click for help

collapse

On this page press one of the expand buttons to see the full text of an article. Later press collapse to revert to the original form. The button below expands all articles.

show all

More recent news

The only stories favorable to children's aid come from insiders, or persons never having had personal contact. The story below seems to be an uplifting story of a man helped by children's aid, but really comes from an insider. We have still never heard a non-employee tell of a favorable personal experience with children's aid.

expand

collapse

CAS SUPPORTER Phil Grimes credits the CAS with helping turn his life around.

CAS helped Grimes turn his world around

By Tim Whitnell, Special to the Beaver, Nov 30, 2007

Phil Grimes says he's the exception to the rule when it comes to success stories about children removed from their home due to parental neglect or abuse and placed into a group home setting.

He's been the victim of ill treatment at his own home as a youngster, bounced around various foster and group homes, lived on his own as a teenager and heard similar stories from others over the years, but he hit a breaking point when a recent story went public that put the Halton Children's Aid Society (CAS) in a bad light.

The 34-year-old Burlington resident, at one time a ward of the Halton CAS for 14 consecutive years, feels the organization has been maligned once too often.

He decided to go public with his own haunting history and eventual redemption, with the help of the CAS, after sensing the organization was under fire.

He says he had heard enough criticism after seeing a story in The Oakville Beaver about CAS client files -- loaded with sensitive information about clients -- being inadvertently left at a private home by a visiting CAS worker.

The family in possession of the confidential files took the faux pas public and the CAS felt some heat from the fallout.

"It always brings out the ugly face of the community," Grimes said of such situations involving the CAS.

The Halton CAS currently has a clientele of about 220, newborns to age 21, some deemed temporary wards who are still at home with their parents with CAS oversight and others who are full Crown wards and placed in either foster or group homes.

"I could give you 30-40 success stories," said Grimes.

His own at times harrowing story is one of them.

"I have three siblings and when I was six we were placed in CAS care," in north Halton. "At that time they didn't take four in one (foster) family so we went separate ways. I was with my younger brother for a while, but he had different needs," Grimes said, explaining that they too ended up in separate homes not long after.

"My dad would come home drunk (occasionally) and think he was the Incredible Hulk and throw me and him (younger brother) around the room. Dad would pick me up by the ears and hold me against the wall. The house was very dirty and we had scabies," a skin disease caused by mites, he recalled.

"At six years old I would have Coke and cereal for dinner. My dad would be passed out and we'd go get groceries."

He admits they stole items from stores on occasion.

"It was always a survival tactic," he said.

As for his mother, Grimes said she was basically absent during the confrontations.

"I think a lot of times she just left the house because she couldn't handle it, or didn't want to.... I had an alcoholic father and my mom had four kids by the age of 21. There was a 15-year age difference between them."

Possibly the worst family incident was one that Grimes said was never reported to the CAS.

He recalled a time when his parents got into separate vehicles and drove at each other on purpose. One of Grimes' older sisters tried to stand between them and was hit and hurt.

"If CAS didn't step in, I think one of us would have been killed."

Grimes kicked around several foster homes in Halton.

He swears he was a good kid who encountered unfortunate luck such as a few of his foster families eventually having their own babies and not being able or willing to continue looking after him.

"I was not a bad kid. I always had ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder). I still just go, go, but I'm not on (medication). I was always fiddling in school; I was just an energetic kind of kid," he said.

By the age of 14 Grimes had been in at least half a dozen foster homes and said he told CAS officials he wanted to try a group home.

It was a mistake, in hindsight.

"I'm telling you, you don't want to live in a group home. It's just a bunch of crazies. I was in a group home in Oakville with six kids between 12-16. You get a lot of manipulation. We had cops there every week because someone had stolen a bike or run away."

He said the group home staff did the best they could, but he decided he needed out of there.

"You're lucky if two out of 10 who come out of there are well adjusted. Fostering is the (better) way to go. I've kept in contact with some of the guys and they're doing well, too. Some have gone on to jail. I've seen a few guys in downtown Hamilton." He said he's not sure if they were okay, homeless or jobless.

Unable to endure group home life anymore, Grimes said he made the unusual request to CAS to let him live on his own. He said he eventually rented a unit on his own on Kerr Street in Oakville at the age of 15. He was supported by minimal provincial government assistance payments.

"When you move out on your own you find out who your friends are," he said.

From there, things have mostly worked out well for Grimes.

He graduated from Sheridan College after studying law and security; he also attended McMaster University.

Grimes was under the care of the CAS until age 21.

He said young adults can continue to remain with a CAS under a special extended care and maintenance agreement if they attend college or university.

While the CAS continues to monitor your personal progress, the provincial government will give you monthly funding.

Grimes now runs his own financial planning business, has been on the Halton CAS volunteer board of directors for eight years and is past president of the Halton CAS Foundation.

He's been married for 10 years to Denise, an Oakville native whom he met at a summer camp for CAS kids where both of them were camp counsellors. They have two children, Abigail, 1, and Maddi, 4.

Denise marvels at how far her husband has come since his troubled youth.

"We are from totally different backgrounds," she said, noting she grew up in a stable home. She has three sisters and has parents who have been married 40 years.

"He came from an abusive background, a family torn apart. Most kids in that situation wouldn't do well."

Said Phil, "I'd give everything up to go back to what she had," he said of his wife's childhood. "There were times at Christmas with no presents. A lot of my drive (to succeed) has come from when I was in the gutter a few times," he said.

"He made the right choices and had an amazing support worker," Denise observed.

The saving grace for Grimes for much of his turbulent adolescence and young adult life was Halton CAS employee Cynthia Thomas.

"Cynthia is like my mom. I was with her from age 9-21. She was my case worker."

Speaking of his mother, Diane, Grimes said she is 55 and living in Kentucky. His father, Richard, died last year.

"She's remarried, but I don't have any contact with her," he said of his biological mom, even though he says she comes up here occasionally to see one of her daughters; Grimes' brother has gone to the U.S. to visit her.

The last time he talked to his mother was more than three years ago, on the phone. The last time they saw each other was at Grimes' wedding about 10 years ago.

"We've tried," he said of connecting with his mom. "She's very emotional. We would call on her birthday and she wouldn't call on mine. In the last 20 years I've seen her three times. It isn't that I blame her. I've said, 'Let the past be the past and move on.'"

Grimes noted all his siblings, older sisters Kathleen and Christine and younger brother Chris, have turned out well. One older sister lives in Georgetown and has three kids.

The other sister lives in Nova Scotia and has two children. His brother works fulltime and has a girlfriend.

They all keep in contact.

The executive director of the Halton CAS Foundation, the fundraising arm of the organization, has nothing but praise for the way Grimes handled his tumultuous upbringing and the things he's doing now to help others going through similar struggles.

"I've known Phil for a long, long time and he truly is a success story, showing such determination in getting his life on track and with his business," said Tina Blatchford.

"He's an ambassador for us. He talks the talk and walks the walk and volunteers with our youth group. He's a real mentor and a real hero to the kids."

Source: website of Niagara this Week

The part of the article that matters is at the end. The NDP plans to call for creation of a health-care ombudsman. Maybe they can attach it to their proposal in the last parliament to let the provincial ombudsman look into child protection cases.

expand

collapse

Hospital death-rate report triggers calls for action

SIMON HAYTER/TORONTO STAR FILE PHOTO Death rates for Humber River Regional Hospital were not in a recent study due to a flaw in the method of data collection, a hospital spokesperson said.

Publicizing rankings `revolutionary': Minister

December 01, 2007, Kerry Gillespie, Tanya Talaga, Robert Cribb, Staff Reporters

Calling the public release of Ontario hospital death rates "revolutionary," Health Minister George Smitherman said the province is contacting hospitals with poor scores to see what can be done to better protect patients.

"Those hospitals that have not been seen to perform well will feel under the most intense pressure to take remedial action," Smitherman said. "The pressure will come from transparency."

For the first time, Ontarians can know death rates in their local acute care hospitals thanks to the release of a breakthrough study Thursday by the Canadian Institute for Health Information.

"It's not out there to be a consumer tool, it is more out there to help hospitals," said CIHI's Christina Lawand. "What are the factors making it higher or lower?"

It's easy to tell which Ontario hospitals will be the target of ministry interest.

The numbers point out which hospitals have above-average patient death rates. The death rate figures – referred to as hospital standardized mortality ratios (HSMR) – compare actual deaths in a hospital with the national average after adjusting for differences in types of patients the hospital cares for.

A score below 100 is better than average while anything above is worse than average. Three Ontario hospitals top the list of worst performers in Canada. The Scarborough Hospital's General site scored 134, while the Niagara Health System's St. Catharines General site scored 135. Kitchener's Grand River Hospital K.W. Health Centre scored 142. "Our first point will be to say: `Are there things we can do to be more helpful as you work to address this?'" Smitherman said in an interview yesterday.

The disclosure of hospital death rates follows a year-long Star investigation into medical secrecy that raised questions about a lack of public reporting in Canada. As part of the series "Medical Secrets," the Star urged CIHI to reveal hospital names with reportable data.

The University Health Network, a large urban teaching hospital, has put measures in place to save lives and as a result the group of hospitals had the lowest death rate score in Toronto (at 87), said Dr. Alan Hudson, a neurosurgeon leading the drive to bring wait times down in five key areas.

"The boards will now pay attention because it is publicly reported," said Hudson. "This is a spotlight shone on them publicly."

But one Toronto-area hospital that has avoided the spotlight so far is Humber River Regional Hospital. The hospital's numbers are not reported in the CIHI study, the result of a discrepancy in data-collection methods, said Gerrard Power, a spokesperson for the hospital.

"We didn't withhold our data," he said. "The way we code end of life patients somehow ... became coded as unexpected deaths. (CIHI) said (they'll) go back and look at it."

If a hospital didn't report its numbers, the Ontario health ministry won't assume it's hiding bad scores. But Toronto resident Joe Pingitore is angry Humber River Regional Hospital didn't release its numbers.

"It really struck a chord," said Pingitore, who is unhappy with the care his 89-year-old mother received at the hospital following her stroke. "If they aren't reporting, there is a reason why."

Many people living in Humber River's catchment area are low-income earners. "The community deserves to know their numbers – there is no excuse for not releasing them," said Paul Ferreira, a consultant who was the former MPP for York South-Weston. "This is one of the neediest areas in the city. Folks need to know they are getting first-class health care. Hiding numbers doesn't tell them that."

In the Toronto area, the best death rate scores belong to the University Health Network – made up of Princess Margaret, Toronto General and Toronto Western. Brampton's Peel Memorial Hospital, part of William Osler Health Centre, also did well with a score of 81.

The publication of hospital death rates in Ontario is already prompting moves toward greater oversight of patient safety.

The provincial New Democrats are calling on the government to create an ombudsman's office.

"It's one thing to put out the statistics, but bringing in an ombudsman who has the mandate to follow through ... would be a good way to make sure hospitals that rate poorly take it really seriously and do something about it," said NDP MPP and health critic France Gélinas (Nickel Belt).

"(The statistics) are close to terrible ... but I have all the faith in the world that our system is going to be able to react and the next time those statistics are measured we will do better," she said.

But an ombudsman with the power to investigate individual cases and systemic issues would speed that up, Gélinas said.

The NDP will be reintroducing their private member's bill calling for a health-care ombudsman in the coming weeks, she said.

Source: website of the Toronto Star

Here is a new reason to avoid divorce — it harms the earth. While voluntary divorce may be difficult to curb, shotgun divorce imposed by social services against the will of both parents could be ended with a simple policy change. Come on, policy makers! Do your share to save the earth!

expand

collapse

From The Sunday Times, December 2, 2007

Planet feels heat of divorce

Roger Waite

UNHAPPY couples used to stick together for the sake of the kids. Now they can make the best of a bad marriage in the name of being environmentally friendly.

Scientists have quantified for the first time the extent to which divorce damages the environment. The researchers found that the combined use of electricity across the two new households created rose 53% while water use was up by 42%.

Across America – one of 12 countries studied – divorced households used 73 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity in 2005 that could have been saved if the families had not split up. That is equivalent to about a fifth of Britain’s consumption.

Broken couples also increase demand for housebuilding and infrastructure such as new roads. “The global trend of soaring divorce rates has created more households with fewer people, has taken up more space and has gobbled up more energy and water,” said Jianguo Liu of Michigan University, who carried out the latest research.

The study, to be published tomorrow in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, found that the average number of rooms per household was between 33% and 95% higher for divorced couples than for married ones.

Liu also calculated that America now has an extra 38.5m rooms in houses and apartments built to meet the demand for more accommodation generated by divorce over the past three decades.

The growth of single-person households is also damaging the environment. Research published in the journal Environment, Development and Sustainability found that:

• One-person households are the biggest consumers of energy, land and household goods, such as washing machines, refrigerators, TVs and stereos, per capita
• They consume 38% more products, 42% more packaging, 55% more electricity and 61% more gas per capita than four-person households
• People living alone create 1½ tons of waste annually compared with a ton by those in households of four or more

Source: website of the Sunday Times (UK)

From the follow-up story of an attack on a social worker by a mother guarding her child, it appears that more security will be coming to Ontario social workers. It is only a matter of time until they emulate the police in Ohio. In an incident we think of as Kentucy Fried Baby, on November 18 police in Trotwood Ohio zapped a seven-month pregnant mother with a taser. We are not sure whether the cop thought the enlarged woman was a threat to his life, or whether he was inspired by Igor to bring the fetus to life with a jolt from his electrodes. 50,000 volts is about what it takes to separate a mother from her child.

expand

collapse

Security concerns at Children's Aid

Date: 2007-11-30, By Lauren Gilchrist

In light of recent assault at Chemong Road office, frontline worker speaks out about lax security within the organization

Everybody has their breaking point.

One frontline worker at the Kawartha Haliburton Children's Aid Society (CAS) has finally reached hers and is speaking out.

Recently, one of her co-workers was allegedly assaulted at the Chemong Road office by a 34-year-old woman armed with a pair of barber scissors. The accused was arrested and charged with possession of a weapon for a dangerous purpose and assault with a weapon. The victim was treated at the hospital for her injuries.

The frontline worker was baffled when she read executive director Hugh Nicholson's comments in Peterborough This Week shortly after the incident.

“What really smacked me between the eyes was when he said the security systems work fine,” she explains.

“We are almost more dysfunctional than our own clients. We know he [Mr. Nicholson] is going to the board and saying everything is fine and it's not.”

The worker, who has asked to remain anonymous, has now come forward to say the security system at the Children’s Aid Society on Chemong Road is anything but fine.

But Mr. Nicholson says he can understand her concerns.

“That’s understandable given the situation. Everyone is a little nervous after that [the alleged assault].”

But he doesn’t agree with her claim that he is going along telling the board everything is fine.

“No. I’m not saying that. I don’t understand why someone would say that to be quite honest,” he explains.

“Situations like this are upsetting. Unfortunately it sounds like one or some staff may feel like we don’t do something about it, but we are very concerned with it [safety].”

The worker says she was in the office the day the most recent assault happened, but she didn’t witness the event. What she does know is that the receptionist tried to press the panic button but it didn’t work.

“She had the presence of mind to get on the switchboard and call for help,” explains the worker.

She is not only concerned for the staff, but also for the parents and children who come into the facility.

She says to the best of her knowledge there are two panic buttons in the building that trigger the alarm.

“I should bloody well know where all the buttons are, but I don't,” she explains.

She says the only real safety training they have is the two fire drills a year.

“I think maybe the receptionist has been show where it [the button] is. We get tons of training all the time, but not on security in the office.”

Mr. Nicholson confirms there are two panic buttons in the high risk areas. They were installed two years ago in response to another assault that occurred in the back area of the building. When asked whether staff are trained on the use of the buttons he says “yes and no.”

“The staff that are in those areas are trained on the panic buttons,” he explains.

He says there is also a sign posted above the panic buttons listing what workers should do in a crisis. He admits the sign above the button could probably be bigger.

Once the panic button is pressed it triggers an internal alarm with flashing strobe lights.

“That alerts internal staff and they would go to the area where the situation is,” he explains.

Mr. Nicholson says what happened in the most recent case is that the receptionist tried to reach the panic button but for whatever reason couldn’t reach it. She decided it would be quicker to post an alert over the intercom.

Mr. Nicholson says an e-mail went out to staff when the buttons were installed two years ago describing what to do in that sort of emergency.

“We did survey the staff in the building and most seemed to be aware of what to do,” he states.

“We assumed teams would do the training and that always isn’t the case.”

Mr. Nicholson says all staff have enough information to know what to do with the panic buttons.

”We generally have a pretty good response to it.”

The most recent incident has caused not only one frontline worker to speak out, but also for the organization to re-examine their safety protocol.

Mr. Nicholson says what staff are saying now is that they need regular training on the use of the panic buttons. The first training session is already planned for Dec. 10.

“We are also reviewing our system of codes at that time too so people know what they’re going to.”

He says their current policy on emergency codes is vague, and they are reviewing it as well, and clarifying it.

The worker says along with training around the panic buttons, there is the issue of the meeting rooms at the front of the building.

In her opinion this area has no security whatsoever.

“That's an unprotected area where not only staff are vulnerable,” she says.

She says if the most recent alleged assault had happened in one of those meeting rooms and not in the lobby, they could have been in trouble.

Mr. Nicholson confirms there are no panic buttons in those rooms.

“We know who's going in and out of those meetings. That area is always supervised that they're in,” he says.

“They (staff) have raised concerns. We are concerned about what to do in those rooms, and we weren’t aware of (staff's concerns).”

Mr. Nicholson says they need to improve their system of flagging possibly high risk clients who are in the building and have the appropriate people there at that time.

In the back of the building, called the access centre, there are more meeting rooms. But the worker says even in that supposedly secure area, that's where the attack that happened two years ago took place.

“We still have to use those rooms in the front because we get so many parents,” she explains.

During the summer the worker says they had a bomb threat at the office. According to her, it took them a week to inform staff about the incident.

Mr. Nicholson confirms they did have a bomb threat. According to him they got the threat on a Friday afternoon and told workers on the following Tuesday. At that time he felt it would have caused more anxiety to tell the workers about it right away.

“I think right now we have a much better process in place,” he notes.

It's not only safety inside the building that the worker is concerned about. There is also a question about the safety of the workers when they visit client's homes.

The worker says they work closely with the police and have a good working relationship with them.

She says police can't believe workers will go into some these locations on their own.

“The police say they will not go in on their own, they wait for back-up at these locations. I think the courts and management need to take more notice when staff are saying clients are escalating,” she explains.

Mr. Nicholson says workers quite often go into client’s homes alone. But he says if there is a risk a police officer will go with them and, if the client is very high risk, they will ask the client to come into the office instead.

“The workers and the supervisor assess that then determine the most appropriate response,” he explains.

“That’s their job. So they are skilled at handling those situations and making sure when they do go in [to a client’s home] there’s an exit and assessing the situation before they go into the home.”

Mr. Nicholson says they have established a safety task force that will come back at the end of December with recommendations. He says the health and safety committee is also doing an assessment and will also put forward recommendations.

“By the end of January we are going to implement them,” he says.

He notes that along with looking into training around the panic buttons, the newly established task force will also look into the safety of home visits.

“We can always do better,” he admits.

Source: website of Metroland Media Group

A teenaged girl, promised a nice home by a social worker instead got a home where she was assaulted and robbed, and watched fellow children use drugs and attempt suicide. The lawyer appointed to protect her interests refused to speak to her.

expand

collapse

CAS workers promise teen a safe home but teen testifies that she was given anything but. She says she was afraid and terrified while in CAS care!

(December 1, 2007) Court Watch conducted a videotaped interview with a 14-year-old girl today who testified on videotape that she was tricked and misled by CAS workers to go into care with the agency. She was promised that she would be staying in a nice home with other great kids. CAS workers made it sound like paradise. The teen reported that she was taken out of a perfectly safe home because she argued with her parents about money and chores and that CAS workers told her that she did not have to put up with that crap from her parents. While in care at a CAS facility the girl was shocked and frightened to see other kids attempt suicide by cutting their wrists which CAS workers tried to conceal while she was there. It seems that CAS does not want some of these stories getting out into the public domain so it keeps these horror stories hidden.

The teen also reported being assaulted and robbed while CAS workers supposedly were supervising the teens. The girl reported that the CAS workers did nothing while she was being assaulted right in the CAS facility. The teen says she was taken from a good home and placed in an environment of fear and intimidation at the CAS facility. She said the other kids hated it there and at least one other teen reported that she had been fooled by the same CAS worker to leave her home as well and that the other girl was now angry and frustrated at the system. Some kids were on drugs while living in the CAS facility.

What this teen also reported which some readers may find interesting is that the police told her that the laying of assault charges against another female while in the care of the CAS were at the discretion of the victim of the crime. In other words, the victim could get to choose if police would lay charges of assault. Yet, when it comes to females complaining about being assaulted by males, females are routinely told by police that they have no discretion and that they must lay charges against males. Court Watch has received a number of calls from women who have confirmed this with the same police force which spoke to this girl. It seems that police have a double standard between males and females when it comes to the laying of assault charges which may explain why some of the domestic violence statistics are cooked to make males look like the main perpetrators of assault.

The girl said she had never been in the presence of so many violent teens in her life and that she was afraid for her physical safety at the CAS facility. She sometimes could not sleep good at night out of fear that someone might come into her room while she slept. She said that nobody with the CAS and the Children's Lawyer seemed interested in listening to her at all. Her children's lawyer did not even return her phone calls. The girl said that she just wanted to go home with her family where she felt safe.

It's no wonder why more and more children and their families are getting fed up with CAS and its tactics which needlessly destroy families. The actions of unaccountable and in most cases unlicensed CAS workers is only going to expose these agencies for multiple lawsuits as these kids come forth in the future to sue agencies and workers alike.

If readers know of other children who wish to speak about their experience with CAS, police or the children's lawyer, please have them contact Canada Court Watch at info@canadacourtwatch.com

Source: Canada Court Watch

The Globe and Mail reports on a conflict of interest for Ontario's Deputy Chief Coroner Jim Cairns. The company selling the Taser paid his travel expenses. That makes it less likely that Ontario death certificates will list the taser as a cause of death.

Historically, some institutions, such as prisons, have been less than candid in official reports of deaths of their wards. For example, read the book Other Losses by James Bacque. Bias in the coroner's office could be one reason the reported deaths in Ontario foster care are anomalously low. We can have no confidence in the veracity of Ontario death statistics as long as conflicts of interest exist in the coroner's office.

expand

collapse

Taser firms picked up coroner's lecture tab

CAROLINE ALPHONSO AND JESSICA LEEDER AND OMAR EL AKKAD

From Friday's Globe and Mail, November 30, 2007 at 4:22 AM EST

TORONTO; LAS VEGAS — Taser International and another company closely linked to the manufacturer have paid the way for Ontario's deputy chief coroner to lecture at their conferences on the phenomenon of "excited delirium," a medically unrecognized term that the company often cites as a reason people die after being tasered.

James Cairns, one of the country's most high-profile coroners, who publicly advocates the use of the stun gun, has become one of the top Canadian experts Taser officials turn to for help shoring up public support for their products in times of crisis. Since the death of Robert Dziekanski, a Polish immigrant, at Vancouver International Airport last month, Taser has repeatedly urged journalists to contact Dr. Cairns for his pro-taser views.

Dr. Cairns has recently given seminars at two conferences hosted by Taser International - one in July in Chicago and another last year in Las Vegas.

He has also spoken at a Las Vegas conference for the Institute for the Prevention of In-Custody Deaths, a small private company with ties to Taser. It is headed by John Peters, a communications specialist who often acts as a course instructor for Taser International. Its only other director is Michael Brave, a Taser legal executive.

Clay Winn of Taser International demonstrates one of the company's stun guns in a 2002 file photo. (Joe Cavaretta/Associated Press)

Dr. Cairns was slated to deliver a talk yesterday, titled "Excited Delirium Deaths: Public Inquiry Process; ED Training for Ontario Provincial Police Officer and its Impact on the Coroner's Office" at the institute's 2007 conference. He dropped out because he was testifying at an inquiry in Ontario, where he admitted to shielding disgraced pathologist Charles Smith.

In an interview with The Globe and Mail yesterday, Dr. Cairns said he doesn't believe his participation at the conferences is a conflict of interest. He said he attends the conferences on vacation time and paid his own way to attend the first one.

However, he allowed Taser and the institute to pay his hotel and travel expenses for subsequent conferences.

Bonita Porter, Ontario's chief coroner, said it is not uncommon for members of her staff to have expenses paid by conference hosts.

"If he's going to share our experiences and it might improve public safety anywhere, I don't see how that could be considered to be a conflict," she said.

But Dr. Cairns's attendance raises questions about the appearance of bias when probing the issue of whether tasers can kill. While he has not presided over any taser-related inquests, his expert opinion on the role of tasers in certain in-custody deaths has often been solicited. At a 2005 inquest, he testified that an Ontario man, who was tasered three times by police and died less than an hour later in hospital, was not killed by the taser because of the time lapse between the shocks and his death.

The year before, Dr. Cairns urged the Toronto Police Services Board to expand the use of tasers, saying: "I am absolutely convinced tasers will save lives instead of taking lives. And I hope some day, if I am in the position, please taser me before you shoot me."

Dr. Cairns defended his attendance at various Taser conferences. He said he doesn't accept a fee for speaking to avoid any potential conflicts of interest.

"I am not an agent for Taser or anything else. I do not own Taser shares. I wanted there to be no conflict of interest," he said, adding: "I have been invited to many other conferences across the world to talk about things. In those situations, it's always the same."

Taser International did not return phone calls.

According to Mr. Peters's write-up of the 2006 Taser conference in Las Vegas, Dr. Cairns gave a talk in which he "graphically emphasized ... that none of the numerous in-custody death cases which he has been intimately involved with were caused by the deployment of Taser devices."

On the subject of hosting a seminar on excited delirium at the Taser conferences, Dr. Cairns said: "I think the more that we understand about all these issues, the better."

Source: website of the Globe and Mail

A temporary employee of CAS has found corruption within the agency, and does not know what to do with his information. He does not want to communicate with anyone that has their own agenda, making it unlikely that anybody will listen. No one in the CAS chain of command, right up to the Minister of Children and Youth Services, will do anything but kill the messenger. The Ontario press is neutered, and will ignore the matter. Only the internet offers a medium for exposing scandals. Broadening his audience to those with an agenda would allow him to talk to Hamilton East MPP Andrea Horwath, Canada Court Watch or Dufferin VOCA.

expand

collapse

screen name: Shocked&Disillusioned

Re: Children's Aid Society Corruption

Nov 26, 2007 7:56 AM

Ok, first off I would like to say I have NO children and no personal dealings with any of the social workers at CAS.

I always assumed that the CAS was a great organization and thanked God that they were out there saving children and families, I felt that they had right on their side.

After working at one of their offices, I was disgusted. (No, I am not a disgruntled employee, I was given an end date before I started, left on good terms and have a letter of recommendation).

After having intimate knowledge of their data base, employee records and finances, I discovered some shocking information. I feel guilt ridden, but I am bound by confidentiality agreements. I don't know where to turn.

The information I have in no way reflects upon any individual case or child but believe me, it's corruption all the same.

Is there anyone in a position of authority that I may contact anonymously? I have never been in this position before and with all due respect, I DON'T feel comfortable in contacting anyone that has their own agenda, righteous or not, I cannot confirm or deny any other allegations on this board.

I hope all find justified resolution to their crisis.

Source: A&E website
There is no way to ascertain the identity of the informant, or verify his authenticity.

A mother and father have escaped from CAS with their own child, five year old Alana Livas. Police want help from the public. So far, there are no pictures. Any time you see a mom and dad caring for their little girl, call the police immediately.

expand

collapse

The Toronto Star

Police seek public's assistance in search for child

November 29, 2007, Sarah Boesveld, Staff Reporter

Toronto police are seeking the public's help finding a 5-year-old girl who was allegedly abducted by her parents this afternoon.

The girl, Alana Livas, was last seen at the Children's Aid Society building on Kennedy Rd. in Scarborough around 1 p.m. today. She is described as female, white with a dark complexion and long straight brown hair.

She was brought to the Children's Aid building by her aunt, who has custody of her.

The child and her parents, Vivene and Peter Livas, were last seen driving on Kennedy Rd., possibly in a 1993 brown Acura Integra with the licence plate BCCL-451.

Anyone with information is asked to call 41 Division at 416-808-4100 or Crime Stoppers at 416-222-TIPS.

Source: website of the Toronto Star

Addendum: Here are pictures of the girl and her family. Look at them and decide whether this is a girl who needs protection from her parents, or a family that needs protection from the Children's Aid Society.

Alana Livas

Source: website of Toronto Police Service (pdf)

Vivene and Peter Livas, with Alana

Source: website of Toronto Police Service (pdf)

Following the retirement of Gary Putman, the Orangeville press is more inclined to deal with the failures of child protection. The editorial below suggests reviewing 200 examinations of child deaths, not just by Dr Charles Smith, but by all pathologists connected to his team at what now appears to be Toronto's Sick Hospital for Children.

expand

collapse

Orangeville Citizen

Editorial, November 29, 2007

Why 'junk science' has no place in our courtrooms

LET'S HOPE the recommendation gets the attention it deserves from Justice Stephen Goudge, who is currently conducting a public inquiry into the role played by Dr. Charles Smith in securing criminal convictions based on his erroneous autopsy findings.

Although the Goudge commission's mandate deals with only about 20 cases where Dr. Smith's now-discredited testimony led to criminal charges against caregivers (usually parents) whose infants died mysteriously, two forensic pathology experts recommended last week that Ontario thoroughly re-examine up to 200 autopsies on dead children.

Under the proposal, the review would concentrate on convictions based on the findings of others than Dr. Smith, particularly by those on his team of pathologists at Toronto's Hospital for Sick Children who shared his "think dirty" philosophy, which saw criminal activity behind unexplained phenomena that had been labelled Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS).

Ironically, such a review would include another "Smith" case - the manslaughter conviction of Jeffrey Smith, a teen-aged father of twin girls, one of whom died mysteriously on March 22, 1994, just four months after the twins were born three months prematurely, and after both had been rush to hospital many times with a variety of ills, none of which suggested they had been abused.

In that case, the only reason Jeffrey Smith was charged, apart from the pathologists' testimony, was that he was the only one home at the time Katie Smith died. In the jury trial, where he faced a charge of second-degree murder, there wasn't a scintilla of evidence that he had ever become angry at the twins, much less struck them.

Based on what we now know, Katie's death was almost certainly from natural causes related to the prematurity of her birth. The fact that the jury rejected the Crown's bid for a murder conviction, finding only manslaughter, is surely small comfort to Mr. Smith, who now is still labelled a child killer in the eyes of the law.

(The jury verdict was upheld by the Ontario Court of Appeal which, in the interests of "finality," refused to order a new trial at which a British expert, unavailable to the defence during the 10-week trial, would explain her finding that the death was from natural causes.)

The call for review of the other autopsies came from Dr. John Butt, one of three renowned forensic pathologists who conducted a detailed review last year of 43 autopsies Dr. Smith performed between 1991 and 2004. It followed two weeks of revelations at the inquiry about substandard practices and a discredited "think dirty" philosophy that prevailed in the Office of the Chief Coroner during the 1990s, a philosophy which we think could be traced to the Sick Kids team.

Northern Ireland's top pathologist, Jack Crane, agreed that reviewing every criminally suspicious case may be essential to repair public confidence and ensure that no one has been wrongly convicted of killing a child.

"It might be quite an undertaking and require very considerable resources to do it," Dr. Crane said. "But if there are concerns ... to enhance confidence in pediatric pathology, it might be necessary."

James Lockyer, a lawyer for eight people who say they have been wrongly convicted of killing their children in cases involving Dr. Smith, has signalled that he will urge Justice Goudge to recommend a full autopsy review.

On the same day, Mr. Lockyer asked Dr. Butt, Dr. Crane, and a third reviewer, Dr. Christopher Milroy, why defence lawyers, prosecutors and Dr. Smith's fellow pathologists could not bring themselves to blow the whistle on his shortcomings or failed to notice them.

Dr. Butt said that doctors are notoriously unwilling to testify against their brethren. "I don't know how to overcome it," he said. "It is an issue of culture. It is an issue of intimidation. There is a certain revering of figures that starts in medical school."

He said pathologists are also accorded so much respect within the court system that they become comfortable testifying about medical matters that go far beyond their knowledge and training.

"The more the doctor is encouraged to answer questions that he may not know the answer to - and gets away with it - the more the cult of personality grows."

Nor is the problem of "experts" securing convictions based on "junk science" limited to pathologists or criminal courts in Ontario.

Last week, the CBS program 60 Minutes dealt with the fact that for years the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) had been securing convictions based on a now-discredited theory that bullets used in murders could be traced to a single box.

The "bullet lead analysis" was used by the FBI for 40 years in thousands of cases, and some of the people it helped put in jail are likely innocent. One such is Lee Wayne Hunt, now 22 years into a life sentence for murder in North Carolina.

Mr. Hunt was convicted in 1986 of murdering two people based on the testimony of two questionable witnesses and what turned out to be erroneous ballistics testimony from the FBI lab. For years, the FBI believed that lead in bullets had unique chemical signatures, and that by breaking them down and analyzing them, it was possible to match bullets, not only to a single batch of ammunition coming out of a factory, but to a single box of bullets. And that is what the FBI did in the Hunt case.

"I think everybody in the courtroom assumed that this was valid evidence," Mr. Hunt's lawyer said. Clearly, such evidence has no place in any courtroom.

Source: website of the Orangville Citizen

Did CAS take your kids because your home was messy? Here is the office of their former expert witness, Dr Charles Smith. When the mess was finally cleaned up, it revealed exculpatory evidence that led to the exoneration of William Mullins-Johnson after twelve years in jail.

Source: Blog by Harold Levy November 28, 2007

This is not the first case of close-up spying we have heard, but the first that can be published.

expand

collapse

November 25

A little story of harassment

A little history. As my house arrest was coming to an end. I was not allowed out before 8 am.

I started to notice this fat little piglet jogging by at 7:45 AM every day with her dog.

She was jogging on a path that goes by my home. There is a green belt behind the house. No one is ever back there I can see everything from my window.

At 7:59 AM I was about to let my dog out and I saw that fat little bitch spying on my home from behind a tree. I looked at my watch. Bingo 8 AM I open the door and start chasing the fat piglet through the woods till we come to the home in the picture above. Scared her real good. The next day I'm parked down the street and follow the piglet to work. Guess where? The local Children's Aid Society of Ontario.

My point, always watch your back and its fun to chase a fat lesbian through the woods screaming like a nut.

I never saw that fat pig ever again.

Peter Tarbat, tarspot@msn.com

Source: personal MSN blog

High-profile opponent of Florida DCF Greg Pound has had his parental rights terminated. The state of Florida has taken four of his children, his wife has fled with their infant son. Last year we covered the case, including a link to his website. There are many copies of his videos on the internet. Here are more videos by Greg Pound.

expand

collapse

tampabay.com

Father of five loses battle for parental rights

He says he plans to appeal the judge's order. His battle started in 2004.

By CURTIS KRUEGER, Times Staff Writer, Published November 24, 2007

Gregory Pound has battled the foster care system for years, ever since a purported "wolf dog" bit his 2-week-old baby in 2004 and child welfare workers took away his children.

He fought back in court, and has become increasingly visible by founding a Web site (www.rescuemykids.com) and staging regular protests outside Pinellas County's criminal courthouse. He even demonstrated outside a St. Petersburg church because a judge in his case worships there.

Now he has lost in court.

This month a judge terminated his parental rights - meaning he no longer has a legal right to raise his five children, ages 2 to 7.

"They called me today and told me that I have no more visits with my children," Pound, 51, said recently.

His wife's parental rights were severed earlier in the battle, he said. Melissa Pound disappeared last year, along with the couple's youngest child.

Gregory Pound said he plans to appeal.

"Love never gets up," he said, adding: "Me and Melissa both love our children, despite what they say."

The Pounds' four oldest children live in Seminole with Melissa's parents, Linda and Stephen Steenberge.

The Steenberges said they assumed at first the Pounds would complete a list of tasks known as a "case plan" to get their children back. But now that the Pounds' parental rights have been taken away, they said they intend to adopt the children.

"It's a tragic situation in the sense that it could have pretty much been avoided," said Stephen Steenberge, 64.

Tampa Bay news media covered the dog bite case in 2004, widely reporting that the Pounds' 2-week-old baby was bitten in the face by a "wolf hybrid." The dog was destroyed.

Since then, Pound has said that the dog belonged to his sister, who denied it was a wolf hybrid.

Soon after the bite, child welfare authorities removed the Pounds' four children from their home. The exact reasons are not clear because the records are not public.

Pound said child welfare officials claimed Melissa was suffering from depression, but he denied that. Pound also said he was asked to take a domestic violence class as part of a case plan in order to get his children back.

The Pounds completed parts of their case plans, but also fought unsuccessfully in court to prove the children should never have been taken away.

When Melissa gave birth to their fifth child last year, they named him Moses, after another baby whose mother sent him on a journey. Shortly after his 2006 birth, Melissa and the infant disappeared.

Pound was jailed for contempt of court for a month last year for failing to reveal her whereabouts, although he insisted he did not know where to find her.

Now, factions of the family are cut off from each other. Greg and Melissa Pound do not have a legal right to visit their four oldest children, who are living with the Steenberges.

Linda Steenberge, meanwhile, said she has not heard from her daughter Melissa and has not laid eyes on her grandchild, Moses.

"That would make me happy, just a phone call from her," Linda Steenberge said.

On the Web site, Pound claims that foster care workers remove children from families for money.

But Pinellas County sheriff's Capt. George Steffen said child abuse investigators work hard to find alternatives to removing children from their homes. "It's the absolute last resort," Steffen said.

When children are removed, foster care workers try to help moms and dads complete their case plans and bring their children home, said April Putzulu, a spokeswoman for the local foster care agency called the Safe Children Coalition.

"We are totally invested in returning children home to safe environments," she said.

Source: website of the St. Petersburg Times

Fran Lyon, the British expectant mother threatened with child removal at birth, has fled Britain after seeing the final plans by social services for her baby.

expand

collapse

24/11/07 - Femail section

I've fled the country to stop social workers taking my baby

By ELIZABETH SANDERSON

She is, on first impressions, just like any other first-time mother. The cot and the pram are on order, she has bought more cuddly toys than she will ever need and she has even given her little girl a name — Molly.

With less than six weeks to go before the birth, the baby is kicking and it brings Fran Lyon an undeniable thrill of pleasure. At least, it does now she finally feels safe to enjoy it.

For all the innocent joys of impending motherhood have been denied Fran since social workers warned her four months ago that Molly would be taken away ten minutes after birth and placed with foster parents.

Fran, a third-year student doing a neuro-science degree at Edinburgh University, is, to everyone who knows her, a sociable, kind and intelligent woman. But to her local authority she is a danger to herself and her baby.

Pregnant Fran Lyon has run away to Europe to stop social workers taking her baby away from her

Seven years ago Fran had an eating and selfharming disorder and spent 13 months in a psychiatric hospital followed by nine successful months of counselling.

Now 22, and with her emotional troubles behind her, Fran is outraged that she should be judged a risk to herself and her child despite a fistful of medical reports that dispute this.

Last week, fearing the worst, Fran moved from her home in Hexham in Northumberland to Birmingham, where she hoped a different authority would treat her more sympathetically.

But with the birth so close, she felt she couldn't take any risks with bureaucracy and on Wednesday, Fran took an even more drastic step. She got on a flight bound for Europe — and went into hiding. Wary of revealing her whereabouts, Fran agreed to talk about her nightmare in a lengthy telephone call to The Mail on Sunday.

Practical Fran has already had an appointment with a midwife, booked a place at the local hospital and made contact with English-speaking mother-and-baby groups

She will also be seen in an exclusive report tomorrow evening on Tonight With Trevor McDonald. She said: "I wouldn't have done it unless I absolutely had to. Every time there was a twinge, I was absolutely petrified. I just kept thinking, 'Please don't go into labour, please, not yet.' It was terrifying.

"It's a lot better now that I'm away. Lots of people suggested I should leave but I always thought it was too extreme. Then when I went to Birmingham things weren't going to happen quicklyenough. Northumberland's plan stood until Birmingham made their own and I didn't have vast amounts of time.

Now it's such a relief not to be constantly looking over my shoulder. It has been so fraught with other people's interventions. For the first time this will be just us: me and Molly. I just want to enjoy it. I could never do that before.

"For months I've been reading a book called Molly The Hungry Caterpillar and feeling her kicking about. It's lovely, but all the time the fear has been in the back of my mind that these might be the closest moments I will ever have with her."

Fran is in good health apart from suffering a rare condition, angiodoema. It is possible her throat might swell and she has been given tracheotomy equipment in case of an incident.

For such a young woman, Fran seems practical and level headed. In just a few days, she has organised a lease on an apartment, had an appointment with a midwife, booked a place at the local hospital and made contact with Englishspeaking mother-and-baby groups.

It is a considerable testimony to her ability to cope — given what social services had thrown at her. So why did Hexham Children's Services feel it necessary to take such draconian — some might say menacing — steps against a young woman who has battled to put her life in order?

As with almost all cases involving county council children's services, it is extremely difficult to discover why or how a decision has been reached. As a result, it is nigh on impossible for people to challenge what they see as a dubious outcome.

Fran's story began last April when she became pregnant. Although the baby was unexpected, she was delighted. She says: "I was shocked because I'd had the contraceptive injection. But I remember waking up the first morning after I knew and feeling secretly thrilled.

"I didn't have a clue how I was going to make it work with university and my job [for two mental health charities] but I was determined that I was having her."

The first problem began when she and Molly's father fell out. She had become unhappy about something he was doing and reported him to the police. She ended the relationship immediately and he is now the subject of an investigation by police — who alerted social services.

She told them her story — that she was brought up in Northampton in a middleclass household where her parents were teachers, and how at 14 she was raped by an acquaintance.

Traumatised, she became clinically depressed and spent the next three years, on and off, in residential psychiatric hospitals after being diagnosed with a borderline personality disorder characterised by self-harming instability and suicidal tendencies.

For the final 13 months, Fran had individual psychotherapy sessions and group analysis before being discharged into outpatient care. By the age of 18 she had fully recovered and the diagnosis of borderline personality disorder was removed. Despite it all, Fran earned nine A-grade GCSEs, four A-grade A-levels and her place at university.

When she became pregnant, Fran accepted that social services might take an interest in her and went out of her way to cooperate. "I was very up-front with the mental health staff," she said.

"I told them my history and gave them the names of my doctors as I assumed they would want to pursue it further. I thought I might need to see the health visitor a bit more often."

Instead, Fran received a letter informing her that a "child protection case conference" would be held on August 16. Social services contacted a number of experts. One of them, Dr Stella Newith, the psychiatrist who treated Fran as a teenager, had no doubts when called on to give her opinion about her former patient.

In a letter to Northumberland County Council, Dr Newith said: "I consider the risk of harm to a child to be so unlikely as to be negligible.

"There has never been any clinical evidence to suggest that Fran would put herself or others at risk, and certainly no evidence to suggest that she would put a child at risk."

It was a view backed up by Dr Rex Haigh, a psychiatrist who worked with Fran in the charity sector and acted as a character witness. He advised: "I have no doubt that her diligence and capacity, particularly in dealing with complex emotional situations, will stand her in good stead for the rigours of parenthood. Your efforts to protect children would be better directed elsewhere."

Yet the social workers decided, instead, to give more weight to the views of consultant paediatrician Dr Martin Ward Platt — even though he made it clear he had never met Fran.

In a letter, Dr Ward Platt said: "If the professionals were concerned from the evidence available that [this woman] probably does fabricate or induce illness, there would be no option but to put the baby into foster care at birth pending a post-natal forensic psychological assessment."

Fran says she was told by social services that she was in danger of suffering from Munchausen's by Proxy, a controversial and unproven condition in which a parent — usually the mother — invents an illness in her child to draw attention to herself.

Apart from Dr Ward Platt's letter, there has been no other evidence presented to Fran suggesting that she was at such risk. The syndrome was first identified by Sir Roy Meadow, the now-discredited doctor responsible for evidence that led to the wrongful convictions of Angela Canning and Sally Clark for murdering their children.

Dr Ward Platt also recommended that Fran be assessed by professionals. Social services drew up their "birth plan" without doing any of these assessments. In October, Fran was told the plan would mean that Molly would be immediately removed into care, minutes after she was born. Fran was also told she could not be trusted to breast-feed her, for fear that she might try to take strychnine as a way of poisoning her own child.

Fran says: "I was just horrified. It was horrific to sit in this room with these people and realise that they could not only conceive of such a bizarre, terrible thing, but think that I was actually capable of it.

"In some ways I think the whole thing was compounded by a lack of understanding. There is no evidence that Munchausen's by Proxy exists. I was being asked to prove that I wouldn't do something. But how can I do that? They were asking me to do the impossible."

Fran engaged the help of Bill Bache, the lawyer who overturned Angela Canning's conviction, and John Hemming, the Liberal Democrat MP and chairman of the pressure group Justice For Families. And yet all the time, she tried to find a compromise with the social workers.

She says: "I asked to go to a mother and baby unit so we would be under 24-hour supervision. I thought it would show I was willing to cooperate and there could be no argument about Molly's safety, but there was a lot of resistance to the idea."

In one last attempt to find a middleway through the nightmare, Fran agreed to yet another assessment. The assessor was to be appointed by the social workers but would be officially independent. They chose Professor Douglas Turkington, a psychiatrist based at the Royal Victoria Infirmary in Newcastle.

In his report, he said that Fran should not be separated from Molly but should instead be "supervised during the immediate postnatal period in her bonding with Molly and be allowed to breast feed".

It is the breakthrough Fran has been hoping for — but she says she can't risk waiting to see if social services view it in the same light. On November 9, the birth plan from Northumberland Social Services arrived in the post. Fran was expecting it but nothing could have prepared her for its conclusions.

"I just fell apart," she says. "It's only when you see it in writing that it becomes real. It said I would get ten minutes with Molly until the umbilical cord had been cut."

Fran and her baby would then be parted and the baby would be taken to another room in the hospital. Fran feared that the conditions of the birth plan would mean that even her mother, who she said she was very close to, would not be able to see the child.

She added: "They said if I didn't consent they would get a police protection order as soon as she was born. This effectively meant that there would be a policeman stood outside the delivery suite.

"She would be only a few minutes old and by herself. That was the one thing that tore me up inside . . . the thought of Molly lying in some horrible hospital baby cot with no one that loves her.

"I'm not an impulsive or dramatic person. I want to sit down and work things out. But this was agonising. I knew I had to do something."

She didn't know, then, that something would mean fleeing abroad. Despite the drastic upset, Fran is not bitter. "I suppose I feel very disappointed. It didn't seem possible for anyone to backtrack just a little bit, to say there was another way. That's what I found so hard. That and the fact there was no compassion. They said it was about Molly but it certainly never felt like that."

But perhaps most worrying of all is the fact that Fran's case, while undoubtedly extreme, is also indicative of a disturbing trend. Two thousand babies less than a year old were taken from their parents last year by social services — three times the number of ten years ago.

Fran's story already has echoes of Nicky and Mark Webster, formerly known as the Hardinghams, whose case was highlighted in this newspaper. They, too, fled the country in order to stop social services taking away their newborn baby, a boy called Brandon, after their first three children were adopted over abuse allegations.

The Websters have since returned to England and have won a landmark case to keep their fourth child. And what does the future hold for Fran Lyon, a young mother who was dealt a rough hand as a teenager and fought to get a normal life and now just wants to do what's best for her daughter?

Perhaps social workers know something Fran is not revealing. Last night a spokeswoman for Northumberland County Council said: "We are unable to comment on individual cases, and we do not believe that it is in the best interests of any mother or child to discuss personal details through the media, but unfortunately it does mean only one side is being heard.

"Safeguarding arrangements in Northumberland were rated as good in a recent rigorous Government inspection. Ms Lyon and her legal adviser have attended all of her case conferences and have been fully informed of the concerns of the professionals involved in her case.

"Where a child or unborn baby is subject to a child-protection plan and they move to reside in another authority or country, responsibility would normally pass to the new authority or relevant authority in another country. Northumberland County Council would make sure the new authority has all the relevant information it needs to make informed decisions."

Mr Hemming said: "I think it's appalling and very disturbing and, sadly, Fran's case is not unique.

"Of course there are situations where you've got to intervene but the system all too often fails to intervene where it should and then intervenes where it shouldn't. It's a steamroller of a system and it steamrollers mothers and children."

Only one thing remains certain. If Fran proves herself to be a good and loving mother, Northumberland's carefully worked-out "birth plan" can only ever be seen as an act of almost unimaginable cruelty by the State.

Fran's story is told on Tonight With Trevor McDonald, tomorrow at 8pm on ITV1.

Source: website of the Daily Mail (UK)

Nancy Schaefer was elected to the Georgia senate in 2004 representing district 50 in the northeast corner of the state. Today the homepage of her website consists of a document criticizing Georgia DFCS, Department of Family and Children's Services. It reads like a document prepared by a critical website, such as this one. It includes all of the common abuses: children taken on grounds of poverty, parents harassed with endless classes, fraud by caseworkers, shotgun divorce and failure to remove children from truly dangerous situations.

expand

collapse

From the legislative desk of Senator Nancy Schaefer 50th District of Georgia

November 16, 2007

THE CORRUPT BUSINESS OF CHILD PROTECTIVE SERVICES

BY: Nancy Schaefer
     Senator, 50th District

My introduction into child protective service cases was due to a grandmother in an adjoining state who called me with her tragic story. Her two granddaughters had been taken from her daughter who lived in my district. Her daughter was told wrongly that if she wanted to see her children again she should sign a paper and give up her children. Frightened and young, the daughter did. I have since discovered that parents are often threatened into cooperation of permanent separation of their children.

The children were taken to another county and placed in foster care. The foster parents were told wrongly that they could adopt the children. The grandmother then jumped through every hoop known to man in order to get her granddaughters. When the case finally came to court it was made evident by one of the foster parent’s children that the foster parents had, at any given time, 18 foster children and that the foster mother had an inappropriate relationship with the caseworker.

In the courtroom, the juvenile judge, acted as though she was shocked and said the two girls would be removed quickly. They were not removed. Finally, after much pressure being applied to the Department of Family and Children Services of Georgia (DFCS), the children were driven to South Georgia to meet their grandmother who gladly drove to meet them.

After being with their grandmother two or three days, the judge, quite out of the blue, wrote up a new order to send the girls to their father, who previously had no interest in the case and who lived on the West Coast. The father was in “adult entertainment”. His girlfriend worked as an “escort” and his brother, who also worked in the business, had a sexual charge brought against him.

Within a couple of days the father was knocking on the grandmother’s door and took the girls kicking and screaming to California.

The father developed an unusual relationship with the former foster parents and soon moved back to the southeast, and the foster parents began driving to the father’s residence and picking up the little girls for visits. The oldest child had told her mother and grandmother on two different occasions that the foster father molested her.

To this day after five years, this loving, caring blood relative grandmother does not even have visitation privileges with the children. The little girls are in my opinion permanently traumatized and the young mother of the girls was so traumatized with shock when the girls were first removed from her that she has not recovered.

Throughout this case and through the process of dealing with multiple other mismanaged cases of the Department of Family and Children Services (DFCS), I have worked with other desperate parents and children across the state because they have no rights and no one with whom to turn. I have witnessed ruthless behavior from many caseworkers, social workers, investigators, lawyers, judges, therapists, and others such as those who “pick up” the children. I have been stunned by what I have seen and heard from victims all over the state of Georgia.

In this report, I am focusing on the Georgia Department of Family and Children Services (DFCS). However, I believe Child Protective Services nationwide has become corrupt and that the entire system is broken almost beyond repair. I am convinced parents and families should be warned of the dangers.

The Department of Child Protective Services, known as the Department of Family and Children Service (DFCS) in Georgia and other titles in other states, has become a “protected empire” built on taking children and separating families. This is not to say that there are not those children who do need to be removed from wretched situations and need protection. This report is concerned with the children and parents caught up in “legal kidnapping,” ineffective policies, and DFCS who do does not remove a child or children when a child is enduring torment and abuse. (See Exhibit A and Exhibit B)

In one county in my District, I arranged a meeting for thirty-seven families to speak freely and without fear. These poor parents and grandparents spoke of their painful, heart wrenching encounters with DFCS. Their suffering was overwhelming. They wept and cried. Some did not know where their children were and had not seen them in years. I had witnessed the “Gestapo” at work and I witnessed the deceitful conditions under which children were taken in the middle of the night, out of hospitals, off of school buses, and out of homes. In one county a private drug testing business was operating within the DFCS department that required many, many drug tests from parents and individuals for profit. In another county children were not removed when they were enduring the worst possible abuse.

Due to being exposed, several employees in a particular DFCS office were fired. However, they have now been rehired either in neighboring counties or in the same county again. According to the calls I am now receiving, the conditions in that county are returning to the same practices that they had before the light was shown on their deeds.

Having worked with probably 300 cases statewide, I am convinced there is no responsibility and no accountability in the system.

I have come to the conclusion:

• that poor parents often times are targeted to lose their children because they do not have the where-with-all to hire lawyers and fight the system. Being poor does not mean you are not a good parent or that you do not love your child, or that your child should be removed and placed with strangers;
• that all parents are capable of making mistakes and that making a mistake does not mean your children are always to be removed from the home. Even if the home is not perfect, it is home; and that’s where a child is the safest and where he or she wants to be, with family;
• that parenting classes, anger management classes, counseling referrals, therapy classes and on and on are demanded of parents with no compassion by the system even while they are at work and while their children are separated from them. This can take months or even years and it emotionally devastates both children and parents. Parents are victimized by “the system” that makes a profit for holding children longer and “bonuses” for not returning children;
• that caseworkers and social workers are oftentimes guilty of fraud. They withhold evidence. They fabricate evidence and they seek to terminate parental rights. However, when charges are made against them, the charges are ignored;
• that the separation of families is growing as a business because local governments have grown accustomed to having taxpayer dollars to balance their ever-expanding budgets;
• that Child Protective Service and Juvenile Court can always hide behind a confidentiality clause in order to protect their decisions and keep the funds flowing. There should be open records and “court watches”! Look who is being paid! There are state employees, lawyers, court investigators, court personnel, and judges. There are psychologists, and psychiatrists, counselors, caseworkers, therapists, foster parents, adoptive parents, and on and on. All are looking to the children in state custody to provide job security. Parents do not realize that social workers are the glue that holds “the system” together that funds the court, the child’s attorney, and the multiple other jobs including DFCS’s attorney.
• that The Adoption and the Safe Families Act, set in motion by President Bill Clinton, offered cash “bonuses” to the states for every child they adopted out of foster care. In order to receive the “adoption incentive bonuses” local child protective services need more children. They must have merchandise (children) that sell and you must have plenty of them so the buyer can choose. Some counties are known to give a $4,000 bonus for each child adopted and an additional $2,000 for a “special needs” child. Employees work to keep the federal dollars flowing;
• that there is double dipping. The funding continues as long as the child is out of the home. When a child in foster care is placed with a new family then “adoption bonus funds” are available. When a child is placed in a mental health facility and is on 16 drugs per day, like two children of a constituent of mine, more funds are involved;
• that there are no financial resources and no real drive to unite a family and help keep them together;
• that the incentive for social workers to return children to their parents quickly after taking them has disappeared and who in protective services will step up to the plate and say, “This must end! No one, because they are all in the system together and a system with no leader and no clear policies will always fail the children. Look at the waste in government that is forced upon the tax payer;
• that the “Policy Manuel” is considered “the last word” for DFCS. However, it is too long, too confusing, poorly written and does not take the law into consideration;
• that if the lives of children were improved by removing them from their homes, there might be a greater need for protective services, but today all children are not always safer. Children, of whom I am aware, have been raped and impregnated in foster care and the head of a Foster Parents Association in my District was recently arrested because of child molestation;
• that some parents are even told if they want to see their children or grandchildren, they must divorce their spouse. Many, who are under privileged, feeling they have no option, will divorce and then just continue to live together. This is an anti-family policy, but parents will do anything to get their children home with them.
• fathers, (non-custodial parents) I must add, are oftentimes treated as criminals without access to their own children and have child support payments strangling the very life out of them;
• that the Foster Parents Bill of Rights does not bring out that a foster parent is there only to care for a child until the child can be returned home. Many Foster Parents today use the Foster Parent Bill of Rights to hire a lawyer and seek to adopt the child from the real parents, who are desperately trying to get their child home and out of the system;
• that tax dollars are being used to keep this gigantic system afloat, yet the victims, parents, grandparents, guardians and especially the children, are charged for the system’s services.
• that grandparents have called from all over the State of Georgia trying to get custody of their grandchildren. DFCS claims relatives are contacted, but there are cases that prove differently. Grandparents who lose their grandchildren to strangers have lost their own flesh and blood. The children lose their family heritage and grandparents, and parents too, lose all connections to their heirs.
• that The National Center on Child Abuse and Neglect in 1998 reported that six times as many children died in foster care than in the general public and that once removed to official “safety”, these children are far more likely to suffer abuse, including sexual molestation than in the general population.
• That according to the California Little Hoover Commission Report in 2003, 30% to 70% of the children in California group homes do not belong there and should not have been removed from their homes.

Please continue:
(See Final Remarks below)

FINAL REMARKS

On my desk are scores of cases of exhausted families and troubled children. It has been beyond me to turn my back on these suffering, crying, and sometimes beaten down individuals. We are mistreating the most innocent. Child Protective Services have become adult centered to the detriment of children. No longer is judgment based on what the child needs or who the child wants to be with or what is really best for the whole family; it is some adult or bureaucrat who makes the decisions, based often on just hearsay, without ever consulting a family member, or just what is convenient, profitable, or less troublesome for a director of DFCS.

Children deserve better. Families deserve better. It’s time to pull back the curtain and set our children and families free.

“Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute. Speak up and judge fairly; defend the rights of the poor and the needy” Proverbs 31:8-9

Please continue to read:
Recommendations
Exhibit A
Exhibit B

RECOMMENDATIONS

1. Call for an independent audit of the Department of Family and Children’s Services (DFCS) to expose corruption and fraud.
2. Activate immediate change. Every day that passes means more families and children are subject to being held hostage.
3. End the financial incentives that separate families.
4. Grant to parents their rights in writing.
5. Mandate a search for family members to be given the opportunity to adopt their own relatives.
6. Mandate a jury trial where every piece of evidence is presented before removing a child from his or her parents.
7. Require a warrant or a positive emergency circumstance before removing children from their parents. (Judge Arthur G. Christean, Utah Bar Journal, January, 1997 reported that “except in emergency circumstances, including the need for immediate medical care, require warrants upon affidavits of probable cause before entry upon private property is permitted for the forcible removal of children from their parents.”)
8. Uphold the laws when someone fabricates or presents false evidence. If a parent alleges fraud, hold a hearing with the right to discovery of all evidence.

Continue to Exhibit A

EXHIBIT A

December 5, 2006

Jeremy’s Story

( Some names withheld due to future hearings)

As told to Senator Nancy Schaefer by Sandra (XXXX), a foster parent of Jeremy for 2 ½ years.

My husband and I received Jeremy when he was 2 weeks old and we have been the only parents he has really ever known. He lived with us for 27 months. (XXXX) is the grandfather of Jeremy, and he is known for molesting his own children, for molesting Jeremy and has been court ordered not to be around Jeremy. (XXXX) is the mother of Jeremy, who has been diagnosed to be mentally ill, and also is known to have molested Jeremy. (XXXX) and Jeremy’s uncle is a registered sex offender and (XXXX) is the biological father, who is a drug addict and alcoholic and who continues to be in and out of jail. Having just described Jeremy’s world, all of these adults are not to be any part of Jeremy’s life, yet for years DFCS has known that they are. DFCS had to test (XXXX) (the grandfather) and his son (XXXX) (the uncle) and (XXXX) to determine the real father. (XXXX) is the biological father although any of them might have been. In court, it appeared from the case study, that everyone involved knew that this little boy had been molested by family members, even by his own mother, (XXXX). In court, (XXX), the mother of Jeremy, admitted to having had sex with (XXXX) (the grandfather) and (XXXX) (her own brother) that morning. Judge (XXXX) and DFCS gave Jeremy to his grandmother that same day. (XXXX), the grandmother, is over 300 lbs., is unable to drive, and is unable to take care of Jeremy due to physical problems. She also has been in a mental hospital several times due to her behavior.

Even though it was ordered by the court that the grandfather (XXXX), the uncle (XXXX) (a convicted sex offender), (XXXX) his mother who molested him and (XXXX) his biological father, a convicted drug addict, were not to have anything to do with the child, they all continue to come and go as they please at (XXXX address), where Jeremy has been “sentenced to live” for years. This residence has no bathroom and little heat. The front door and the windows are boarded. (See pictures) This home should have been condemned years ago. I have been in this home. No child should ever have to live like this or with such people.

Jeremy was taken from us at age 2 ½ years after (XXXX) obtained attorney (XXXX), who was the same attorney who represented him in a large settlement from an auto accident. I am told, that attorney (XXXX), as grandfather’s attorney, is known to have repeatedly gotten (XXXX) off of several criminal charges in White County. This is a matter of record and is

known by many in White County. I have copies of some records. (XXXX grandfather), through (XXXX attorney’s) work, got (XXXX), the grandmother of Jeremy, legal custody of Jeremy. (XXXX grandfather) who cannot read or write also got his daughter (XXXX) and son (XXXX) diagnosed by government agencies as mentally ill. (XXXX grandfather), through legal channels, has taken upon himself all control of the family and is able to take possession of any government funding coming to these people.

It was during this time that Jeremy was to have a six-month transitional period between (XXXX grandmother) and my family as we were to give him up. The court ordered agreement was to have been 4 days at our house and 3 days at (XXXX grandmother). DFCS stopped the visits within 2 weeks. The reason given by DFCS was the child was too traumatized going back and forth. In truth, Jeremy begged us and screamed never to be taken back to (XXXX his grandmother) house, which we have on video. We, as a family, have seen Jeremy in stores time to time with (XXXX grandmother) and the very people he is not to be around. At each meeting Jeremy continues to run to us wherever he sees us and it is clear he is suffering. This child is in a desperate situation and this is why I am writing, and begging you Senator Schaefer, to do something in this child’s behalf. Jeremy can clearly describe in detail his sexual molestation by every member of this family and this sexual abuse continues to this day.

When Jeremy was 5 years of age I took him to Dr. (XXXX) of Habersham County who did indeed agree that Jeremy’s rectum was black and blue and the physical damage to the child was clearly a case of sexual molestation .

Early in Jeremy’s life, when he was in such bad physical condition, we took him to Egleston Children Hospital where at two months of age therapy was to begin three times a week. DFCS decided that the (XXXX grandparent family) should participate in his therapy. However, the therapist complained over and over that the (XXXX grandparent family) would not even wash their hands and would cause Jeremy to cry during these sessions. (XXXX the grandmother), after receiving custody no longer allowed the therapy because it was an inconvenience. The therapist reported that this would be a terrible thing to do to this child. Therapy was stopped and it was detrimental to the health of Jeremy.

During (XXXX grandmother) custody, (XXXX uncle) has shot Jeremy with a BB gun and there is a report at (XXXX) County Sheriff’s office. There are several amber alerts at Cornelia Wal-Mart, Commerce Wal-Mart, and a 911 report from (XXXX) County Sheriff’s Department when Jeremy was lost. (XXXX grandmother), to teach Jeremy a lesson, took thorn bush limbs and beat the bottoms of his feet. Jeremy’s feet got infected and his feet had to be lanced by Dr. (XXXX). Then Judy called me to pick him up after about 4 days to take back him to the doctor because of intense pain. I took Jeremy to Dr. (XXXX) in Gainesville. Dr. (XXXX) said surgery was needed immediately and a cast was added. After returning home, (XXXX), his grandfather and (XXXX), his uncle, took him into the hog lot and allowed him to walk in the filth.

Jeremy’s feet became so infected for a 2nd time that he was again taken back to Dr. (XXXX) and the hospital. No one in the hospital could believe this child’s living conditions.

Jeremy is threatened to keep quiet and not say anything to anyone. I have videos, reports, arrest records and almost anything you might need to help Jeremy.

Please call my husband, Wendell, or me at any time.

Sandra and (XXXX) husband (XXXX)

Continue - Exhibit B

EXHIBIT B

Failure of DFCS

to remove six desperate children

A brief report regarding six children that Habersham County DFCS director failed to remove as disclosed to Senator Nancy Schaefer by Sheriff Deray Fincher of Habersham County.

Sheriff Deray Fincher, Chief of Police Don Ford and Chief Investigator Lt. Greg Bowen Chief called me to meet with them immediately, which I did on Tuesday, October 16, 2007

Sheriff Fincher, after contacting the Director of Habersham County DFCS several times to remove six children from being horribly abused, finally had to get a court order to remove the children himself with the help of two police officers.

The children, four boys and two girls, were not just being abused; they were being tortured by a monster father.

The six children and a live in girl friend were terrified of this man, the abuser. The children never slept in a bed, but always on the floor. The place where they lived was unfit for human habitation.

The father on one occasion hit one of the boys across his head with a bat and cut the boy’s head open. The father then proceeded to hold the boy down and sew up the child’s head with a needle and red thread. However, even with beatings and burnings, this is only a fraction of what the father did to these children and to the live-in girlfriend.

Sheriff Fincher has pictures of the abuse and condition of one of the boys and at the writing of this report, he has the father in jail in Habersham County.

It should be noted that when the DFCS director found out that Sheriff Fincher was going to remove the children, she called the father and warned him to flee.

This is not the only time this DFCS director failed to remove a child when she needed to do so. (See Exhibit A)

The egregious acts and abhorrent behavior of officials who are supposed to protect children can no longer be tolerated.

Senator Nancy Schaefer
50th District of Georgia

Senator Nancy Schaefer 302 B Coverdell Office Building 18 Capitol Square, SW Atlanta, Georgia 30334 Phone: 404-463-1367 Fax: 404-657-3217

Senator Nancy Schaefer District Office P O Box 294 Turnerville, Georgia 30580 Phone: 706-754-1998 Fax: 706-754-1803

email: senatornancyschaefer@alltel.net
Please forward to anyone interested

Source: website of Senator Nancy Schaefer

Shirley Hart lost her children to CPS in North Carolina, then set fire to her home. Police sent her to a psychiatrist. Instead of her children, she will get a few bottles of pills.

expand

collapse

Woman Arrested In Morning Apartment Fire

Thursday, Nov 22, 2007 - 06:00 PM Updated: 08:00 PM

Photo By: NBC17

By Carolyn Costello, NBC17 Weekend Anchor, Reporter, WNCN-TV

RALEIGH, N.C. -- Police said a woman in Raleigh set her duplex on fire Thursday morning to retaliate against child protective services for taking her children.

Just after 7:30 this morning fire broke out at an apartment complex on Baker's Grove Way. Police took Shirley Heart into custody and said she is getting psychiatric help.

The fire damaged her neighbor's adjoining duplex as well leaving that woman without a home on Thanksgiving Day.

Tammie Goodson woke up this Thanksgiving morning to a roaring fire. Police said her neighbor, Shirley Heart, torched her own duplex, destroying it and damaging Goodson's.

"Everybody in there was asleep. If the neighbors across the street had not banged on that door and let us know we'd have burned up in there," Goodson said.

Goodson said she had complained about Heart before. She called Child Protective Services who then came and took Heart's children.

Neighbors told police heart had threatened to burn down her home and other homes in the area if authorities took her kids. Police said it appears that's just what she did.

Police took Heart into custody Thursday morning and no charges have been filed.

"She's being evaluated at this point in a medical facility. Charges will depend on the outcome of the medical evaluation and in consulting with the DA's office," said Captain Mike Reynolds of the Raleigh Police Department.

Goodson said her neighbor hasn't been right lately. She said Heart has been up in the middle of the night, waking her kids by yelling and praying.

"She had them up at 3:00 in the morning just praising the Lord," Goodson said.

"Between the landlord and me calling the police no one seemed to listen to me and do anything. What are we left to do now?" Good said.

Source: website of WNCN - NBC17

John Dunn and the Ottawa CAS will be back to court on January 24 in his effort to get the CAS criminally charged for failure to supply a membership list. The press release follows. In an earlier posting we incorrectly said that the case was over, based on the letter from John Dunn to crown prosecutor Yvonne Goebel.

expand

collapse

NEWS RELEASE
John Dunn
Executive Director
The Foster Care Council of Canada
613-228-2178
johndunn@afterfostercare.ca
12-1160 Meadowlands Drive East
Ottawa, ON K2E 6J2
http://www.afterfostercare.ca

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Former foster child and child welfare reform advocate John Dunn has laid charges against the Children's Aid Society of Ottawa. Dunn, in his efforts advocate for children and youth in foster care to become voting members of the Society in accordance with Article 12 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child has had his efforts blocked by the Society who is now in court over the matter.

According to Dunn, the Society is required by section 307 (1) of the Corporations Act, to furnish a list of the members of the Society to any person who requests it in accordance with the legislation so that they can advocate for changes related to the Society through the members. If the Society refuses to furnish the list of its members when required to do so, Dunn says that section 307 (5) of the Act makes it a Offence and that this is where the charge originated.

On the heels of the Ontario Auditor General's Report which focused on inappropriate spending of Tax Payers money within Children's Aid Societies, the Children's Aid Society of Ottawa, within a week of receiving the request for a list of their members retained the services of an outside lawyer, Robert C. Morrow of Burke-Robertson, to assist them in refusing the furnish the list as required by law.

Dunn and the Society will appear again in court to set a trial date on January 24, 2008.

--30--

Source: email from John Dunn

---

November 22, 2007

Today I went into court expecting to hear a plead from the Society. However, in the back of my mind, I knew something was probably going to surface. What did happen however surprised me. An expectation I had several months ago began to transpire.

I arrived at the court and was contacted by the Provincial Prosecutor at the Court house who informed me that Counsel for the defendants (their Exec. Dir) was concerned that I had not filed the information (the charge) within the legal six months from the time the Offence was committed.

I was, at first taken-aback but soon realized that I had already covered this issue from the beginning by ensuring that the charge was laid within legal limit of six months from the date the actual Offence was committed.

The request was filed with the Society on February 05, 2007. They had ten days to comply with the request before they would be in a position of having committed the Offence of contravening section 307 (5) of the Corporations Act. (Failing to provide the list of members of the Society as required by section 307 (1))

This means that they had to provide the list any time up to and including Thursday, February 15th, 2007 or, in other words prior to Friday, February 16th, 2007 in order to prevent themselves from committing the Offence.

Instead they intentionally retained a lawyer in order to assist them in committing the Offence by having Counsel write a letter to me dated February 14th, 2007 stating that they will not provide the list to me. (therefore demonstrating that they were going to commit the Offence). This letter was written just two days short of the date the Offence would officially have been deemed to have been committed. (Feb. 16th, 2007)

In this letter, three assumptions were made as "reasons" for not furnishing the list to me stating that I was not going to use the list for legal purposes and that they could not provide the list to me due to provisions of the Federal Privacy legislation (PIPEDA) which actually does only applies to commercial businesses or undertakings not exclusively legislated, non-profit organizations -- which is what the Society is.

I have since obtained a letter from the Federal Privacy Commission stating that the Act does not apply to the Society.

So anyhow, this is a strict liability Offence which only affords them the defences of Due Diligence and Mistake of Fact. Neither of which apply in this case. Therefore there is a reasonable prospect of conviction and a public interest in this prosecution since the lives of children in foster care in Ontario are affected by decisions made by the Society and they are blocking the membership from being informed of important issues of interest to the members which will only be brought to their attention via concerned members of the community who have attempted to become a member but who have had their membership applications denied by the Board due to what can only be assumed to be political reasons.

Source: letter from John Dunn to crown prosecutor Yvonne Goebel

In the following story the perpetrator and victim are both unnamed, so we cannot tell whether it is a fake planted by children's aid to draw sympathy or the story of a mother acting on the animal instinct to guard her children from harm through force if necessary.

expand

collapse

Everyone a little more aware at Children's Aid Society

Date: 2007-11-23, By Lauren Gilchrist

They get threats. There are assaults.

Hugh Nicholson, executive director of the Kawartha Haliburton Children's Aid Society (CAS), says at times the organization's work is dangerous.

That is no more evident than following a recent assault on a CAS worker.

A 34-year-old woman, armed with a pair of barber scissors, is charged after allegedly grabbing a Children's Aid Society worker by the hair.

According to City police, on Wednesday (Nov. 21) at approximately 12:15 p.m. the accused went to the Children's Aid Society offices on Chemong Road. When there, she asked to speak to a worker concerning her child's child care issues. She asked to speak to the victim, a Children's Aid Society worker. The victim, a 42-year-old female, was paged to come to the lobby. When the victim asked the accused how she could help her, the accused allegedly grabbed the victim by the hair with her left hand while armed with a pair of barber scissors in her right hand. While the victim struggled to get free, the accused allegedly grabbed the victim's right arm and left index finger. Several staff members came to the aid of the victim and were able to wrestle the scissors away from the accused and separate the two women.

A day after the incident, Mr. Nicholson says the staff are still on edge.

“A little nervous and concerned about the person that was assaulted. She is home today [Thursday] taking a bit of a break before she comes back in,” he says.

“It makes everyone here more aware of the dangers involved in child protection. It just reminds us all we need to be very careful about it.”

Mr. Nicholson says a staff member was seriously assaulted roughly a year ago.

“It was an assault on one of our staff who came out to supervise a visit between a mother and her child,” he explains.

Mr. Nicholson says every time an incident like this happens they learn something.

“We have pretty good security measures and they worked well in this instance,” he says, referring to Wednesday's alleged assault.

He notes one measure is the panic buttons located in areas where clients are in contact with staff.

“The area itself is pretty secure,” he explains, noting there is also a protocol in place once the panic button is pressed.

“Although this incident was unfortunate, it was terminated very quickly. But there are improvements I think we can make to it.”

He says there is an emergency health and safety meeting scheduled for Monday (Nov. 26) where staff can put forward suggestions.

The accused was arrested and charge with possession of a weapon for a dangerous purpose and assault with a weapon. The victim was treated at the hospital for her injuries. The name of the accused will not be released in order to protect her child's identity.

Source: mykawartha.com, Metroland Media Group

Harold Levy has been closely following the Gouge Inquiry into pathologist Dr Charles Smith. Here is his report on the case of Sherry Sherret.

expand

collapse

Tuesday, November 20, 2007

Goudge Inquiry: Joshua's Case: Part Three; Aftermath Of A Flawed Opinion;

"SOME CASES COME BACK TO HAUNT YOU AND THIS IS ONE OF THEM"
- LAWYER BRUCE HILLIER.

On January 4, 1999, something happened that should never happen in Canada's criminal justice system.

Sherry Sherret pleaded guilty to a crime she did not commit.

Dr. Charles Smith's opinion was at the heart of the Agreed Statement of Facts read into the court record;

The Agreed Statement reads:

"Dr. Charles Smith performed an autopsy on the baby at the Toronto Hospital for Sick Children.

He determined the cause of death to be asphyxia.

He ruled out mould or disease as a cause of death.

Pinpoint hemorrhages in the tissue of the eyelids, sometimes present in non-accidental asphyxia were not found in the case.

Dr. Smith was highly suspicion that the death as non-accidental, but there were no overt signs of violence upon which to make a conclusive finding."

"A microscopic skull fracture was discovered months after the original post mortem," the Agreed Statement of Facts continued.

"It was not initially visible to the pathologist."

Dr. Smith testified at the preliminary hearing that this skull fracture could have been caused on either an accidental or non-accidental basis and was not the cause of death.'

One can only imagine what Sherret felt when she heard Justice Byers utter the fallowing words before sentencing her to one year in jail followed by two years probation.

"To this day, I do not understand why she did it," he began.

"There is no doubt that looking after Joshua was very stressful for her; and it would seem that there were warning signs that were there to be seen

But at the end of the day only she knows what she did, and shy she did it.

And she is not telling." denies her guilt and shows no remorse," Byers continued.

"Her support system in the community - her family, her friends - reinforce that position.

Joshua did not die because his mother was suffering from some sort of post-partem depression.

His death, perhaps, is connected the fact that Sherry suffers from what the doctors have called a mixed personality disorder.

Or perhaps not.

No doubt, though, her attitude towards this tragedy is connected to that diagnosis."

We are now aware that Dr. Smith's opinion was terribly flawed.

There was no ashphyxia.

There was no skull fracture.

There was just an innocent grieving mother who had lost her son due to a natural but unexplained death; (One possibility is that Joshua accidentally suffocated during his sleep.)

I sometimes wonder how judges feel on learning that they have passed sentence on an innocent person - and the words they have said on passing sentence are seen in a different light.

In fairness, the judge usually has no information on the case except that which is provided by the parties at the particular time.

The one year prison term - sentencing was left in the hands of the judge - was not the only punishment meted on Ms. Sherret in the aftermath of Dr. Charles Randal Smith's flawed opinion.

Byers also placed her on probation for two years, saying:

"You are not to be in a parental position towards infant children; and,

"If you get pregnant, you must immediately report that to a probation officer."