, age 3, and Gabriel Cardinal, age 6.

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Mother of two murdered boys sues Alberta Children's Services

Edmonton home of Jason Bruce Cardinal
EPS forensics officers walk into a townhouse in Edmonton's northeast on Monday, December 20, 2010, while investigating the scene of a suspicious death where the bodies of two children were found late Sunday night, December 19.
Photograph by: Chris Schwarz, edmontonjournal.com

EDMONTON - The mother of two young boys under provincial care who were murdered by their father during an unsupervised weekend visit is suing the Alberta government for more than $1 million.

Andrea Lee Badger’s lawsuit alleges Child and Family Services “cause or contributed to” the deaths when they allowed the boys to stay with Jason Bruce Cardinal even though he had obsessive compulsive disorder, anxiety and anti-social personality disorder with sociopathic tendencies.

Cardinal should only have been allowed supervised visits with his family, says the statement of claim. Child and Family Services had a duty to monitor and investigate Cardinal’s mental state which necessitated he take daily medications, the lawsuit says.

The province “failed to take the necessary steps that were reasonable under the circumstances to prevent the wrongful deaths” of the children and keep them safe, the lawsuit says.

In November, the 33-year-old Cardinal pleaded guilty to two counts of first-degree murder in connection with the deaths of his sons, who were three and six years old.

On the night of Dec. 19, 2010, Cardinal injected the boys with morphine and then strangled them as they slept. Police found the dead boys in bed with their father. One had a towel wrapped around his neck and the other a pillowcase. Cardinal had attempted suicide by slashing at his arms with a box-cutter, but recovered.

Police entered Cardinal’s home after Badger could not reach him for hours on the day she was scheduled to pick up the boys, less than a week.

Cardinal’s trial heard that he was worried he would lose custody of his children the day he killed them. While still in hospital, Cardinal told police that what happened to his sons was the “right thing.” He could not live if his boys were taken away from him and they were now safe, he said.

Cardinal and Badger met in 2001 and were living as a common-law couple by 2002. By 2008, they had two sons and Badger had given primary custody to Cardinal so she could work in northern Alberta.

On February 22, 2010, the two boys were apprehended from Cardinal and placed in Badger’s care. Five weeks later, Cardinal was permitted to have weekly, supervised visits with the boys at Badger’s home in Bonnyville.

In August 2010, Cardinal was granted unsupervised visits despite the objections of Badger, who thought the visits should remain supervised by the province because of “his various medical conditions and his improper treatment of the children.”

Badger and Cardinal were in the middle of hearings to further address his access to the boys when they were killed.

A provincial fatality inquiry will be held into the two deaths, but it has not yet been scheduled.

Badger is asking for $1,030,000 in damages.

A statement of defence has not been filed.

Statements of claim contain allegations that have not been proven in court.

Source: Calgary Herald


Edmonton man pleads guilty to strangling sons to death

Caleb Cardinal and Gabriel Cardinal
Caleb, 6, and Gabriel Cardinal, 3, are seen in a family photo. Their father, Jason Bruce Cardinal has pleaded guilty to murdering the two boys.
CITY TV EDMONTON

An Edmonton man who drugged and strangled his two young sons just before Christmas in 2010 pleaded guilty to two counts of first-degree murder on Friday.

Jason Bruce Cardinal, 33, was then handed a sentence of life in prison with no eligibility of parole for 25 years.

The boys’ mother, Andrea Badger, read out a victim impact statement in court saying she remains “lost” over the deaths of her “innocent and pure” sons and called Cardinal the “weakest coward” she has ever known.

Outside court, Badger described the boys as opposites who “completed each other” and “loved life.” She also said she hopes the sentencing brings closure.

“I’m just glad it’s done for and he will be gone for 25 years and can’t harm us,” said Badger.

According to agreed facts, Cardinal planned to kill the two boys – Caleb, six, and Gabriel, nearly four – and himself because he was upset over losing custody of them.

Police found the murdered boys lying on either side of Cardinal in a bed in his townhouse near 119 Avenue and Abbotsfield Road on Dec. 19, 2010. One had a towel around his neck and the other a pillowcase.

A groggy and incoherent Cardinal was taken to hospital with self-inflicted cuts and told police what had happened was the “right thing” as he wasn’t going to let the boys’ mom “destroy” their lives and now they were “safe.”

Police also found in the townhouse a note indicating where the boys were in the home, a will and two letters documenting what Cardinal had done and why.

There was also a pink post-it note stating: “Wait for boys to die or fall asleep. Smother if needed.” It also had a list of four items detailing what pills Cardinal was planning to take and ending with “slit artery” and “fall asleep with my boys forever.”

Autopsies determined the boys died of strangulation and toxicology tests showed they both had non-lethal amounts of morphine and sleep medication in their bodies.

Crown prosecutor Allison Downey-Damato said Cardinal breached the “ultimate trust relationship,” that of parent and child, and said the detailed planning he did shows a suicidal mind “can be as devastating” as a homicidal one.

“It is difficult to imagine a crime more heinous than killing your own children while they were in their most vulnerable, drugged and asleep,” said Downey-Damato.

Defence lawyer Alex Pringle said Cardinal decided to plead guilty after psychiatrists ruled “he was not psychotic and he knew what he was doing.”

When asked if he had anything to say, Cardinal, a large, heavily tattooed man with glasses and a moustache and sculpted beard, said “nothing at this time.”

As a result of being convicted of multiple murders, Cardinal is not eligible for the so-called faint hope clause, where killers can go before a jury and seek an earlier parole date after serving 15 years.

Source: Edmonton Sun

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