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Oriena Currie, a board member of Canada Court Watch, has passed away.

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In memory of Oriena Rejola Currie

Canada Court Watch executive, Oriena Currie, passes away at 72 years of age

Sadly, on Sunday, July 22, 2007, Canada Court Watch advocate, Oriena Rejola Currie, 72 years of age, passed away in hospital after losing her final battle with cancer.

To her many friends and associates with whom she had become involved in over the years during her political advocacy and as an executive director of Canada Court Watch, she will be greatly missed.

She is survived by her son, Charles, her daughter, Bonnie, and five grandchildren, Chatham, Cauthen, Quen , Caegan and Kitsym.

Oriena was one of the most respected and senior member of Canada Court Watch, having served on its Board of Directors for a number of years.

Up until her final battle with cancer she proudly stood up for freedom, justice and democracy which were the issues she strongly believed in and fought fearlessly for those beliefs.

Oriena was born November 23, 1934 in Toronto, Ontario. She grew up as a young child in the Cabbagetown community of Toronto and in her teenage years lived in the Mississauga area.

In her later years, Oriena resided in Campbellville, a small community situated on the beautiful Niagara Escarpment close to Milton, Ontario.

She operated a family owned flea market from a small commercial building located on her family's properly on Guelph Line at the southern outskirts of her community.

Most Saturdays and Sundays she could be found at her flea market with her grandchildren close at hand.

Outside of her time spent with her family members and running the family business, Oriena was a powerhouse, devoting much of her knowledge and experience to provide helpful advice to others experiencing problems with the courts and lawyers.

People from all over called Oriena by phone for help with their court related problems with many finding much needed information and support that they were unable to obtain or afford from professionals in legal community.

Oriena stated that advocating for fairness, justice and most all accountability had been a passion and a driving force during most of her life.

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Oriena at the Barrie, Ontario rally in 2006 wearing the T shirt which caused court workers to label her and other justice minded Canadian citizens as "gang" members.

She often attended meetings, protests and events in the community designed to bring attention to the plight of those involved with the court system.

Last year in Barrie, Oriena was refused entry to the public washrooms at the Barrie, Ontario courthouse by security forces.

Officers told her that because she was wearing a Canada Court Watch T shirt, she was considered as posing a threat to the security of the court.

Court Security officers told Oriena that court administrators and judges inside the building had labelled the senior citizen a "gang" member.

Afterwards, outside of the Barrie, Ontario courthouse, Oriena laughed and stated the incident at the court about her being refused entry to use of the washroom was a joke.

"I must be doing something right if these big, burly and armed police officers felt threatened by me, a 71-year old senior citizen," she said.

Oriena stated that the actions of police and court workers that day at the Barrie court was an insult to justice and free speech in Canada.

She said that this only showed that the judges and those who work for the court system were more afraid of her Court Watch T shirt and what it stood for than they were of her.

"The judges and court workers are terrified of the public finding out the truth of what is going on inside of their lavish court buildings.

They know what they are doing is wrong and they only want to hide the truth" she said during an interview with reporters outside of the court.

Over the years, Oriena had acquired a small library of legal books which she graciously shared with people who were in need of helpful legal information.

She provided free legal advocacy under the name "YoYo" Law, the phrase YoYo standing for "Your On Your Own".

Oriena coined this unique name because she believed that people had to self educate themselves about the law and about their rights and freedoms.

She often said that the costs associated with people obtaining competent legal services had become unaffordable to all Canadians except those considered wealthy.

Oriena did not fear standing up against injustice and would often stand up for others in the community, especially those who had been pillaged of their assets and then abandoned by legal professionals.

Just days before her passing, Oriena had rescheduled a court hearing in which she was scheduled to appear in court to represent herself in a lawsuit she had prepared and filed by herself prior to her becoming ill.

Her civil lawsuit against authorities involved the Halton Regional Police and the Crown Attorney's office.

Even with her illness facing her, she forged ahead in expectation of being well enough to fight for justice another day.

Although Oriena wanted very much to keep her scheduled court date, in the end her failing health would not permit her to do so.

Even at 72 years of age, Oriena was ready and willing to set an example to all Canadians by single-handedly challenging local authorities who she believed had done wrong, including the police.

In addition to handing out information to people involved in the court system, Oriena loved going to various courts in the southern Ontario region as a Canada Court Watch observer where she would observe court proceedings and report back about irregularities in the courts.

Archbishop Dorian A. Baxter, the National Chairman of Court Watch, said that Oriena was a person full of spirit, determination and dedication in the pursuit of fairness and justice for her fellow Canadians.

"Good, honest and hard working citizens of her calibre are hard to find," said Baxter.

Oriena has been laid to rest at the St. David's Presbyterian Church in Campbellville.

Oriena will be dearly missed by many.

Source: email from Canada Court Watch

Jesse Imeson became Canada's most wanted man after committing three homicides. The biographical article below discloses that he spent much of his childhood in the care of children's aid. The article is misleading on one point: it says his mother placed him with CAS. We have interviewed many parents who (on paper) relinquished their children to CAS voluntarily. The consent was most often obtained by deception, such as a social worker suggesting to the parent that a signature was a formality necessary for the agency to provide help to the child.

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Murder suspect 'always smiling'

By JENNIFER O'BRIEN, SUN MEDIA

August 4, 2007

He was non-stop.

An adventurous, wide-eyed boy, Jesse Imeson made his babysitter work for her money -- giggling as he chased her through his parents' Amherstburg home south of Windsor.

The eldest of three children, Imeson, seven at the time could be "a little turd," Cheryl White remembers.

"He would chase me through the house with a water gun. He was a jokester," says White, who used to care for Imeson and his younger brother and sister.

"But he was a happy kid. He had these huge eyes and he was always smiling, trying to have fun."

That boyish smile is long behind the six-foot-tall man whose eyes are harder now, and whose body is covered in tattoos, including a Chinese symbol meaning "soldier," on his neck.

At 22, Imeson is suddenly infamous as an unpredictable fugitive, accused of murdering three people in cold blood, and evading a national manhunt for two weeks before his arrest Tuesday.

But his troubles didn't begin overnight. In recent years, Imeson had been a regular at Windsor's jail, and became known to some people as a guy who'd say anything to get what he wanted.

Though his personal life appeared full -- a beautiful girlfriend, the mother of his two-year-old daughter, and a circle of supportive friends and relatives -- many say he considered himself alone since his mom put him into foster care at about age 10.

"He had a rough life," so many have said of Imeson.

There was the suicide of his father, Jeff, who worked in construction in Amherstburg. Imeson has told friends it was he -- then nine-years-old -- who found his father dead.

There was foster care. Shortly after his dad died, Imeson's mom handed over her eldest son -- but not his siblings -- to Children's Aid.

Since turning 18, a Corrections Canada official said, Imeson had often been in the Windsor jail on charges of petty crimes, including possession of stolen goods and robbery.

Then, there's the drug addiction.

And now there are the three killings police link to Imeson -- the strangulation of 25-year-old Carlos Rivera, who was found in Imeson's rented Windsor room on July 19, and the shooting deaths of Bill and Helene Regier, who were found dead, tied up in their Mount Carmel home July 23.

For 12 days, Imeson evaded a manhunt that went Canada-wide after the Regiers killings, until a concerned neighbour spotted him watching television in an unoccupied home in Portage-Du-Fort, Que., and he was chased into the woods.

Then, keeping with his unpredictable reputation, the heavily tattooed, newly bearded fugitive simply laid down beside the loaded gun he carried and let police arrest him.

"His family is so glad," says White. "We all thought it could have ended worse, with the family ( suicide) history."

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Imeson took his father's death "badly," White says.

"His dad was his hero. He started to get out of hand. That's how he was reacting to the devastation."

His mom put him in foster care -- a move called "abandonment" by Children's Aid societies. She didn't put his younger siblings into care, but eventually relatives cared for them, too, a cousin says.

"She did it for him," says White. "He was causing trouble in the home and she couldn't handle it at the time."

He went to Leamington, a 45-minute drive from Amherstburg, where his mom lived.

Foster parents wouldn't comment on Imeson, but former classmates who met Imeson in Grade 6 remember the new kid as likeable.

"Everybody knew he had a messed up life," says a woman who went to Leamington's Queen Elizabeth elementary school."He was a little rough, but he was a decent kid."

Imeson graduated from Grade 8 at that school, she says, and went on to Leamington District secondary.

Somehow, he ended up back in Amherstburg, where he began temporary stays with aunts and uncles.

"He stayed with relatives, and his grandparents tried so hard," one cousin says. "He was unworkable."

Today, Imeson is close with his sister and a brother, who is training to be a paramedic, and some cousins, friends say.

Though he had friends in high school -- he went to General Amherst in Amherstburg until dropping out in Grade 11 -- Imeson's reputation was as a hard-partying hot head.

Known for his tough talk, and tough walk, he always had a cigarette in his mouth and usually a beer in his hands.

Though friends say he wasn't a bully, and that he charmed women with his manners and easy grin, he was a bad boy -- even banned from one Amherstburg bar.

"He caused trouble all the time," says a server at Shooters. "The night he was banned, we were all sitting around after work and (talking about it)."

Though Imeson has several tattoos, including his surname etched across his stomach, a Windsor tattoo artist says he was horrible to work on.

"He was hyper and high strung," says Jeff Vella, who booted Imeson from his shop for his behaviour. Vella says Imeson often came in after partying at the casino and sometimes couldn't sit still for more than five minutes.

A well-built man who worked out often, Imeson took odd jobs, doing construction or helping people out, friends say. But he had several criminal convictions.

It's surprising, then, that he wanted to be a cop, enrolling in a police foundations course at a Windsor college. But that's where White -- enrolled in a different course -- ran into the man she once babysat.

Imeson was worried during his time at the college, she says -- his girlfriend was pregnant. She says he graduated, but then couldn't find work.

Imeson left for Whistler, B.C., to do just that, says another friend. He did get a job somewhere, but "he came back after his daughter was born," she says.

But Imeson's drug use -- a former rehab peer says he was into cocaine -- was heavy and his troubles continued.

This summer, Imeson did a 40-day program at Windsor's Salvation Army Addiction and Rehabilitation Centre, where former peers blame drugs for his troubles. While there, Imeson said he wanted to be a better dad and received visits from his baby's "hot" mother, says a former peer.

"He was a nice guy," the friend says.

Imeson graduated from the program "a model client," says Salvation Army Major Wilfred Harbin. But he relapsed.

Imeson moved into a rooming house in downtown Windsor, telling his landlords he had been in the military -- a story police have refuted.

The couple who rented to him say Imeson was polite and quiet, and kept pictures of his daughter in his room.

Friends say he was still in an on-and-off relationship with his daughter's mom.

Imeson was living in that home for three weeks when he decided to go to a downtown gay strip bar, the Tap.

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Staff at the Tap say they had never seen Imeson before Tuesday, July 17, when he showed up and began talking to bartender Carlos Rivera.

Always on the hunt for fast cash, the high school dropout told friends he thought he could make good money dancing for men. But he didn't fill out the application, says operator Eddie An.

An said he had a bad feeling about Imeson, who was boasting about being a soldier.

But Rivera was interested and later left with Imeson.

Next morning, the landlords said, Imeson left early. In Rivera's car, he drove the more than 200 kilometres to Grand Bend. Rivera's strangled body remained in his room -- and wasn't found until Thursday, July 19.

Police have said that before Rivera's body was even found, Imeson had hooked up with South Huron teen Lindsey Glavin at a Grand Bend bar.

They hung out until Friday, July 20, when Glavin ended the relationship and dropped Imeson off in a Stephen Township field, north of Mount Carmel Line.

Assisted by Glavin, police combed that field Saturday, July 21, but called off the search the next day.

On Monday, July 23, four concessions east, the Regiers were found dead, spurring the nationwide hunt for Imeson. That hunt ended last Tuesday, eight days later, 600 kilometres away, in a wooded area of Quebec, north of Ottawa.

With no blaze of glory, Imeson went down peacefully, police said, laying down beside his loaded rifle.

He's been charged with first-degree murder in Rivera's death and, within a week, is expected to face the same charge for the deaths of the Regiers.

"He has gotten himself into a lot of trouble over the years but something like this? We are shocked," says White.

Another friend from Amherstburg says she was happy Imeson was captured, "because he doesn't have to run anymore," though she was worried about him, saying he looked thin on the news.

Source: website of the London Free Press

Two more girls have voted against foster care with their feet. They are Kathie McDonald, who left foster care in Hamilton, and Riviera Hollahan of Winnipeg. Some controversy has attended the McDonald case, since CAS feels free to violate the Child and Family Services Act by naming a child in foster care. Another report says McDonald was picked up within two days of publishing her name.

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Public help needed to find missing teen

Jul, 26 2007 - 11:20 AM

HAMILTON (AM900 CHML) - The Children's Aid Society is asking for the public's help in finding a missing 14 year-old girl.

Katie McDonald has been missing since last Wednesday, July 18.

She's 5-feet-2 inches, around 105 pounds with green eyes and long blond hair.

She's known to frequent the Barton and Strathearne area as well as the downtown core.

- Ted Michaels

Source: website of CHML

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Mon Jul 23 2007

Girl, 11, missing

Riviera Hollahan

CITY police are seeking help from the public to find a missing 11-year-old girl. Riviera Hollahan was last seen Friday between 1 p.m. and 4:30 p.m. at the Freight House recreation centre on Isabel Street.

Police describe Riviera as an aboriginal girl, 5 ft. 1 in. tall with a medium build and long dark brown hair with blonde streaks in a pony tail. She was last seen wearing a white and grey tank top, blue jeans and white shoes.

When children go missing, the police must decide whether they’re in trouble or not. So far police don’t believe this girl is in trouble. “Investigators are actively investigating,” Winnipeg Police Service spokeswoman, Const. Jacqueline Chaput said. “At this point, we’re not looking at this as suspicious in nature.”

Any person who may have seen her is requested to contact police at 986-6222.

Source: website of the Winnipeg Free Press

Addendum: Months later the website of the Winnipeg police marked Rivera Hollahan as LOCATED, without any indication of time or place.

Stuart Greenberg was an expert witness in Seattle who earned a living taking children from their parents. He was also a voyeur who secretly photographed women using his bathroom, then used the pictures for his own sexual gratification. He joins the ranks of Ontario's Dr Charles Smith as a discredited expert, requiring reviews of many of the cases in which he provided opinions.

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Friday, July 27, 2007 - 12:00 AM

Therapist's suicide could trigger challenges in legal cases

By Jennifer Sullivan and Maureen O'Hagan, Seattle Times staff reporters

The arrest and suicide of a prominent Seattle psychologist who was often an expert witness in sexual-abuse and child-custody cases could raise questions about his recommendations, and some could be challenged, judges say.

Renton police on Wednesday found Stuart Greenberg's body after employees at the Clarion hotel entered his room and found a note on the floor that read, "medical personnel, do not resuscitate. Let me die," according to a Renton police report.

Officers later found Greenberg in a bathtub. He had cuts on both wrists, and police found a variety of medications in the bathroom. The case is being investigated as an overdose.

Greenberg, 59, was well-known as an expert witness in sexual-abuse cases. He had worked as a consultant to the Archdiocese of Seattle, which was defending itself in priest-abuse cases. He also had served as an expert witness on behalf of sex-abuse victims in other cases.

Greenberg also was frequently appointed as a parenting evaluator in child-custody cases.

Greenberg was arrested then suspended from practice earlier this month after allegations surfaced that he had secretly videotaped a woman in his office bathroom.

He was booked into the King County Jail on July 3 after an acquaintance found the videotape in the psychologist's VCR and alerted the person who appeared on the tape, police said. The tape was then handed over to police.

While in jail, Greenberg had been placed on suicide watch, according to the Renton police report. He was conditionally released two days after his arrest.

Dan Donohoe, spokesman for the King County Prosecutor's Office, said a decision on whether to file charges against Greenberg had not been made. But the state Board of Psychology suspended his license after the voyeurism allegation.

Nationally renowned

Greenberg, as a parenting evaluator in child-custody cases, carried tremendous power. A parenting evaluator's job is to interview all the parties involved and make custody recommendations; typically, the recommendations are followed.

Greenberg had developed a national reputation, as well. His curriculum vitae, listing all his professional accomplishments, runs 19 pages.

Among other things, he served as president of the American Board of Forensic Psychology in 2002-2003 and taught dozens of continuing-education courses across the country for fellow psychologists.

He also trained a crop of would-be psychologists as a clinical assistant professor at the University of Washington, and before that at the University of Southern California and the University of Iowa.

King County Presiding Judge Michael Trickey said the courts — and families going through custody battles — will have to contend with a number of difficult issues in the wake of Greenberg's arrest and subsequent death. He anticipates a flurry of challenges by parties who were unhappy with past evaluations involving Greenberg.

Greenberg's arrest alone wouldn't be enough to reopen a case. But if his recommendations hinged on a parent's alleged sexual deviancy, for example, that parent could argue that Greenberg's opinion was tainted by his alleged actions.

"Never having dealt with this before, I'm not sure how this would play out," Trickey said, adding, "I assume we're going to deal with it sooner rather than later."

The court doesn't keep count of cases assigned to a particular parenting evaluator, so it's impossible to tell how many families could be affected. But it's a given that all of Greenberg's pending cases will have to be reassigned to other evaluators — a process that was already under way since his arrest and suspension of his license to practice psychology.

Judge James Doerty, the chief family-court judge, said a key question in reopening old cases is whether the child-custody plan has been working for the child.

"The problem about going backwards and redoing those decisions is you are actually changing the lives the children have led," Doerty said.

"Great gifts and flaws"

On Sunday, Greenberg's wife checked him into an Extended Stay Deluxe motel in Renton because he said he didn't feel safe at home, the police report said.

Marcia Greenberg told police her husband had been depressed for nearly four months, possibly from a change in heart medication, and was upset by his recent arrest, the report read.

The Greenbergs went to dinner that night and then Marcia Greenberg returned to their Seattle home.

But at some point Greenberg left the motel and checked into the Clarion on Monday, police said.

Marcia Greenberg said she last spoke with her husband around 8 p.m. on Monday, according to the report.

"We are overwhelmed by loss and with grief that we could not convince Stu life was worth living," Marcia Greenberg wrote in a statement released Thursday. "Stu had great gifts and flaws, but to us he was a much loved husband, father, brother, and son. We miss him terribly."

Greenberg left suicide notes to his wife, daughter and "everyone else I hurt," the police report said. His wife said he apologized for his actions in the notes, the report states.

The King County Medical Examiner's Office said an autopsy was done Thursday but a cause of death won't be released until toxicology tests are completed.

Seattle Times staff reporters Nancy Kelsey and Michael Berens contributed to this report.

Jennifer Sullivan: 206-464-8294 or jensullivan@seattletimes.com

Source: website of the Seattle Times

Two-year-old Gage Guimond died in his foster home in Winnipeg. Other news reports suggest he suffered sustained physical abuse. Over a hundred people attended his funeral, making it harder in Manitoba for child protectors to bury their mistakes.

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August 1, 2007

Toddler mourned

Memories of 'happy boy' recalled

By ROB NAY, SUN MEDIA

Natasha Guimond, mother of two-year-old Gage Guimond, cries at his funeral yesterday. (Chris Procaylo, Sun Media)

A two-year-old boy was remembered as "a bright ray of sunshine" at his funeral yesterday.

Gage Dakota Guimond died on July 22, 2007, the day after his second birthday and two days after he was taken to hospital in critical condition.

Stuffed toy animals, flowers and a blanket surrounded his small coffin at the funeral service. Photos of the boy playing in a bathtub, eating cake and smiling while sitting on a beach faced the room filled with mourners. A large orange card featuring a child's writing and the words "We love you very much" sat close to the coffin.

Charged with manslaughter in Gage's death is Shirley Guimond, 52, his great-aunt. She had Gage and his three-year-old sister in her care at the time of the incident. A call was made to 911 saying a child had fallen down a flight of stairs.

As mourners entered the room for Gage's funeral, a musician sang and played an acoustic guitar, dedicating songs to Gage, his family and foster family.

Gage's mother, Natasha Guimond, sobbed, "I can't. I can't," as she was led into the room, braced by people who supported her as she struggled to walk.

Natasha temporarily gave up custody of Gage and his three-year-old sister more than a year ago because she wasn't ready to raise them by herself at age 18, she told Sun Media in a previous interview.

ASKS FOR HEALING

Pastor Larry Laquette, who conducted the funeral service, asked people to pray for every one of Gage's family members at the funeral. He asked for healing and restoration in people's lives.

Gage's former foster parents, Russ and Debbie Debassige, spoke about their time with Gage and how he came with them when they went bowling, fishing and camping. "He was a real water baby," said Debbie Debassige. "He loved the beach."

"Everyone who sees the photos at the front can see Gage was a happy boy," said Russ Debassige. "We fell in love with Gage."

While learning to walk, Gage also enjoyed visiting his foster siblings as they went to and from school. "He was always a bright ray of sunshine," said Debbie Debassige, adding the sound of drums soothed the young boy.

As mourners filed past the coffin at the end of the service, nearby musicians sang and beat on drums.

A trust fund for Natasha Guimond's surviving daughter has been set up at the Bank of Montreal at 1010 McPhillips St.

Source: website of the Winnipeg Sun

Nine lucky children found a forever home with adoptive mother Judith Leekin. In her home they were handcuffed, tied together and burned while being deprived of food, education or toilet facilities. The mother earned a six-figure income from the adoption subsidies.

This could be a case of a mother scamming the system as suggested in the article, or another dumping ground case, in which the child protectors get rid of their problem cases, then blame the adoptive parent. At least in this case, the press is focusing on money as the root of the problem.

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updated 9:44 a.m. EDT, Tue July 31, 2007

Police: Kids were adopted for profit, abused

PORT ST. LUCIE, Florida (AP) -- They were often handcuffed, tethered together with plastic ties and allowed to soil themselves, investigators say. They had scars on their wrists. Some had burns.

Police say Judith Leekin enriched herself by adopting and neglecting nine children. Police say Leekin bought this house and another one with the state stipends for her adopted children.

None appeared to have more than a fourth-grade education, not even the adults in their 20s. All were starving.

In all, nine teenagers and young adults were held like prisoners in Judith Leekin's home in what appeared to be a decades-long scheme to line her pockets with the government payments she received for adopting and raising them, police say.

From the outside, Leekin's home appeared to be as ordinary as the others in this well-kept working-class neighborhood on the outskirts of this Atlantic coast town, 120 miles north of Miami. But its pink and white stucco exterior hid the horrors inside, authorities say.

"Horrible, I think, would be the best word used to describe what was going on in that house," said police Capt. Scott Bartal.

Investigators have not yet confirmed the identities of the young people and have not established how long Leekin had them. But authorities believe she adopted all of them in New York City under at least five aliases over two decades.

They range in age from 15 to 27. One is blind and mumbles. One can barely walk or stand. One can't read. But authorities said they do not know if the handicaps are a result of the alleged abuse.

The case came to light on July 4, some 200 miles away across the state in St. Petersburg, when police received a call from a grocery store that a teenager was there wandering aimlessly. The 18-year-old woman, who said she has been with Leekin for 13 years, said Leekin drove her there and abandoned her after telling her they were going to an amusement park.

Police and child welfare workers went to Leekin's home, but found nothing awry. Just one child was with her in the house, and Leekin told investigators the 18-year-old ran away a year ago. But police soon returned, and this time they found all the children, who had apparently been hiding on Leekin's orders.

Leekin, 62, was arrested and jailed on 11 charges, including aggravated elder and child abuse. She declined to be interviewed. Her attorney had no comment.

According to authorities, she was unemployed and lived off the monthly stipends provided by child welfare authorities in New York. She owned at least two homes and several cars. The adopted children said they had never seen a doctor or a dentist and had not been allowed to attend school or even leave the house.

"These people have not received any formal education in the time they've been with her," Bartal said. "At times when they were restricted with handcuffs or zip ties, during the night, they soiled themselves because they weren't permitted to go to the bathroom."

They were fed only noodles, and "they would have eventually starved to death," Bartal said.

The 18-year-old told police Leekin threatened to cut her head off if she told anyone what was happening, authorities said.

"Was there any kind of emotional attachment? Yes, it was fear," Bartal said.

Child welfare workers in New York said they are still digging through paperwork to determine how Leekin came to gain custody. It was not until 1999 that New York City child-welfare authorities began fingerprinting adults who adopted children out of foster care.

If Leekin did adopt them in New York City, she could have been making as much as $180,000 a year for a time. Parents who adopt special needs children can get as much as $55 a day.

"If you adopt a child out of the foster care system, you receive a stipend to help with the child's care, to cover clothing and food, and whatever additional costs are involved with caring for the child until the child turns 21," said Sharman Stein, spokeswoman for the New York City Administration for Children's Services.

There is no legal requirement that a person adopting a child from New York City's foster care system live in New York State.

The Florida Department of Children & Families authorities investigated a complaint of child abuse against Leekin in 1999, but the case was later closed. Officials would not give details.

"Right now we're just concentrating on the care of the victims, making sure they get the medical attention and psychological care they need," department spokeswoman Ellen Higinbotham said. "These adults, they're like elderly people, they're frail and vulnerable."

In Leekin's neighborhood, residents said they were shocked.

"You'd think she was your grandmother. There was nothing suspicious at all," neighbor Jim Hammond said. "We never heard anything from over there, no hollering, no screaming. She was just a nice lady."

Source: website of CNN

Addendum: From later news, it is clear that social services used Judith Leekin to dump problem children. Just about all of the children in her care had mental handicaps. If this case follows the usual pattern, the adoptive mom will be the target of public outrage and put away for a long time. The social workers who dumped their children with her will escape scrutiny. One teenager, Mo, died in Mrs Leekin's care.

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Aug 16, 2007 3:18 pm US/Eastern

Florida Judge Wants N.Y. Adoption Records

Says They Are Relevant To Leekin Abuse Case

(AP) FORT PIERCE, Fla. A New York judge must decide whether to unseal confidential adoption records, after a Florida court ruled Thursday that they are relevant in the criminal case against a woman accused of abusing 11 adopted children.

Judith Leekin, 62, of Port St. Lucie, is accused of bilking New York City out of $1.26 million in a scheme that involved adopting the children under four aliases to line her pockets with subsidies for their care.

Authorities say the children, now ages 15 to 27, were severely abused, that none have more than a fourth grade education, and all suffer from physical and mental disabilities.

Leekin has pleaded not guilty to the abuse charges.

Circuit Judge James McCann's ruling opens the door for Florida prosecutors to now ask a New York judge to unseal the adoption records.

Prosecutor Marshall Evans said the New York adoption records are needed to confirm the identities of the victims.

The records could also help locate a missing 11th adopted child, prosecutors say. Nine of the children and disabled adults are in Florida state care. A 19-year-old who police say Leekin abandoned in 2004 remains on his own.

The children and adults told police the 11th victim, an 18-year-old boy nicknamed "MO" who suffered from Down's syndrome or autism, died sometime in 1999 or 2000.

"Other than his name and date of birth and a nickname, we know very little about him," Port St. Lucie Police Detective Stuart Klearman told the judge Thursday. "The children have been led to believe that he died but we don't have any record of that."

Klearman also said police need the records to track down the victims' biological parents for DNA comparisons to determine their true identities.

"We do not know for 100 percent fact ... that any of these children are the children adopted out of New York," Klearman said. "They could be almost anybody."

He said copies of their birth certificates obtained from Leekin appear "suspicious."

Klearman also said the victims are now becoming curious.

"They're asking questions -- 'Who are we?"' he said.

Leekin's attorney, Mario Garcia, argued that the adoption records were not relevant in the abuse case.

Outside court, Garcia said the victims received medical care and were taken care of by Leekin.

Garcia also said the Florida Department of Children & Families took custody on Wednesday of the children of Desmond Leekin, who is Leekin's biological son. Desmond Leekin has been questioned by investigators and has said he did not know his mother had all the adopted children in her home.

A telephone message left for the Florida agency was not immediately returned. A telephone listing for Desmond Leekin could not be found.

Source: website of WCBS-TV New York

The Supreme Court of Canada has issued an important decision in a case in which a child was taken from her parents for an imaginary cause. The care of children by the social services system is too important to allow professionals to be concerned by parental rights. The Supreme Court agrees with the listing of parental rights on our parody page.

Here is the operative part of the opinion:

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The deciding factor in this case is the potential for conflicting duties: imposing a duty of care in respect of the relationship between the family of a child in care and that child’s court‑ordered service providers creates a genuine potential for “serious and significant” conflict with the service providers’ transcendent statutory duty to promote the best interests, protection and well‑being of the children in their care. When a child is placed in the temporary care of the Children’s Aid Society, or if Crown wardship is ordered, the Child and Family Services Act creates an inherently adversarial relationship between parents and the state. The fact that the interests of the parents and of the child may occasionally align does not diminish the concern that in many if not most of the cases, conflict is inevitable. While it is true that ss. 1 and 37(3) of the Child and Family Services Act, which the family seeks to rely on to ground proximity, make reference to the family, nothing in them detracts from the Act’s overall and determinative emphasis on the protection and promotion of the child’s best interests, not those of the family. Furthermore, the treatment centre and B are providing services to R.D. in a treatment context, a context that invokes medical paradigms of confidentiality and privacy. To recognize a duty to parents in this context could also result in conflicting duties in the provision of medical treatment to children who have been removed from their parents’ custody. It is very difficult to see how different professionals, including doctors and social workers, could all effectively work together if some of them owed a duty other than to the child/patient. Lastly, the conclusion that there is no proximity is reinforced by two additional reflections of legislative policy. The first is that the Act itself provides a remedy for families seeking to challenge the way their child is treated. The second is that there is a clear legislative intent to protect those working in the child protection field from liability for the good faith exercise of their statutory duty, and this intent is reflected in statutory immunity provisions. Since the statutory mandate is to treat the child’s interests as paramount, there is, where the duties to the child have been performed in accordance with the statute, no liability to the family.

Source: Supreme Court Decisions hosted by University of Montreal

In case the link is altered, you should be able to find the decision from the citation:

SUPREME COURT OF CANADA, Syl Apps Secure Treatment Centre v. B.D., 2007 SCC 38, Date: 20070727, Docket: 31404.

The parents of Anna Mae He give their newborn daughter temporarily to a Tennessee couple while they worked out their financial problems. The fosters refused to return the girl when the parents wanted her back, and even legally adopted the girl through a Tennessee court. It took years of litigation for the Tennessee Supreme Court to state the obvious, that failure to visit the girl when kept away by force did not amount to abandonment. Even after the courts ruled against them, the baby-snatchers held on through another six months of foot-dragging. Now the girl is finally back with mom and dad.

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Associated Press

Girl, 8, Back With Chinese Parents

By WOODY BAIRD 07.23.07, 5:33 PM ET

MEMPHIS, Tenn. -

A Chinese couple regained legal custody of their 8-year-old daughter Monday after a seven-year fight to get her back from what was supposed to be temporary foster care.

Judge Curtis Person of Memphis Juvenile Court signed an order returning custody of Anna Mae He to parents Shaoqiang and Qin Luo He, Chinese citizens who came to the United States so Shaoqiang He could attend college.

The order revoked the temporary guardianship by Jerry and Louise Baker, former foster parents who had tried to adopt the girl over her parents' objections.

"As far as custody goes, that's it," said David Siegel, the Hes' lawyer. "That's no longer an issue. That's nothing that will ever be an issue again."

The Tennessee Supreme Court ruled in January that Anna Mae He must be reunited with her parents, and she began a series of meetings with them in March. Those meetings, which progressed to overnight stays and weekend visits, were overseen by a lawyer and psychologist appointed by the Juvenile Court.

In his custody order, Person said the Supreme Court mandate had been fulfilled.

"I want everyone to know she will have a bright future," Shaoqiang He said in a telephone interview Monday. He said he expects to return to China with his family after Anna Mae has settled in.

Psychologists helping her adjust to leaving one family for another will decide whether she has further contact with the Bakers, who took her in when she was just less than a month old, He said.

"That depends on Anna Mae and her emotional and psychological needs," He said. "We want to do the best for her."

In its ruling, the state Supreme Court overturned a decision by a Memphis judge that took away the Hes' parental rights. That decision in 2004 followed a trial at which the Bakers argued Anna Mae would have a better life in suburban America than in China.

"I want her to have both cultures, Asian heritage and American culture," He said. "But from today on, she will never have to hide her Chinese heritage. I want her to have pride in it."

The Bakers' lawyer, Larry Parrish, issued a written statement last week saying that they had ended their custody fight. The Bakers contend Anna Mae will be emotionally devastated by leaving the only family she has known, "but further delaying the execution of what she must now suffer cannot be expected to help," Parrish wrote.

The high court said the Hes were penalized because they did not understand the American legal system and thought they were giving up their daughter temporarily so she could get health insurance. The family hit hard financial times when Shaoqiang He lost his graduate school scholarship and student stipend at the University of Memphis.

He also lost his student visa, but the immigration courts have held off on deportation proceedings because of the custody fight.

"I have to leave the United States," He said. "I promised the immigration judge I would take the voluntary departure after the custody issues were resolved."

But He said he hopes his family, which includes a son and another daughter born during the custody fight, can stay in the United States a while longer.

"I hope for the sake of Anna Mae's welfare they can give us ... one year or two years until Anna Mae is well adjusted," he said. Going to China sooner "might be too big a change for her right now."

Source: website of Forbes

Here is more on the story of the still-anonymous mother who resisted child protectors with force. In a repeat of the Emily Lake seizure the cops "protected" a boy by hitting him with pepper spray. We wonder how safe he feels now

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Police pepper-sprayed boy during standoff with mom: witness

Last Updated: Friday, July 20, 2007 | 7:27 AM NT, CBC News

St. John's police officers used pepper spray on a boy during a confrontation in which he and his siblings were seized from their defiant mother, her boyfriend says.

Sheriff's deputies escort a St. John's mother to provincial court on Thursday. (CBC)

The Royal Newfoundland Constabulary was called to the woman's home on Cookstown Road, near downtown St. John's, on Wednesday night to assist child protection workers who had arrived to take three children into custody.

The woman, however, refused to co-operate and barricaded her family inside the house in a confrontation that went on for hours.

At one point, police said, she swung a baseball bat at an officer's head, grazing but not injuring it.

"She didn't want them to go," the boyfriend, who was at the house during what he called a "crazy" confrontation, told CBC News.

His girlfriend "told the youngsters to sit down. [They were] running around, frightened to death."

CBC News is not identifying the woman or her boyfriend in order to protect the children's identities.

Const. Paul Davis said incidents like the Cookstown Road confrontation are unusual. (CBC)

The boyfriend said the woman's 12-year-old son was pepper-sprayed while he used a stick to keep a police officer from climbing through a window.

At that time, he said, the mother reached for a baseball bat.

The RNC confirmed pepper spray was used in the incident, but would not say on whom.

Const. Paul Davis said while officers are commonly called to escort social workers who remove children from homes, incidents like the Cookstown Road confrontation are unusual.

"It took a little bit of time," Davis said.

"It was a barricaded situation for a short period of time. We were able to resolve that without anybody being injured."

The RNC called a negotiator in to resolve the situation.

The mother appeared in provincial court on Thursday on a charge of assaulting a police officer. She was released until her next court appearance.

The children — the 12-year-old boy, his 11-year-old sister and their two-year-old brother — are in the custody of child protection officials.

Source: website of the CBC

A Newfoundland mother has used force to defend her family from child protectors coming to take her children. Because there are no names in the story, we will not be able to bring you a follow-up.

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St. John's woman arrested after child-protection standoff

Last Updated: Thursday, July 19, 2007 | 7:20 AM NT CBC News

Police arrested a St. John's woman following a confrontation that erupted after child protection workers arrived to remove children from her home.

The Royal Newfoundland Constabulary was called to a Cookstown Road home at about 9:45 p.m. to assist Child, Youth and Family Services employees, who were attempting to take three children into protection.

Police said the woman refused to co-operate with social workers, and had barricaded her door so that officers could not force their way in.

The confrontation lasted several hours, the RNC said.

The woman eventually gave up, although the RNC said the woman swung a baseball bat at one officer. The bat grazed the officer's head, although he was not injured.

The woman, 33, is scheduled to appear in court Thursday on charges of assault with a weapon, uttering threats and obstructing a police officer.

Source: website of the CBC

Sarnia's Smoking Gun, site of discussions regarding children's aid societies, has moved to a new web location. It is: svb3d.no-ip.biz/ssg/.

In April we reported on the disappearance of Sara Linklater, found the next day. Now she is missing again, this time from a foster home near Grimsby Ontario. She has twice voted with her feet against the quality of her foster care.

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Hamilton cops hunt for missing girl, 10

Sara Anne Linklater went missing Thursday.

July 15, 2007

BY DANA BORCEA

Police are appealing for help finding a 10-year-old girl who went missing from Waterdown.

Sara Anne Linklater recently moved from the Sudbury area to live in Smithville, near Grimsby. Mountain Staff Sergeant Bob Watts said while at an event at Parkside High School, she reportedly drove away in a car around 2:30 p.m.

Less than an hour later, the car was found abandoned at Guelph Line and the QEW in Burlington.

Police said Sara ‘looks and behaves older than she is.”

Foul play is not suspected in her disappearance. But police said she is considered a high risk because of her age.

He said Sara was relatively new to the area and may be trying to hitch hike north to visit relatives and friends in Sudbury, Sault Ste. Marie or Manitoulin Island.

“We are looking for any information from someone who may have seen her that could give us a clue,” said Watts.

Hamilton police have notified First Nations police and the OPP that she could be coming to their area.

Sara is described as native with a dark complexion, black hair kept in a pony tail. She was wearing a black tank top, flared blue jeans and white running shoes.

Anyone with information is asked to call their local police service or Hamilton police at 905-546-3886 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477.

dborcea@thespec.com, 905-526-3214

Source: website of the Hamilton Spectator

Canada Court Watch now has a former policeman who will help in interviewing victims of the family court system.

Ex Police officer helps in efforts to restore justice to family courts

(July 16, 2007) - An ex police officer who acknowledges that he has seen how family courts are responsible for many injustices against children and families has offered his services to conduct videotaped interviews of children who have been physically or emotionally abused or who have had their rights and freedoms violated while in the care of the CAS or by other agencies during family court proceedings. A growing number of professionals have contacted Court Watch in recent months to express their concern about what they see are a growing number of legitimate complaints against the family court system, the CAS and the Office of the Children's Lawyer. These professionals are asking what they can do to help restore justice in our courts. If you have a child who has been abused by the system and who is willing to speak out on videotape, then please contact Court Watch by email at info@canadacourtwatch.com

Source: Canada Court Watch

A mother using screen name Amy has posted the story of her son, returned from two years in CAS care and damaged beyond her ability to repair.

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child messed up

Amy
Posted: Sun Jul 15, 2007 3:36 pm

I do not think that I am the only one who has finally got there kid back from the CAS to find they are very messed up. A year or more of trauma at their hands will do that. So the traumatized kinda messed up kid gets returned and I find that because of the CAS repeatedly degrading me, cutting me down and making me seem powerless in front of them I have so little respect from my child left to be able to help him. So how do we regain parental respect back and work despite what the CAS has spent along time damaging and taking away?

This child was removed because a really dumb negligent unqualified CAS worker heard through the school that I was taking my child to a psychiatrist for help. I had just set up an appointment for my child when he was removed by this worker alleging that — this is true and is on the warrant to apprehend and in court record — I was seeking metal health help for the child. This worker who met my child once decided on his own that he did not need it and apprehended him (to save him from seeing an expert) and thus put my son through hell and prevented any of the help I was seeking for my son. The fact I was seeking help was used against me. This worker alleged that I was mentally ill, despite the professional reports to the contrary.

Now two years later, I am still not treated for any mental health issues I do not have and my son still needs help. But now he is over the age where I can force him. Before I could. This was when they took him and prevented me from getting him this help. He is now without the help I wanted to get for him before and I believe he is worse.

Now with the added trauma from the CAS he will not leave the house. He will not socialize. He rarely showers or changes clothes. He is very verbally abusive. He shot up our last house with his bow and arrow leaving holes in most of our walls. Well he did it again. Shooting out my window and making holes in freshly painted walls. He has also come close to starting fires and has damaged furniture with fires. Now I am told that he is too old to force into treatment. I am told that I can throw him out and this will force him into treatment. I do not want a throw-away kid and having seen what government organizations have done so far (CAS) sure do not want to trust them any further.

The CAS spent all this time tearing me down in my child's eyes and diminishing me, making it even harder to parent and get his respect enough to get him help. Nope he calls me all the names that the CAS told him I was, delusional, crazy, etc (for trying to get him help). He continues to damage the house, start fires, destroy rooms and runs into his room whenever anyone comes over.

The CAS are out now, but how do I fix up the mess they made now and get my son help so he can have a quality of life?

Source: Canada Court Watch forum

Ontario is about to lose its Minister of Children and Youth Services. Mary Anne Chambers has decided not to be a candidate in the provincial election this October. Her predecessor, Marie Bountrogianni, is also quitting politics.

Among the comments to the Globe and Mail:

• al isinwonderland from Canada writes:
  Leaving for health reasons, I hope it is nothing more serious than coming down with a bout of honesty.
• Karol Karolak from Canada writes:
  It is tough job having to defend Liberal policy of baby snatching and baby selling.

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Ontario Liberals lose cabinet minister Chambers

Canadian Press, July 11, 2007 at 12:02 PM EDT

TORONTO — The Liberals are losing another female cabinet minister this fall.

Toronto-area politician Mary Anne Chambers says she is not running again in the October election.

The minister of children and youth services says she is not seeking re-election for unspecified health reasons.

Ms. Chambers says it was a difficult decision to make but she is proud of her accomplishments since her election in 2003.

Premier Dalton McGuinty says Ms. Chambers worked tirelessly and with great passion for the province's most vulnerable residents.

Ms. Chambers is the latest Liberal woman leaving politics — Hamilton cabinet minister Marie Bountrogianni and backbencher Jennifer Mossop both announced they won't be seeking re-election in October either.

Source: website of the Globe and Mail

Massachusetts family lawyer Gregory Hession has written an article for the New American, a publication of the John Birch Society. While the mainstream press informs us of the antics of Paris Hilton, it is left to the specialty press to deal with the serious issues. Hession covers every stage in the protection process from the snitch network to the drugging of foster children to keep them docile.

There are reasons why the system does a bad job. Colleges churn out hordes of 23-year-old social-work graduates, childless and clueless, who are sent into homes to make life-changing decisions. Their formal education is grounded in doctrinaire Marxism and feminism, and they believe in their viscera that the state should communally raise children.

Another disincentive to changing the system is the fact that social workers are given legal immunity for almost any discretionary decision no matter what harm results to the children. Social workers exercise virtually unlimited power over families, with little accountability to anyone for overreaching or even for egregious offenses.

Read the full article on the website of the John Birch Society, or our local copy.

Police are looking for a mother, Jessilyn Paulhus, who has left Toronto with her baby. If she is found, her baby, Ryan Tenhave, will be taken and she will likely never see him again. If she keeps the baby, she will have to live in the shadows where it will be hard to get food for him. Will anyone suggest an amnesty to save this boy?

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Police Search For Mother And Missing 5-Month-Old Boy

Tuesday July 10, 2007, CityNews.ca Staff

He's just an infant, too young to know the fuss his presence - and absence - has caused. But Toronto Police have issued a notice about him, and are hoping you know where he - and his missing mother - is. They're concerned about 20-year-old Jessilyn Paulhus and her son Ryan Tenhave. The reason - the boy is only five months old and but weighs just 12 lbs. The Children's Aid Society had been monitoring the child until June 29th - when the mother and the kid suddenly disappeared from the Sherbourne and Carlton St. area.

Police aren't accusing the young mom of anything, but say they're worried about the welfare of the baby. "There's a warrant to apprehend the child," Detective Hugh Wong tells CityNews.ca. "The child would be taken into custody" as a safety precaution so the C.A.S. could continue to reassure itself the infant's in good condition.

Paulhus's mother lives out west and police here think she may have gone to either Calgary or B.C. But they need to find little Ryan to be sure he's O.K. The 20-year-old shouldn't be hard to spot. She has several distinguishing features that would be hard to hide. She's described as:

• White,
• 5'7",
• 115 lbs.,
• Light-brown hair shaved on the left side and longer on the right side
• Pierced tongue.

The 5-month-old is:

• White,
• 2',
• 12 lbs.,
• Light-brown hair,
• Blue eyes
• Fair complexion.

Cops were only informed of their absence a few days ago when the C.A.S. confirmed they were gone. If you know where they are now, call (416) 808-5100 or Crime Stoppers anonymously at (416) 222-TIPS.

Source: Website of City-TV

Addendum: Police have found the pair. As usual in this kind of case, they were astonished to find that the mother had not harmed her own baby.

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July 13, 2007

Missing mom and son found

By DOUG MCINTYRE

Cops have located a Toronto mother and her infant son reported missing earlier this week.

Toronto police enlisted the help of their Calgary colleagues after Jessilyn Paulhus, 20, and her five-month-old son Ryan Tenhave went missing last Friday.

At the time, it was believed the pair were headed to, or already in, Calgary or B.C.

Although police initially had concerns about the welfare of the infant, both mother and son were found unharmed.

Source: website of the Calgary Sun

The OPP and children's aid society are looking for a missing girl, Tasha Lavigne. The press release is silent about her living arrangements before her disappearance, so it is possible she ran away from CAS custody.

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SooToday.com

Mattawa girl missing

By SooToday.com Staff, Monday, July 09, 2007

OPP NEWS RELEASE

*****************************

Request for public assistance in locating youth

MATTAWA, ON - (July 9) - The Children's Aid Society and the North Bay Ontario Provincial Police are requesting assistance in locating 12-year-old Tasha Lavigne.

Tasha was last seen in Mattawa on Friday, June 22, 2007 and is believed to be in the North Bay area.

Tasha is five-feet, two-inches tall and approximately 120 pounds with dark brown shoulder-length hair and brown eyes.

She has a fair complexion with pierced ears.

She was last seen wearing blue jeans and a brown sweater and black running shoes with burgundy laces.

Any one having information or knowing her whereabouts are requested to call the OPP at 1-888-310-1122 or Crime Stoppers at 1-705-942-7867.

*****************************

Source: Sootoday website (online-only newspaper)

Addendum: The girl was reported found on July 18.

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Police track down missing Mattawa girl

Thursday, July 19, 2007 @ 08:00

Ontario Provincial Police said Wednesday they have found a girl reported missing Monday.

Tasha Lavigne, 12, of Mattawa, hadn't been seen since June 22 when she was reported missing.

Source: website of the North Bay Nugget

On Friday, July 6 thirty supporters of Canada Court Watch participated in an awareness event at the Barrie courthouse and surrounding areas. Flyers were handed to persons entering and leaving the courthouse for three hours. The manpower was large enough that leaflets were distributed throughout the city concurrently, so all activities were concluded by noon. A barbecue at the waterfront concluded the event.

Here are copies of the flyers:

• Recording your own court hearing is YOUR RIGHT in Ontario
• Barrie, Ontario family court destroyed our loving family: Teens
• Ontario Judicial Council condones breaking of the law by judges in Ontario

A Utah couple, James and Connie Roska, had their children taken without cause in 1999. After years of successful litigation in appellate courts they got a jury trial for damages. The jury awarded them $2 for their suffering.

This case illustrates a prerequisites for reform of child protection. It is not enough to write letters to newspaper editors or politicians. It is important as well to get the message out to people not yet involved with the child protection system.

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Skeptical jury awards just $2 for parents' pain over son's improper removal by state

But 1999 incident helped change family-rights laws

By Kirsten Stewart, The Salt Lake Tribune

Article Last Updated:07/03/2007 08:53:46 AM MDT

DCFS case workers Melinda Sneddon, left, and Colleen Lasater leave Federal Court on Monday after getting a verdict in their favor regarding the Roska family lawsuit against DCFS. (Francisco Kjolseth/The Salt Lake Tribune)

After watching Utah child-welfare caseworkers drive off with her 12-year-old son, Connie Roska collapsed on the front lawn of her Layton home.

She doesn't remember how she got back into the house.

But the hurt remains fresh for Roska and her husband, James, who testified tearfully in U.S. District Court last week about harms suffered due to Rusty's wrongful removal May 28, 1999. Sleepless nights, a missed graduation ceremony, depression and general distrust of governmental authorities were the suffering for which the Roskas said they deserve compensation.

It wasn't enough to sway a jury, which Monday rejected the couple's injury claim, awarding $2 in nominal damages.

Monday's verdict caps a six-day trial and nearly eight-year legal battle, which helped drive changes to Utah law aimed at safeguarding parents' rights.

But those changes are meaningless, if "you can violate the law without being punished," said the Roskas' lawyer Steven Russell. The Roskas left the courthouse Monday in tears and declined to comment.

The Roskas sued Shirley Morrison, a caseworker at Utah's Division of Child and Family Services, and her two supervisors, Colleen Lasater and Melinda Sneddon. A federal appeals court earlier had ruled the trio violated Utah law - and could be held personally liable - by taking Rusty into protective care without first offering services to his parents.

Caseworkers also violated the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution by taking Rusty without a hearing or warrant, their attorneys acknowledged.

But Utah Assistant Attorney General Matthew Bates asked jurors to "cut these social workers a little slack."

Bates said caseworkers are caring professionals who "work in an extremely demanding and thankless job" and said they followed their training.

"Folks, you don't get damages just because your constitutional rights were violated," Bates said. "This isn't 'The Price Is Right.' [The Roskas] need to prove they were injured."

Caseworkers argued they had no choice but to remove Rusty, who they feared was a victim of abuse, and that removals without due process were common in the late '90s. The practice led Morrison, who worked for the division for one year, to later become an advocate for falsely accused families.

In a taped phone call to the Roskas' attorney, she condemned the state's "Gestapo-style" tactics and agreed to be a witness for the Roskas. That changed when the Roskas sued.

Utah law since has been changed to require a warrant or hearing before removal, unless there's an emergency.

Still, Russell called caseworkers' claims of ignorance "an outrage," citing division training manuals underscoring that removal should be a last resort.

The Roskas alleged caseworkers yelled profanities and shoved children out of their way during Rusty's removal. Sneddon told Roska if she didn't carry Rusty out to the van, she would "drag him up the stairs," Russell said.

A neuropsychologist who examined the family said Rusty Roska, now 21 and living in his parents' home, and his parents display symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder. Connie has coped by trying to "save the world," working as a parental-rights advocate, while her husband "retreated from the world," Russell said. "He lost the trust of his son and the trust of himself as a father. He still blames himself for what happened."

Bates questioned the Roskas' damage claims, noting each had struggled with mental illnesses before Rusty's removal. "Jim still has a job. Connie runs a day care," he said. "They appear to be living normal lives."

Russell said the Roskas have nearly exhausted their chances to appeal, though they may revive injury claims for their children.

The state had twice offered to settle with the Roskas; once for $100,000 and again for a more generous sum.

Russell said suing the state wasn't an option for the Roskas due to Utah's immunity statute. He fears the verdict will have a chilling effect on future lawsuits. "I can't imagine anyone wanting to go through this after this trial."

kstewart@sltrib.com

The case in brief

• What happened: A jury found three Utah child-welfare workers owe only $2 in damages for the wrongful removal of a 12-year-old boy from his Davis County home.
• History: Social workers and school officials believed the boy was a victim of Munchausen's Syndrome by Proxy, a condition in which a parent acts as if a child is ill, or even causes the child's illness. A doctor corroborated his parents' assertion that he suffered from a kidney disorder. Nevertheless, workers took custody of the boy, who returned home after a week in foster care.

  A federal judge had dismissed the parents' lawsuit, but an appeals court ruled the workers were liable for violating Utah law by taking they boy without first offering services to his parents.

Source: website of the Salt Lake Tribune

In January 2005 Rhode Island governor Donald L Carcieri appointed Jametta O Alston to be the state's child advocate press release. Last Thursday she filed a suit alleging that children are being abused and killed in foster care. Contrast that to Ontario, where the child advocate interviews children and urges hiring more foster parents, all while ignoring the 83 children who died last year under CAS watch.

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Governor vows to 'get to the bottom' of foster care lawsuit

The Associated Press

By Eric Tucker, Associated Press Writer | July 2, 2007

PROVIDENCE, R.I. --Gov. Don Carcieri vowed Monday to "get to the bottom" of allegations contained in a federal lawsuit that the state's foster care system is so broken that children have been placed back with foster parents who abused them, shuttled between more than a dozen homes or even killed in foster care.

"Are the allegations in fact true? Do we have any failings in terms of procedure or policy? Do we have possibly some bad decisions being made?" Carcieri said after a meeting with state child advocate Jametta Alston, who filed the lawsuit Thursday. "I don't know any of that right now, but we're going to get to the bottom of it."

Alston brought the lawsuit, which is seeking class action status, on behalf of the 3,000 children currently in Rhode Island's foster care system. The lawsuit cites federal data that show Rhode Island had the nation's highest rate of abuse or neglect of foster care children in five of the six years between 2000 and 2005.

"If we have youngsters that are being abused that are in our care ... I want it to stop now, and I want to get to the bottom of it," Carcieri said.

Ten children were identified with pseudonyms in the complaint, which included disturbing allegations about their cases and the foster care system.

For instance, the suit says the Department of Children, Youth and Families returned two brothers to their parents even though one of the boys had reported being sexually abused by his father. The month after they were returned, the complaint says, one boy had a bruise around his eye and one had a large mark on his neck.

The lawsuit says one 5-year-old boy was sexually assaulted in his foster home, while another child spent time in more than 14 different homes and institutions -- including one where he was allegedly sexually abused by a roommate.

Patricia Martinez, the director of the department -- which was sued along with the governor -- said she could not comment on any of the alleged abuse cases since her staff was still in the early stages of investigating them. But she said she was troubled by the allegations.

"If we find that we failed a system, that a provider failed, then you bet that we will take corrective actions," Martinez said.

Some of the cases are already several years old, so some of the staff members involved in these cases may no longer be associated with the department, Martinez said.

The suit says caseworkers are so overburdened that children might not get a visit from them for months and contends that children languish for long periods of time in the foster care system because the department is slow in finding them permanent adoptive homes.

Carcieri said Monday that Alston had given him the full names of the children cited in the lawsuit. He said he would be briefed Tuesday by DCYF about their cases and that it was possible that caseworkers would be fired if they knew about problems but did not fix them.

Problems at the department came to the public's attention after 3-year-old T.J. Wright died in foster care in 2004. His aunt and her live-in boyfriend have pleaded not guilty to beating him to death. Their cases have not reached trial.

Carcieri and Alston said they did not discuss specifics of the lawsuit during their conversation but instead focused on ways to improve communication. The governor said he had not been aware of the alleged abuse until he read news accounts of the lawsuit.

Lisa Guillette, executive director of the Rhode Island Foster Parents Association, said it's critical that caseworkers have manageable workloads since they're relied upon to identify problems.

"The stories of the plaintiffs demonstrate systemic failure in a lot of ways -- lack of oversight, lack of adequate support for the children and the placements that are serving them," Guillette said.

Source: website of the Boston Globe

Addendum: Here is a copy of the complaint (pdf).

Here is a YouTube video of three girls stolen from mom and dad in British Columbia. Controversial material often disappears from YouTube in a few days, so watch now. The parents describe their own video as:

Added: June 29, 2007
From: abusiveministry

3 sisters taken out of the blue from ... 3 sisters taken out of the blue from their home, separated, isolated, interrogated for months, lied to by the police and social workers. The girls call it jail. They want to see each other more, see their friends, and go home. But BC MCFD have their best interests at heart by antagonizing them to hate the system they have been thrown into. They are not allowed to talk about any thing that happens to them in foster care no matter how outrageous or abusive. If they really have our children's best interests at heart what is BC MCFD trying to hide by not letting the children be allowed to speak out about their feelings and thoughts.

www.abusive-ministry.ca/ — Sign on and tell your story.

The newspaper article below gives some idea of the chaotic state of the social services system in the province, and why it is impossible for parents to get their children back.

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Victoria(British Columbia) Times-Colonist

June 20, 2001

Column: A Closer Look

Jody Paterson

Uncaring bureaucrat the worst of parents

This says it all: One of the things that now counts against you when the B.C. government is deciding whether to take your children away is whether they also took you away from your parents. In other words, child apprehension begets child apprehension.

Each new generation of state-parented children grows into adults who may end up poor parents themselves. With 10,000 or so children in care in B.C. in any given year and 70,000 across the country, it's a substantial concern. I've, heard the explanations as to why the state makes a lousy parent. Too few foster homes, not enough social workers, caseloads beyond reason.

The children are difficult, the parents troubled, the issues complex. And while your flesh-and-blood parents are there for you long after you turn 19, the state hands you a welfare cheque and considers its job done. But if that's how it is, then there has to be a better way.

Because a government that takes messed-up children away from their homes only to mess them up even more has certainly strayed far from the business of child protection.

Listen to the recent court testimony of local social worker David Roy, who did his job so poorly in one ongoing child-protection case that a provincial court judge deemed last month that he'd breached four of his Ministry's laws, most notably not acting in the child's best interests. Asked if he was aware of the rule requiring regular reviews of plans for children in care, Roy told the court, "I'm aware of the standard, and I'm also aware that we are not meeting the standard. Standards are not being met in any particular case in our office, as far as I know." In fact, the child, - now almost four - has been in care most of his life without anyone in government bothering to map out what's needed to raise him right. Roy said he kept his plans "in his head", noting that a 1999 audit found the government complied with its own regulation in less than a third of all cases. That's an improvement; a couple years before that, it was eight percent.

Roy was involved in the case for two years, during which time he never read the child's file, didn't know the boy was aboriginal, didn't develop a care plan, shredded police documents, made up a hospitalization to bolster his case that the father should be denied access, and blocked one parent or another at every turn through 23 court appearances,

The parents were helpless. The act that governs child apprehensions packs plenty of punch when it comes to the government exercising its rights, but has no remedies for wayward social workers.

Roy's supervisors couldn't intervene, as the only one who can yank a B.C.social worker off a child-custody case is the director of child protection. Even the judge had to work hard to find a way to punish Roy. He ordered the Ministry of Children and Family Development to pay $2,000 to the parents' lawyers, Shannon Buchan and Lex Reynolds, in recognition of the lawyers' dogged (and often unpaid) determination to set things right. And he contemplated bringing contempt-of-court charges against Roy, but decided "indifference and neglect" were not sufficient grounds.

Roy was eventually pulled off the case and his other cases have since been audited by the ministry, which isn't commenting I guess it's a win for somebody, although it's hard to say who. The child who sparked it all is still in the custody of the ministry. His parents and their lawyers thought they'd have to answer all sorts of questions when the ministry investigated Roy. But no one ever called.

Source: Victoria Times-Colonist, recovered from Sarnia's Smoking Gun

Canada Court Watch has organized an event to draw attention to the children and families adversely affected by Ontario's family courts.

The event will start at 9 am Friday July 6, 2007 in front of the courthouse at 114 Worsley Street, Barrie. Participants may meet ahead of time at the Barrie McDonald's, 85 Dunlop Street West, corner of Toronto Street, from 7:30 to 9. For full details, see the announcement from Canada Court Watch (pdf).

More on the death of Matthew Reid.

Let's review. A girl is taken from mom and dad for reasons not yet published. She is placed for adoption in a forever family along with her siblings But the adoption fails after she assaults her younger sister, and she goes back to foster care. At age 14 she elopes with a man, but is soon arrested for stealing the getaway car. Children's aid treats her like a baby, putting her in a new foster home without alerting the foster family to her history of assault. Within a day she kills Matthew Reid. Now at age 15 she functions at a mental level of a six year old, a condition that could be congenital or drug-induced.

The girl has "pleaded guilty", though in normal legal practice such a plea cannot come from someone with such diminished faculties. Her parents, the crown, hired a lawyer for her who convinced her to plead. A court is now deciding whether to punish her as an adult. In doing so, it avoids the question of whether to punish the social workers as adults.

The money grabbers are not done with this case. Tony Van Schie, probation manager of youth justice services in Niagara, is maneuvering for $100,000 per year on behalf of the girl.

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Mental capacity key in sentencing of teen who murdered toddler

By Amy Lazar, Standard Staff

Thursday, June 28, 2007 - 01:00

Local News - Fidgeting and unable to sit still, the 15-year-old girl awaiting her sentence for the second-degree murder of toddler Matthew Reid had a hard time paying attention in court Thursday.

The girl, whose identity is protected by the Youth Criminal Justice Act, is at the “cognitive age of six,” said Dr. Lindley Bassarath, referring to his recent interviews with her and a psychological assessment done last year.

“She can be treated, yes, but how much she can gain from the treatment is the question,” Bassarath said from the witness box in a St. Catharines courtroom.

The psychiatrist, an assistant professor at the University of Toronto and head of adolescent services at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, was the first of six experts to be called before Judge Ann Watson to provide insight into whether the girl should be sentenced as a youth or an adult.

The Crown is seeking an adult sentence.

The girl pleaded guilty to second-degree murder on Jan. 22, a little more than a year after three-year-old Matthew was found dead, suffocated and smeared with blood in his bedroom.

It happened the morning of Dec. 15, 2005 — less than a day after the girl arrived at the Welland home where both children were in foster care.

At the time, the girl was 14 and had lived in various foster homes before being adopted along with her biological brother and sister.

She was later removed from the home after assaulting her sister and was placed under foster care in Niagara Falls.

While in that home, she started a sexual relationship with a man and later stole her foster family’s van to meet him at a hotel room.

She was arrested and charged, and upon her release, placed in the Welland foster home where Matthew was living.

Matthew’s mother said he was placed in foster care because the Haldimand-Norfolk Children’s Aid Society believed she suffered from depression, though she denies she was an unfit mother and still has custody of a second son.

Calling the girl’s behaviour pattern into question, assistant Crown attorney Patricia Vadacchino asked Bassarath about a diagnosis of fetal alcohol syndrome.

A lack of information from her biological mother made it impossible to formally diagnose the girl, but Bassarath said she exhibits symptoms of suffering from an alcohol-related neurological developmental disorder.

She also has a mild intellectual disability, an attachment disorder and attention deficit hyperactive disorder, Bassarath said.

For more than a year, the girl has been in custody at a youth centre, where she has been under close supervision, receiving school instruction and counselling.

Moving her to an adult institution for the remainder of a sentence would disrupt her, Bassarath said, and it would also put a girl who is easily persuaded in the company of older women with poor social skills, which could cause problems.

The court also heard from Terri Austin, a parole supervisor with Correction Services of Canada, who explained that the Grand Valley Institution for women in Kitchener has a program for offenders with special needs.

However, it is a short-term program that transitions women into the regular prison routine, which is not as highly supervised, Austin said.

The downside of placing the girl in an adult institution is that she won’t be able to access the rehabilitative program through the Ministry of Child and Youth Services, said Tony Van Schie, probation manager of youth justice services in Niagara.

Van Schie told court up to $100,000 of federal funding per child per year is available and the girl’s mental health issues make her a good candidate for the program.

Court will resume Aug. 7 in St. Catharines.

Source: website of the St. Catharines Standard

Ontario Ombudsman André Marin has released his Annual Report 2006-2007. Mr Marin recognizes that readers are more likely to respond to an entertaining report than a dull one, and has livened up the presentation with clever language and cartoons. Below we include the portions relating to children's aid societies.

The Ombudsman has posted the transcript of today's online chat.

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BEYOND SCRUTINY

At times we in the Office of the Ombudsman have to say “no” – and not only to complaints that do not have merit. We are forced to say “no” thousands of times a year to citizens with serious problems because of a discreditable technicality: We do not have jurisdiction. We have been shut out of what I like to call the MUSH sector, which stands for municipalities, universities, school boards, hospitals and long-term care facilities, and other organizations such as police and children’s aid societies. These areas consume the bulk of provincial budgets, and more importantly, they represent the most serious contacts that Ontarians can have with their government. Yet they are immune from our scrutiny.

Over the last year, I have continued the quest to offer oversight in these critically important areas, but to no avail. It is not a mission I initiated. Ever since the great Arthur Maloney, the first Ombudsman of Ontario, filed his 600-page post-retirement report in 1979, my predecessors have been calling for the modernization of this Office’s mandate. It has not happened in Ontario, even though most other provincial ombudsmen have jurisdiction over most of these critically sensitive sectors.

The failure of Ontario to permit its citizens to seek shelter in my Office when things go wrong within these zones of immunity is not due to lack of demand. As the next section of this report – “Oversight Denied” – documents, we have had to decline nearly 2,400 pleas for help involving the MUSH sector this past year alone. Thousands of Ontarians are seeking our help in areas that our statute and our website make clear are outside our purview. How many more complaints would we have if we could act on them? And support of Ombudsman oversight in these areas is not limited to those who are desperately seeking help – an online poll conducted by the Toronto Star in May 2007 indicated that of more than 1,800 respondents, some 94% were in favour of ombudsman oversight of Ontario hospitals.

It is not as if our Office is not up to overseeing these areas. As this report chronicles, our systemic investigations have been done professionally, efficiently and inexpensively and have produced a perfect track record of improvement. Our work has saved tax dollars, improved the quality of life of those who have sought our aid, and without the pain, uncertainty, expense and delay of litigation.

Nor can it be said that the MUSH sector is not in need of independent oversight. As the next section of this report explains, while there are bodies with jurisdiction over some of these areas, deeply disturbing gaps remain. Moreover, none of the empowered agencies has the same combination of independence, investigative experience and investigative powers as the Ombudsman’s Office.

Consider, for example, children’s aid societies (CASs). While spending irregularities at CASs are now subject to the review of the province’s Auditor General, their child protection policies and practices – which if flawed can literally be a matter of life and death for a child – are still not subject to investigative review or a rigorous complaints system.

The legacy of Jeffrey Baldwin, whose terrible death in 2002 highlighted failings in Ontario’s ability to safeguard our children, should have been the establishment of a powerful, independent mechanism to oversee and investigate CASs. Instead, when the Child and Family Services Statute Law Amendment Act, 2006 was proclaimed in force in November 2006, it simply provided for the limited expansion of the Child and Family Services Review Board’s mandate. The board may well be an effective adjudicative tribunal, but it has neither the power to conduct investigations in response to complaints nor the ability to address systemic problems.

In response to my advice that these new provisions fell far short of what was required, the government touted the review board – which remains an agency of the Ministry of Children and Youth Services – as “an independent, arm’s-length third party.” It described the new complaints process as “smoother, stronger and more objective” and even suggested that my Office would play a “key role” as a “critical check and balance,” because ultimately we would have jurisdiction to consider complaints about the Child and Family Services Review Board. What this fails to acknowledge is that my role in such cases would be restricted to investigating only the conduct of the board itself. I continue to be blocked from effectively investigating the complaints it receives against CASs.

To compound this situation, instead of being empowered to tackle significant issues regarding child welfare protection policies and practices, the board’s authority is largely focused on procedural defects relating to the administration of CASs. Substantive complaints regarding the services sought or received from children’s aid societies remain subject only to internal review. The promise of a system of external, transparent, and accountable oversight of the complaints process was never kept. While the government has also put forward Bill 165, the Provincial Advocate for Children and Youth Act, 2007, which establishes the creation of a new legislative officer to advocate on behalf of Ontario’s children and youth, this positive step is only a very small part of what is needed to ensure an effective system of protection for Ontario’s children. A strong, independent investigative oversight mechanism for complaints is still glaringly absent in Ontario.

ZONES OF IMMUNITY

As these recent inadequate legislative changes relating to the child protection area illustrate, the government has clearly chosen to keep this zone immune from Ombudsman oversight. As well, it has introduced legislation touching on oversight of the police (Bill 103, the Independent Police Review Act, 2007) and dealing with municipalities (Bill 130, the Municipal Statute Law Amendment Act, 2006), and largely shut us out of both. It has also refused to endorse opposition bills that would give my Office jurisdiction over children’s aid societies, school boards, hospitals and long-term care facilities.

All of this leaves unanswered the question of why government policy-makers have resisted strengthening oversight of the MUSH sector. I have heard rationalizations that range from standard excuses to the truly bizarre and unacceptable. For instance, it has been proposed that individuals can always launch a lawsuit if they are unhappy – an expensive, time-consuming and acrimonious process that would be out of the question for many Ontarians. In the case of children’s aid societies, it has even been suggested that the coroner’s pediatric death review committee was somehow an adequate stand-in for the Ombudsman – even though, unlike that committee, we would not have to await the death of a child to intercede. Then there’s the “we have always done it this way” excuse, which was used to explain the illogical exclusion of the Ombudsman from police oversight. The most incredible explanation might be the “it’s premature” evasion offered by the Ontario Hospital Association, advising that we should wait and see how the province’s praiseworthy but irrelevant “adverse events reporting” initiative works out.

I am reluctant to appear cynical, but it seems the real reason for all this is self-interest. Why would a government resist bringing this Office’s scrutiny into areas costing the provincial purse tens of billions of dollars? The short answer is because it can. If you and those who report to you have been permitted to do your work without someone looking over your shoulder, why would you want to change that? This, however, is not about politics but an important public principle. Institutions that receive funds from the province to perform a public duty should be subject to the full panoply of checks and balances, not some watered-down or incomplete version that allows them to operate in a zone of immunity. Until the Ombudsman’s mandate is modernized, thousands of Ontarians will have no recourse to an independent investigative oversight body in critically important areas of their lives, and the Office will remain powerless to help them.

A PARTING PROMISE

Since I have pursued the theme of promises here, let me end by making a few more on behalf of my team. We pledge to continue to work hard to hold the government to the promises that it has made and to put the “serve” back in public service. As well, we will continue to work to roll back zones of immunity and extend the remarkable tool of ombudsmanry to those Ontario citizens who experience problems in their dealings with their cities and towns, their schools, their hospitals, their police, and the child protection system.

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OVERSIGHT DENIED

Unlike in other provinces, the Ombudsman of Ontario does not have jurisdiction over what can be called the MUSH sector (comprising municipalities, universities, school boards and hospitals and long-term care facilities, as well as children’s aid societies and the police). In the past year, our Office has had to decline thousands of complaints because of this. The breakdown is as follows:

Selected Non-Jurisdictional Complaints and Inquiries Received During Fiscal Year 2006-2007 Total: 2,395
Universities	37
School Boards	102
Hospitals and Long-Term Care Facilities	237
Police and the O.C.C.P.S.*	376
Children’s Aid Societies	600
Municipalities	1043

* Ontario Civilian Commission on Police Services

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CHILDREN’S AID SOCIETIES

The Ombudsman continues to receive hundreds of complaints about children’s aid societies (CASs) – 600 in the past year, up from 436 in 2005-06 – but cannot investigate them. Many of these complaints and inquiries were from families concerned about the welfare of children under CAS care. Some alleged that children were sexually abused while in care, while two distraught families expressed concerns about the adequacy of CAS supervision after their children had died. Others spoke of retaliatory actions taken by CAS staff when families had complained. Some complainants were upset about CAS staff failing to exercise a duty of care; others that they overreacted where they should have shown restraint.

In December 2006, in response to the provincial Auditor General’s first-ever audit of children’s aid societies under an expanded mandate (he reviewed the four largest), the Ministry of Children and Youth Services announced the creation of an Accountability Office to monitor CAS performance. However, to date, children and their families have no recourse to an independent oversight body to investigate complaints about services sought or received from Ontario’s 53 children’s aid societies – a situation that does not exist in any other province.

“Mr. Marin isn’t asking for anything more than to simply answer the hundreds of complaints he receives every month. Until you’ve lost a child or have had your rights trampled on, you’ll never quite know just how important the Ombudsman’s job really is.”
– LETTER TO THE EDITOR, NEWMARKET/AURORA ERA BANNER, JULY 6, 2006

In December 2005, the Ombudsman appeared before the Standing Committee examining Bill 210, which amended the Child and Family Services Act. He urged that it be changed to allow the Ombudsman to investigate complaints about CASs. Instead, the amended Act – which came into force on Nov. 30, 2006 – merely broadened the adjudicative authority of the Child and Family Services Review Board. The regulations confirm that complaints about the accuracy of a CAS file or record must go through the CAS’s internal process before being raised with the board. The board has paltry remedial power, including steps such as ordering a “note of disagreement” to be added to a complainant’s file, confirming a CAS’s decision, or ordering a CAS to provide written reasons for a decision. Moreover, complaint areas within its jurisdiction are essentially procedural. The type of complaints that may be raised include, for example, that a CAS has failed to respond to a complaint within the required time frame; failed to comply with the complaint review procedure; failed to give a child or parent an opportunity to be represented when decisions affecting their interests are made; or failed to provide reasons for a decision. The board does not investigate complaints about the conduct of children’s aid societies and there remains no independent external body that can do so.

The limitations of this framework mean serious cases where children are being hurt or in danger will continue to fall through the cracks – and families will have nowhere to turn for independent investigative help. The Ombudsman recently had to turn away two such families:

THE STORY OF “J”

Eight-year-old J had been diagnosed with and treated for a number of psychiatric conditions when he was made a temporary ward of the CAS and placed in a group home. While there, he was prescribed additional medication. J’s grandparents became progressively concerned about his medication regime, and what they viewed as his deteriorating condition. They claim the CAS did not listen to their concerns. They were eventually able to obtain guardianship of J, supported by a psychologist who criticized the high doses of psychotropic drugs he had been subjected to while in CAS care. After a 10-month period of detoxification, J is now thriving. His grandparents raised a number of concerns with the Ombudsman, including the society’s refusal to act on their concerns, threats of loss of visitation while J was in the group home, failure to disclose alleged sexual abuse, and refusal to respond to their letters. We were forced to decline their complaint as out of our Office’s jurisdiction.

THE STORY OF SERENA AND SOPHIA CAMPIONE

After three-year-old Serena Campione and her one-year old sister Sophia were found dead in a Barrie apartment in October 2006, their mother was charged with two counts of first-degree murder. The deaths took place in the midst of acrimonious divorce proceedings and allegations of domestic assault against the girls’ father, Leonardo Campione. The girls’ mother had reportedly been hospitalized three times in the previous year for psychiatric problems, and the girls had been cared for by their paternal grandparents. After the tragic death of his daughters, Mr. Campione complained to the Ombudsman that the CAS staff responsible for supervising his children while in their mother’s care were negligent. He did not understand how his estranged wife, who had displayed such difficulty in caring for the children, could have been allowed custody. The Ombudsman is powerless to investigate his allegations, and the Child and Family Services Review Board does not have the power to investigate the actions of the CAS. Nor does it have the power to review systemic issues such as what process the society has in place to deal with placement and supervision of children when a parent has suffered acute psychiatric problems. These issues could potentially be examined by the Ontario coroner’s pediatric death review committee or a coroner’s inquest, given that the children are dead. However, there is no opportunity for independent investigative oversight to address errors of the kind alleged before they become fatal.

On April 5, 2006, MPP Andrea Horwath introduced a private member’s bill, Bill 88, the Ombudsman Amendment Act (Children’s Aid Societies), 2006, proposing that the Ombudsman be given authority to investigate the conduct of children’s aid societies. The bill died when the House was prorogued on June 5, 2007.

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ANOTHER MISSED OPPORTUNITY

“Despite all the government rhetoric that ‘children are our future,’ we in Ontario are choosing to rid ourselves of hundreds of these serious allegations every year by taking a trip to the dum