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If you have had any dealings with Children's Aid, or have been following the issues in this webpage, you know the difficulty of getting information from Children's Aid. They claim immunity from the Freedom of Information Act, and hide behind cop-outs such as "protecting the child from emotional harm". In a murder case involving a dead child, none of their excuses apply, but Children's Aid sticks by its habit of revealing nothing. Will they let their contractors go free by refusing to disclose their files? This could become an important case.

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Judge halts trial until aid files are found
For weeks, the court has heard quibbling about who has the slain boy's documents

By CHRISTIE BLATCHFORD

Wednesday, September 21, 2005

An Ontario Superior Court judge temporarily halted the Jeffrey Baldwin murder case yesterday amid ongoing delays in ensuring the little boy's entire file at the Toronto Catholic Children's Aid Society is in the hands of trial lawyers.

"This can't continue," a frustrated Judge David Watt snapped at one point. "It's going to stop now; it's going to be clarified now before we take one more step."

With that, he ordered James Maloney, lawyer for the CCAS, to notify prosecutor Lorna Spencer by tomorrow that the whole file has been located, or return to court Friday to explain why not.

Once that is done, CCAS child-care worker Margarita Quintana is to review its contents, with the trial itself on hold until Sept. 29.

Ms. Quintana was the family's worker when Jeffrey and three of his siblings were handed over to the very grandparents -- Elva Bottineau and Norman Kidman -- who are now on trial for first-degree murder in the little boy's Nov. 30, 2002, death.

The four children were taken from their mother, the grandparents' daughter Yvonne Kidman, in a series of three separate family court proceedings over the course of several years.

The Catholic Children's Aid didn't object to the grandparents' gaining legal custody of the youngsters.

Neither did anyone ever check the agency's own files, which contained clear documentation that Ms. Bottineau and Mr. Kidman were manifestly unfit to be acting as caregivers for vulnerable youngsters -- both were criminally convicted child abusers.

Ms. Quintana will be called as a witness here, and Ms. Spencer and defence lawyers for the grandparents want to know before they begin to question her what records she personally prepared or relied upon in making decisions about the children's placement.

Jeffrey died a few weeks shy of his sixth birthday of septic shock complicated by pneumonia, but expert witnesses have testified that the central contributing factor in his death was what one of them termed a gross "nutritional insult."

The boy had been starved over months and perhaps even years, and at death weighed less than he had when he was a healthy, chubby toddler of 12 or 13 months, and stood only 37 inches tall.

He was deemed officially both wasted and stunted, terms that respectively refer to the impact of chronic starvation upon body weight and height, and Judge Watt has also heard that the little boy and one of his sisters, just a year older, lived in a locked, frigid and feces-smeared room in the grandparents' east-end house.

For weeks now, Mr. Maloney for the CCAS, Keith Geurts for Ms. Quintana and Crown prosecutors have been quibbling about which agency documents have been handed over and which, if any, are missing.

It was unclear -- and Judge Watt yesterday pointed no finger of blame -- whether the delay was due to simple miscommunication or something else.

What was apparent, however, is that the judge has lost his stomach for further wrangling.

He also urged Mr. Geurts to have Ms. Quintana agree to an interview with prosecutors, saying, "Although I can't compel her to be interviewed, it would be a prudent course for her to follow."

On the advice of her lawyer, Ms. Quintana has declined repeated requests from Toronto Police and prosecutors to be questioned about the case.

It is likely that she, like other workers at the Catholic Children's Aid, remains alert to a recent high-profile case involving one of their colleagues, Angie Martin.

She was the worker in the Jordan Heikamp case -- the infant starved to death in a native women's shelter in Toronto before the unseeing eyes of a plethora of helping professionals and under the ostensible supervision of Ms. Martin -- and along with the baby's teenaged mother, Renee Heikamp, was charged criminally in Jordan's death.

The charges against both women were dismissed after a preliminary hearing.

But both testified at length and to enormous publicity at a coroner's inquest examining Jordan's death in the spring of 2001 -- just 18 months before firefighters and paramedics responded to the 911 call about Jeffrey.

Ms. Bottineau, now 53, was convicted on June 10, 1970, of assaulting her own baby daughter, Eva. Then a teen mother, Ms. Bottineau was sentenced to a year of probation. Though the five-month-old infant died of pneumonia, an autopsy revealed she had also suffered tiny fractures of the shoulders, elbows and wrists - now recognized as classic signposts of child abuse.

Mr. Kidman, also now 53, was convicted on Dec. 29, 1978, of two counts of assault causing bodily harm in connection with assaults upon two of Ms. Bottineau's children, then aged 5 and 6, from a former relationship. He was sentenced to two years of probation and fined $150 on each charge.

The two children were later made Crown wards and subsequently adopted.

Shortly after Jeffrey's death, CCAS executive director Mary McConnville acknowledged that the agency had failed to check its own files and that, had someone done so, the revealing information about Ms. Bottineau and Mr. Kidman was there to be found.

Ms. McConnville said at the time that the agency had no policy for staff to check files in cases called "kinship care," in which relatives step forward to seek custody of youngsters whose own parents are deemed unfit, such as Ms. Bottineau did when daughter Yvonne saw first one, then two others and finally a fourth child taken from her.

There is such a policy now.

If the role of the agency and its worker are somewhat peripheral to the criminal trial - it is Ms. Bottineau and Mr. Kidman who are charged after all - the publicity around the details of how they came to gain legal custody of four youngsters might increase pressure upon the Ontario coroner's office to call an inquest into Jeffrey's death after the trial is over.

That decision hasn't yet been made, deputy coroner Dr. Jim Cairns told The Globe and Mail yesterday.

Jeffrey died of the complications of starvation almost three years ago; baby Jordan died of starvation in 1997; three years before that, another tiny charge of the agency was making headlines.

That was baby Sara Podniewicz, who died gasping for breath, her lungs filled with pneumonia, in her car seat at the age of six months and 10 days.

She had 24 broken bones at the hands of her crack-addled parents and yet at their trial - both were convicted of second-degree murder - a CCAS worker and another the agency had contracted to monitor the home were questioned at length about the jarringly cheerful notes they had made documenting Sara's alleged progress.

Source: website of the Globe and Mail

Bill Mullins-Johnson, who was convicted of homicide on the testimony of the discredited Dr Charles Smith, is now free. Widespread attention to this story may help alleviate the moral panic surrounding child abuse.

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C B C . C A   N e w s   -   F u l l   S t o r y :

---

Mullins-Johnson granted bail after 12 years in prison

Last Updated Wed, 21 Sep 2005 11:29:05 EDT
CBC News

Bill Mullins-Johnson has been granted bail after 12 years in prison while the federal justice minister determines if he was wrongfully convicted.

Bill Mullins-Johnson answers questions after walking out of court in Toronto (CP Photo/Frank Gunn)

The 35-year-old man was convicted in 1994 of sodomizing and strangling his four-year-old niece. No forensic evidence linked him to the crime, yet he was convicted based on testimony from two pathologists.

Two experts now say that the girl was not sexually abused, and in fact died of natural causes.

Wednesday, a freed and emotional Mullins-Johnson said the past 12-years have been nothing but hell for him and his family. He said the '94 trial wasn't justice, it was an injustice and his family has been torn apart by it. He added he's looking forward to exonerating himself.

• RELATED STORY: Group says murder convict is innocent, calls for release

Family members put up $125,000 in bail money.

The 35-year-old Sault Ste. Marie man said he loved his niece and that his heart went out to her parents. "I appreciate what the parents of my niece have gone thorough -- they lost a little girl in all this," he said.

Justice Minister Irwin Cotler must now decide whether to order a new trial or send the case back to the Ontario Court of Appeal.

Source: website of CBC

Sherry Charlie was a ward of child protectors in British Columbia, and died in their care. In this case as well, the child protectors attempt to blame the contractors for their failure.

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THE TIMES COLONIST

Tot's death probe sparks new inquiry
Children's ministry under fire for avoiding spotlight in investigation of Sherry Charlie case

Lindsay Kines and Jeff Rud
Times Colonist

Wednesday, September 21, 2005

B.C.'s Children and Family Development Minister Stan Hagen announced an inquiry Tuesday into why his ministry altered its investigation into the death of 19-month-old Sherry Charlie.

In a move quickly dismissed by the NDP as another coverup, Hagen said the inquiry won't re-open the original investigation or examine the ministry's role in Sherry's care.

Instead, Hagen asked Attorney General Wally Oppal to appoint Child and Youth Officer Jane Morley to investigate. She will look at why the original review's terms of reference were changed to focus on the aboriginal agency involved, rather than the ministry. Morley will also examine the time it took to release the report, a censored version of which was first issued earlier this summer. Finally, she will study the ministry's policy regarding internal investigations.

The report is due Dec. 1.

NDP children's critic Adrian Dix predicted a whitewash, because the government didn't instruct Morley to ask questions that were deliberately ignored by the original probe.

Dix said Morley's review won't look at the role that ministry budget cuts, staff reductions, and a massive reorganization played in Sherry's death.

"This is an investigation to tell us a very limited number of things, to tell us who said what to whom in the Ministry of Children and Families," Dix said. "But the failure of the child protection system is what they continue to cover up with this investigation.''

Sherry died at Port Alberni in 2002 after being placed with her uncle under a kith and kin arrangement, in which children are given to relatives rather than taken into foster care. Sherry's uncle killed her a few weeks after she was placed in his home by the Nuu-chah-nulth child protection agency, Usma.

The ministry's investigation uncovered failings, including the fact that a criminal record check was never completed on the uncle, who had a history of violent offences. The review also found problems with information sharing between the aboriginal agency and the ministry. Agency social workers weren't trained to do kith-and-kin agreements, and the ministry provided only partial background information.

But, in response to NDP questions this week, Hagen confirmed that early in the investigation, senior officials in his ministry changed the terms of reference to block the probe from looking at the ministry's role in Sherry's care.

Hagen produced two documents Tuesday showing that in a letter dated Sept. 26, 2002, David Young, director of child protection responsible for aboriginal agencies, states that the review of Sherry's death will examine five areas, including whether the ministry's response met established standards. The recipient of the letter is blanked out.

In a subsequent letter dated Nov. 6, Young drops any mention of the ministry's response, and says the review will look at four areas.

Source: website of the Times Colonist

Addendum: We have a page with articles devoted to Sherry Charlie.

Halifax police want to keep the final report on the standoff at the home of Larry Finck and Carline VandenElsen secret.

Today Andy Srougi of Fathers for Justice climbed the Jacques-Cartier bridge in Montreal, stopping traffic. Other F4J demonstrations occurred in a half-dozen other Canadian cities.

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Montreal Gazette

Two charged for bridge stunt

Canadian Press

Tuesday, September 20, 2005

CREDIT: ALLEN MCINNIS, THE GAZETTE
Bridge protest snarls city traffic for 12 hours.

LONGUEUIL, Que. -- Two men were charged with mischief on Tuesday after a major Montreal bridge was closed for 12 hours in a stunt aimed at pushing for more rights for fathers in custody cases.

The Jacques Cartier Bridge was closed Monday, forcing thousands of angry motorists to use other bridges to get to work and back home in communities across the St. Lawrence River from Montreal.

Andy Srougi, 39, also faces conspiracy and obstruction of justice charges in addition to two mischief charges.

Stephane Dube was charged with two counts of mischief and breaking conditions.

The men are part of a group called Fathers-4-Justice and want an inquiry into the way fathers are treated in family law.

A man atop the bridge unfurled a banner that said, Papa t'aime (Daddy Loves You).

Similar protests took place on the same bridge last May and on a Vancouver construction site a few weeks ago.

A bail hearing will be held for Srougi and Dube on Thursday in Longueuil on Montreal's south shore.

Source: website of the Montreal Gazette

Here is a first person report from a family helped by the benevolence of the Children's Aid Society. It is in the father's words, subject only to a few editing changes to clarify grammar.

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I am writing to you because our family here in Brantford is fed up with the local SS group -- I mean the Children's Aid Society of Brantford. For 12 years off and on they have harassed us every time we tried to get our children the help recommended by schools. The CAS comes in and interferes with any progress we have worked on with the children. My wife Diane has done a tremendous job of getting the children the help they needed but the last two years have been the worst from the CAS.

In December 2003 my son attacked me and was trying to get something out of the silverware drawer. I stopped him but he punched me a couple of times before I could turn to him. I was arrested for assault that night and told I could not go home.

While I was living with my parents I took groceries paid the rent and utilities and helped my wife out as best as I could while being under a court order not to go home. Then my son took his rage out on our oldest daughter and severely injured her and threatened my wife Diane. Diane had several times gone to the Attorney General to get the charges dropped but they refused.

I found a new place to live with our daughters because there was not enough room at my parents'. My mother helped Nancy with her injuries and I had to go to court. My lawyer forced me to plead guilty for something I did not do and CAS put me on the registry for child assault.

Diane and I were left with no choice but to have our son Henry removed from the house because he was like a time bomb and we could not trust him any more for his actions. Diane and I had tried for years to get him help but we were interfered with by the CAS every time we made headway with him.

So now this new witch hunt. In January 2005 the CAS got involved with our oldest daughter Nancy. She was skipping school at BCI and my wife Diane found out about it half way though her school year. We grounded her for it and I went to work. Then Diane called me at work saying that Nancy had run away from home. Diane called the police. We did not know that when you call the police on a runaway the CAS is automatically involved. So when we got Nancy back home Mike Kasurak the CAS worker said that there were no safety issues at the home and he was going to close the case but told me that I should spend more time with the girls.

The following month Maria our youngest daughter did not return from school and Diane and I got worried that something had happened to her. I was just going up to the school when the phone rang and it was the CAS worker Mike Kasurak saying that he had Maria and he would be over with her in 15 minutes. An hour went by and Mike Kasurak finally showed up with 2 Brantford Police officers and said we did something bad to Maria. Diane and I had no idea what he was talking about and we were told we could not have our daughters returned home. Diane and I finally found out that I was accused of sexually touching our daughter Maria at Christmas time which I could not figure out because Maria is a little chatter box. If that happened she would have told someone in our family. Also, there were 17 witnesses that night.

Then Diane and I found out that during an interview with Mike Kasurak at BCI Nancy had her top unzipped by Mike Kasurak so he could see the tattoo on her breast. We told CAS but they ignored it.

So now to date our family is 20 thousand dollars in debt from this witch hunt and we still can not have Maria back from CAS. Diane and I have got Nancy cleaned up from the drug abuse and the hell she went through in foster care. They have taken Mike Kasurak off our case and put Danilla Turco in charge but the lies on court documents and the witch hunt continues.

So we are now searching for advice on how to go about dealing with the situation of having our daughter Maria returned to us. The reason we are stating that she should be returned to us is because the conclusion of the police investigation was that there was no evidence that there should be charges against Maria's father Mike Lund. My wife Diane Lund is saying that she has gone through enough and is tired of fighting CAS when there is no reason because of the result of the police investigation. As well l have dealt with a few scares of my wife having two nervous break downs and an attempt to commit suicide.

So I wish that someone could help our family before our family has a final separation and we no longer are together as a one unit family, as we should be and were before CAS came into our lives twelve years ago. Also unless we can get rid of them we will always worry about what else they may come up with to tear our family apart. Mike Lund, Diane Lund, Henry Lund, Nancy Lund, and Maria Lund.

Sincerely,

The Lund Family
Mike Lund

(address)
Brantford, Ontario
(postal code)
(519) (phone)
ditto@execulink.com

Addendum: September 22, 2005. This story was posted in response to a request from the author for assistance in publicizing his case. Children's Aid has made no objection to Dufferin VOCA, but they have threatened the author with prosecution. They did not object to being tagged as "the local SS group", only the disclosure of the names of the family. To keep this family out of trouble we have changed the family names to pseudonyms and removed the author's street address. You can send him mail at the email address shown. The name of the social worker is as in the original request. Though we will not post the family name and address publicly, you can get them privately from Dufferin VOCA at our email address on our home page.

Here is more news about how the Catholic Children's Aid Society of Toronto cares for its wards.

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Toronto Sun

September 16, 2005

'He always eats well'
Grandfather accused of starving boy to death portrayed Jeffrey as healthy to police, court hears

By SAM PAZZANO, COURTS BUREAU

Justice David Watt, left, presides in court yesterday as the accused Norman Kidman and Elva Bottineau watch Kidman's videotaped statement. (Pam Davies, Sun illustration)

Tiny Jeffrey Baldwin was locked up in his bedroom to prevent him from drinking toilet water in the middle of the night, court heard yesterday.

Jeffrey's grandfather Norman Kidman told detectives of the gruesome details of the 5-year-old boy's life in a videotaped statement that was played in court yesterday.

Kidman and his longtime common-law wife, Elva "Eve" Bottineau, are accused of starving Jeffrey to death, confining him in his urine-and-feces infested, frigid bedroom. Both 53-year-olds have pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder in Jeffrey's Nov. 30, 2002 death.

The Catholic Children's Aid Society awarded custody to the couple in 1998.

Kidman portrayed Jeffrey to police as a healthy, but "borderline retarded" boy who always had a good appetite.

But Kidman admitted to police he had "no idea" how much Jeffrey weighed.

"He always eats well. A very good eater. Jeffrey is, always was, always was a good eater," Kidman said in the interview with police.

Jeffrey weighed 21 pounds when he died, or as much as the average 10-month-old baby, and court has heard his appearance shocked everyone who saw the stunted boy at hospital.

NOT TOILET-TRAINED

Kidman said Jeffrey wasn't sent to school because he wasn't yet toilet-trained and wouldn't have been accepted. Jeffrey's room was stripped of all furnishings and toys because he would smear them with feces, Kidman said.

Kidman said he and his wife stopped Jeffrey from banging his head off the floor.

"Was he a normal size?" Det. David Simpkins asked in the interview.

"No, Jeffrey was small. He was always small. He was always tiny," Kidman said.

Evidence presented earlier in the trial showed that Jeffrey, as an infant, was in the 97th percentile for height, or extremely tall for his age.

Jeffrey was "fine" and healthy the last time Kidman saw him naked two or three weeks before his death, court heard in the interview.

Medical evidence presented earlier in the trial concluded Jeffrey would have appeared as gaunt and emaciated in the last few months of his life as he had at death.

MOM SHOOK BOY

Kidman said his daughter Yvonne lost custody of Jeffrey and his sister after a welfare office worker spotted the mom shaking one of the kids. Yvonne lost an earlier baby for leaving her in the house while she was fighting in the street, court heard.

Jeffrey was never physically abused, only "smacked" for misbehaving sometimes, Kidman told police.

Jeffrey had blunt force trauma injuries on his head, court has heard.

Source: website of the Toronto Sun

Holland is introducing a file to track every child. Fragmentary evidence suggests this may already be happening in Canada, but without any public announcement. Big sister is watching.

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Yahoo! News / The Associated Press

Dutch to Open Electronic Files on Children
Tue Sep 13, 6:36 PM ET

The Dutch government plans to open an electronic file on every child at birth as a tool to spot and protect the troubled kids of the future.

Beginning Jan. 1, 2007, all citizens will be tracked from cradle to grave in a single database — including health, education, family and police records — the health ministry said Tuesday.

As a privacy safeguard, no single person or agency will be able to access all contents of a file. But organizations can raise "red flags" in the dossier to caution other agencies about problems, ministry spokesman Jan Brouwer said.

The intention is to protect troubled children, Brouwer said. Until now, schools and police have been unable to communicate with each other about truancy records and criminality, which are often linked.

"Child protection services will say, 'Hey, there's a warning flag from the police. There's another one from school. There's another one from the doctor," Brouwer said. "Something must be going on and it's time to call the parents in for a meeting."

Every child will get a Citizens Service Number, making it easier to keep track of children with problems even when their families move, said Secretary of Health Clemence Ross.

"Safety, guidance, education and supervision are incredibly important for the development of children," Ross said.

All Dutch births are currently registered with local authorities.

Source: Yahoo news

We have an extensive comment on this story following its end. It comes from the website of the CBC, though because of a strike, maybe not from the normal CBC sources. The original is marked also "Canadian Press".

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'Caged' kids from Ohio home well-dressed, well-fed, well-behaved: neighbours

01:35 AM EDT Sep 14

WAKEMAN, Ohio (AP) - Eleven children removed from an Ohio house where authorities said some of them slept in homemade cages are polite, well-behaved, well-dressed and appear to have been well-fed, neighbours and authorities said Tuesday.

Their adoptive parents, Michael Gravelle, 56, and Sharen Gravelle, 57, denied in a custody hearing Monday they abused or neglected the children, aged one to 14, who have conditions that include autism and fetal alcohol syndrome.

No charges had been filed as of Tuesday afternoon and messages left with the couple's lawyer were not immediately returned.

The Gravelles said a psychiatrist recommended they make the children sleep in the cages, Huron County Prosecutor Russell Leffler told the Norwalk Reflector newspaper. The parents said the children, including some who had mental disorders, needed to be protected from each other, a search warrant on file at Norwalk Municipal Court stated.

Leffler refused comment Tuesday at his office.

Neighbours said they often saw or heard the children playing and the family yard was littered with toys - plastic cars, tricycles, slides and an overturned skateboard near a wooden ramp. Seven bicycles were piled in a storage shed.

"Those kids were dressed better than some of the kids who live in Cleveland," said Jim Power, who lives across the street.

"They behaved like any other kids when they were outside playing."

At night, authorities said, eight of the children were confined in one-metre-tall wooden cages stacked in bedrooms on the second floor. The cages were painted in bright, primary colours, with some rigged with alarms that would send a signal to the downstairs when a cage door was opened. One cage had a dresser in front of it, county sheriff's Lieut. Randy Sommers said Tuesday.

"The sheriff and I stood there for a few minutes and just kind of stared at what we were seeing," Sommers said.

"We were speechless."

No one answered the Gravelles' door Tuesday and the grey, four-bedroom house was dark. A pig, roosters and other animals shared the yard outside Wakeman, a community of about 1,000 people, 80 kilometres west of Cleveland.

The children have been placed with four foster families and were doing well, said Erich Dumbeck, director of the Huron County Department of Job and Family Services.

"We're still trying to figure out what happened in that home," Dumbeck said.

"We don't have any indication at this point that there was any abuse."

Sommers said a social worker investigating a complaint contacted authorities. Dumbeck would not discuss the complaint.

The search warrant said the cages had mats and the house smelled of urine. One boy said he slept in a cage for three years, Sommers said. A baby slept in a small bed and two girls used mattresses

Deputies said they were called to the home last year when a 12-year-old boy was upset and ran away for several hours. He was found not far away.

Although the family has lived in Huron County for 10 years, the children were adopted through other counties and states, Dumbeck said. He said his agency was trying to determine how the adoptions were completed.

"I don't believe there were any caseworkers checking in with this family," he said.

Reviews are ordered only when there is a complaint.

One of the children, a boy born with HIV, was adopted as an infant in 2001 through the Cuyahoga County Department of Children and Family Services, the agency's director Jim McCafferty said. The Gravelles received a subsidy of at least $500 a month to care for him.

The private agencies who reviewed the couple's home life before the adoption gave them "glowing reports," McCafferty said.

Leah Hunter, who lives two houses away, said she often saw the children walking down the road.

"They looked OK. They hardly ever wore shoes but I'm a country girl and for me that's normal," she said.

Source: website of CBC

This may simply be a case of bad adoptive parents. But based on past experience, it could be an indication of other problems far deeper in the social services system than foster parents.

On October 10, 2003 Bruce Jackson, 19-year-old adopted son of Raymond and Vanessa Jackson, was found foraging for food in a neighbor's trash near his home in Collingswood New Jersey. Once the matter came to the attention of police, the appalling facts of the case came to light. Bruce, age 19, looked to the police like a seven-year-old. He stood four feet tall and weighed 45 pounds. The family had seven children, three girls and four boys. One of the girls was a foster child about to be adopted, the others were all adopted. While the girls appeared normal the boys were all emaciated. They were:

The parents made the lame excuse that the boys suffered from eating disorders, though they had no explanation for why there was an epidemic in their family.

The police, the press, the local child protectors, the state prosecutor and the US Congress went to work on the case. The seven children were instantly removed from the Jackson home and placed in foster care. Newspaper stories appeared daily with shocking new revelations. Caseworkers had visited the home 38 times in two years without noticing the malnourishment. The family had kept the children in isolation by homeschooling. Bruce had bad teeth and remained hospitalized. Bruce, and possibly the other boys as well, had lost weight since his adoption in 1999. In foster care the children were fed properly and began to gain weight. The Jacksons had received a subsidy of $28,000 a year to care for the children.

But even at the outset, some things about the case did not add up. The initial reports described the family as homeschoolers, one of the bugaboos of the social services system. And there was the pastor, Harry Thomas. He had seen the family up close, and had only praise for the parental love given to the entire family. He stated his praise in the press, and in congressional hearings held shortly after the scandal broke.

The mystery unraveled a year later with the publication of an in-depth story by David France in New York Magazine. There is a rare eating disorder called rumination. Sufferers regurgitate their food and chew it again. Eating the same meal more than once is less nutritious than eating a new meal, leading to malnutrition. The regular presence of stomach acid in the mouth causes rotting of the teeth.

Remediating rumination requires expensive treatment. New Jersey DYFS decided not to provide the treatment, but to dump four of their cases on the Jacksons. The family was not sophisticated enough, or wealthy enough, to seek the required treatment, and the boys languished. When the scandal finally broke, the Jacksons became the scapegoats.

Now we have another case, this time in Ohio, of many adopted children all exposed to inexplicable abuse. This could be a case of genuine abuse in foster/adoptive homes. Depending on what numbers you look at, abuse in foster homes is three to ten times more prevalent than in natural families. But the neighbors say it was a happy family, and aside from cages, installed at the urging of a psychiatrist, everything seemed normal. The psychiatrist's advice makes some sense, because in foster care the main risk of child abuse is not foster parents, but other children.

So is this a malevolent family of child-abusers? Or a naïve family that follows doctor's orders uncritically? Or even a family being set up to take the blame for a scandal? We will be watching news reports for answers.

Every moral panic breeds its own brand of experts supporting its excesses. Here is another article on the work of Dr Charles Smith, who has found so many cases of child homicide that his opinion is now suspect.

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Group says murder convict is innocent, calls for release

Last Updated Tue, 13 Sep 2005 16:53:57 EDT CBC News

The Association in Defence of the Wrongly Convicted said Tuesday that Canada has another wrongful conviction case - a man was convicted of raping and killing a four year old Ontario girl in June 1993, but it now seems that the girl died of natural causes.

Lawyer James Lockyer in December 2004. (CP PHOTO/Aaron Harris)

The group wants Bill Mullins-Johnson to be let out of prison on bail while Ottawa decides how to deal with what they said is the latest name on a long list of miscarriages of justice.

James Lockyer, director of the association, said: "Once again we have a man who's spent a lot of time in jail -- 12 and-a-half years in his case -- not just for a crime he didn't commit, but for a crime that never happened."

Mullins-Johnson of Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., was convicted of first-degree murder in 1994 for sodomizing and strangling his four-year-old niece Valin Johnson in June 1993.

The conviction was based on what his backers call a "rush to judgment" by pathologists, who testified Valin had been chronically sexually abused and strangled or smothered. Their findings were backed up by Dr. Charles Smith, a Toronto pathologist whose conclusions in dozens of child deaths are currently under review.

Smith -- who until recently was with Toronto Sick Kids hospital -- told Mullins-Johnson's 1994 trial there was clear evidence Valin was killed while being anally raped, something no one who did the actual autopsy had detected. There was no semen or other DNA evidence to support that finding.

Now, Dr. Michael Pollanen, a top pathologist with Ontario's coroner's office, and a British expert, have both concluded Valin was not abused, sodomized nor strangled, they believe she died of natural causes.

Lockyer wants federal Justice Minister Irwin Cotler to quash the conviction and order a new trial or, at the very least, refer it back to the Ontario Court of Appeal.

On Tuesday in Toronto, Lockyer said Canada needs an independent tribunal to review claims of wrongful convictions such as one set up in the U.K. eight years ago. It has already found more than 50 murder convictions were unjustified.

Lockyer said: "All we have now is a sort of a piecemeal examination of a case here and case there primarily brought forward by our organization. It's just not good enough."

Source: website of CBC

In June we reported on the case of pathologist Dr Charles Smith who seemed to treat every death of a child as a homicide. He left his position at the Hospital for Sick Children in July, but the resignation was undisclosed until now.

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The Globe and Mail

Embattled pathologist no longer at Sick Kids

By JOE FRIESEN

Monday, September 12, 2005 Page A10

Dr. Charles Smith, a pediatric forensic pathologist whose work is being reviewed by the coroner's office, has resigned from his post at the Hospital for Sick Children.

Once considered Ontario's leading expert on pediatric forensics, Dr. Smith has been surrounded by controversy in recent years.

In 2003, he was removed from the five-person team that conducts autopsies for the coroner's office after judges and medical authorities criticized his methods and conclusions. He continued to work as a pathologist at the hospital, earning a salary of $290,000 last year. But earlier this year officials discovered that evidence crucial to criminal cases had gone missing in his office.

A hospital spokeswoman gave no reason for his departure, but said he resigned in July. No announcement was made.

In June, Chief Coroner Barry McLellan launched a review into 40 homicide and suspicious-death cases handled by Dr. Smith since 1991. It was to be conducted by a panel of independent experts and was expected to examine whether Dr. Smith's autopsies and consultation reports in a number of sensitive cases were reliable. At the time, Dr. McLellan said the review was necessary to maintain public confidence in the coroner's office.

The review was sparked by an internal audit into the keeping of evidence and tissue slides in the specialized forensic pathology unit at the Hospital for Sick Children. That audit of the 70 cases handled by the unit since it opened in 1991 uncovered a few instances in which microscope slides and tissue samples had been misplaced.

In 2002, a senior Crown official asked Ontario prosecutors to look at their files to find cases where the credibility or reliability of Dr. Smith was called into question. They identified 25 such cases.

Lawyers from the Association in Defence of the Wrongly Convicted have been calling for a public inquiry into Dr. Smith's work. In June, Cindy Wasser of AIDWYC said, "He's not just any doctor. He's a forensic pathologist who gives evidence in homicides, the most serious offence in the Criminal Code. People's lives were involved, not to mention the grief of losing a baby, a child, an infant . . . none of those people have closure."

In 1998, three-year-old Tyrell Salmon died in Toronto. As a result of Dr. Smith's conclusions, Maureen Laidley, the girlfriend of Tyrell's father, was charged with murder. The charge was later withdrawn after three other pathologists said the bump on the child's head was caused by a fall against a coffee table.

In the case of Amber S., a local coroner concluded that the 16-month-old girl died from a fall. Dr. Smith ordered that her body be exhumed and came to the conclusion that her 12-year-old babysitter had killed the girl by shaking. She was charged with the crime. But when it went to trial, 18 other pathologists questioned Dr. Smith's methods. The babysitter was acquitted and the judge suggested that Dr. Smith had tunnel vision.

Source: website of the Globe and Mail

The Ontario adoption disclosure law, bill 183, abandoned by the government in the spring, is back under consideration. The disclosure veto for birth parents is gone. The following article gives the legislative facts, along with a case in which adoption disclosure could have been helpful in restoring a family sooner.

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The Globe and Mail

Adoption changes would open door to the past
But unwanted revelations could destroy lives, say privacy advocates

Monday, September 12, 2005

Michelle Edmunds was 1½years old when she was taken from her home in Toronto and placed in foster care. But she never stopped thinking about her mother -- what she was like, the colour of her eyes, and why she had given her baby up for adoption. They finally reunited when Ms. Edmunds was 34.

Ms. Edmunds, now 42, said the happiest day of her life was when she received family photographs in the mail from her mother in 1996. Her younger brother, John James, had the same red hair and freckles and looked like her twin. The photo of her grandmother as a young woman bore an uncanny resemblance to Ms. Edmunds -- they had the same eyes and mouth.

"I could actually look at those pictures and see myself," she said.

The photos helped Ms. Edmunds fill in some of the missing pieces about her past. She began searching for her birth mother in 1975. But she does not understand why it took 21 years before she had enough information to track down her mother, who had moved to Edmonton. She also met four of her brothers and sisters and is still searching for her father.

"It's my identity. How could anybody have the right to withhold that from me? "

Ms. Edmunds decided to share her story with The Globe and Mail after the proposal of legislation in Ontario that would lift the veil of secrecy on adoption records. Hearings resume Wednesday.

Ms. Edmunds, who is single and works as a counsellor helping immigrants find jobs, is on one side of a battle, sparked by the government's efforts to bring greater openness to a process that has long been confidential.

On the other side are privacy advocates who say the government has gone too far by proposing to retroactively expose the identities of birth parents who expected decisions they made to remain private.

Ontario Privacy Commissioner Ann Cavoukian is leading the campaign defending the rights the birth mothers who now fear exposure because they have never told even their families about having a child they gave up for adoption.

"I feel like I have no other choice," Ms. Cavoukian said. "I feel that it's my job, because there's no one else to express this view."

Under the current law, in place since 1927, adoption records are sealed. The only way for birth parents and adopted children to reunite is for both to register with the government to have identifying details revealed. Even then, a match can take as long as three years.

The proposed legislation, known as Bill 183, would allow individuals at age 18 access to their birth records, which contain their original name and information about their birth mother. Parents would have access to birth records and adoption orders once the child turns 19.

Ms. Cavoukian is urging the government to amend the bill to give birth parents and adoptees who want their identities protected an automatic disclosure veto for adoptions that occurred before the proposed rules take effect.

She's received hundreds of letters, many from elderly birth mothers who fear revelations about their past would destroy their families.

"I made the hardest decision of my life 20 years ago alone with no family knowledge of my pregnancy or adoption," says one letter. "These proposed changes could completely upset my life as it stands today."

Ms. Cavoukian said the goal of greater openness of adoption records can be achieved without trampling on the rights of these individuals and potentially destroying their lives. She has the support of every one of Canada's federal and provincial privacy commissioners and the provincial Progressive Conservatives.

Tory MPP Norm Sterling called on the government last week to withdraw Bill 183 and draft a new piece of legislation to improve access to adoption records without revoking the privacy rights of birth mothers and adoptees.

Sandra Pupatello, Minister of Community and Social Services, said there would be little point in changing the legislation if it is not retroactive. The government has amended the bill to allow adopted persons who had been victims of abuse by their birth parents to maintain their privacy and to allow others who want privacy to appear before a tribunal where they would argue that disclosure would cause significant harm.

Ms. Edmunds said her thirst for information never went away. "It wasn't a choice. It was a physical need, a craving."

At 10, she was adopted into the family that included three older children, where she had been in foster care since the age of 2. But that did not end her craving for information about her birth mother.

"Telling an adopted child that you love them does not override that physical need to know your roots," she said. "What adopted kids want to hear is who they look like, what's your mother's name, when's her birthday."

She remembers going through the telephone directory when she was 10, looking for a listing for her mother. She didn't find it.

When she was 13, her adopted family took her to the Children's Aid Society in Toronto, and asked them to give her some information about her background.

She got a document titled Non-identifying information on child prior to adoption. It had basic information about her background: she was born in Chicago on Sept. 28, 1962, began walking at nine months and had her tonsils removed at 3. It also noted a doctor observed in 1964 that she never smiled.

She spent the next 20 years feeling confused and thinking she could be related to everybody. On one occasion, she approached a haggard-looking woman in a bar -- she knew her birth mother was an alcoholic -- and asked if she had a daughter named Michelle.

In 1995, Ms. Edmunds returned to the Children's Aid Society and found out more about her family. Her mother was raised in an orphanage in Nova Scotia and she had eight brothers and sisters. One brother died in infancy and five other siblings were adopted or became wards of the Crown.

She also found out that one of her older sisters, Colette, had been searching for her for 17 years. She met her and another sister, Mimi -- in New York where they live -- and the three have become close. "We became the sisters we should have been all along," Ms. Edmunds said.

The following year, Ms. Edmunds tracked down her mother at an address in Edmonton with the help of a friend who overheard her phoning across the country. She spoke to her mom for the first time on the telephone on Mother's Day in 1996 and went to visit in September.

She said her mom was only 62 at the time, but looked like 92. Her mother told her she had tried to find her many times but that no one would give her any information.

Ms. Edmunds was struck by one overwhelming emotion. "l lost her for 34 years and then had her for eight months. I never really cried because I didn't know her well enough."

The reunion was bittersweet. Her mother died two months later of pneumonia.

Source: website of the Globe and Mail

We have posted a section of the manual for foster parents titled The Child in the Foster Home. The dull prose provides authority for some our statements about Children's Aid.

We have previously suggested that when a child such as Jeffrey Baldwin is harmed in foster care, the social worker is the one primarily responsible, not the foster parent. The manual strongly supports this conclusion. In 31 items, all but seven require the foster parent to defer to the social worker, the agency (Children's Aid) or the child's doctor. The foster parent has discretion only over food, clothing and transportation.

The manual forbids nursery school for foster children except in special cases, though CAS compels natural parents to send their children there.

An article in the Western Standard, Dads on the Run shows the ultimate result of destruction of family life by the courts. It is not a better life for children. Though the article does not mention it, the real reason for the recent campaign against "identity theft" may not be to guard against credit card fraud, but to track down people who have started life under a new identity.

Jeffrey Baldwin was a ward of the Catholic Children's Aid Society of Toronto. He died by starvation at the hands of his foster parents.

The prosecutor alleges that the foster parents abused the child to keep their foster payments, a habit they share with Children's Aid societies. As is customary in these cases, the contractors are on trial, the agency responsible for the child is not. The following report is from the National Post.

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Boy, 5, was starved to death
Weighed 22 pounds: Grandparents accused of treating him 'like a dog'

Shannon Kari
CanWest News Service

September 9, 2005

CREDIT: National Post, Robert Sprull

The murder trial of two grandparents charged in the starvation death of their five-year-old grandchild Jeffrey Baldwin began Thursday.

Five-year-old Jeffrey Baldwin was locked in his room, treated like a "dog" and kept alive for the foster-care money he generated, the Crown alleged yesterday at the murder trial of the dead boy's grandparents.

Norman Kidman and Elva Bottineau, both 53, are charged with first-degree murder in the November, 2002, death of their grandchild, who weighed less than 10 kilograms (22 pounds) when he died. The couple are also charged with the unlawful confinement of Jeffrey and his then-six-year-old sister.

The Catholic Children's Aid Society of Toronto placed Jeffrey in the care of his grandparents in 1998 because of allegations of abuse. The children's aid organization did not check its own files at that time, and was unaware Mr. Kidman and Ms. Bottineau had prior convictions for assaulting children.

Crown attorney Bev Richards outlined a series of horrific details about Jeffrey's physical condition as she began the prosecution's case before Judge David Watt. The Superior Court judge previously ruled in favour of a defence request and is presiding over the case without a jury.

Emergency personnel who responded to a 911 call placed by Ms. Bottineau on Nov. 30, 2002, found Jeffrey's lifeless body on a kitchen counter, wrapped in a towel, in the east-end home.

An autopsy determined the young boy was 93 centimetres tall and weighed 9.68 kilograms when he died, just six weeks before his sixth birthday. Prior medical records indicated he weighed slightly more than that when he was just a year old.

The cause of death was found to be "chronic, severe malnutrition," Ms. Richards said. The boy had "acute bacterial bronchial pneumonia," and probably went into septic shock in the hours before his death. Jeffrey had abrasions on his body and "caked-on" collections of bacteria on his skin that were estimated to be one millimetre thick, she said.

Six adults and six children lived in the Woodfield Road home owned by Mr. Kidman and Ms. Bottineau. Jeffrey and one of his sisters lived in a bedroom with a "hook lock" on the exterior door frame. The bedroom reeked of urine and feces to the point the "smell was right in your clothing," even after someone left the room, Ms. Richards said.

A 24-year-old daughter of the couple (not Jeffrey's mother) lived in the home with her boyfriend, James Mills. The prosecution said yesterday Mr. Mills will testify that Jeffrey was singled out, and he looked like "skin and bones" and was "treated like a dog." The boy was so thirsty he would sometimes lick water out of the toilet, Mr. Mills told police.

Mr. Mills has also claimed Ms. Bottineau explained that if she sought help for Jeffrey and his sister it would "ruin" her foster-care cheque. "Those two kids are $600 to me a month," Mr. Mills said he was told. He reportedly did not go to the authorities because he was afraid of being ordered to move out.

Mr. Kidman and Ms. Bottineau, who have been in custody since March, 2003, both pleaded not guilty yesterday.

Ms. Bottineau was previously convicted in 1970 of assault causing bodily harm in the death of her five-month-old daughter, and was sentenced to a year's probation. Mr. Kidman was convicted of assaulting two of Ms. Bottineau's children in 1978, and received two years' probation.

This information was contained in the files of the Catholic Children's Aid Society when the couple won custody of Jeffrey. A senior official in the organization told the National Post in 2003 that it was "astonished" at the failure to check its records, and it would correct a "significant flaw" in its policies.

The trial continues today with testimony from a senior pediatric specialist at the Hospital for Sick Children.

Aneurin Ellis has filed an affidavit in the court case in which CAS wants to have him jailed.

In August we reported that CAS denied membership to an applicant. We now have the reasons from the Children's Aid Society of Waterloo Region, denying membership to Patricia Ellis. They are: her husband Aneurin Ellis is of bad character owing to his legal wrangles with Children's Aid and his attempts to alert the public to CAS policies, and consequently they deem it unlikely that Patricia will support the goals of the society.

Commentary:

Do you think taxpayers unhappy with policies should have a voice in how their taxes are spent? Children's Aid doesn't.

The Children's Aid Society of Waterloo Region has denied membership to a mother on grounds that her husband is not of good character, and his views are not in accord with the goals of the society. This policy, necessary for private advocacy groups to avoid diluting their membership, now applies to spending of public funds as well.

The Children's Aid Society of Waterloo Region, spends $38 million per year of tax money. The members elect the directors, who in turn hire the management, which makes the operational decisions and policies. The membership policies deny critics a voice in spending.

CAS pretends to be a private charity, but that pretense is a sham. Charitable contributions are only $210 per year.

Addendum: On September 7 the court hearing resulted in a finding of contempt. As nearly as we can decode the judge's handwriting, the outcome is:

Sept 7/05

Mr Ellis is found in contempt. Order to go (illegible) he is to send a written unambiguous + unreserved retraction + apology to Mssrs Chalk, Ringrose + Boles by sending them the correspondence at their workplace + to notify the Children's Aid + Waterloo Regional Police Services within 15 days

Failure to do will result in a jail term of 30 days. (illegible sentence). Costs fixed at 3000.00 + GST.

/signed/ FEDAK, J.

In two legal actions, the Children's Aid Society has gouged ten thousand dollars out of this family. The result can only make conditions worse for the children they purport to protect.

According to Fathers-4-Justice, Batman and Robin scaled a crane this morning in Vancouver British Columbia.

Batman

Addendum: The climbers were Batman (Robert Robinson) and Robin (Chris Coderre). The event planned for 24 hours ended in ten hours because of high winds. The next day The Incredible Hulk (Kevin Christiaens) climbed to the top of the New Westminster Supreme Court. The police seem to have had a tip-off, and detained standbys Batman and Robin. The event ended in three hours with the descent of the Hulk, and all were free to go.

Here is TV coverage of the event (wmv format).

In a published decision, judge John I Laskin of the Court of Appeal for Ontario describes the maltreatment of four Children's Aid Society wards by foster parent Richard Burke. Section B contains the narrative of the abuse.

Here is a local copy (pdf).

Today Dufferin VOCA posts a news article by Arizona state representative Laura Knaperek in the Arizona Republic. Following the article is some research and analysis showing that most foster care deaths are concealed from the press in both Arizona and Ontario.

The article Inside Incarnation gives more on the New York foster children used for drug experiments. Children who refused to take the pills were given sugical implants to make drugging easier. Justifiable for life-saving medicines, but dubious to get experimental data.

Addendum: Commentary by oncologist Dr Dolores A Sicheri:

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I sat for 5 years on a University Ethics Committee. Children are a "protected group." Ethics committees frown on clinical research in "protected groups." There has to be good reasons and possible benefits. There has to be a responsible person weighing benefits vs. risks and giving informed consent. This person also has the responsibility to withdraw consent if the study drug proves too onerous or too toxic for the child. The service providers in this particular case failed to fulfil this obligation. This is the reason for the media uproar. Putting feeding tubes into these children to administer the drugs is simply outrageous.

This case will go on to become part of the NCI's repertoire of things not to do. All medical professionals doing research are obligated to take a course in medical ethics.

This case is analogous to the Meadowbrook Long Island case of the 1970's. There parents were coerced into enrolling their disabled children into a study of the natural history of hepatitis B in an institution. The only access into residential services for these parents was to allow their child to be given the live hepatitis B virus. They were allowed to bypass the wait list for their consent.

Following is a press release in which a company endeavors to create corporate goodwill by donating to the Children's Aid Foundation. Some more feedback such as that below might convince them to use some other charity for that purpose.

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August 27, 2005

Stephanie Diodati
Communications Manager
Transamerica Life Canada
(416) 883-5418
stephanie.diodati@aegoncanada.ca

Subject: Drive For Life Golf Tournament

Madam:

This letter is in response to your press release copied below. It contains the paragraph:

Transamerica will host 136 invited guests as they tee off at 10am in an effort to raise an additional $300,000 for the Children's Aid Foundation and The Jean Tweed Centre. The funds will go towards a Post-Secondary Education Endowment Fund, a new play area, and other programs to help children and at-risk mothers create a brighter future together.

Perhaps you are fooling us, but more likely the Children's Aid Foundation is fooling you. The Children's Aid Societies, supported by the Children's Aid Foundation, do not allow children and mothers to have any kind of a future together. They are in the business of separating children from their mothers, and permanently whenever practical. In the course of organizing opposition, I have accumulated the names of hundreds of mothers (and fathers) adversely affected with the actions of the Children's Aid Society because they have either lost their children, or been threatened with the loss of their children. There are also many foster care graduates, among whom none are pleased with the "care" they received while under-age. If you look into the matter, you will find it difficult or impossible to find a single parent or child happy with the "services" received from Children's Aid. You can read almost daily news of the atrocious conduct of this agency on my website listed below, or dozens of other websites created by victims of Children's Aid.

I suggest that your company can enhance its reputation by redirecting its charitable donations elsewhere.

Robert T McQuaid
RR 5
Orangeville Ontario L9W 2Z2

email: rtmq@stn.net
web: www.fixcas.com
news: http://fixcas.com/news/news.htm

---

Press release copied from the web at:

www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/
August2005/26/c3541.html

Attention News/Assignment/Photo Editors:
Transamerica Life Canada's Drive For Life Golf Tournament Tees Off August 30th

Tragically Hip founder Gord Downie to give live solo performance at Eagle's Nest

TORONTO, Aug. 26 /CNW/ - A major charitable commitment is driving Transamerica Life Canada's annual Drive For Life Golf Tournament. The tournament, which will feature an intimate live performance by Juno award-winning singer Gord Downie, will be held Tuesday, August 30th at the Eagle's Nest Golf Club in Maple, Ontario. Now in its ninth year, the event has already raised over $2 million for Canadian charitable organizations.

Transamerica will host 136 invited guests as they tee off at 10am in an effort to raise an additional $300,000 for the Children's Aid Foundation and The Jean Tweed Centre. The funds will go towards a Post-Secondary Education Endowment Fund, a new play area, and other programs to help children and at-risk mothers create a brighter future together.

"Children who suffer abuse and neglect, and women who struggle with addiction and substance abuse are among the most vulnerable members of society. We're delighted that every dollar raised through Drive For Life will go directly towards helping make a positive difference in their lives," said David Boone, Vice President of Marketing and Corporate Services at Transamerica Life Canada.

"Transamerica is proud to be designated an Imagine Caring Company because of our long-term commitment to donating one per cent of annual pre-tax profits through our charitable giving program, in the spirit of hope," he added.

Previous Drive For Life tournaments have featured such prominent personalities as comedian Leslie Neilson, and Olympic speed-skating gold medalist Catriona LeMay Doan. "This year, we're honoured to have one of Canada's top musical talents lending support to our event," said Boone. "Mr. Downie will help us show others that it's possible to have a lot of fun, while also doing something valuable for the people of our community."

Photo opportunity:

Photographers and media representatives are invited to Eagle's Nest Golf Club on August 30, 2005. The event begins at 10am and Gord Downie is scheduled to perform at 7:30pm, following dinner.

About Transamerica Life Canada

Transamerica Life Canada is a member of the AEGON Group, one of the world's largest insurers. AEGON N.V. and Transamerica Life Canada have consistently received strong financial ratings from Standard & Poor's and A.M. Best Company. In 2004, Transamerica Life Canada had more than $600 million in gross life insurance premium and recorded almost $9 billion in total assets under management.

As an Imagine Caring Company, Transamerica Life Canada donates one per cent of annual pre-tax profits to in the spirit of hope, our charitable giving program, which in the last seven years raised more than $5.6 million for worthy charities in the communities in which we do business.

About The Children's Aid Foundation

The Children's Aid Foundation, a national organization, is committed to improving the lives of abused and neglected children through Education, Enrichment and Prevention.

About The Jean Tweed Centre

The Jean Tweed Centre is a caring and innovative centre that addresses the treatment needs of women with substance use and gambling concerns and their families. Providing specialized services to more than 1500 women, The Jean Tweed Centre is the largest such centre in Ontario.

For further information: Stephanie Diodati, Communications Manager, Transamerica Life Canada, (416) 883-5418, stephanie.diodati@aegoncanada.ca

Addendum: Here is another letter on the same topic dated August 28, 2005:

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Hello Stephanie Diodati,

My name is John Dunn. I am a former Crown Ward who lived in foster care for sixteen years. During that time, I was moved through thirteen placements and suffered abuse in a couple of the homes, not to mention the psycological trauma of moving so much, being uprooted from several schools and friends my whole life, simply because of the way the child welfare system is structured.

I created a thirteen minute documentary of my life in foster care which takes you on a virtual subway ride through the foster homes I lived in, as a way to open the eyes of the public as to how many foster children end up living as a result of the secrecy and "confidentiality" offered them by the child welfare system, which in effect, keeps us hidden from the public, and from any attempts to truly advocate for us.

I know there are good cases that come from CAS's work, I can not deny it, but there are literally thousands of children who suffer in foster care from emotional, physical and sexual abuse, all hidden from the scrutiny of the public eye.

Please, if you wish to help children and their families, consider helping them before CAS becomes involved in their lives... most of your donation will end up paying for legal fees of a Society attempting to terminate access to children in care by their natural mothers, fathers, brothers and sisters...

Please listen to my story which aired across Canada on CBC by clicking the link below:

http://web.ncf.ca/fe281/radio.html

Thank you

John Dunn
The Foster Care Council of Canada
http://web.ncf.ca/fe281/

Ontario Advisory Committee on Child and Youth Services
http://oaccys.proboards34.com/index.cgi

Earlier we reported on the use of the Dead Baby Scam in Canada. Here is a report from the BBC of the same racket in the Ukraine. In Canada, no one offers a mother €3000 for a baby. They simply sieze the baby without compensation, and say it is in the best interest of the child.

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Last Updated: Friday, 26 August 2005, 21:44 GMT 22:44 UK

Ukraine baby theft claims probed

The mothers of the babies were said to be all in excellent health

Harrowing reports of babies stolen at birth and human organ removal in an Ukrainian city are to be investigated by a top European political body.

The Council of Europe's Parliamentary Assembly is sending a rapporteur to Kharkiv as Ukraine's prosecutors delve into the cases of three mothers.

"People are afraid to even give birth now," Kharkiv campaigner Tatyana Zakharova told the BBC News website.

The main hospital under scrutiny has dismissed accusations against it.

Ruth-Gaby Vermot-Mangold, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (Pace) rapporteur, is to visit Maternity Hospital No 6 after her arrival on Monday and will meet local parents, Ms Zakharova and Ukrainian officials.

Her trip will also take her to the capital, Kiev, amid reports that babies may have been snatched at birth in other Ukrainian cities.

The alleged baby thefts go back to the autumn of 2002 but the case achieved wider publicity last year after MPs from across Europe tabled a motion at the Pace, which brings together 46 countries.

Underlining real concern over baby-trafficking from Eastern Europe, they pointed to newspaper adverts in Moldova encouraging single mothers there to sell a child for 3,000 euros.

Communal grave

"There has been no concrete follow-up in these three [Kharkiv] cases," Agnes Nollinger, who is accompanying Ms Vermot-Mangold, told the BBC News website on Friday.

Prosecutors are still investigating the three cases, nearly three years after Svetlana Puzikova arrived in labour at the maternity hospital in the early hours of a November morning.

She was in her 40th week and her family were waiting to visit the new mother and child later in the day.

Only the midwife and one other woman who was not introduced to her were at hand for the birth, Tatyana Zakharova of the National Ukrainian Federation of Multiple-child Families (NUFMF) told the BBC.

The last she saw of her baby was it being passed to the stranger. After that, 20 kilos lighter after her delivery, she and her family were told it had died at birth.

According to the NUFMF, doctors' records indicated the birth of a healthy child was to be expected.

No birth or death certificates were issued as an "abortion" had occurred, and the family was told that the remains of Svetlana's baby had been consigned to a communal grave with 27 other foetuses as "bio waste".

When the family demanded an inquest, this grave was reopened the following year in the thaw of the harsh Ukrainian winter.

Inside, the NUFMF reports, were 30 sets of remains, not 28, and Svetlana's baby could not be identified among them.

First-time mums

In late December 2002, Lena Zakharova (no relation to Tatyana) should have given birth to her first baby at Maternity Hospital No 6. It, too, was declared dead.

A third mother, Tatyana Dormidontova, gave birth at a maternity ward of another Kharkiv hospital in her 32nd week of pregnancy in July 2001.

Her baby was declared dead but the body was reportedly that of a much bigger baby. The mother herself died soon after birth.

All three women, according to Tatyana Zakharova, were first-time mums and each was in excellent health.

This factor leads her to suspect the babies may have been stolen for illegal adoption or, even worse, for the use of their organs.

There are reports that the babies' parents - or in Dormidontova's case the grandparents - were asked to sign blank pieces of paper. In their confused and fraught state they did not refuse.

The remains in the grave had allegedly had their organs and brains removed.

"They were like gutted rabbits," Tatyana Zakharova told the BBC.

Larissa Nazarenko, head of Maternity Hospital No 6, was quoted as saying by the Associated Press news agency that "not a single fact" had been proven.

The Council of Europe team will be in Ukraine until Thursday to compile a report that will then be handed to the Parliamentary Assembly.

Source: website of BBC

This Reuters press release is too sick for comment.

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LOS ANGELES, Aug 22 (Reuters) - Providence Service Corp. (PRSC.O: Quote, Profile, Research), which provides social services under government contract, on Monday said it has acquired for $8.4 million foster care service providers Maple Star Nevada and Maple Services LLC.

The deal gives Providence inroads into two new states, Colorado and Oregon, and broadens existing business in Nevada into foster care services, the company said.

Maple Star Nevada provides therapeutic foster care services in several Nevada locations and for-profit Maple Services LLC provides management services to Oregon and Colorado not-for-profit providers of foster care services.

The acquisition is effective Aug. 1.

Providence said the deal is expected to add about $5.5 million to its annual revenue and raised its 2005 revenue outlook to $137 million from $135 million.

The acquisition is also expected raise earnings by about 2 cents per share in 2006, but, because of debt service costs, it is not expected to affect projected 2005 earnings per share of 99 cents, the company said.

Source: Reuters website

We noted that in May Fathers for Justice (F4J) had conducted too many stunts to count. Since then there has been almost nothing, but not for lack of effort.

Conducting coordinated events across Canada requires communication, and all communication with homes of F4J leaders is now intercepted by the police. Police have already disrupted a planned F4J demonstration.

John Dunn made a request to the Ontario government for information collected during the review of the CFSA. The principal part of his request was:

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As a result of the Ministry of Children and Youth Services' (the ministry) mandatory five year review of the Child and Family Services Act, the Minister, Dr. Marie Bountrogianni created a report titled "Report on the 2005 review of the Child and Family Services Act" which was published in March of 2005. This report stated that over 90 submissions were made to the ministry with recommendations regarding the Child and Family Services Act (CFSA) and related matters.

I would like to request a single copy of each of the 90 submissions the Minister referred to in her report ...

Here is the reply from the ministry:

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Ministry of Community	Ministère des Services
and Social Services	sociaux et communautaires
Ministry of Children	Ministère des Services
and Youth Services	à l'enfance et à la jeunesse

 

Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Unit
Communications and Marketing Branch
6th Floor, Hepburn Block
80 Grosvenor Street
Toronto, Ontario M7A 1E6
Telephone: (416) 327-4545
Fax: (416) 326-2567

August 16, 2005

Mr. John Dunn
Foster Care Council of Canada
503-1218 Meadowlands Drive East
Ottawa ON K2E 6K1

Re: Request Number CYS2005/0036

Dear Mr. Dunn,

I am writing to you about your access request made under the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act. Your request was received on June 24, 2005. In your request you are interested in receiving copies of the submissions received from the ministry pertaining to the review of the Child and Family Services Act.

As you will know from the report itself, which is available on the ministry's website, 72 responses came from individuals and 24 submissions were from advocacy groups, professional organizations and service provider associations.

Access is denied to the records received from individuals under s.21(2)(f) as the personal information is highly sensitive. The definitions section of FIPPA, says that personal information includes "correspondence sent to an institution by the individual that is implicitly or explicitly of a private or confidential nature, and replies to that correspondence that would reveal the contents of the original correspondence".

The information provided by the individuals is considered to be highly sensitive and the individuals included:

• parents who had experience with children's aid societies and with adoption
• individuals who had been or are currently in the care of a children's aid society
• individuals who have been adopted
• mothers who have relinquished children for adoption
• grandparents caring for their grandchildren
• lawyers who have represented parents and/or children
• people affected by adoption
• people affected by domestic violence

I am pleased to provide you with the attached list of associations, including: addresses, telephone numbers, fax numbers and e-mail addresses. The submissions have not been provided, because the area responsible for them recently moved and is still in the process of establishing their new offices. The responsible area will continue to search for the submissions.

In the meantime, you may wish to contact the organizations directly to receive a copy of their submissions.

You may request that this decision be reviewed by the Information and Privacy Commissioner. The Commissioner can be reached at:

Information and Privacy Commissioner/Ontario
Suite 1400, 2 Bloor Street East
Toronto ON M4W 1A8
(416) 326-3333

If you decide to appeal a decision to the Information and Privacy Commissioner, please provide the Commissioner's office with:

1. The request number assigned to the request
2. A copy of this decision letter, and
3. A copy of the original request you sent to this institution

Appeals to the Commissioner must also be accompanied by the appropriate fee. Fees vary according to the nature of the request being appealed. If the person appealing has made a request for access to a general record under subsection 24(1) FIPPA, the fee is $25.00.

You have 30 days from the receipt of this letter to request a review from the Commissioner.

If you have any questions, you can contact me at the telephone number on the first page of this letter. Please use the Request Number assigned to your request in any further correspondence

Sincerely,

/signed/

Mary Lou Daniels
Manager

Enclosure

The letter was followed by a table giving the name of each organization and full contact information. Only the names are reproduced here.

• Ontario Association of Social Workers
• Ontario Association of Residences Treating Youth
• Family Services of Halliburton County
• Second Chance for Kids
• Children and Youth Advisory Committee; Family & Children's Services Niagara
• Adoption Council of Ontario
• Advisory Committee for Child and Youth Services
• Ontario Association of Interval and Transition Houses
• Metropolitan Action Committee on Violence Against Women and Children
• Ontario Association of Children's Aid Societies
• Adoption Support Kinship
• Office of the Child and Family Services Advocacy
• LoveCry, The Street Kids Organisation
• Foster Parents Society of Ontario
• Ontario Federation of Teaching Parents
• Citizens Commission on Human Rights
• Probation Officers Association of Ontario
• Legal Aid Ontario

It is difficult to believe, as the ministry claims, that letters sent for the purpose of correcting legislation are of a private or confidential nature. Last year, we posted three of the submissions to the ministry, none of them mentioning the name of a single CAS client. Is the ministry using this as an excuse for concealing letters with information about atrocities committed in the name of child protection?

And here is what John Dunn reported August 22:

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Well folks, something interesting has turned up. I made a FIPPA request last month which turned out pretty good and is in the works.

Then I did some other inquiries by phone as to how I would learn from the Ministry how a CAS's Policy and Procedure Manual is approved by a Ministry.

I found out that a CAS submits their policy and procedure manual to the Ministry for approval. (probably the local Regional Office for each CAS) I then phoned, just to get an answer (helps me brain storm as I obtain more and more information from each call) and asked how I would obtain a copy of the most recently approved Ottawa CAS policy and procedures manual from the Ministry using a FIPPA request and who I would talk to regarding this book.

Well, here we go... talk about Government double talk and a feeble attempt to make the request seem complicated enough to make a person want to give up.

I got a call from

Bilinsky, Irene
Phone: 613-788-2392
Fax: 613-787-5283
E-Mail: irene.bilinsky@css.gov.on.ca
Address:
Irene Bilinsky
Program Supervisor - COMMUNITY SERVICES 1
7th Flr
10 Rideau St
Ottawa, ON K1N 9J1

today and she seemed to have been told to shut my request down fast.

She said that she was told that I should have included it in my previous FIPPA request and that because I did not, I would not be able to obtain it.

After talking as if she knew nothing of my request other than what "someone" told her... which she claims was that she was only told to tell me that I had to put what I asked for in the previous FIPPA request and that I could not get it because I did not.

CAS is moving this Wednesday to jail Aneurin Ellis for publicly criticizing Children's Aid. We have posted some of the court documents in the case.

In the summer of 2002 Aneurin and Patricia Ellis had a fight in which she made accusations against her husband to the police. By the time he went to the police, she had recanted the allegations, but the police charged him anyway. The charges were withdrawn months later but CAS intervened while the matter was pending, and has been in the family for three years. During that time CAS got a default order to take the kids after the family told them they had to go to Aneurin's dying mother, the children have been taken away twice, and CAS coached their then four-year-old daughter to say on video tape that dad held his hand in her vagina (She could not pronounce vagina correctly in the early part of the tape). The family can no longer afford a lawyer, and Mr Ellis handles the court matters by himself. He has distributed letters opposing CAS before, and Peter Ringrose, Executive Director of CAS, has sued him in a civil action, also getting a judgment by default.

Addendum: In court on August 24, the case was postponed for two weeks to September 7, 2005 to allow Mr Ellis to get legal advice.

Once again, be on the lookout for a mother caring for her own kids, this time in the Montreal area. The pictures are not available on the web.

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The Montreal Gazette
Friday August 19, 2005

Mom, grandma snatch kids
Police investigating kidnapping; No Amber Alert necessary, authorities say, because children not believed to be in danger

PAUL CHERRY
The Gazette

Friday, August 19, 2005

Two children were kidnapped by their mother and grandmother during what was supposed to be an arranged family visit at a youth protection office.

The Montreal police released photos of the children, 8-year-old Amalia Jean Baptiste and her 5-year-old brother, Moise, several hours after the children were abducted Wednesday afternoon.

The children's 38-year-old mother lost custody of her son and daughter last year and the youngsters were placed with foster parents. Their mother had not been heard from since January.

Wednesday, foster parents brought the children to a youth protection office on Henri Bourassa Blvd. E. in the Ahuntsic-Cartierville borough for a supervised visit with the children's 67-year-old grandmother.

"The grandmother and mother were waiting outside as the foster parents arrived for the supervised visit," said Jocelyne Boudreault, a spokesperson for the Centre Jeunesse de Montreal. "It all happened in a matter of minutes. It appeared to be planned because they had a taxi waiting nearby. The mother threatened the foster parents and gave them the impression she was armed."

The grandmother and mother tried to jump into a waiting taxi with the children but a foster parent told the driver what was happening. The driver refused to move and the mother, grandmother and two children left on foot.

Boudreault said both women had the right to supervised visits but that the mother had not requested to see her children since she disappeared.

The grandmother made regular supervised visits to the children, Boudreault said. "But until (Wednesday) the grandmother had given us no sign she would be an accomplice in the kidnapping of the children. What we hope now is that they are doing well and that they will give us some news."

Montreal police Constable Benoit Couture said the police are treating the case as a kidnapping. But the police would not release the identity of either the mother or the grandmother for reasons that Couture would not explain.

He said the police would have released the women's names if the case merited issuing an Amber Alert, the child-abduction response system where information is diffused to the media immediately.

Couture said one criterion for using the alert is when investigators believe a child's life is in danger.

"That is not the case this time," he said.

Both children are black, slightly over 3 feet tall and thin.

Moise has brown eyes and short black curly hair. He was wearing a dark green shirt and dark green pants.

Amalia has brown eyes and short, curly black hair with braids. She was wearing pink pants and a pink shirt.

The police are asking anyone who sees the children to call 911. Anyone with information concerning this case can contact the Montreal police at (514) 280-0128.

pcherry@thegazette.canwest.com

Source: website of Montreal Gazette

Lynnae Lake, the mother arrested on Oregon with her daughter Emily, has been under attack by child protectors before in Michigan. According to Nancy Luckhurst, complaints originated from her two older daughters when they became teenagers. Leonard Henderson suggests a chemical company initiated complaints to escape a tort suit. In any case, Michigan had Emily in custody for a time, and the mother and daughter, now nine, eventually fled to Oregon where Lynnae Lake lived under the name Anne White. While in hiding, Lynnae made a then-anonymous video of her flight from child protectors.

There are two new reports on the case, a short one by Leonard Henderson, and a long description of the arrest by Will Gaston.

Emily Lake

I have been privileged to spend a couple of afternoons with Lynnae and Emily Lake. I found Lynnae (the mom) to be highly intelligent with impressive knowledge and experience with the technical aspects of electronics. I was impressed with her uncompromising insistence on truth, accuracy and high moral and ethical standards. Emily Lake (the daughter), like most homeschoolers was very well-spoken, polite, and quiet, exuded a high intellect. She was terrified at the possibility of ending back in CPS' talons based on her previous terrible experiences in foster care. Unfortunately, her fear of abusive treatment by the authorities continues to be prophetic. - Leonard Henderson

Addendum: Susan Detlefsen reports on the legal status of Emily Lake:

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From: <motherinterrupted@motherinterrupted.us>
To: <Oregon_Family_Rights@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Tuesday, August 16, 2005 5:48 PM
Subject: Emily Lake Extradition Hearing Wednesday August 17, 11 a.m.

The third shelter hearing to determine whether or not either Oregon or Michigan has a legitimate claim on 9 year old Emily, will take place tomorrow:

Emily Lake Hearing
August 17, 11 a.m.
1401 NE 68th (behind Glisan Fred Meyer), Portland, Oregon

The Michigan petition was expired when Emily was taken. Judge Waller is waiting to see whether or not Michigan CPS can have it renewed. If not, they may have to let Emily go.

Susan

Addendum: On August 17, Judge Waller ordered Emily Lake returned to Michigan. For a detailed report, refer to the blog by Susan Detlefsen. We have also created a combined report on the hearing by Susan Detlefsen, Rev Randy Blair and Lynnae Lake aka Anne White.

CBS is planning a new TV show for this autumn called Close to Home. Each episode is about a dysfunctional family, and glorifies social workers and prosecutors while vilifying fathers. This link is to the promo for Close to Home, with seven minutes of sample video.

A lawyer comments on a change to the Child and Family Services Act providing for openness orders. Even a lawyer is mystified. She mentions the claim that most access orders are not now exercised, without pointing out the foot-dragging by Children's Aid to prevent access, and the humiliating conditions of supervised access.

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Proposed adoption law raises many questions

Family Practice By Carole Curtis
for Law Times

The provincial government established a Child Welfare Secretariat in April 2004, and hired Bruce Rivers (then executive director of the Toronto Children's Aid Society, the largest CAS in Canada) to head up a law reform initiative. The initiative had many goals, but was intended, in part, to evaluate the changes made to the Child and Family Services Act in 2000, following the report of the panel of experts chaired by Justice Mary Jane Hatton. The Child Welfare Secretariat prepared a report with 40 recommendations, which was submitted to the government, but has not been made public.

Bill 210, Child and Family Services Statute Law Amendment Act, 2005, was introduced on June 6. The bill amends the act to (among other things) permit courts to make openness orders for Crown wards who are the subject of a plan for adoption.

The number of children in the care of children's aid societies in Ontario has gone from 10,000 to about 19,000 in the last five years (these statistics may be slightly out of date, but are not exaggerated).

In Ontario, there are roughly 9,000 children (called Crown wards) in the permanent care of a children's aid society. Seventy five per cent of them can't be adopted because their family has a court order for access. The government says that majority of those access orders are not used by the parents (i.e., the parents do not see the children). One of the problems in this area is the lack of reliable data about the children in the government's care.

Crown wards with access live in foster and group homes. On average, children in foster or group care are moved every two years. That means a child moves her belongings, leaves her friends, changes schools, lives in a new house, and lives with a new family, facing different rules and new expectations. No one doubts this kind of instability permeates and affects all aspects of the child's life and well-being.

Children's aid societies' budgets went from $500 million to $1.1 billion in less than five years in Ontario. How-ever, currently, children's aid societies are carrying about a $70-million deficit.

Although I have acted and continue to act for all sides of the child protection equation (parents, children, and children's aid societies), my observations on this bill are from the perspective of parents' counsel. I refer to the parents as "the parents" and not as the "biological parents" or the "birth parents" as has become fashionable in this area of practice.

These amendments are a little complicated, and not intuitive. If you work in this area, you will need to read the bill closely.

In the bill, openness is not access. It may mean contact, communication, a card or letter, information, knowledge and for the child, may result in a greater sense of identity.

Before an adoption, only a children's aid society may apply to a court for an openness order (s. 145.1). The test applied is the best interests of the child. The order can only be made on consent of everyone, including the possible adoptive parents. The court can only change or terminate the order before an adoption, based on a material change in circumstances, applying the best interests test, and the children's aid society must agree.

After an adoption, the court can also change an openness order (s. 153). However, the child cannot apply for this change, and the parents cannot apply without leave. Openness can also be the subject of an agreement.

This law reform initiative raises mostly questions. Initially, there is a concern that the focus of law reform not be at the end of the process (at the Crown wardship/adoption stage) when it is too late to help this family stay together. Why isn't the energy and money being put into the front end of the process, in keeping families that need help together?

What is the philosophy behind this initiative? What is intended by this initiative? And for whose benefit? Is there any empirical data about this? Is this meant to benefit the parents? Is it meant to free up more kids for adoption? Who is the client here? (i.e., whom does the government identify as the client?).

Don't tell me the child is the client: that has never been the case. Parents and their lawyers will tell you that the government has always seen the adoptive parents as the real client.

What results are intended or expected? Is this meant to reduce the number of kids in care at the early stages? Is this meant to reduce the number of kids in long-term foster care (Crown ward with access, in foster care)? Will there be applications to court to terminate those several thousand access orders that are now not being exercised, and replace them with openness orders?

What is the structure really intended to be? What sort of contact is envisaged? Remember that the word used is "openness," not access or contact. What rights accrue to these children during minority and at age 18 -- are there any different rights than now? Is the contact envisaged by the parents different from the contact envisaged by the adoptive parents?

Why does the government cling to the use of the term "adoption?" What about permanent placement? Adoption itself is not a panacea, particularly in an evolving multi-cultural society. Like fostering, adoption is a concept quite foreign to some cultures.

What will the court order look like? What will the "usual" terms be? Will any retroactive orders be permitted? Who are the parties to these orders?

What about enforceability? Who will these orders bind? Who are the parties to these orders? What, if any, is the continuing role for children's aid societies after adoption? Who will enforce these orders?

And finally, from the parent's perspective, what do parents think this means? Do they think it means access? Will parents think this a better solution? What is really being offered to parents here? Will this make settlement of Crown wardship cases easier?

There are many bad names one can call a woman in our society, but there is nothing as horrible to a woman as calling her a bad mother. This is really what these cases are about. Losing your child forever is the worst thing that could possibly happen to a parent. A Crown wardship case is the capital punishment of family law.

While there may be research which supports the validity of reform in this area, it has not been made available. It is a great skill that lawyers are taught, to take something nearly everyone thinks is a good idea and pick it apart until almost nobody thinks it is. There is much in this bill to consider.

Carole Curtis is a family law lawyer in a three-lawyer firm in Toronto. She can be reached at carolecurtis@carolecurtis.com

Source: website of Law Times
pointed out by John Dunn

The domain name systemvsbizzi.com, formerly used by Jesse McVicar to host his website critical of Children's Aid, has been removed from his control and placed on status registrar-hold. This shuts down his website.

A similar technique was used in October 2003 to shut down the AFRA website for two weeks.

Addendum: A new site with similar material, but not under direct control of Jesse McVicar, has appeared at www.systemvsbizzi.biz.

Today Ontario announced that booster seats for children will be mandatory starting September 1, 2005.

There are two secrets not in the press release:

1. While the seats may improve safety in laboratory conditions, on the road they are almost never installed correctly.
2. In addition to the fines for non-compliance, police have instructions to notify Children's Aid whenever issuing a ticket for these offenses. CAS can expect an increased supply of tips.

Here is a story you will not see anywhere in the press, not even in Oregon.

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A shelter hearing for Emily Lake will be held tomorrow at 2:30 at the Multnomah County Juvenile Courthouse at 1401 NE 68th (behind the Glisan Fred Myer).

Emily and her mother "Anne" left their home back east some time ago to avoid being separated for a second time by CPS. Many of these families contact me because I have a cable show that exposes CPS fraud and abuse.

Some of you who will receive this will remember meeting Emily, a bright, charming 9 year old who reported being kidnapped by CPS and abused in foster care, then finally returned to her mother, only to be hunted again by CPS, beginning sometime a year ago or so. Rather than subject her daughter to being taken again by CPS, Anne did what hundreds of other mothers across the country have done: hide their children from CPS, who alleges to be "protecting" the same children who say CPS has hurt them in the past.

According to an eye witness report, Emily and Anne were violently apprehended by Portland Police (7 patrol cars with police dogs). Both Emily and the mother were maced, and the mother, trying to protect Emily from police, may have been beaten. Emily was heard screaming for her mother and violently protesting her "arrest" by Children's Protective Services and the Portland Police.

Please show your support for the family tomorrow by attending the shelter hearing tomorrow.

Susan Detlefsen
MotherInterrupted.us

Addendum: Here is more on the case from Nancy Luckhurst:

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August 10, 2005

Dear God in heaven have mercy on this angel child and her mother. We need to step forward and speak up for this mother. Emily's mother had given her my name and number to memorize and call in case of emergency at any time. She knew because of our advocacy there would be a friendly voice at the end of the phone. Never in my life have I ever heard such terror in the voice of a child. How do you remain calm to keep the child calm in at a time like this. Then her mother came to the phone and for a few short minutes we talked she was petrified. She knew they were there for her and Emily. She was so frightened for what she knew is going to happen to her daughter. She didn't make it easy on them I can tell you that. But let it be known that there will be a full investigation into this one. The wheels are already turning in the right places and Justice will be done. And people other than this mother pay for the lies perjury and false allegations.

Hilary Goldstein is asking for suggestions on how Batman can outwit Child Protective Services. Instructions for sending in your suggestions are on her page.

The following article from the Chicago Sun-Times describes the recruitment of prostitutes. It has more stereotypes than fact, bu