Where is Howard Kober?

January 24, 2014 permalink

Vern Beck has written to Ontario premier Kathleen Wynne in opposition to bill 88. The first half of his letter concerns a boy in CAS care who disclosed sexual abuse by a social worker in a recording made on August 15, 2003 (mp3). Vern Beck thought the disclosed act amounted to criminal sexual abuse of a child and reported the incident to the police. But instead of investigating the social worker, the police investigated Mr Beck. From that day forward, the boy has disappeared and has not been seen by anyone associated with Canada Court Watch.

The boy's story has been on fixcas for a decade. Canada Court Watch has blotted out his name in some instances, but not all. His name is Howard Kober. If he is still alive, he is now an adult. Since Canada Court Watch is unaware of his current whereabouts, there is reason to be skeptical of whether he is still alive. If you have any knowledge of the survival, or death, of this boy/man, please get in touch with fixcas using our contact information.

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Canada Court Watch
Box 61027 Maple Grove Post Office, Oakville, Ont. L6J 7P5
Telephone (416) 410-4115
Website: http://www.canadacourtwatch.com
E mail: info@canadacourtwatch.com

SENT VIA EMAIL

January 22, 2014.

The Honourable Kathleen Wynne
Legislative Building
Queen's Park
Toronto Ontario M7A 1A1
Tel: 416-325-1941
Email: premier@ontario.ca

Dear Premier Wynne

RE: The cover-up of an alleged sexual assault of a young boy by a senior CAS worker and the disappearance of the boy

Attached to this letter, please find a very short and disturbing MP3 audio clip of a young boy who describes how he was sexually assaulted and threatened by a senior Children’s Aid Society worker from Ontario. The alleged sexual assault occurred in the vehicle of the CAS worker while the worker was transporting the boy.

The boy further describes how the CAS worker warned him after the assault that if he said anything to anyone that the CAS would have his visits with his custodial father taken away and he will then be forced to stay in the CAS group home forever. This short clip is a small part of a videotaped interview I had privately with this young boy before he was taken away by force by the CAS and never to be seen or heard from again. At the time, the boy had asked me to advocate on his behalf due to the abuses he was being subjected to while in the care of the CAS against this wishes.

Due to the criminal nature of the boy’s videotaped disclosures, with the boy’s informed consent I arranged to have my confidential videotaped interview with the boy turned over to the police in the jurisdiction where the criminal offense had occurred. At that time I had faith that the police would conduct a competent investigation to ensure that charges were laid against the CAS worker involved so that the boy would get his day in court and that justice would be seen to be served. The boy only wanted to get out of the CAS group home and to go back home with his family.

Almost immediately after the video recorded interview was turned over to the police all access by the boy’s custodial father was terminated by the CAS and the boy’s whereabouts kept secret. In spite of my requests to the CAS and police detectives to at least speak to the boy to confirm that he was still safe, I never heard from the boy again in spite of his informed consent for me to advocate for him. His father who had custody of the boy before the CAS became involved never heard from his son ever again. The boy was taken away by CAS and never seen by his friends and family again.

Instead of justice and transparency, in response to the videotape being given to police, two undercover detectives from York Regional Police showed up at my home to interrogate me. The detectives took out a audio recorder and told me that they were going to record their interview with me. I told the police detectives that I had no objective to being recorded as long as they did not mind being recorded as well. I then took out my own recording device and placed it on the desk as well. From that point forward, the detectives conducted themselves in a cautious manner.

What became clear to me during my meeting with the detectives was that they had come to my home not with the purpose of investigating the sexual crime against the young boy, but to investigate me and how it was that the boy had managed to come into contact with Canada Court Watch while under CAS control. The detectives seemed to have very little interest in the sexual assault or about the boy disclosing how he was being abused while in the care of the CAS and the workers who held him against his wishes. I learned later that the police and the local CAS agency had a close working relationship with each other which may have explained why the police did not seem eager to investigate the crime.

The police never did call me back and never gave me any update as the boy’s whereabouts or give me any indication that the boy was OK. My attempts to contact the boy through CAS were never responded to. I was never asked to provide a statement by police. If anything, I was left with the impression that the police were somehow working in conjunction with the CAS to help the CAS cover up this alleged crime by a senior CAS official.

Later, Ontario’s Office of the Children’s Lawyer (OCL) took me to court in Toronto in an attempt to get a gag order to stop me from publishing letters that the boy had sent to me though Canada Post before my video interviews with him. The Office of the Children’s Lawyer claimed to be representing the boy however, when I asked the Children’s lawyer to simply let me speak to the boy so that I could confirm what they were claiming was true, the Children’s Lawyer said they would not permit me to speak to the boy.

In court, the Ontario Children’s Lawyer even tried to get the judge to stop me from exercising my right under section 136 of the Courts of Justice Act to record my own court hearing. The OCL lawyer was not successful. The Children’s Lawyer withdrew their motion after spending taxpayer’s dollars and in the end, paid for my court related costs when I advised them that I was going to seek costs against them. To this day I verily believe that the OCL was fraudulently claiming to represent the boy because the boy had disclosed in writing and during his videotaped interviews that the OCL had not acted in the boy’s interest.

Attached to this letter are copies of letters from the boy which he had to hide and smuggle out while he was in care of the CAS.

There appears to be a double standard when dealing with CAS workers

What still haunts me to this day is that no charges were ever laid against the very senior CAS worker. This boy never had an opportunity to be heard and to have his day in court. After the boy came forward, he was put back into the very care of those who the boy claims were abusing. The boy was prevented from being able to contact those he most trusted. It seemed that the entire alleged sexual assault was hushed up and the boy taken away to silence him. The CAS worker who was alleged to have conducted this crime to my knowledge still works with the CAS today and is still in a very senior position with the agency.

On the other hand, Court Watch has cases right now where parents are being arrested and unable to see their children because of questionable allegations from ex spouses regarding incidents which in some cases occurred many years ago. CAS workers seem to get special treatment while parents in similar situations are arrested and jailed.

Abuse of children while in care of child protection agencies had been well documented over the years. Everyone knows of the cover-up that went on during the times of residential schools. During one of the cases I was involved in early in 1994 I interviewed two young Brampton boys who were being sexually abused while in care of the Peel CAS. They identified Douglas Moore as the man sexually assaulting them. The boys reported how nobody at the CAS was listening to them.

I contacted the Toronto Star and helped to get an investigation underway to expose Douglas Moore who was arrested in March of 2004. An article was subsequently published in the Toronto Star on July 17, 2004 titled, “A monster hidden in plain sight”. One part of the article describes how Douglas Moore was sexually abusing the boys in CAS foster care right under the noses of the CAS workers. Below is a photo and information about Douglass Moore. Tragically, it took a call to the media and a media investigation to get action.

Very recently on December 4, 2013, the Archbishop Dorian A Baxter testified in person at the Bill 88 hearings at Queen’s Park. Archbishop Baxter has testified that in his lawsuit against the CAS, the CAS was found guilty by Justice Sommers in the Oshawa, Ontario court of blackmail, malicious prosecution, perjury and incompetence. In his closing statement Archbishop Baxter stated, “But I would say, please, give a sober second thought. Do not allow this bill [Bill 88] to pass. It will usher in a Pandora’s Box of tyranny beyond human comprehension”.

I have been working as a child and family justice advocate with Canada Court Watch since 1994 over 18 years and have interviewed many children and families adversely affected by CAS and the family courts. Even CAS workers have contacted Canada Court Watch to confidentially report unethical and/or illegal practices going on inside some CAS agencies. Many of those workers who call Canada Court Watch speak in confidence out of fear of losing their jobs for passing us information. I have recent statements from children being abused by the CAS and their rights under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms being grossly violated.

While there are some good CAS workers, unfortunately the practice of many CAS workers acting illegally and covering up their unlawful acts with the help of high priced CAS lawyers continues to be a significant problem today. The abuse of power and authority, the waste of taxpayer dollars, the lack of transparency and the lack of accountability by many CAS agencies are significant problems which the government of Ontario must address sooner rather than later.

I have copies of the video recorded interviews with this boy (as well as many others which are being collected) should you or any other member of the Legislature wish to privately review some of these interviews. The one audio recording I have attached to this letter is just a sample of the abuse that children and families report to Canada Court Watch.

The same problems exist with CAS today which have existed for decades

CAS workers have been violating the Social Work and Social Services Work Act (1998) which requires that they be registered with the Ontario College of Social Workers. CAS workers are making a mockery of the very law which was officially passed into law in August of 2000 and intended to protect children and families. More about the unlawful practice of social work in Ontario by CAS workers can be reviewed in my research document at the following website link:

http://www.canadacourtwatch.com/files/all/The_Unlawful_Practice_of_Social_Work.pdf

The privatising of child protection through CAS agencies has been a dismal failure for the Province. The contracting out of child protection to CAS corporations has encouraged a culture of unaccountability and greed at the expense of the taxpayers of Ontario while in general, working against the best interests of many children and families in Ontario. Matters are only getting worse as CAS agencies scramble to find ways to extract more .money from the Ontario government such as is the case with Bill 88, which is currently before the Ontario Legislature. Bill 88 must never get passed. In my 19 years of seeing the same problems with CAS repeat themselves the time has come to have child protection services taken over by the government of Ontario as is the case in the other provinces of Canada. Ontario needs a fresh start when it comes to child protection.

Members of Canada Court Watch would be willing to meet with you and/or your high level staff to discuss the ongoing problems with Ontario’s child protection system and to present effective solutions to fix many of the problems which exist with Ontario’s child protection system today. I believe that the province could save over a half a billion dollars annually by implementing measures that would effectively improve accountability and transparency within the child protection system.

I look forward to your response. I can be best reached by phone at 905-829-0407 or by email at vernonbeck1@yahoo.ca. Also attached is a copy of a letter which I sent to you regarding Bill 88 which I have still not received a reply from your office.

Respectfully,

Vernon Beck, Child and Family Justice Advocate, Canada Court Watch
http://www.canadacourtwatch.com

Attachments
Handwritten letter from H.K to Mr. Beck undated (1 page)
Handwritten letter from H.K. to Mr. Beck dated August 13, 2003 (3 pages)
Handwritten letter from H.K. to his loving father dated August 7, 2003 (3 pages)
Letter from Canada Court Watch to Premier Wynn dated October 10, 2013 (82 pages)

Source: Facebook, Canada Court Watch

The latter part of Mr Beck's letter deals with Douglas Donald Moore [1] [2] [3]. The full document by Vern Beck includes many attachments and can be found on Facebook (in the expand block above) or a local copy (pdf).