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Parents Deemed Homicidal
April 8, 2008
British MP John Hemming describes assessment centers for parents with a
few curt but accurate words.
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Monday, April 07, 2008
Assessment centres
I visited an Assessment centre today. I don't think most people know
what it is like to be in this environment.
Frankly the Assessment centres show an aspect of the system that needs
to be seen to be believed. There is a form of assumption that parents are
on the edge of murdering their children and are only held back by the fact
that they have to phone the office every time they change a nappy.
Insane.
This is a systematic problem for which the politicians and judges are
equally responsible.
posted by john ¶ 6:57 PM
CPS Bullcrap
April 8, 2008
Richard Wexler analyzes the latest press coverage initiated by the child
protection bureaucracy, which he characterizes with the relatively polite
epithet crap. You can't believe a word they say, in the privacy of
the courtroom or the public forum of the press.
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April 4, 2008
THE CHILD ABUSE HYPE MACHINE STRIKES AGAIN
AP tells us:
About 1 in 50 infants in the U.S. have been neglected or abused,
according to the first national study of the problem in that age group.
Nearly a third of the victims were one week old or younger when the
maltreatment was reported, government researchers said Thursday.
Bloomberg says:
About 1 in 43 infants in the U.S. suffers abuse or neglect each
year, with the greatest risk among the newly born, according to the
first U.S. study of maltreatment focused on babies.
And according to Reuters:
About one of every 43 U.S. infants is physically abused or neglected
annually, and those babies are especially at risk in the first week of
their lives, U.S. health officials said on Thursday.
The impression given in stories that crossed the wire late yesterday is
of a comprehensive, scholarly study discovering massive abuse in hospital
wards by sadistic parents beating and choking their helpless newborns. Of
course, it’s released just in time for Child Abuse Prevention Month, in
which the groups that hype the numbers seek more funding for their version
of “prevention” – which generally involves touchy-feely “counseling” and
“parent education” programs which make the helpers feel good while
ignoring the real family problems that either cause – or are confused with
– child maltreatment; namely concrete problems related to poverty.
There are just two problems with the claims in the wire service
stories:
- There was no “study.”
- The “findings” are crap.
And while the problem of maltreatment of infants, like all child
maltreatment, is serious and real, the hysteria-inducing non-study and the
spoon-fed quotes from alleged experts apparently offered up by the federal
Centers for Disease Control are only going to make the real problems
worse. They’ll breed a spate of hand wringing editorials which, even as
they preach “prevention,” feed the take-the-child-and-run mentality that
dominates child welfare agencies. And they’ll drive some expectant
mothers away from pre-natal care.
It’s the latest installment in a long, sad history of “statistics
abuse” from America’s child welfare establishment, rooted in an
ends-justify-the-means mentality that produces “advocacy numbers” that
don’t hold up to scrutiny. (Time magazine condemned it as early as 1993,
in a brief item called “Damned Lies and Statistics.”)
The non-study
Every year, the federal government puts out a book of statistics about
child maltreatment. The book is a compilation of data from the states
submitted to a database called NCANDS. (National Child Abuse and Neglect
Data System). Unlike a second database used for adoption and foster care
data, NCANDS is strictly voluntary –and states are free to define abuse,
neglect, entries into care, and everything else, any way they darned well
please. So, as I’ll discuss in more detail below, this is really no more
than a National Report of Rumor and Innuendo.
Every year, this report includes a table breaking down alleged
maltreatment by age. Until now, the youngest age bracket has been birth
to age three. (Here, for example, is the chart
from the 2005 report).
The big new “study” hyped by the wires in stories turning up in
hundreds of news outlets consisted of a couple of extra keystrokes to get
a computer to spit out the same data limited to birth to age one for 2006,
the most recent year for which data are available.
The data are then presented in six paragraphs in
a CDC publication. That’s the entire “study.”
The non-findings
But that didn’t stop the Child Abuse Hype Machine from swinging into
action. Apparently CDC was glad to direct reporters to “experts” prepared
to draw stunning conclusions from lousy data.
How lousy?
Well, let’s go back to how these figures are compiled:
Even at that, the so-called study acknowledged that overwhelmingly,
these infants are not abused. Indeed, physical abuse was alleged in 13.2
percent of the cases. In 68.5 percent the allegation was “neglect.” The
wire stories do mention this but are skimpy about the implications.
Neglect is typically defined as lack of adequate food, clothing and
shelter. Lots of things can cause lack of adequate food, clothing and
shelter, including all sorts of bad behavior by parents. But often,
neglect is simply poverty.
Indeed, the only real surprise in the stories was that someone who, for
decades, has represented the view of the “child saving” establishment,
Prof. David Finkelhor of the University of New Hampshire, apparently has
gotten fed up and can’t stomach the hype. According to the AP story:
“The neglect cases include situations in which medical professionals
conclude that a child got sick or didn't correctly develop because
parents didn't get recommended medical care. … Finkelhor said the cases
might in part reflect families who don't have adequate health
insurance.”
You think?
But Finkelhor was alone. Mostly the quotes suggested tens of thousands
of infants whose lives were in danger because parents were at worst
sadistic brutes or at best irresponsible and needed lots of “counseling”
and “parent education.”
And what about all that stuff about the danger being worst during the
first days of life? Does that mean that’s when stressed-out parents are
most likely to lash out at the most innocent?
Actually, no. As the stories acknowledge – eventually – it’s strictly
an artifice of how child maltreatment is reported.
Many state laws require medical professionals to report any parent
whose newborn allegedly has even a trace of any illegal substance in her
or his system. This can mean anything from the parent who used cocaine
every day of her pregnancy to the parent who smoked a marijuana cigarette
to ease the pain of labor – to simply a false positive on a drug test.
Doesn’t matter. Professional medical judgment is not allowed.
And in some states, any such report is automatically classified as a
“substantiated” case of neglect.
The result: a supposed epidemic of child maltreatment in the days
after birth, that in fact, is simply a combination of doctors denied the
right to use their medical judgment and state laws slapping the label
“neglect” onto any case with a positive drug test.
And since more and more states are moving in this dreadful direction –
requiring an automatic neglect finding based on one positive drug test –
we know what will happen next: They’ll run the numbers next year, the
numbers will be, artificially, higher, and the Hype Machine will proclaim
that the problem of infant abuse “has gotten even worse.”
Yes, the various experts quoted pay lip service to prevention. But not
the kind of prevention that would really help – like universal health
insurance, drug treatment on demand and, especially, concrete help to ease
the worst burdens of poverty. Instead, we get sanctimonious comments
about counseling and parent education and teaching parents to cope with
stress. (Actually easing the stress by improving housing or helping a
family find day care? No thanks. Apparently that’s beneath the dignity
of a true “professional.”)
And what impact is all the hype about those drug tests (including a
gratuitous quote in the AP story suggesting – wrongly - that the tests
revealed “newborn drug addiction”) likely to have on pregnant women who
really do have drug problems? It’s bound to drive more of them into
hiding and away from prenatal care – which is likely to be far more
harmful to the children than the drug use itself.
In fact, there is some real news in the latest federal
figures, but not the kind the Child Abuse Hype Machine wants to focus
on:
The overall rate of substantiated child abuse is actually unchanged
from 2005 – and significantly lower than it’s been in almost every year
since 1990.
But you can’t get more money for your phony prevention program with
figures like that.
The response to this from the child welfare establishment will be
two-fold: First the accusation that anyone who doesn’t take their hype at
face value is “minimizing” the problem and, essentially, doesn’t care if
infants are beaten and tortured. On the contrary – after more than 30
years of following this issue, one thing I know for sure is that
statistics abuse winds up increasing harm to children, not curbing it.
Second is the “even one…” argument. As in, “if even one infant is
abused it’s one too many so why ‘quibble’ over numbers?”
Well yes, even one is one too many. But if the real numbers don’t
matter, there’s no need to hype them.
Actually, the real numbers matter a lot. Because the first step toward
honest solutions is honest numbers.
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Family Saved from Shaken Baby Theory
April 5, 2008
The Toronto Star features a family falsely accused by expert evidence
from pathologist Dr Charles Smith. A twelve-year-old girl was babysitting
when an accidental fall killed toddler Amber. Dr Smith claimed it was a
shaken baby case. The accused girl's father was a professional chemist and
used his own technical expertise to study medical literature on shaken baby.
He spent two years gathering evidence at a cost of $150 thousand. His
efforts saved his daughter, but left the family bankrupt.
As far as we know, shaken baby has been disproved in every case in which
the defense has had adequate resources, but still many parents are in jail,
and many more children are in foster or adoptive homes, on this now
discredited theory.
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Father credited for acquittal in baby's death
ADRIAN WYLD/CANADIAN PRESS FILE PHOTO
Pathologist Dr. Charles Smith arrives with his legal team at the
Goudge inquiry in Toronto on Jan. 28, 2008.
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Dad dove into research on Shaken Baby Syndrome, sold house
to prove disgraced pathologist wrong
April 04, 2008, Theresa Boyle, staff reporter
He knew it had to be a mistake.
His 12-year-old daughter was charged with manslaughter, accused of
causing the death of a toddler she was babysitting. A renowned
pathologist, Dr. Charles Smith, had said it was a case of Shaken Baby
Syndrome.
The father knew better. His daughter was a straight-A Grade 6 student
whose biggest concerns at the time – it was December 1988 – were singing
competitions and basketball games. "I told her not to worry, I would
straighten this out. They've made a mistake."
A chemist at a mining company, he put his scientific know-how to work
for the next two years, determined to prove Smith wrong and clear his
daughter. He committed most lunch hours, evenings and weekends to reading
scientific journals on arcane subjects such as neuropathology and
biomechanics, delving deep into the field of infant head injuries.
The efforts of the father would pay off enormously. His daughter was
acquitted and the case became one of 20 botched by Smith and others that
were examined at a public inquiry in which final arguments wrapped up this
week in Toronto.
But the financial cost was heavy for the father – known only as DM at
the inquiry because of a publication ban. The family remortgaged their
house twice, eventually selling it. And they cashed in all their RRSPs.
In all, $150,000 was spent on flying experts to Timmins, putting them up
in hotels and paying for some of them to review the case.
The family's ordeal started in the summer of 1988 when the daughter,
SM, got a job babysitting a 16-month-old neighbour, Amber, three days a
week. Amber's parents had carefully checked SM's background and felt they
could trust her with their daughter. She had taken the Red Cross
babysitting course, was a good student, a little league baseball player
and had "great reviews" from other families whose children she had
babysat.
Tragedy struck on July 28. After awakening from a nap, Amber got out
of SM's grasp and tumbled down the stairs, striking her head. She
suffered a fatal brain injury, dying two days later at Toronto's Hospital
for Sick Children.
Initially, a coroner determined the toddler had died of an accidental
head injury. But after the child was buried, officials from Sick Kids,
including Smith, requested an exhumation, suspecting abuse.
Smith did an autopsy and determined Amber died of Shaken Baby Syndrome.
She had symptoms typically associated with the syndrome, including
bleeding on the surface of the brain, brain swelling and retinal
hemorrhages. But Smith discounted a bruise on Amber's forehead, wrongly
determining it predated the accident. It was a critical error. Experts
who later reviewed the case said it was evidence that the child had,
indeed, died from striking her head.
On Dec. 15, SM and her parents were asked to come down to the police
station. They piled into DM's Ford F-150 SuperCab half-ton, thinking
perhaps that they were needed to help tie up some loose ends in the case.
Instead, they were met by a detective who formally charged SM with
manslaughter. DM remembers the officer saying it was the hardest thing he
ever had to do in his life.
"We were just dumbfounded, totally dumbfounded," DM remembers.
He recalls how vulnerable his daughter appeared. Bundled in her winter
jacket, with her long blond hair tied back in a ponytail, the tall pretty
girl protested her innocence.
"I didn't kill anybody. I loved that baby," she insisted.
"They put us in another room," the father recalls. "I don't think she
even knew what that meant – being charged with manslaughter. She was 12
years old. She probably didn't really understand how serious that was."
DM's initial panic turned to anger. So he channelled his emotions into
protecting his daughter, turning to what he knew best: science and
research. At the time he was doing metallurgical analysis for
Falconbridge Mining, now Xstrata. But during every break, he turned his
attention to the science of infant head injuries.
"It certainly helped, working in the field I was in. That's all I was
doing was research, and I knew you couldn't be 100 per cent certain of any
theory. This one sounded like it was flawed," he says of Shaken Baby
Syndrome.
So he set about finding out everything he could about the syndrome,
infant head injuries and the biomechanics of falls. He read academic
journals and called experts from around the world.
"I wanted to know how you could distinguish a shaking injury from an
injury caused by a fall. Right off the bat I knew this was a
biomechanical problem," he says.
Little did DM know that he had stumbled upon a major scientific
quandary, one that still bedevils scientists today. Indeed, one of the
recommendations coming out of the inquiry is for a review of old
shaken-baby deaths. That's because cases once viewed as being caused by
the syndrome are today often attributed to natural causes.
One of the papers he found was published in the Journal of Neurosurgery
in 1987. The seminal study, which was led by Ann-Christine Duhaime from
the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, poked holes in the theory of
Shaken Baby Syndrome. She and her colleagues argued that a blunt impact
was necessary to cause such injuries.
The theory squared with DM's take on what happened to Amber – that the
toddler struck her head during the accidental fall, acquiring a fatal
brain injury.
DM tracked down the author and convinced her to take a look at the case
and ultimately to travel to Timmins to testify on his daughter's behalf.
In the end, DM found 19 experts around the world whose studies and
theories supported his daughter. He paid for nine of them – including
neuropathologists, biomechanics experts and pediatricians specializing in
child abuse – to fly to Timmins for the trial. Written opinions from
others were provided to the court.
The family went bankrupt to cover the costs of SM's defence.
The trial took place over a period of almost two years, a difficult
time for the family. SM's marks in school, normally high, dropped. The
usually upbeat girl became despondent. Even though she was protected
under the Young Offenders Act, Timmins isn't that big and residents were
well aware of the identity of the girl at the centre of the trial. Some
judged her harshly. Amber's parents still lived across the road.
By the time SM took the stand, she was 14. DM remembers going into the
courtroom feeling worried for her, but he emerged feeling proud.
"The judge asked her if she had anything to say. She pointed to all
the people behind the Crown – the police and Amber's family – and reminded
them: `You believed me before Dr. Smith's shaking theory came out. I
loved Amber and I'm innocent.'"
In his written decision acquitting SM, Justice Patrick Dunn said the
defence's nine experts succeeded in convincing him that a child could
sustain a serious head injury from a short fall.
"When first presented, the Crown's case appeared quite plausible. But
after the evidence of the defence experts, it is riddled with reasonable
doubts," he wrote.
The family's lawyer, now a judge, gave much credit for the victory to
DM. In his 1995 swearing-in ceremony to the Ontario Court of Justice,
Gilles Renaud gave a speech in which he lauded DM.
"No courtroom lawyer has ever enjoyed a better assistant than I did,"
he said.
The Dunn decision has been a key piece of evidence at the current
inquiry, often cited by counsel for the commission and parties with
standing. It marked the first time Smith and the Hospital for Sick
Children were publicly rebuked for their work on the 20 cases under
question.
"The case proved that the people at Sick Kids, particularly Dr. Smith,
didn't seem to be aware of groundbreaking research," remarks Peter Wardle,
lawyer for this family and others at the inquiry.
DM is now chief chemist at Xstrata, running the lab in which he once
worked as a researcher. He half jokingly says he has to keep working
because his retirement funds are sorely depleted.
SM declined to be interviewed for this story. She has endeavoured to
move on from the case that has so consumed her family. Following the
trial, her school grades returned to As. She moved away from Timmins to
go to university, eventually acquiring two degrees. She now lives in a
southwestern Ontario city and at age 32, has a highly successful career.
DM is well aware that it could have turned out very differently.
"Innocence. There's no price for it. It's as simple as that."
Baby-Stealers Jailed
April 5, 2008
Two Argentinians have been jailed for kidnapping a baby and raising her
as their daughter. They did not go through regular adoption channels, but
during Argentina's Dirty War resorted to false birth documents to create a
connection with the girl. The girl, now thirty-year-old Maria Eugenia
Sampallo Barragán, views them not as parents, but as kidnappers. We had
earlier comments on this story on January 20.
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3 Convicted in Argentine Adoption Trial
By JEANNETTE NEUMANN – 20 hours ago
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — A court on Friday sentenced the adoptive
parents of a baby born to a missing political prisoner to up to eight
years in prison for concealing the child's identity, in a landmark case
with roots in Argentina's dictatorship.
The court also handed down a sentence of 10 years to a former army
captain accused of giving the couple the baby after the real parents were
abducted by state security forces during the 1976-1983 military regime and
never reappeared.
The case marked the first time a child of a dissident who disappeared
during Argentina's "dirty war" had taken her adoptive parents to court.
Human rights groups say more than 200 such children were taken from
abducted mothers and given to military or politically connected families
to raise. DNA tests have allowed some of them to identify their real
parents.
The court sentenced Osvaldo Rivas and his former wife, Maria Cristina
Gomez Pinto, to eight years and seven years in prison, respectively, for
falsifying documents and concealing the identity of a minor. The former
captain, Enrique Berthier, received 10 years.
Maria Eugenia Sampallo Barragan, who in 2001 learned she was the
daughter of missing political prisoners Mirta Mable Barragan and Leonardo
Ruben Sampall, sat impassively wearing thick black-rim glasses as the
verdict was read.
There were gasps in the courtroom, which was packed with activists and
friends.
Human rights groups, which provided legal counsel to the
now-30-year-old plaintiff, protested that the accused should have received
the maximum sentence — 25 years.
"We do not agree with the sentence," said Rosa de Roisinblit, the vice
president of the human rights group the Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo.
"In the United States and other countries, a stolen child is almost akin
to murder, and here it's nothing."
Several Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo, who have identified 88
children of their "disappeared" sons and daughters through DNA tests, had
sat in the court for daily closed-door sessions since trial began in
February.
Sampallo's lawyer, Tomas Ojea Quintana, said he would appeal for longer
prisoner terms for the three defendants.
None of the defendants' lawyers issued comments after the verdict.
Berthier's lawyer, Alejandro Maria Macedo Rumi, said during the trial
there was no proof that Sampallo's parents were missing or disappeared.
He added that the evidence against Berthier was given by "former
terrorists" who had participated in leftist militant groups.
"It's all part of a conspiracy against the military," Macedo said.
The left-leaning coalition led by former president Nestor Kirchner and
current President Cristina Fernandez has made human rights prosecutions of
"dirty war" abuses a priority. Fernandez recently vowed to speed up
scores of cases around the country.
Victor Enrique Valle, a lawyer for both Rivas and Pinto, said during
the trial the adoptive parents "could have no way of knowing where their
daughter came from."
In 2001, Sampallo's mother was six months pregnant when she and her
father were abducted on Dec. 6, 1977, said Sampallo's lawyer. He said
Sampallo was born in February 1978, while her mother was being held at a
clandestine torture center.
There have been at least three earlier trials involving suspected
illegal adoptions dating to the dictatorship that resulted in convictions
— but the plaintiffs in those cases were not the adopted children.
On Monday, Sampallo held a news conference in which she held up
black-and-white photographs of Rivas and Gomez Pinto and declared they
never truly were her adoptive parents.
"These are not my parents," Sampallo said. "They are my kidnappers."
Then she held up a photo of her biological father and mother, two
leftist activists who remain missing.
"These are my parents," she said
From other news reports, Maria Eugenia Sampallo Barragán holds pictures
of her parents, whose fate remains unknown:
Mom Jailed for Defending Kids
April 5, 2008
When Philadelphia mom Sharonda Sowell heard from social worker Danelle
Cooper that her children were to be taken away, she defended her family by
attacking the worker. The mother has been sentenced to twelve years under
control of the police, the first four behind bars. At least she fared
better than
Bryan S Russell and
Gene Valasquez
who both died defending their families from social workers.
Columnist Jill Porter presents the story from the social worker's
perspective, never seeing that there is any reason for the mother's actions.
Sowell's neighbors seemed to understand the situation better when they
refused to intervene to protect Cooper.
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Posted on Wed, Apr. 2, 2008
Jill Porter: Justice is served, but too late for
shattered social worker
By Jill Porter, Philadelphia Daily News, Daily News Columnist
THEY'RE OUT there every day, in dangerous neighborhoods, in volatile
situations, trying to protect the city's most vulnerable children.
They should never have to fear injury or death while doing it.
That was the message sent earlier this month when a woman who had
ferociously attacked a city social worker investigating a report of child
neglect was sent to state prison.
The worker, Danelle Cooper, had hair pulled from her scalp; she was
bitten, punched and bloodied - and she was terrified she'd be killed.
"Emotionally, it's still hard just to think about what happened to me,"
said the 10-year veteran of the city's Department of Human Services.
DHS has changed policies to better protect its workers.
And Common Pleas Judge Pamela Pryor Dembe sentenced Cooper's attacker
to two to four years in state prison followed by eight years' probation.
That's a serious sentence in a system often criticized for leniency.
Dembe declined comment on the March 19 sentence because of potential
appeals that may come before her.
But Assistant District Attorney Dawn Holtz said that the message is
clear: Attacks on city workers will be met with harsh consequences.
"It's really serious because these DHS workers - they go out there,
they're not armed, they're out there trying to do something good, to make
sure these kids are safe," Holtz said.
When Cooper arrived at the house on Chadwick Street in North
Philadelphia last Sept. 26, she found a toddler and three other children
unsupervised.
The mom came home drunk. When Cooper said that the children couldn't
stay there under the circumstances, she expected the usual resistance.
"I've been cursed at, yelled at, called all kinds of names," Cooper
told me. "You can usually de-escalate it."
But Sharonda Sowell went on the attack.
She punched Cooper in the face and bit her repeatedly; she pulled her
hair so hard it came out of her scalp.
When Cooper fled outside, Sowell chased her and continued the assault
while neighbors ignored Cooper's pleas for help.
Sowell, 31, pleaded guilty to charges of aggravated assault,
terroristic threats and reckless endangerment.
Cooper was shattered. She was out of work for the better part of two
months and still is gripped by fear.
She has an inside job now and no longer goes into the field to
investigate allegations of abuse.
She's not sure she'll ever recover enough emotionally to go back on the
street.
"It saddens me tremendously, because I enjoyed doing fieldwork and
assessing children's safety," she said. "I'd never have thought I'd be
the one who was not safe."
The attack understandably rattled workers at DHS, and the agency took
it to heart.
After 5 p.m., social workers who go to a residence to investigate
allegations of abuse are instructed to travel in pairs. They can refuse
to go solo at any time if they feel threatened.
Through an arrangement with former Police Commissioner Sylvester
Johnson, DHS spokeswoman Alicia Taylor said, the workers can also go to
the nearest police district and ask for an officer to accompany them.
If they get into trouble in the field, their calls to police are given
high priority, only one notch below an "assist officer" call, Taylor said.
"We're very sensitive to this issue and continue to work on increasing
worker safety," she said.
Meanwhile, Danelle Cooper is grateful to her DHS colleagues for their
support.
"The outpouring was tremendous. I got so many cards and flowers and
food, it was just phenomenal."
She's also grateful to Judge Dembe for the sentence she imposed on
Sowell and the message it sends.
"I think the public needs to know that we're out here, we're doing our
jobs, we should not feel threatened, we should not be attacked," Cooper
said.
"Clients should know there are serious repercussions to attacking a DHS
worker or anyone who is in public service."
Cooper's still receiving counseling and continuing to recover.
"I don't think I'll ever put it completely behind me," she said. *
E-mail porterj@phillynews.com or call 215-854-5850.
Return of Adoption Disclosure
April 4, 2008
There has been progress in enacting legislation to open Ontario's
adoption records.
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COAR Bulletin
April 3, 2008
This afternoon Bill 12, the Access to Adoption Records Act, passed
second reading in the Ontario legislature.
Bill 12
As you will recall, the Liberals introduced the bill late in 2007. To
become law it still has to go to parliamentary committee and then pass
third reading. If it passes into law, Bill 12 will:
- permit adopted adults access to their original birth certificates
- permit birth parents of adopted adults access to the adoptee’s
original and amended birth certificates
- allow both adoptees and birth parents to file contact and disclosure
vetoes
- allow adoptees and birth parents who participate in an adoption after
September 1, 2008 unrestricted access to identifying information once
the adoptee reaches adulthood.
Today in the Legislature
Today Madeleine Meilleur, the Minister of Community and Social
Services, reintroduced the bill and spoke eloquently of birth mothers’
need to learn information about their adult children. Then Julia Munro
spoke for the Conservatives; she criticized the Liberals for failing to
attach a disclosure veto to the previous bill.
The surprise came when Peter Kormos from the NDP denounced the adoption
community as zealots and praised the privacy commissioner for her valiant
fight to protect the privacy of frightened birth mothers. We were very
surprised to hear such strong statements from the NDP who, until this
time, had unequivocally supported open records in Ontario. Michael Prue
of the NDP spoke after Kormos and was less antagonistic. He simply
recognized the need to include a disclosure veto after Judge Belobaba’s
ruling last fall.
Next Steps
We anticipate that the bill will go to committee some time this spring.
The government has indicated that there will be no public presentations.
The committee will go through the bill clause by clause. At the
conclusion of this process, the bill will go to the legislature for third
reading.
In solidarity,
Michael Grand, mgrand@uoguelph.ca
Karen Lynn, ccnm@rogers.com
Wendy Rowney, wrowney@rogers.com
COAR Coordinating Committee
Cat Aid Society
April 4, 2008
Martin Walsh, a New York cat owner, has been charged for failure to get
medical treatment for his geriatric cat. According the the authorities, he
should have taken the cat to the vet, or turned it over to the ASPCA.
This case ought to be laughed out of court, but a judge has forced Walsh
to stand trial. How long until we have a Cat Aid Society?
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Owner Charged With Cruelty for Failing to Treat Cat's
Ailments
Noeleen G. Walder, New York Law Journal, March 24, 2008
A cat owner who did not seek treatment for his pet's serious ailments
during the cat's last year of life can be charged with animal cruelty, a
Manhattan judge has ruled.
Allegations that the defendant left a "swollen and bleeding" paw and
other conditions untreated "sufficiently demonstrate that the animal was
subjected to unjustifiable physical pain," Criminal Court Judge ShawnDya
L. Simpson wrote in People v. Walsh, 2007NY022001.
Henry I. Weil, attorney for Martin Walsh, said the 15-year-old house
cat became sick over time and was at "the tail end of its life span."
While Walsh loved the cat, which he had had since it was a kitten, he
recognized that "it was time to let it go," according to Weil.
In January 2007, Walsh took the cat to the American Society for the
Prevention of Cruelty to Animals to be euthanized, Weil added. Three
months later, he was charged with animal cruelty, a Class A misdemeanor,
punishable by up to one year in jail, under §353 of the Agriculture and
Markets Law.
The statute imposes criminal liability on "a person who overdrives,
overloads, tortures or cruelly beats or unjustifiably injures ... any
animal, or deprives any animal of necessary sustenance, food or drink ...
or who ... instigates, engages in, or in any way furthers any act of
cruelty to any animal."
According to the decision, the allegations did not establish that Walsh
deprived the cat of food and water. Walsh maintained that medical care
does not amount to "necessary sustenance" and moved to dismiss the charge.
Judge Simpson rejected the motion, saying the allegations against Walsh
set forth a "prima facie" case that his "act of omission" was
unjustifiable.
While Simpson agreed that the "ordinary meaning" of the term "necessary
sustenance" does not encompass medical treatment, she held that Walsh's
failure to provide such treatment caused the cat to suffer "unjustifiable
physical pain," bringing the lack of care within the statute's prohibition
of torture.
Section 350 of the law defined "torture" and "cruelty" as "every act,
omission, or neglect, that causes or permits an animal to suffer
unjustifiable physical pain or death."
According to the decision, the cat suffered from a number of maladies,
including dehydration, emaciation and a "readily visible" "swollen and
bleeding" right-front paw, which was the result of an untreated tumor.
The accusatory instrument quotes Walsh as admitting that he had owned
the cat for 15 years and never took him to the veterinarian.
"I noticed the paw was like that. It has been like that for a year,"
he said.
The cat also had a polyp in its nasal passage that made it difficult
for it to breathe and allegedly suffered from chronic periodontal, liver
and kidney diseases.
"[I]t is difficult to conclude at this stage that the physical
condition the animal was allegedly permitted to suffer was justifiable,"
the judge concluded.
If Walsh was unable to care for the cat due to financial or other
reasons, he had the option of surrendering it to the ASPCA, the judge
said. But the judge noted that the defendant had offered no justification
for permitting the animal to suffer for more than a year. And she
observed that Walsh could offer such a justification at trial.
Darryl M. Vernon of Vernon & Ginsburg, a veteran member of the
New York City Bar's animal law committee who is not involved in the case,
praised Simpson's decision.
While Vernon acknowledged that the case might lead some people to hide
evidence of animal neglect for fear of prosecution, he said it served "the
greater good" by making it clear that "you can't get an animal and treat
him [or] her like a TV."
Manhattan Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Gihuly prosecuted the
case.
Walsh is scheduled to take a plea on April 16.
Dead Babies Wanted
April 3, 2008
According to Erika Klein a journalist, Nicole Brewster of the CBC's Fifth
Estate, is looking for victims of the dead baby scam, either as mother or child. If you are a mother who was
falsely told that your baby had died, or a child whose mother was so
deceived, get in touch with Nicole Brewster at the address below.
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Thursday, April 03, 2008
"Dead" Baby Scam
**please circulate**
One of the producers of the Fifth Estate, Nicole Brewster, is looking
for victims of the "dead" baby scam.
For those who don't know about "dead" baby scams, here is what
happened.
Some mothers and fathers were told that their baby had died at or
shortly after birth. They were not allowed to see their children's
bodies.
Some parents are now finding out that their babies did not die.It seems
that some "dead" babies were put up for adoption without the parents
knowledge, never mind consent.
A number of these "dead" babies are now very alive adopted adults who
are finding their parents and are shocked to find out how they ended up
for adoption.
Bribes were taken/paid in a number of cases.
Anyway, if you are a victim of such a scam (whether you are a parent or
an adoptee), or have information about this, Nicole would like to hear
from you for the Fifth Estate program.
Nicole Brewster-Mercury
Associate Producer CBC Television-fifth estate
(416) 205-6637
nicole_brewster@cbc.ca
Boy Saves Mom
April 3, 2008
When a twelve-year-old boy saw a man, Salomon Noubissie, choking his
mother, Cheryl Stamp, he yelled for the man to stop, and when that failed,
struck the man with a knife killing him.
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Md. Boy, 12, Kills Man Attacking Mother
Officials Undecided On Filing Charges
By Avis Thomas-Lester and Hamil R. Harris, Washington Post Staff
Writers, Wednesday, April 2, 2008; A01
The 12-year-old boy had finished his homework and was playing a video
game when he heard his mother cry out. Rushing to her aid, he found her on
the kitchen floor, straddled by a fellow resident of their Prince George's
County boarding house, the man's hands wrapped tightly around her neck, the
boy said yesterday.
"I kept saying, 'Stop! Stop! Stop!' " the boy said, describing the
events of Monday night. "But he just ignored me. He didn't stop. He just
kept hurting her."
The boy said he grabbed a knife and swung, slashing 64-year-old Salomon
Noubissie across the neck and opening an artery. Noubissie was fatally
wounded.
The mother, Cheryl Stamp, said she did not immediately understand what
had happened. "What did you do?" she said she asked her son.
"He didn't say anything," she said. "But I knew when I looked in his
eyes. I said, 'Oh, Lord.' "
Law enforcement officials were reviewing evidence yesterday and had not
decided whether to file charges. Their preliminary account of the incident
broadly matches that of the boy and his mother.
The case presents exceedingly unusual circumstances: Rarely is a
12-year-old implicated in a homicide, and even less often does a child that
age take a life to protect his mother.
"In Maryland, there can be a legitimate defense of third parties in the
event of a violent attack," State's Attorney Glenn F. Ivey said. "That is
a possibility in this case."
Yesterday, Stamp and her son were secluded in the boarding house on
Roosevelt Avenue in the Landover area, curtains closed and doors locked
against reporters and neighbors.
Like other neighbors, Turan Queen said she stood by the child. "His
reaction was to help his mother," she said. "This was a 12-year-old
defending his mother."
Stamp and her son agreed to be interviewed by Washington Post reporters,
in part to explain the boy's actions. The Post is not naming the boy
because he is a minor.
Efforts to contact Noubissie's family were unsuccessful.
Stamp said she and Noubissie, a Cameroonian immigrant, moved into the
boarding house within days of each other about three months ago. They
became fast friends, she said.
Stamp said that she is unemployed and that Noubissie had told her he was
studying to be a psychiatrist. She said the boarding house is owned by
Noubissie's nephew, a Massachusetts resident.
On Monday night, she said, Noubissie was not himself. He started to yell
at her and grab her hair, she said. He was speaking in his native French,
as he often did, but this time in "a devilish voice," she said. "He was
talking crazy," Stamp said.
She said she tried to use "reverse psychology," ordering him to leave the
kitchen and go to his room to calm down. His response was violent, she
said.
"He threw me into the door so hard it hit my back, and it made my chest
start hurting," she said. "Then he threw me to the floor. He threw me down
and started choking me. I think that's when my son came in. . . . He
protected me."
The boy, who is 5 feet 6 inches tall and weighs 175 pounds, said he acted
because he thought he had no choice. "He was hitting her with the broom;
then he was choking her," the boy said. "I told him to stop."
He grabbed a knife that he said his family had last used to cut turkey at
Thanksgiving dinner.
"I knew I had to kill him so he would stop hurting my mother," he said.
Once she was freed, Stamp said she yelled upstairs for someone to call
police. She said her son took her by the arm and led her into their
bedroom.
Nearby, Noubissie was flailing and yelling, Stamp and her son said. As
the door closed, she noticed the blood coming from his neck. "I didn't know
where all that blood was coming from," she said. "He was talking in that
language -- loud."
Stamp said she did not realize for several moments that her son, and not
she, had been responsible for inflicting the injury that caused Noubissie to
release her.
In the bedroom, as they waited for police, the boy did not speak, Stamp
said. She sat on a couch, looked down and saw the bloody knife, she said.
Noubissie was alive when police arrived, Stamp said. He was combative
with the officers, she said, even as he bled heavily. He died at a
hospital. Police sources confirmed her account.
Stamp, who has two adult children and a 17-year-old daughter who lives
with the girl's father, said the tragedy was the second to befall her
family. She supports herself and her son from "widow's benefits" she has
received since her husband fatally shot himself more than 20 years ago. Her
eldest son, 27, witnessed the suicide, she said. "I've had enough drama in
my life," she said.
The 12-year-old boy said yesterday that he was not happy about what he
had done but that he knew that it was the right thing.
"I just asked God again to protect me and my mother," he said. "I told
God that I had stabbed him because he was killing my mother. I know he
understands, and I think he will keep us safe now."
After the stabbing Monday night, after police had left and neighbors
returned to their homes, the two sat and held each other. There was no
sleep that night for either.
Staff researcher Meg Smith contributed to this report.
Less Baby-Stealing
April 1, 2008
Ontario's new child advocate, Agnes Samler, has made a submission to the Goudge inquiry (pdf).
It includes the recommendation:
That revisions be made to the current funding formula to allow
Children's Aid Societies to emphasize prevention and support to children
in their own homes, where appropriate.
This is the first public indication confirming the private anecdotes that
Ontario's new low-profile
leadership is changing course. They want to eliminate the system in
which children's aid societies get funded primarily for the number of
children in foster care. This is a good start. It appears that the
government intends to make its policy changes through regulation. Only
legislative changes are likely to survive the tenure of the current Liberal
government.
Retraction
March 31, 2008
In a closing
submission to the Goudge inquiry (pdf), lawyer Suzan Fraser, acting on
behalf of Defence of Children International, quotes Eileen Munro:
social workers need a greater acceptance of their fallibility and a
willingness to consider that the judgements and decisions are wrong. To
change your mind in the light of new information is a sign of good
practice, a sign of strength not weakness.
The performance of Suzan Fraser at the Goudge inquiry impels us to change
our mind in the light of new information. We hereby repudiate our earlier
suspicions of Defence of Children International - Canada and Matthew
Geigen-Miller expressed on April 18,
2007 in a note on Child Advocacy in Ontario. They deserve to be
respected as conscientious advocates for the welfare of Canada's
children.
Bereaved Mother Interrogated
March 29, 2008
The Goudge inquiry has found a case in which the coroner's office
extended no sympathy to a bereaved mother, instead used the delivery of a
report on her child's death as an opportunity to interrogate her and
secretly record the conversation. A proposal has been placed before the
Goudge inquiry by Suzan Fraser to allow parents to grieve for their dead
children without police harassment. We show Harold Levy's comments on this
topic below, for his comments on the whole inquiry refer to the Charles Smith blog.
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Saturday, March 29, 2008
Closing Submissions; End Surreptitious Police
Surveillance Of Meetings Between Grieving Parents And Pathologists Or
Coroners;
It seems pretty obvious that the days after the sudden loss of a child
must be among the most torturous that a parent can experience.
It was therefore shocking to learn during the Goudge Inquiry that Dr.
Charles Smith had agreed with the Barrie, Ontario police force to meet a
bereaved mother in her home to report on his investigation of the death of
her child - knowing that their conversation would be surreptitiously
recorded by police.
It is impossible to know whether this was an isolated incident - or
whether other pathologists and coroner's - supposedly independent -also
see themselves as an arm of the police investigation into an infant's
death.
For that reason, lawyer Suzan Fraser's recommendation that grieving
parents should be spared this intrusive surveillance - on behalf of
Defence For Children International Canada - is most welcome.
Fraser notes in a closing submissions filed with the Goudge Inquiry
that whether they are under suspicion or not, "parents and guardians
should be entitled to receive information about the death of their child,
including the post-mortem report in a caring and compassionate environment
free from police surveillance and judgment."
"If the opportunity is lost to catch an incriminating statement, so be
it," she adds. "There are some forms of police action that ought not to
be countenanced."
I personally couldn't agree more - and I hope that Commissioner Goudge
will underscore the importance of pathologists and coroner's acting
independently of the police - and not as their agents - when he pens his
report, now due in September.
For those who have not read it, the earlier posting ran as follows on
February 1, 2008 under the heading "Smith: A loyal member of the
prosecution team to the end."
"At times it is good to get right to the point" the posting began.
"Dr. Smith has admitted that he saw himself as a member of the
prosecution team - and that his role was to help the Crown win the case,
"in the 80's," it continued.
However, on Wednesday morning the Goudge Inquiry heard startling
evidence that he once agreed to go to Barrie, Ontario to meet with the
mother of a deceased child - knowing that the conversation would be
recorded by bugs which had been surreptitiously planted in her home by the
police.
This was in 1996;
It is also noteworthy that Smith admitted in cross-examination regarded
himself as a member of the prosecution team in "Sharon's case" where he
testified under cross-examination at the mother's preliminary hearing that
it was "absolutely wrong" to hypothesize a dog attack.
(The police theory was that Sharon had 81-wounds inflicted by knives or
scissors - and that she had not been attacked by a Pit Bull as defence
experts insisted - which later proved to be the case).
"I believe I could well have slipped into an advocacy role here," Dr.
Smith said. "I believe that I knew by then that I wasn't to be an
advocate ..."
This was in 1998;
Dr. Smith gave this evidence as an "advocate" for the prosecution,
seven years after he was appointed Director of the Ontario Forensic
Pediatric Pathology Unit at the Hospital For Sick Children in Toronto -
and just three years before his name was removed from the roster for
performing forensic autopsies.
It was near the end of his career - far from the beginning;
The evidence indicates that Dr. Smith - or "Mr. Smith" as Lawyer
James Lockyer, representing nine families insisted on calling him
yesterday - saw himself as a loyal member of the prosecution team right to
the end.
Back to the Barrie case:
Smith's cooperation in the police investigation is documented in an
affidavit by Detective Sergeant Mark Holden which filed as an exhibit;
Here is the complete affidavit - dated January 28, 2008;
"1: I am a staff Sergeant of the Barrie Police Service. I was
involved in the investigation into the death of X, who was a minor. I
believe that revealing the name of the minor and his mother could
jeopardize an on-going investigation. I have knowledge of the matters
deposed to in my affidavit.
2: On Sept 4, 1996, the Ontario Provincial Police (O.P.P)
intercepted a telephone conversation between Dr. Smith and X’s mother
pursuant to an authorization granted under Part VI of the Criminal Code
of Canada. Dep. Insp. McNeil of the O.P.P. learned from the
conversation that Dr Smith intended to meet with X’s mother at her home
in the Barrie area to discuss with her the results of the report on his
post-mortem examination on X. Det. Insp. McNeil knew that listening
devices installed in the house, also pursuant to a Part VI application,
would likely intercept this conversation.
3: Dep. Insp. McNeil subsequently met with members of the Barrie
Police Service including me, to discuss the situation. Det. Insp.
McNeil telephoned Dr. Smith and advised him that the listening devices
installed in the house would likely intercept his conversations with X’s
mother.
4: Dr. Smith agreed to meet with the Barrie Police Service and Det.
Insp. McNeil and he did so on Sept. 5, 1996, the day he was scheduled
to meet with X’s mother. The meeting took place at the Barrie Police
Service police station and lasted approximately 20 minutes. During the
meeting, the Barrie Police and Det, Insp. McNeil s did not direct Dr.
Smith in in any way as to how to conduct the meeting with X’s mother and
did not ask him to solicit any information from her. At the conclusion
of the meeting with Barrie police and Det. Insp. McNeil, Dr. Smith
went to the house of X’s mother and met with her.
5: Following that meeting, Dr. Smith met with representatives of
the Barrie Police Service and Det, Insp. McNeil over lunch to discuss
his meeting with X's mother. Dr. Smith explained that she had a number
of questions about his findings and that he answered her questions
arising from his report on post-mortem examination.
6: The Barrie Police officers recall that Dr. Smith expressed a
view on X's mother's demeanour when she was discussing her child's
death. Dr. Smith said, "It was like talking to a load of gravel." The
officers understood this to mean that Dr. Smith was commenting on the
inappropriate and flat affect of X's mother during that meeting. The
Barrie police do not recall that Dr. Smith expressed a position during
the lunch meetings to whether or not his pathology evidence supported
X's mother's culpability or not.
7: I recall that there were two case conferences involving Dr.
Cairns and Dr. Smith, which were held on April 17, 1996, and May 30,
1996. However at these meetings there was no discussion of any
surveillance of X's mother.
8: I do not recall any further meetings with Dr. Smith following
his meeting with X's mother.
9: The Barrie police have complied with S. 196 of the Criminal Code
and have provided X's mother with written notification of the
authorization of the interception."
A few comments:
Doctor Smith acknowledged in cross-examination that his interview with
the mother in these circumstances was inappropriate but told the Inquiry
that he had been asked to attend the meeting by Deputy Chief Coroner Dr.
James Cairns;
In fairness to Dr. Cairns, by now we are well aware that just because
Dr. Smith said this under oath does not mean that this is true. (We
don't have Dr. Cairns side of the story);
However it is worth pointing out that this may not be an isolated
incident in Ontario.
An earlier posting in the context of "Tiffani's case" contained a note
written by a prosecutor which read: "Our file contains... a lot of
information involving the initial coroner's investigation, including
videotaped statements from both accused taken by the Regional Coroner Dr.
(Benoit) Bechard and the police without caution, warning, or right to
counsel."
Adopted Girl Flees to Dad
March 29, 2008
Here is another case of child protectors doing the right thing. An
Illinois girl ran away from her adoptive parents to be with her real dad,
and child protectors are supporting the dad.
This case shares a theme with the cases of Anna Marie He and Allison
Quets: baby-stealers acting under color of law are extraordinarily
litigious in dealing with the real parents.
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Adoptive parents seek $3 million from DCFS, Granite City
cops and biological parent
3/25/2008 2:00 PM, By Ann Knef
The parents of an adopted child are seeking in excess of $3 million
after their 16-year-old daughter was allegedly placed by a state agency
with the girl's biological father, without a court order.
David D. Schwierjohn and Irene L. Schwierjohn of Granite City filed
suit pro se against the Illinois Department of Children and Family
Services and its worker, the Granite City Police Department and officer
Craig Knight, as well as Mark Breeden, the girl's biological father, and
his now ex-wife Mary Breeden.
According to the suit filed March 24 in Madison County Circuit Court,
the Breedens allegedly convinced the girl to run away from home on or
about March 23, 2007.
The Schwierjohns claim they were notified by officer Knight that their
daughter was being placed with the Breedens... "despite there being no
court order, nor being any legal nor logical reason why (the girl) should
be with the Defendants....who were not licensed foster parents nor in any
way related to (the girl)."
"The actions of Defendants Illinois Department of Children and Family
Servies, John Doe, Granite City Police Department, and Craig Knight were
in violation of 42USC1983 and denied Plaintiffs their constitutional
rights under color of state law," the complaint states.
The Schwierjohns and their daughter claim infliction of emotional
distress.
Walking While Intoxicated
March 29, 2008
Teenagers in Wales will soon be given breathalyzer tests for walking
while intoxicated. Those found drunk will be returned to parents or placed
in foster care. These systems usually come with harsh penalties for refusal
to cooperate with the tests. The article does not say how much will be
spent on new foster homes or jails.
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Trial scheme to breathalyse children
This article was first published on guardian.co.uk on Thursday March 27
2008. It was last updated at 10:30 on March 27 2008.
Girls drinking in Seaham, County Durham, 2004. Photograph: Karen
Robinson
|
Children could be breathalysed under radical new
plans to tackle underage drinking.
Police officers will also use test strips to check to see if soft
drinks have been mixed with alcohol.
Under the new plans, which are to be piloted in North Wales, teenagers
could be stopped in the street and tested for alcohol. Teens who are
found with alcohol or who fail the test will be taken home to their
parents.
In February North Wales police seized 14 litres of cider and 55 cans of
lager in a 16-day operation to confiscate alcohol from children.
But the Children's Society warned that the new measures wouldn't be
enough to tackle the problem.
A spokesperson said: "Labelling teenagers as 'yobs' who need to
regularly be stopped and breathalysed will not solve the problem of
alcohol misuse among young people. We can only effectively tackle the
issue by addressing the wider binge-drinking culture."
And a spokesman for Alcohol Concern added that the plans didn't go far
enough.
"A more fundamental approach is needed to tackle the wider issues
around the problem," she said. "We need to be wary of gimmicks.
"There are already substantial powers to allow police to seize alcohol
from teenagers drinking in public and take them home to parents. There
are two issues we need to tackle: educating parents, and sourcing of
alcohol. We need to educate parents about the dangers of children
drinking in public, and crack down on irresponsible retailers consistently
selling alcohol to children."
The Home Office pledged £875,000 towards tackling underage drinking in
February 2008.
A Home Office spokesman said: "The government is committed to tackling
crime and disorder associated with binge-drinking. Police and local
authorities already have a wide range of tools to tackle alcohol-related
disorder following a number of recent initiatives and we will be keeping a
watching brief on the results of this pilot."
A spokeswoman for the British Liver Trust hailed it as a positive move,
but said more needed to be done: "This is a positive step but it's not
enough – it needs to be part of a wider programme of measures to tackle
the problem. Raising the price of alcohol would help. It's pocket money
prices – children can afford to buy alcohol over a can of cola. Educating
children at school is paramount - this needs to be tackled as part of a
wide children's health issue."
More CAS Whining
March 27, 2008
Here is the best sob story yet about cuts in funding for children's aid.
According to its Careers
webpage, Waterloo CAS has 575+ employees. Peter Ringrose says that he has
had to lay off 17 of his staff. Only 558+ to go!
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Peter Ringrose
DAVID BEBEE, RECORD STAFF
|
March 26, 2008
Children forgotten by Ontario budget
Frances Barrick, RECORD STAFF, WATERLOO REGION
On the day of the provincial budget, the man in charge of looking after
Waterloo Region's neediest children was fuming.
"At the present, it doesn't seem that children are very high on their
priority list," Peter Ringrose, executive director of Family and
Children's Services of Waterloo Region, said yesterday of the Liberal
government.
Last week, Ringrose had to cut two programs because a shortfall in
provincial money left his agency with a deficit of $1.2 million. A total
of 164 families were affected by the cuts. Ringrose was also forced to
lay off 17 employees.
He fears there could be more cuts, especially since yesterday's budget
contained no cure for the agency's financial ills. Among the possible
targets are subsidies for families who adopt high-needs children.
"The problem is mounting instead of getting smaller and it will have to
be dealt with at some point," Ringrose said.
In 2006, the McGuinty government ordered child-protection agencies such
as Family and Children's Services to implement what it called a
"transforming agenda." The guiding principle was that children are best
left with their immediate or extended families instead of being put in
foster care or group homes.
But the agenda required social workers to devote more time to
individual cases, connecting with the families and monitoring precarious
domestic situations.
In 2006-07, Family and Children's Services received $979,000 from the
province to implement the agenda. Last year, that funding was cut to
$434,000.
Because of the resulting deficit, the agency had to cut two programs
aimed at keeping at-risk adolescents in their homes. One recreation-based
program, called Going Beyond, helped 103 youths; the other program,
called Outreach, helped 61 families.
Without these programs, "we are going to see more kids at risk of
coming into our care," Ringrose said.
The agency recently closed a group home for teens because there wasn't
a need for it, he said. Now the home may have to be reopened.
Yesterday, the Ontario Association of Children's Aid Societies said 46
of the province's 53 agencies are running deficits.
The combined deficit of $22.3 million this fiscal year could rise to
$60 million next year, the association said.
Ringrose said he's met with Children and Youth Services Minister Deb
Matthews and Kitchener Centre MPP John Milloy, but there was no promise of
more help.
fbarrick@therecord.com
|
Addendum: A reader suggests that Peter Ringrose
should attend an anger management course.
Journal of Murdered Boy
March 27, 2008
Columnist Lindor Reynolds was able to read the social worker's notes in
the case of the late Gage Guimond.
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Winnipeg Free Press
Social workers kept good notes of depraved care
Lindor Reynolds, Updated: March 25, 2008 at 12:55 AM CDT
Gage Guimond's internal CFS file, appropriately enough, ends with a
mistake.
An entry dated July 24, 2007 notes that the toddler's final funeral
costs were $3389.89. That's a neat trick, given the two-year-old's burial
would not take place until a week later.
But what's one more clerical error when it's stacked against the fetid
pile of missteps, errors in judgment, bad decisions and criminal behaviour
documented in the dead child's file?
From April 28, 2006 to July 24, 2007 there are seven pages of notes on
Gage's wretched life. They make grim reading -- not just because you know
in advance the story ends with a battered and broken child.
The terse entries in the Gage Dakota Guimond file do more than document
the short, unhappy life of a little boy. They serve as a direct
indictment of the child welfare system.
The very people who were sworn to protect Gage and his sister knew what
was happening to them every step of the way. They took notes. They
phoned each other. They gave second, third and fourth chances to everyone
except Gage, his sister and the loving foster family who could have saved
them both.
When a CFS worker supplied diapers and food to a woman temporarily (and
reluctantly) taking care of the children, she alleged their mother was
using drugs heavily.
A note went in the file.
Two days later, Gage was left in the care of another woman -- one whose
last name the CFS workers didn't know. Their mother had disappeared
again, Gage needed milk and diapers and he had a serious eye infection.
It was again alleged that the mom was using drugs heavily.
A note went in the file.
On May 3, 2006, Gage's foster mother reported he was returned to her
from a family visit dirty and hungry. On May 15, the foster parents
outlined his medical and developmental problems, including his severe
asthma. On July 17, they reported he returned from another family visit
reeking of cigarette smoke.
It all went in the file.
On and on it goes. CFS was so determined to return Gage and his sister
to their birth family that it ignored warning signs that could have been
seen from space.
Workers tried to drop off the kids for a scheduled visit at the home of
their grandmother, Beverly Beardy. She wasn't home. They tried again.
Beardy cancelled that visit because she had an appointment with her own
probation officer.
When Gage was staying with Beardy and CFS workers visited, they
documented the fact that she wasn't there but an older man was present and
someone else was sleeping on the floor.
There is no indication CFS workers ever identified the strangers who
were left in charge of the children.
On May 25, 2007, the workers discovered evidence of a drinking party at
Beardy's house. She wasn't home.
The children, now lice-ridden, were taken from Beardy May 29.
It's all in the file.
CFS had to find another home for these poor kids. They rejected the
option of returning them to their stable foster family, to the couple who
made doctor appointments the birth family didn't keep, who listed the
children's likes and dislikes and who wept when the children were taken
from them.
That's in the file too.
A CFS worker pointed out that Shirley Guimond, the great-aunt
ultimately chosen to care for the Guimond children, has a cat and her
house was perhaps not an ideal choice for an asthmatic toddler. Gage and
his sister were placed there anyway.
After Gage was found dead in Guimond's house, CFS carefully noted that
his sister "was found to be covered in bruises." The file detailed Shirley
Guimond's criminal history, which includes a previous arrest for assault.
What is not in the file is critical. Why did a collection of allegedly
trained child welfare workers prove incapable of connecting the dots that
lead from the tragedy of Gage Guimond's birth to a 15-year-old
drug-addicted mother to the tragedy of his death, allegedly at the hands
of his ex-con great-aunt?
Could no one have known where this was leading?
They had information that spoke to child neglect, abuse, hunger and
depraved indifference. They wrote it all down -- and then they wrote down
the cost of Gage Guimond's funeral.
lindor.reynolds@freepress.mb.ca
Vehicle Hits CAS Windsor
March 27, 2008
In an incident apparently unrelated to child protection, the
Windsor-Essex Children's Aid Society has again been damaged by a motor
vehicle. Three and a half years ago, suicide bomber Jim Malone caused $1.5
damage to the CAS building. See
Oct 26,
Oct 27 and
Oct 29 2004.
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Man critical after crashing car on Riverside Drive
Trevor Wilhelm, Windsor Star, Published: Wednesday, March 26, 2008
WINDSOR - Police say alcohol was a factor in a crash that sent one man
to a London hospital in critical condition after the truck he was driving
slammed into the sign outside the Children's Aid Society on Riverside
Drive.
The accident happened just before 2 a.m. Wednesday. Police say
alcohol was a factor, and the driver and passenger were both not wearing
seatbelts.
"The vehicle went straight off the road and into the sign," said Staff
Sgt. Ed McNorton. "There is no indication that there was any braking."
The 43-year-old passenger of the white F-150 pick up truck, who hit his
head on the windshield, is in serious condition.
The 52-year-old driver also suffered head injuries, said McNorton.
Police and fire personnel responded to the crash at 1:42 a.m. McNorton
said the police collision reconstruction team was on the scene. When
officers arrived following the crash, someone was there trying to turn off
the power to the sign, police said.
A flatbed truck had to haul away the pick up. The road was shut down
between Lincoln and Devonshire roads until about 8 a.m.
twilhelm@thestar.canwest.com or 519-255-5777 ext. 642
Leaning Tower of Windsor
Rob Gurdebeke, The Windsor Star
|
BC Thumbs Nose at Parents of Dead Child
March 26, 2008
Reena
Virk envied the freedom of foster children and made up false accusations
to get herself into foster care. The group of "friends" she met in foster
care killed her in 1997. In 1999 the parents filed suit against the
Province of British Columbia over their daughter's death. Now the courts
have ruled that the delays in the litigation are reason to deny the family
compensation.
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Judge dismisses Virk family lawsuit
DIRK MEISSNER
The Canadian Press
March 26, 2008 at 6:31 PM EDT
VICTORIA — A B.C. Supreme Court justice has dismissed a lawsuit filed
by the parents of Reena Virk against the B.C. government, saying the
family waited too long to bring their matter to trial.
Justice Jacqueline Dorgan acknowledged the widespread sympathy for the
family whose 14-year-old daughter was beaten and drowned in a horrific
incident of teen violence.
But Judge Dorgan said letting the civil case go ahead now would be
unfair.
Six teenaged girls were convicted of assault and Warren Glowatski and
Kelly Ellard were convicted of second-degree murder in Reena Virk's 1997
death.
Ms. Ellard has gone through three trials and will appeal her latest
conviction in the case in May.
In the lawsuit, the Virk family alleged the B.C. government didn't
protect their daughter while she was in government care.
“Every person in this courtroom and many in the community have so much
sympathy for the plaintiffs and their loss,” said Judge Dorgan.
“(But) a fair (civil) trial has simply been very seriously compromised.
The interests of justice have best been served by a dismissal.”
Judge Dorgan said the Virks initially filed a lawsuit writ in November
1999, two years after their daughter's death.
But almost a decade after the original lawsuit was filed, the
government was still waiting for information on how the Virks intended to
proceed.
“It is a long way from being ready for trial,” she said. “Two trial
dates have been set and lost.”
Manjit Virk, Reena's father, said outside court Wednesday the family
never intentionally delayed taking the matter to court and was simply
waiting for Ms. Ellard's trials to end.
“We were under the impression, I guess by the counsel, that while the
criminal trials are going on, your other civil suit cannot be really
brought forward successfully,” he said.
“First they have to be dealt with and then we can focus on this.”
Mr. Virk said he will consult with his lawyer and his family before
deciding whether or not to appeal the decision.
He said the family was primarily seeking an apology from the
government.
Mr. Virk's lawyer, Roger Batchelor said the family was prepared to
settle out of court.
Last year, B.C. Attorney General Wally Oppal paid tribute to Reena's
parents on the 10th anniversary of their daughter's death.
Mr. Oppal said Ms. Virk's parents, Suman and Manjit, have shown great
courage throughout the ordeal and by forgiving one of the killers, Mr.
Glowatski, when he was granted day parole last June.
“I don't know of many people that would have had that type of a
response. I don't think I would have had if the same would have happened
to one of my children,” Mr. Oppal said at the time.
Reena's death drew attention from around the world.
15:31ET 26-03-08
Windsor Votes Against CAS
March 26, 2008
Here is another article on overspending by
children's aid, amounting to a plea for more money. There are 29 reader
comments, all but four unfavorable to CAS, and one of those four is on their
payroll. It's time for politicians to notice that there is a large
grass-roots constituency for anyone opposing children's aid.
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CAS facing budget shortfall, may cut services
Doug Williamson, Windsor Star, Published: Monday, March 24, 2008
WINDSOR - The The Children's Aid Society of Windsor-Essex may have to
cut programs due to a budget deficit, at a time when the slumping economy
is stressing families and increasing demand for services.
The society will for the second fiscal year in a row have a budget
shortfall of $3 million and will likely have to apply for yet another bank
line of credit beginning in two months, executive director Bill Bevan said
Monday.
Due to an uneven provincial funding formula, the local CAS did not
receive so-called mitigation funding on Feb. 29 - something more than
half the CAS agencies in Ontario did get, Bevan said. They split up a
total of $34.5 million.
"We have a $3-million deficit. About half the agencies and more did
receive money, the rest did not though," he said.
"About 46 of 53 agencies still have a deficit, we're one one of those."
He said the funding shortfall comes at a time of increased demand for
services.
"We are beginning to see the examples of the economy we have here
that's starting to take effect, and it's showing up in how people have
been able to manage their children. So we're just starting to feel the
economies of scale here in Windsor and Essex County."
One possibly threatened program is for youths and young adults 18 to 21
who are developmentally challenged, and who live with the Community Living
agencies for Windsor and Essex County. Their board and treatment -
costing about $1 million annually - comes out of the CAS budget.
"I've notified our community living partners that we're no longer able
to fund this effective April 1," Bevan said.
In some parts of the province that funding comes directly from the
province. He said discussions are underway to have the government fund
this program locally as well.
But he said that one measure won't solve the local funding shortfall.
"It could potentially affect every program that we do."
A spokesman for the Ontario Association of Children's Aid Societies
said Windsor is facing one of the higher deficits in the province and
predicted demand for services will increase locally due to a slowdown in
the economy.
"There are a couple of agencies across Ontario who are facing very
large deficits, and Windsor is one of them, so they really need to review
the services and supports provided to children and youth in their
community," said Marcelo Gomez-Wiuckstern.
"The economy for sure will have a huge impact, mostly in the area of
Windsor with the automobile industry being a little bit slower than
before. When the economy slows we see a higher number of clients. They
have to provide more services to more families because (families) deal
with a lot more stress."
The Ontario association said provincial agencies will face a total
budget shortfall of $60 million in the new fiscal year, including a
$23-million shortfall carried over from 2007/08.
The Windsor agency's annual budget is $49.5 million, but last year it
spent $52.5 million, forcing it go to the bank. When the new fiscal year
begins April 1, the CAS will receive about $8 million from the province up
front, which should help for two months.
"That takes the crisis out of the situation, but it doesn't resolve the
long-term problem of underfunding child welfare in the province, and we're
one of those affected," Bevan said.
"We'll slowly start to build the deficit again until we won't be able
to pay it any longer at the end of February '09. We'll probably be
another $3 million (in deficit) or so at that point," he said.
"We'll have been back to the bank starting in a couple of months, and
that'll build to $3 million."
He said one of the reasons the local CAS did not get the mitigating
funding inFebruary could have been because it didn't negotiate collective
agreements until the second half of the fiscal year, and the government
based its mitigation strategy on what an agency spent in the first six
months of the year, when labour costs were lower.
"It looked like we would have been in budget."
COMMENTS ON THIS STORY
frank
Mon, Mar 24, 08 at 06:15 PM
By the looks of that Taj Mahal building that the agency put up a few years
ago and the fancy fixtures that were put in that buliding ,Its obvious to
me that the CAS might have been a little too fat in the wallet anyways and
maybe they need a review of their spending habits and a better
accountability for the money they spend.That is a big beaurocratic
unaccountable agency on riverside drive that hides behind government laws
and feels it isnt accountable to the people.Too bad your agency is no
different than any other in this city.Maybe its time too layoff some of
the many CAS workers and better streamline your agency.The thing i have
learned in life is that whenever you have a govt. agency that takes money
from the taxpayers ,they are always short in funds and never look
internally for savings until the powers above make them.Those being the
people who write the cheques.
Windsor Family
Mon, Mar 24, 08 at 06:36 PM
Well if you quit taking peoples kids and putting them in foster homes and
paying the foster parents there would be money. How about keeping thse
children with their parents and give them parenting skill to help them
out.
concerned
Mon, Mar 24, 08 at 06:58 PM
The CAS should stop taking in kids that are not nesscessary to be in
custody, that should cut back on some expenses. Don't get me wrong their
are people out there who should have their children taken. It's the ones
who are working hard and someone spitefull calls in and makes complaints
cause they have nothing better to do. Those people have lost their
children, I have had my children in custody and almost wards of the court
because of spitefull people. Those workers who don't have children do not
understand life with children. My son has ADHD nad ODD so he wants
attention. So when he tells stories at school the CAS are called and that
is a waste of money to pay that guy to come out when all he had to do was
look in the file and see that i was called on this before. Pay more
attention is all I am saying to CAS. Kids who are not being beaten or
harmed should not be taken away.
Hilary
Mon, Mar 24, 08 at 07:11 PM
Once again the government shows us "family doesn't matter," especially if
you live in Windsor or Essex County
oh well
Mon, Mar 24, 08 at 07:30 PM
Oh well, the CAS does some good but gets involved in families that DO NOT
need them. you spank your kid in a shopping mall, some tree hugger sees
this calls CAS your done!. You neighbour gets pissed off at you and calls
CAS, they are in your life for ever! just to " make sure" even tho there
are no signs of abuse. All they do is grab kids and throw them in group
homes where they are out of control, but they re-asure parents its the
right thing to do. I think CAS should review its procedures, because what
people dont know is they cash in on a kid until they are 18 years old,
even tho the kids may not be ina home or anything they will do a check-up
twice a year and the kids are still on the books and the government gives
them $$. What a crock of BS! review it and run it properly
John
Mon, Mar 24, 08 at 08:54 PM
Spending less money on a headquarters might have left some in the bank.
Ann
Mon, Mar 24, 08 at 08:58 PM
Get rid of your wasteful and useless diversity training consultants and
programs, and maybe spend your $ on the kids instead.
RJP
Mon, Mar 24, 08 at 09:15 PM
Another bloated beuracracy. If they spent half as much on themselves and
their grand offices this organization would not be in trouble year after
year. Even when the local economy was booming this agency was in trouble.
It has nothing to do with the economy. It has to do with the people
involved running the place.
Taj Mahal
Mon, Mar 24, 08 at 10:14 PM
Maybe when the city of Windsor was swimming in empty buildings and
contractually paying for countless empty floors of the Canderal tower the
City and CAS should have thought twice about building that multimillion
dollar palace on Riverside drive. It is obvious they ran out of money
when they built it. I have seen the inside and they have dime store
furniture and cubicle dividers one step up from cardboard. I am least
impressed with some of the so called social workers who are not parents
themselves but achieved a C average in a BA. There are some nice ones
with qualifications but some of them are a joke. Guess we can look them
up by March 31st when the 2007 Sunshine list is fully published.
Joke
Mon, Mar 24, 08 at 10:25 PM
Bears repeating: RIDICULOUS BUILDING ON PRIME LAND.
Ron Payne
Mon, Mar 24, 08 at 10:34 PM
How much money do they pay out in settling bad faith lawsuits? That's the
$64,000 dollar question? Ron Payne Welfare Legal Hamilton, Ontario E-mail
welfarelegal2004@hotmail.com
Paula Ann
Mon, Mar 24, 08 at 11:07 PM
The CAS and other agencies offer foster parents more money to suport
children that should not always been taken away then welfare does to a
single mom. U ask why some parents can't give the kids much go to school
and complain.. U get just one over zellous worker and bam your kids are
gone... yes this seems fair, I understand needing a better building then
the one u were using on louis/assumption. but instead of building a NEW
building, wouldn't it of been cheaper to fix the one that is not in use..
Now we have tax dollars going to a building that isn't even in use..
space that is being taken up-afordable housing something... Lobby the
goverment for the money.. if it's coming to you make something happen..
Why should the tax payers pay for u to get a loan.. with our economy
being as it is we NEED these services.. no matter the age, it's the
children that come first.
Terry
Tue, Mar 25, 08 at 12:46 AM
What is wrong with people these days? Everyone knows that families suffer
through periods of economic stress and one look at the inner core of
Windsor and you can see there are needs like the CAS. My apologies here
but Windsor is one of the few cities in North America that I have been to
that seems to have projects in almost every single neighbourhood. Check
your statistics and you will find that poor families need agencies like
the CAS. Building-envy or not, they serve a purpose. Let's see what
tomorrow's budget in Ontario might do to help.
Marty
Tue, Mar 25, 08 at 03:36 AM
Hopefully they will utilize the mediation program being rolled out across
the province and save some legal fees and unnecesary aprehensions. An
ounce of prevention...
Christina
Tue, Mar 25, 08 at 08:48 AM
My niece had her kids taken away almost 2 years ago they are about to
become wards of the crown. I admitt that when CAS got involved she was in
a rough patch in her life and hanging around with some unsightly
characters. Since CAS has taken her kids though she has done everything
they have told her to do, she has gone to anger management, has drug
testing every week which she tests negative for drugs, gone to parenting
classes, has to attend church, AA Meetings NA meetings a course for
batterd women and a bunch of other services which she does faithfully and
has for the past year and a few months. She was even told even though she
was clean and sober for more then a year she need to go to rehab. She has
been to court now over 18 times never missed a court day she gets to visit
her kids 2 times a week supervised at the CSA building while workers sit
there and scribble down her every move and every comment, she has had to
get a 3 bedroom apartment and maintain it which she has for almost a year
only to be denied home visits and sleep overs with her kids. Nothing like
making a person jump through hoops under the pretnece that it is all going
to be OK and then told that their hired consullor recommends that she not
get her kids back until she has done all this for over 2 years. Well
after being in CSA for 2 years they become a ward of the crown and can be
adopted. I am sick to my stomach over this, it is obvious to anybody that
she has her kids interest at heart, sure she might have messed up in the
past and it was for a brief moment of about 6 months that she was messing
up but nobody looks at the fact that she has been raising them for 7 years
before that and no problems but now after doing everything she is told to
do she might never get them back. It just makes me sick. And look at all
the money they have spent on her and her kids, 18 times to court in less
then 2 years, come on consullors, and programs, and classes and assements
and drug testing. What a waste, not to mention the money they give to the
foster family for taking care of them, It just makes me sick sick
sick.
MDW
Tue, Mar 25, 08 at 09:00 AM
To Concered....Well put..this also happened to us with the school.but this
was with children we adopted. Maybe childrens aid should head over to the
welfare office and nail a few of these dead beat dads to take care of
their kids.
show me the doh!
Tue, Mar 25, 08 at 09:41 AM
i know someone who gets paid good money monthly to take these kids in.
they don't care about the kids the way they should, it's all about the
money! the husband has been out of work and is not looking because the
cas pays them so well they do not need him to work.
GH
Tue, Mar 25, 08 at 10:27 AM
I know first hand that CAS only takes children that absolutely need it! I
am one of those foster parents you speak of and the children I hav etaken
care of come from some of the most horrible situations I couldn't have
even emagined.....and not only did they give these "parents" a sencond
chance, they gave them a third as well....only to screw up the child even
more! These children are our future and most of you people gripe about
what these people are trying to do to make the comunity better. I agree,
some of the money is mismanaged! But I suggest if you don't like what you
see, stop complaining and get involved. Become a foster parent yourself
if you think it is that easy! Trust me we don't get paid enough to deal
with some of these issues! You are all so quick to point fingers but turn
it arround and ask yourself what you can do instead!
gh
Tue, Mar 25, 08 at 11:25 AM
I want to know who would take these kids in for free? Any volunteers????
I didn't think so!
ali
Tue, Mar 25, 08 at 11:45 AM
why give them money, they'll just spend it on fancy stuff for themselves
instead of the kids anyway. Have them give you a tour of their office
furniture and computer systems. The place is fancier than our casino for
the high rollers. waste, waste waste
sherry
Tue, Mar 25, 08 at 11:56 AM
well if they stop taken kids that should be at home then they might have
the money to help parents...instead the take kids away and offer no help
what so ever..i had all four of my wonderful children taken away back in
99 and at no point and time did they ever offer any kind of help...not
that my kids should have been taken away..i could say why they were taken
away but i don't think my comment would show up...they make so many
mistakes yet never seem to pay for them...the only people that pay are
good parents like me and my husband and our children...i think CAS needs
to step up to the plate and admit all the wrong they do and maybe people
in Windsor would have more faith in the job they do...all i want from them
is to admit the wrong and my life will e full...but because of them i have
suffered so mush and my children have suffered growing up with out their
parents...please post this...people nee to know that CAS is not the good
people they clam to be.
what a joke
Tue, Mar 25, 08 at 12:07 PM
if you look at all the children's aides in Canada you will realize that
Windsor has the highest rate of children being taken away...Windsor cas
also has the highest complains against them...makes one wonder what they
really do with the money that's given to them....
JK
Tue, Mar 25, 08 at 01:10 PM
The CAS has enough money to do it's job properly! Someone needs to go in
there and clean house!! A large percentage of the staff is on stress
leave due to mismanagement and/or milking the system. That leaves the
rest of the staff to make up for the shortage making huge overtime
salaries and increasing their stress levels. Either way get them back to
work or get rid of the people on leaves!! I don't even want to start on
the castle on the river!!
interested
Tue, Mar 25, 08 at 02:48 PM
Like all government organizations, It is mostly about money and
self-perpetuation Christina.
Worst Agency ever
Tue, Mar 25, 08 at 05:03 PM
NOW they are suffering because their funding changed - they can't charge
the province by the case - which is why they were out of control before,
with people picketing and constant complaints. Not coincidental that they
have this crazy building on the drive. The director should be ashamed of
himself.
Dean Robinson
Tue, Mar 25, 08 at 05:38 PM
Afew years back there was a gentleman that drove his truck into the
building and killed himself. theres the real story in Winsor. When will
the general public wake u, the CAS is a lobby group with its hand out for
the tax dollars of hard working people. Child protection is a must but
the CAS has proven that they are not society for the job. Its time to
overhaul the system. http://sarniasgun.proboards83.com/index.cgi?
seriously now.
Tue, Mar 25, 08 at 06:45 PM
Here's a nifty idea -- STOP OVERPAYING WORKERS THAT DO MORE HARM THAN
GOOD!!!! That agency is so corrupt, it's unreal. I should really get in
touch with whoever is responsible for running it. There are workers with
'wet t-shirt' pics online. workers with pics of drinking and driving
online. Half the workers are nothing more than hardcore partiers.
They're overpaid and barely do anything. VERY few are even worth having -
VERRRRRRRRRRRY few deserve their jobs.
Commission?!?
Tue, Mar 25, 08 at 06:59 PM
I think intake workers for CAS work off of commission. That's why they're
so anxious to take any child they see out in public with a parent. That's
how they act, at least. ;)
GET OVER IT
Tue, Mar 25, 08 at 07:01 PM
It's obvious that any negative comments directed towards CAS are from
people who's children have probably been rightfully removed by CAS.
Mom Must Pay Baby Stealers
March 23, 2008
Allison Quets, the mother who fled to Canada with her twins, has been
ordered to pay the legal fees of the couple who wrested custody of the
children through the courts. Quets was solvent before giving birth, but
after losing her career and paying a half million dollars to her own
lawyers, is now unemployed and penniless and living with her own mother.
This financial burden ensures that she will remain permanently in poverty.
Could she get out of debt by going back to work? What mother could work
hard to pay the kidnappers of her own children?
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Allison Quets
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Judge Criticizes Quets' Custody Action
Posted: Mar. 24 3:21 p.m., Updated: Mar. 24 6:26 p.m.
A judge has ordered a birth mother who kidnapped twins from their
adoptive parents to pay the couple's legal fees, saying the woman pursued
flimsy claims against them in court.
Allison Quets pleaded guilty last fall to international parental
kidnapping and was placed on probation for five years. She spent more
than eight months in jail before agreeing to plead guilty.
Quets took the twins, who were 17 months old at the time, on Dec. 22,
2006, from their adoptive parents, Kevin and Denise Needham, following an
approved visit. Authorities apprehended her a week later in Ottawa,
Ontario, and returned the twins to the Apex couple.
She has fought their adoption for more than two years, saying she was
ill after suffering medical problems during her pregnancy and that she
signed adoption papers under duress.
After Florida trial and appellate courts terminated Quets' parental
rights in the case, she pursued the case in Wake County. She filed suit
last fall to regain visitation rights, stating the adoption was contingent
upon her "retaining a continuing and familiar role" in the lives of the
children after the adoption was finalized.
District Judge Anne Salisbury dismissed her claims in January, saying
she couldn't seek visitation because her parental rights had been
terminated.
Salisbury last week filed an order requiring Quets to pay the Needhams'
legal fees in the Wake County lawsuit, ruling that Quets filed the suit –
and even misled her attorney – knowing she had few facts and legal
arguments on her side.
"While (Quets') purpose has always been to resume contact with her
biological children, the practical effect has been the creation of a
financial and emotional burden on the (Needhams)," Salisbury wrote in the
17-page decision.
Quets plans to appeal the ruling, according to her attorney, Mike
Harrell. She also is appealing Salisbury's January ruling ending her
lawsuit.
The Needhams' attorney, Deborah Sandlin, has until April 1 to provide a
breakdown of the couple's legal expenses in the case.
Bullet-proof Visitation
March 23, 2008
Here is a case we will be hearing a lot more about. Florida mother
Celeste Grace Minardi was visiting her son, named in later reports as
Bradley Driscoll, at a psychiatrist's office and stabbed him, leaving him
critically wounded. This one rare event by a disturbed mother could well
become the pretext for the construction of visitation facilities in which
parents and children are separated by bullet-proof glass.
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Aunt: Mom Who Stabbed Son Also Threatened Family
Special To TBO.com by EAMONN KNEESHAW
Celeste Grace Minardi is placed into the back of a Largo Police
Department cruiser.
|
By NEIL JOHNSON of The Tampa Tribune
Published: March 23, 2008
The aunt of a boy police say was stabbed and slashed by his mother in a
psychiatry office Saturday told a judge this morning that Celeste Grace
Minardi has threatened other family members before.
Jacqi Yeager also said during the mother's first appearance hearing
Sunday in Pinellas County that family members were afraid of Minardi.
Celeste Grace Minardi
|
On Saturday morning, Minardi, 55, was in a court-ordered visit with her
15-year-old son at a psychiatry office on Seminole Boulevard in Largo when
she pulled a pair of knives from a purse and began hacking at her son,
Largo police said.
The boy was stabbed in the abdomen, severely injuring his intestines.
In addition he had a pair of slashes across the throat, one 8 inches long,
another 3 inches long. The boy also had a 4-inch gash over his right eye.
Police said Minardi, after giving the boy a deck of cards and bottle of
cologne, pulled a 15 1/2 inch decorative dagger and 12-inch drywall knife
from her purse and attacked her son.
The boy was taken to St. Petersburg's Bayfront Medical Center and was
in critical condition after emergency surgery, said Largo police Sgt.
Mark Young. The family asked that further details of his condition not be
released, the hospital said.
Mirandi, of 1202 Fairway Dr., had been visiting her son at the office
about twice a month for the past three years, Young said. The boy's
father has custody.
Police did not release the boy's name.
Minardi is the ex-wife of Timothy Driscoll, 47, a bankruptcy lawyer in
St. Petersburg. Court records show they filed for divorce in 2004 and
had one child together.
Minardi has no criminal record and has never shown any violent
behavior, Young said.
This visit did not appear to be different, he said. The mother and son
were sitting on a couch. A nurse was about six feet away.
After the attack, the boy tried to run away but collapsed. A doctor
ordered Minardi to drop the knives, pulled her from the scene and secured
the knives, the sergeant said.
Young said that when police arrived, the teen was covered in blood and
slipping in and out of consciousness.
"He told me, 'My mom stabbed me,'" Young said. "Then he looks up at me
and said, 'I don't ever want to see her again,' and then he passed out."
Minardi would not say why she attacked the boy and would only answer
yes or no when asked whether she understood her rights as she was being
arrested, Young said.
She was charged with first-degree attempted murder and booked into
Pinellas County Jail shortly before noon Saturday, jail records show. Two
additional charges of carrying a concealed weapon were pending, Young
said.
Report Mothers!
March 23, 2008
Once again, when you see a young mother caring for a baby in the Toronto
area, call the cops immediately.
Police are not saying why they want this pair, 16-year-old mother Shamika
Palmer and her 4-week-old son Tristan Oldham, but separating mother and
child is a good possibility.
Children of single teenaged mothers can truly benefit from outside
assistance, though police have kept us in the dark about whether mother
Shamika is on her own. In a sane world we would urge the mother to accept
help. In this case, provided the mother has some way of getting necessities
for the baby, the child may be better off staying out of sight.
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March 23, 2008
Teen mom, baby missing
By CHRIS DOUCETTE, SUN MEDIA, The Toronto Sun
Toronto Police are scouring several neighbourhoods across the city in
search of a teen mother and her baby missing for several days.
The Catholic Children's Aid Society became concerned for the safety of
the 16-year-old and her 4-week-old son after an incident in Scarborough
last week, police said.
"We would very much like to speak to this young mother," Sgt. Ken
Boyle, of 31 Division, said yesterday. Police are unable to say what
caused the CCAS to become worried. "All I know is that she was in a place
she shouldn't have been."
Shamika Palmer and son Tristan Oldham, born Feb. 24, were last seen
Tuesday in the area of 3171 Eglinton Ave. E.
The teen is known to frequent the areas of Markham Rd. and Eglinton
Ave. E., Lawrence Ave. W. and Allen Rd., and Jane St. and Finch Ave.
W., police said.
TV Station Gagged
March 23, 2008
The US bill of rights protects freedom of the press, but that means
nothing in family court. Judge Susan Orr Henderson barred an Indianapolis
TV station, WXIN channel 59, from airing an interview with aggrieved parent
Mark McGaha.
Through the internet you can still see the story on website |