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More recent news
Help Fighting 4 Families
February 28, 2010
Andrew Skinner Fighting 4 Families is looking for active people in Hastings County (Quinte) that want to get involved with advocacy and network with others in the community.
We will be working directly with citizens in the Belleville, Trenton, and Bancroft areas.
Those interested can contact us through Facebook or send an email to: fighting4families@hotmail.com
February 28, 2010
Me Too!
February 28, 2010
Poor Andrew Koster is complaining that Brant did not get any of the
recent handouts to children's aid
societies. His agency is still $600,000 short.
Here are some suggestions for Mr Koster. The article says: "In
addition, in parts of Brant County and Six Nations, workers are now sent out
in twos for the sake of safety. Again, the extra staff isn't funded". If
CAS provided true help to families, instead of family death penalties, there
would be no security requirements. Taking children from Rob Ferguson and Kalena Mallon including
costs of investigation, apprehension, litigation, foster care and adoption
must be running around a third of the deficit. Leaving the Fergusons and
two other families alone would wipe out the deficit.
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Brant CAS seeks deficit solution
Posted By SUSAN GAMBLE, Posted February 26, 2010
The Brant CAS won't share in $23 million being doled out by the province to help cover deficits at children's aid societies.
And, with a deficit ranging from $600,000 to $700,000, the local agency is starting to worry, says executive director Andrew Koster.
"This is the most difficult time I've ever been executive director," Koster said this week.
He explained that the agency has already made $1 million in cuts.
The CAS also faces having to deal with paying contracted raises for union employees that are set to kick in with the new fiscal year.
"We've gone as low as we can," he said. "With this climate and this recession, I truly worry about our ability to keep kids safe next year."
And Koster knows about safety. He's been retained by New Brunswick and Manitoba to examine the death of children in care.
He said he finds a direct link between funding cutbacks and those deaths.
About half of the province's child protection agencies with high deficits are sharing in province's emergency funding.
Koster won't complain about help being offered to agencies in worst shape than Brant because "we've all been in that situation at one time or another."
But he said he is pained that proactive work being done locally isn't being recognized.
For instance, a program called family group decision-making is keeping families out of the court system and allowing them to decide what's best for a child. But the two CAS staffers who are running that program aren't funded by the government.
In addition, in parts of Brant County and Six Nations, workers are now sent out in twos for the sake of safety. Again, the extra staff isn't funded.
"In Brant County and other communities there's a growing Oxycontin problem," said Koster. "It's the drug of choice for many of our families."
That means workers can face unstable families and uncertain situations.
"I'm not prepared to reduce staff numbers and take the chance of a child or a staff member being hurt."
Brant MPP Dave Levac is working with the CAS and has been supportive, Koster said.
Levac said he isn't pleased about how the agency is being squeezed. "I regretfully say it's like rewarding bad behaviour and not rewarding good behaviour when we bail out agencies with a deficit."
He said that the Brant CAS is as fiscally responsible as it can be but it still came in with a 2.9% deficit on a $22.6- million budget.
"The government is working on this, trying to change how we're funding. And I'm lobbying for assistance for the CAS to see if Six Nations can become an independent CAS. That would help the budget."
The province tends to offer higher funding to aboriginal offices due to unemployment, drug use and crime issues.
Koster said that the Six Nations branch office has all the infrastructure in place to go out on its own.
"There's a director and 40 aboriginal staff in place. Our internal audits show they have the best scores in intake. They're very skilled professionals and we're very proud of the work they do."
With the outstanding deficit looming, Koster said his board is giving serious consideration to asking for a judicial review of the agency's situation.
The CAS is then given an opportunity to present its case to three superior court judges for an independent decision.
History Shredded
February 26, 2010
In this news item from last year, Alabama DHR caseworker Joanne Hood
Langford testified that it is DHR policy to shred notes regarding a case
after a child dies. Protects the child from embarrassment, and protects DHR
from responsibility.
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Former Bessemer DHR worker faces wrongful death lawsuit involving 14-month-old
By Anita Debro -- The Birmingham News, October 28, 2009, 9:00PM
A former Bessemer DHR caseworker is the defendant in a wrongful death lawsuit this week involving a 14-month-old boy who died while the agency investigated claims that the child was being abused.
Joanne Hood Langford, who worked for the DHR office in Bessemer from 1994 to 2002, is being sued in Jefferson County Circuit Court by county admininistrator Doris Williford on behalf of the estate of Austin Terry. Langford was the caseworker assigned in September 2002 to determine if Austin was being abused.
Austin died on Nov. 4, 2002 after being beaten. The boyfriend of Austin's mother, Chris Wesson, was convicted of manslaughter in the boy's death.
Austin was admitted to Children's Hospital September 6, 2002 with bruises on his face and ears. Family members told hospital workers that he had fallen out of his crib. Officials at the hospital suspected abuse and contacted DHR, according to testimony by Cindy Deerman, a social worker at the hospital during that time. A DHR supervisor assigned Austin's case to Langford.
Leah Taylor, a lawyer for Austin's estate, said today that DHR policy at that time required Langford visit Austin within 12 hours after suspected abuse was reported. Lawyers for the Terry estate contend that Langford's failure to act in a timely manner led to the child's death.
Langford testified that she did not visit Austin and his family until four days after Children's Hospital officials notified DHR of possible abuse because she had not been officially assigned the case.
After meeting with Austin's mother and boyfriend, Langford determined that the child had not been abused, according to the report she filed. Langford testified she did not see the child's medical records that indicated he had been abused until after his death and that she had not spoken with anyone at Children's Hospital about the initial report of suspected abuse.
Langford testified that she followed DHR policy and shredded her notes regarding the case after Austin died. Langford is expected to continue testimony Thursday in the trial.
Roger Gallaway Speaks
February 25, 2010
London area residents will have an opportunity on March 11 to hear a
presentation by former Sarnia MP Roger Gallaway, an articulate critic of
Canada's system of divorce and family law. An earlier announcement that Mr
Gallaway would speak on February 11 was a mistake.
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An Evening of Awareness in relation to Domestic Violence.
Posted By London Equal Parenting Committee, February 22, 2010
The London Equal Parenting Committee is proud to announce that former Sarnia MP, and Co-Chair of the Special Joint Committee's Report, "For the Sake of the Children", will be speaking at the Crouch Branch of the London Public Library in London on March 11, 2010.
Roger Gallaway's subject title is "Domestic Violence in Divorce: Propaganda and other Fictions".
Domestic Violence industry leaders have also been invited to make a presentation at this event.
Doors open at 6:00 PM, with Roger's presentation running from 6:30 to 7:00. A Question & Answer discussion will follow the speakers' presentations.
The Crouch Library's address is 550 Hamilton Road (just west of Egerton).
The London Equal Parenting Committee offers emotional support and advocacy for all persons involved in separation/divorce and access issues. The Committee's purpose is to ensure and promote a child's right to maintain significant and meaningful relationships with both parents - and all grandparents - after relationship breakdown.
Admission is free.
For more information email lepcinfo@gmail.com or call 519-614-8713.
Addendum: Here is a poster (pdf) promoting the meeting.
Addendum: The London Free Press announces the
meeting.
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Ex-MP calls for shared parenting
DIVORCE: Sarnia-Lambton's Roger Gallaway says judges should grant equal parenting except in proven cases of abuse
By IAN GILLESPIE, The London Free Press, Last Updated: March 10, 2010 12:04am
When it comes to gaining access to their kids, a growing number of divorced fathers say they've been stymied by a police and court system that reflexively views women as believable and men as violent.
It's an emotional topic that dismays many of those who work in the field of domestic violence.
But a growing number of men's groups -- and a private member's bill (C-422) that would amend the Divorce Act by instructing judges to grant equal shared parenting except in proven cases of abuse -- are advancing this view.
One man I spoke to, for instance, says his ex-wife falsely accused him of slamming a van door on her leg. And even though that assault charge was later withdrawn by the Crown attorney, the man says the allegations damaged his reputation during proceedings with a family court judge who restricted his access to his kids.
It's those kinds of situations that the fledgling London Equal Parenting Committee will explore during "an evening of awareness in relation to domestic violence" Thursday at Crouch Library.
The evening's main speaker is Roger Gallaway, the former Sarnia-Lambton MP who co-chaired a 1998 federal report called For The Sake Of The Children, which examined issues surrounding child custody.
"What I find distressing is the lack of objectivity around this whole subject," says Gallaway, who represented his riding for the Liberal party from 1993 to 2006. "There has to be some type of balance put into the discussion. And it's sadly lacking."
Gallaway regrets that none of the 1998 report's recommendations -- including a call for stricter rules regarding the reporting of abuse -- were ever adopted.
"An allegation of violence is a weapon," he says. "And in Ontario we have a zero-tolerance policy, which generally speaking says that when allegations are made, it's the male who's removed (from the residence). And that then casts the die for what will occur in terms of child custody or access."
Gallaway adds that more and more people are starting to realize that more and more deserving fathers are being shortchanged when it comes to contentious custody battles.
"There's a growing constituency . . . that sees what's occurring and knows these men aren't bad people," he says. "So the doubt about what is being said about (so-called) violent men is growing."
Longtime domestic violence expert Peter Jaffe acknowledges "there are cases that involve false allegations, but they're a small minority."
Jaffe insists, however, that there are enough checks and balances already embedded within the justice system to filter out dubious allegations.
"The No. 1 problem we have in 2010 is people living with violence and abuse and not getting help for it," says Jaffe, academic director of UWO's Centre for Research on Violence Against Women and Children. "What's needed is more resources."
What's really needed, of course, is a co-operative culture where estranged parents do what's best for their kids. But that's about as likely as me having a baby.
IF YOU GO
What: Domestic Violence in Divorce: Propaganda and other Fictions, presented by the London Equal Parenting Committee and featuring Roger Gallaway.
When: Thursday, 6 p.m. to 9 p.m.
Where: Crouch Library, 550 Hamilton Rd.
Admission: Free (for details call 519-614-8713 or e-mail lepcinfo@gmail.com)
Ian Gillespie is a Free Press city columnist.
E-mail ian.gillespie@sunmedia.ca, read Ian's blog. or follow Ianatlfpress on Twitter.
Addendum: Our contact person forwards an email
critical of the London Free Press article from lawyer Grant Brown, who has
dropped his family practice. Mr Brown makes his argument with the rare
force that engenders simultaneous outrage and laughter
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| From: | Grant Brown [ grant.brown at shaw.ca ]
| | Sent: | Wednesday, March 10, 2010 11:04 AM
| | To: | paul.berton@sunmedia.ca
| | Cc: | ian.gillespie@sunmedia.ca
| | Subject: | Ex-MP calls for shared parenting
|
Dear sirs,
It is mind-boggling that you can, with a straight face, refer to Peter
Jaffe as an "expert" on domestic violence - or anything else, for that
matter.
Jaffe was a member of a panel in the early 1990s which produced a
report claiming that satanic ritual abuse of children was commonplace in
North America, and the evidence for this assertion was "recovered
memories." "Recovered memory" theory went the way of the dodo bird shortly
thereafter, and no evidence of satanic ritual abuse of children was ever
found anywhere. Jaffe's credibility should have been in tatters.
Jaffe was also the "expert witness" at the trial of Paul Bernardo who
said that Karla Homolka could have been a "battered woman" who was not
responsible for the drugging, raping, and murder of several teenage girls,
including her little sister Tammy. Never mind that at the time of this
incident, holiday videos showed a beaming and preening Karla, totally
besotted with Bernardo and not the least bit abused. Jaffe's opinion of
Homolka is so repugnant to decent human beings that using him as an
"authority" in your newspaper taints you by association. You might as
well quote the Grand Poohba of the KKK as an authority on race relations.
You now quote Jaffe saying that false allegations of domestic violence
and child abuse are rare. This is utter hogwash, as any criminal defence
or family lawyer in the city could have told you. Have you bothered to
check Jaffe's sources for this "opinion"? Does he even have any credible
sources? Did you not notice that Jaffe is funded by the Ontario Women's
Directorate specifically to propagate the lie that women are always and
ever the innocent victims of men? (It says all you need to know about the
objectivity of his outfit in the title.) What kind of investigative
journalism do you engage in there in London?
False allegations are rampant, especially in family law cases. The
problem is so serious - due in large part to the kind of biopolitical
claptrap advanced by Jaffe in the early 1990s - that in 2000 the Alberta
courts instituted a procedure for screening all such allegations by a team
of police and child psychologists. This practice was instituted by Madam
Justice M. Trussler, Associate Chief Justice of Alberta for Family Law.
I appeared before her a few years ago representing a man falsely accused
of sexual abuse of his step-daughter. She told me in open court that at
least 80% of the cases screened for child abuse - and there are hundreds
every year in Alberta - are determined to be "unfounded." (A much smaller
percentage actually result in guilty verdicts.) That ratio corresponds
with what I have experienced in my own practice of family law.
I take Justice Trussler to be a vastly more credible authority on the
subject of false allegations than Jaffe ever will be. Why don't you look
for the truth, rather than for some kind of phony "balance" or juicy
"controversy" in your stories? You poorly serve your readers by
propagating Jaffe's lies.
Sincerely,
-gb.
Grant A. Brown, DPhil (Oxon), LL.B.
Edmonton, Alberta.
(780) 937-1505
Professional Child Abuse
February 25, 2010
Claude Edward Foulk was the director of a California mental facility,
Napa State Hospital, one of America's largest. As such he supervised
persons responsibile for determining whether to free patients or keep them
incarcerated, administering psychotropic drugs to patients for their benefit
(or harm), and advising courts on the mental competence of accused persons.
Mr Foulk had another life as foster parent. In that role he is accused
of molesting many boys in his care. Only the most recent case is the basis
of prosecution, the older ones are barred by statute-of-limitations. This
is another example of big abuse cases coming from professionals, not
parents.
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Director of Calif. mental hospital arrested for investigation of molesting his foster child
FILE - In this photo taken Wednesday, Dec. 9, 2009 Claude Foulk, executive director, gestures during an interview in his office at the Napa State Hospital in Napa, Calif. Foulk was arrested Wednesday Feb. 24, 2010 after a five-month investigation for allegedly molesting a foster child in his care for more than a decade.
(AP Photo/Eric Risberg, File) (Eric Risberg, ASSOCIATED PRESS / December 9, 2009)
CHRISTOPHER WEBER Associated Press Writer
February 24, 2010 | 7:13 p.m.
LOS ANGELES (AP) — The executive director of a Northern California mental hospital was arrested Wednesday for investigation of molesting his foster child for more than a decade.
Napa State Hospital Director Claude Edward Foulk, 62, was arrested at the hospital after a five-month investigation by Long Beach police.
The hospital fired him after he was charged Tuesday with 35 felony counts, punishable by up to 280 years in prison.
Foulk was booked into custody in Long Beach. Prosecutors asked that bail be set at $3.5 million, Los Angeles County Deputy District Attorney Lesley Klein said.
The investigation was started in September after a man now in his 40s came forward, Long Beach Police Sgt. Dina Zapalski said.
The crimes were "not work-related," Zapalski said.
Foulk is accused of sexually molesting the boy shortly after taking him in as a foster child at age 10 in 1992. The alleged crimes continued through 2004 after Foulk and the youth moved to Walnut, according to the district attorney's office.
Investigators were also looking into claims from four other alleged victims in Long Beach and Rancho Murietta in Northern California dating from 1975 to 2006, before Foulk began working at Napa State Hospital, Zapalski said.
Prosecutors said the statute of limitations could prevent them from pursuing some other alleged cases.
It could not be immediately determined if Foulk had an attorney.
Foulk was appointed director of Napa State Hospital in 2007. Hospital officials declined to comment.
"We did not know anything about this until Long Beach police came to the hospital and arrested him this morning," said Nancy Kincaid, spokeswoman for the California Department of Mental Health.
She noted the alleged incidents predated Foulk's arrival at Napa State Hospital.
"He was not in one-on-one contact with patients," Kincaid said. "He had no clinical hospital privileges, so he wouldn't have been offering treatment."
Dr. Stephen W. Mayberg, director of the state mental health department, said Foulk had been fired.
Napa State Hospital Administrator Dolly Matteucci is serving as acting executive director while the department searches for Foulk's replacement, Kincaid said.
At the time of Foulk's appointment to Napa State Hospital he was lauded for his lengthy career in mental health services in both the private and public sectors.
Prior to taking the position in Napa, Foulk worked for the state Department of Mental Health as the Chief of Program, Policy and Fiscal Support, the Long Beach Press-Telegram reported. Before that, he held positions as chief executive officer and chief operating officer of private community acute psychiatric hospitals, including CPC Horizon Hospital and Clinic in Pomona and CPC Alhambra Psychiatric Hospital in Rosemead, according to a Department of Mental Health news release.
Napa State Hospital is one of the largest state mental health facilities in the United States, with about 1,260 beds for patients. Many of the hospital's patients come from the criminal justice system — including those found not guilty by reason of insanity. No juveniles or child molesters are treated at Napa.
Associated Press Writers Denise Petski and Shaya Tayefe Mohajer in Los Angeles, Terence Chea in San Francisco and Donald Thompson in Sacramento contributed to this report.
Good News
February 24, 2010
Dufferin Children's Aid has trimmed the number of children in care since
2006. According to a Banner article, the cut is 30 percent, according to a
published chart only 20 percent. Either way, it is a real improvement, and
shows that Trish Keachie is curtailing the excesses of the Putman era. We
wish her continued success in reducing unnecessary family intervention even
more.
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By Adam Martin-Robbins | Feb 24, 2010 - 4:45 PM
Well-being report card released
Launching DUCK:. Dufferin Coalition For Kids (DuCK) held its official launch Feb. 12 at Dufferin Child and Family Services. The coalition also unveiled three initiatives including The Well-Being of Children Ages Birth to Six: A Report Card for Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph; Dufferin Family Directory website (www.dufferinfamilydirectory.com) and the Positive Parenting Initiative. On hand for the event were (from left): DuCK co-chairs Trish Keachie and Lori-Jane Harding, Dufferin-Caledon MPP Sylvia Jones and Sue Snider, Dufferin County community services committee chair.
Adam Martin-Robbins
The number of children in protective services in Dufferin decreased by 30 per cent between 2006 and 2008. During that same time period, there was 40 a per cent drop in the rate of serious dental problems among children in Junior and Senior Kindergarten in the county.
Those are just two of the hundreds of statistics included in a new report released this month dubbed The Well-Being of Children Ages Birth to Six: A Report Card for Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph.
“What our hope is for the report card is that agencies and organizations will use it for planning purposes,” said Lori-Jane Harding, program manager for children’s services at Dufferin County, who helped write the report. “We hope local agencies will look at the data ... and start promoting changes.”
The report card was the result of a collaborative effort between a dozen agencies and organizations known collectively as the Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph Report Card Coalition. It aims to provide data on several factors that impact a child’s “well-being” including health, learning, development and happiness.
The data was drawn from numerous sources, explained data analysis co-ordinator Jane Hall, including Statistics Canada from 2001 and 2006 Census, Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph Kindergarten Parent Survey, Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph Public Health Parenting Study from 2007 and Early Development Instrument (EDI) results from 2006.
Harding said while much of the data has been available for a few years now, this is the first time it has been compiled into a single document.
According to the report card, 34 per cent of parents in the county feel they need more parental support; up to 30 per cent of Dufferin’s five year olds may be overweight or at risk of obesity; while 31 per cent of Senior Kindergarten students may have difficulty meeting certain “task demands” in Grade 1.
Some of the data contained in the report is broken down by “neighbourhoods” including Orangeville north, Orangeville south, Orangeville east, Dufferin south (Orangeville west and East Garafraxa), Dufferin east (Mono and Mulmur) Dufferin west (Melancthon, Amaranth and East Luther Grand Valley) and Shelburne.
While it provides a comprehensive amount of information on a wide range of factors, the report card does not contain any recommendations for taking action to address areas that may be of concern, Harding said.
“The purpose of the report was to provide the data, but not provide the answers,” she said. “It’s a tool.”
Plans are in the works for two more report cards for children aged seven to 12 and 13 to 18. The first of those is slated to be completed by March 2011.
To view the current report card, visit www.wdgreportcard.com (local copy pdf).
From the report card:
Disappearing Act
February 24, 2010
Rallies in support of bill 93 may be sidestepped by proroguing
parliament, ending consideration of the bill.
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Children’s Aid oversight move faces setback
February 24, 2010, By Melinda Dalton, Record staff
WATERLOO REGION — A local group pushing for additional oversight of Children’s Aid Societies will soon be facing another setback.
Groups of parents and supporters have held several public protests in the past few months in Kitchener and across the province urging MPPs to pass Bill 93. Another rally is planned for Monday in Cambridge.
But the private members bill, which would allow the province’s Ombud to investigate Children’s Aid Societies in Ontario, could die before it reaches second reading when the Liberal government pulls the plug on this session of government after the Vancouver Olympics.
Premier Dalton McGuinty said Wednesday the Ontario legislature would prorogue next week for a four-day weekend.
The Ontario legislature will shut down Thursday, March 4, and return Monday, March 8, with the throne speech to begin a new session.
Eleven of the 146 bills that have not received royal assent may be carried forward to the next session, but Bill 93 isn’t among them.
“It’s going to have to start the whole process over again,” said NDP leader, Angela Horwath, who brought forward the bill in June 2008. “Sometimes part of bringing these bills forward is to try and put pressure on the government. They become a bit of a lightning rod for people who are trying to create that change. This is what Bill 93 has done.”
Bill 93 has been a rallying point for groups fighting for more accountability and transparency in the organizations that attend to child welfare.
Ontario is the only province in the country that uses an independent, not-for-profit model for its 53 Children’s Aid Societies. Each agency has a local board and is reviewed by the Ministry of Children and Youth Services.
That model, as opposed to one run centrally by the government, ensures that each agency is accountable to the communities they serve, said Paris Meilleur, spokesperson for Children and Youth Services minister Laurel Broten.
Currently, the Children’s Aid Societies fall under a category of institutions beyond the reach of the province’s ombud — along with hospitals, police, school boards, universities, municipalities and long-term care facilities.
Ombud André Marin said in his 2008-2009 report there were 429 complaints about Children’s Aid made to his office that year and “we are forced to turn away,” those complainants. According to Marin’s report, many felt they weren’t able to challenge Children’s Aid given the cost of lawyers and the fact that the agency had publicly funded legal representation.
Alison Scott, executive director of Family and Children’s Services of Waterloo Region, said the agency isn’t opposed to appropriate oversight, but there are several mechanisms in place — including the court process, the Child and Family Services Review Board, the Ministry of Children and Youth Services and an internal complaints system — already to ensure complaints and concerns are addressed.
“For every level of accountability, it adds an administrative requirement and that really takes away from the time we’re able to spend with the children and families in the community,” she said. “I think that the internal mechanisms are designed to protect clients. I feel they do that.”
The review board has a specific legislative mandate to hear complaints that are based on procedures of Children’s Aid Societies, including if the agency failed to provide a response to a complaint or if something wasn’t accurately recorded. Marin points out in his report that the process is restrictive and his office received 10 complaints about the board itself last year.
Tanya Koch of Kitchener has attended every rally she could to push for more accountability after her own battle with Family and Children’s Services that eventually resulted in her file being closed. She said the current complaints process is complicated and frustrating given that the first person you need to address is sometimes the person you’re complaining about
“By the time that whole process has gone through, you’re sitting there scratching your head thinking, ‘How many times to I have to make the same complaint before it gets addressed?’” she said. “To have someone like the ombud, who is already doing probation officers and post offices etc., he’s used to dealing with complaint processes and it would make it so much easier.”
Horwath acknowledged that there are several review processes in place, but pointed out they’re all still internal to the government. Ontario needs independent oversight of these agencies, she said, adding she’ll likely reintroduce the bill if it’s wiped from the list.
“Often times, families are concerned that their voices are not being taken seriously when it comes to questioning some of the decisions that are being made and the authority that is being used to make decisions,” she said. “From my perspective, this is a change that is long past due. It should have happened a long time ago.”
Rev. Dorian Baxter, the Newmarket-based Archbishop of the Federation of Independent Anglican Churches of North America who has helped organize many of the rallies, said they’ll continue to stage public demonstrations and call for further oversight even if the bill is killed by prorogation.
Baxter, who also the founder of the Court Watch Canada program that helps parents navigate Children’s Aid, said he’s heard countless stories of families who have struggled through the system and felt they had no where to turn. He said there needs to be an independent body “with teeth” overseeing the agencies that can hold them accountable.
The “prorogation delay is not even a hiccup,” he said. “We will pick up the pieces, patiently put them back together and march forward ... It is only a matter of time and time is on our side.”
mdalton@the record.com
Addendum: It is a done deed. The provincial
parliament has been prorogued, to be recalled next week. By this act the
government has eliminated consideration of awkward bills, including bill 93,
without any requirement for MPP's to stick their neck out and vote them
down.
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Current session at Queen's Park prorogued
Updated Thu. Mar. 04 2010 8:45 PM ET
Paper flew in the Ontario legislature on Thursday as the current session ended and the house was prorogued.
It prompted a rare paper slide, where reporters mark the end of the session by throwing papers over the edge of the gallery to the floor of the chamber.
The slides have become rare because governments usually prorogue when elected members aren't sitting.
It won't be a long break, as a new session opens Monday with a speech from the throne setting out the government's agenda.
I Am Your Fake Children's Aid
February 23, 2010
For a while CAS promoted its I Am
Your Children's Aid campaign with a facebook group called Your
Children's Aid. It was inundated with criticism to the extent that CAS had to remove the group. While it was
still up, the criticism was interrupted by two supportive posts by Heather
Meara Paterson, identifying herself as a social worker who had helped
children who could no longer stay with their parents.
An anonymous investigator has checked the facts in this case. The name
Heather Meara Paterson does not appear on the Register of the Ontario
College of Social Workers and Social Service Workers. On a separate
page we show posts by Paterson, and a
letter from the Ontario College of Social Workers and Social Service
Workers.
Child Abuse
February 23, 2010
In California, Steven Louis Stearns planted a cellphone where it could
capture pictures of his teenaged foster daughter undressed. And in the
second enclosed story from Delaware, pediatrician Dr Earl Bradley has been
arrested for hundreds of sex acts against his clients.
Notice that large-scale child abuse comes not from mom and dad, but from
deviants making career choices that allow them access to children in
quantity.
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Tuesday, Feb. 23, 2010
Empire man allegedly plants phone to capture video of naked foster daughter
Bee Staff Reports
An Empire man who allegedly planted a cellular phone in his foster daughter’s closet with the intent to capture her naked on video has been arrested, authorities said.
Steven Louis Stearns, 44, was taken into custody at his home in the 200 block of G Street on Sunday night after deputies were called by the juvenile victim about 8 p.m., according to Chief Mike Radford of the Stanislaus County Sheriff’s Department.
The foster daughter reportedly discovered the phone in her closet after getting dressed upon her return from a shower, Radford said.
An Empire man who allegedly planted a cellular phone in his foster daughter’s closet with the intent to capture her naked on video has been arrested, authorities said. Steven Louis Stearns, 44, was taken into custody at his home in the 200 block of G Street on Sunday night after deputies were called by the juvenile victim about 8 p.m., according to Chief Mike Radford of the Stanislaus County Sheriff’s Department. The foster daughter reportedly discovered the phone in her closet after getting dressed upon her return from a shower, Radford said.
(Stanislaus County Sheriff's Department)
“She was terrified because she believed she was being recorded,” Radford said.
Radford said there was video from the phone that corroborated her statement.
The victim was removed from the residence and placed in alternative care.
Also in the house were the suspect’s wife and three children. The children were placed in the custody of Child Protective Services, which then released them to the wife, Radford said.
Stearns was booked into Stanislaus County Jail on charges including annoying or molesting a child under 18 years of age and sexual exploitation of a child.
Del. doctor indicted in serial child abuse scandal
Delaware pediatrician charged with 471 sex crimes
Prosecutors expect to add more counts to a lengthy indictment against a Delaware pediatrician charged with serial molestation of more than 100 children as investigators urge former patients and parents to come forward.
By RANDALL CHASE, The Associated Press, Tuesday, February 23, 2010; 8:22 AM
DOVER, Del. -- Prosecutors expect to add more counts to a lengthy indictment against a Delaware pediatrician charged with serial molestation of 103 children as investigators urge former patients and parents to come forward.
A grand jury returned a 160-page indictment Monday against Dr. Earl Bradley of Lewes with 471 counts of sexual crimes.
The case has shocked the close-knit coastal community of Lewes and the central Delaware town of Milford, where Bradley closed an office in 2005 after police investigated him.
Bradley's attorney, Eugene Maurer, said he would seek to move the trial out of Sussex County. But he said the "real battleground" in the case will be Bradley's mental state, not what is seen on videotapes seized from Bradley's home and office or alleged in the indictment.
Announcing the grand jury's indictment, Attorney General Beau Biden said all of the alleged victims, mainly girls but including one boy, were caught on more than 13 hours of video recordings, some dating to 1998.
"The charges in this indictment are unique in the history of the state of Delaware, as far as I can tell," he said.
The charges against Bradley include rape, sexual exploitation of a child, unlawful sexual contact, continuous sexual abuse of a child, assault and reckless endangering.
Bradley, who was arrested in December and initially charged with 29 felony counts for allegedly abusing nine children, is being held with bail set at $2.9 million. His medical license was permanently revoked by the state Board of Medical Practice last week.
Maurer said he had not read the indictment but was not surprised by the allegations.
"I'm sure they have their reasons for including all these different victims in this indictment," said Maurer, noting that under state law, a single conviction of rape would be enough to put Bradley behind bars for life.
The indictment alleges Bradley was videotaping his sexual exploitation of patients as far back as December 1998. Many victims were assaulted repeatedly, some on consecutive days, according to the indictment, which alleges that one girl was raped more than a dozen times over a period that lasted more than a year.
Authorities would not say whether they think Bradley had videotaped all of his alleged assaults or whether there may be more victims.
"I expect that we will add to this indictment with new charges over the coming months," Biden said.
He encouraged parents and victims of Bradley, "regardless of age or gender," to contact prosecutors, who have sent out about 3,100 letters to Bradley's patients and set up an office in Lewes to handle complaints and direct potential victims and their families to counseling and other services.
Sussex County prosecutor Paula Ryan declined to say how many alleged victims seen on videotape have been identified by name, or to provide an age range. The indictment refers to each alleged victim only as "Jane Doe" or "John Doe."
After years of suspicions among parents and questions about his strange behavior from colleagues, Bradley was arrested after a 2-year-old girl told her mother that the doctor hurt her in December when he took her to a basement room of his office after an exam.
While prosecutors allege regular and repeated abuse by Bradley, the indictment contains a gap of more than a year, from October 2004 to June 2006, in which no alleged crimes are listed.
Biden and Gov. Jack Markell have ordered reviews to determine whether doctors, hospitals, state agencies or law enforcement authorities failed to comply with a state law that requires all such entities to report to the medical licensing board in writing within 30 days if they believe a doctor is or "may be" guilty of unprofessional conduct.
Biden said Monday that those investigations are aimed at determining "how this physician could lurk in our midst for as long as he did."
Father Arrested for Threatening Baby Snatchers
February 23, 2010
In Indiana Dale R Stephenson has been arrested for defending his family.
At least he escaped the death penalty administered to others such as Bryan S Russell and Gene Velasquez for
doing the same. The law expects parents to act submissively toward
authorities taking their children.
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Police: Winchester man threatened to kill officials
THE STAR PRESS • • February 23, 2010
WINCHESTER -- A Winchester man has been accused of threatening to kill authorities who removed an infant girl from his custody.
Dale R. Stephenson, 21, 602 Short St., is charged with intimidation, a Class D felony carrying a standard 18-month prison term.
According to court documents, Stephenson approached a Randolph County office of Child Protective Services worker last Thursday and indicated he intended to bring a shotgun to a court hearing set later that day and "shoot the people that had caused all of this."
The documents indicate a two-month-old infant had on Wednesday been removed from the custody of Stephenson and her mother pending completion of an investigation.
Stephenson was arrested a few hours after making the alleged threat and remained in the Randolph County jail Monday under a $25,000 bond. An initial hearing is set for Friday in Randolph Circuit Court.
The Winchester man was charged with battery in August 2008. A change-of-plea hearing in that case is set for April 9 in Randolph Superior Court.
CAS Applies Funds
February 22, 2010
Children's Aid of Haldimand-Norfolk, reeling after a talk by Vern Beck, an anticipated Cambridge rally mirroring the success in Kitchener and an announced meeting in Tillsonburg has found a use for the
$27 million in supplementary
funding for CAS. They are stepping up the I Am Your Children's Aid campaign. Sorry
kids, nothing left for you.
The article ends citing executive director Janice Robinson saying: The
agency seeks feedback from parents who have come into contact with them by
asking them to fill out anonymous surveys. We'd like to see one of those
survey forms.
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Campaign boosts image of CAS
Posted February 12, 2010
A campaign aimed at brightening the public image of Children's Aid societies across Ontario is coming to Haldimand-Norfolk.
Called "I Am Your Children's Aid," it includes television and radio advertisements as well as posters.
The campaign features pictures of foster parents and former wards of the CAS who offer testimonials on how their lives were changed for the better thanks to the child welfare agency.
Janice Robinson, executive director of the Children's Aid Society of Haldimand-Norfolk, said her agency will make use of the posters.
"Research shows most people don't know what we do. They see us as an intervention agency," she said.
"We do prevention. We provide free public adoption -a lot of people don't know that."
The publicity campaign was two years in the making, but it comes to Haldimand-Norfolk at a time when public criticism of the agency is reaching a crescendo.
In recent months, angry parents upset with the local CAS have held placard-carrying protests and handed out flyers to the public. Last week, they held a public meeting in Delhi at which a guest speaker from an advocacy group called Canada Court Watch gave advice on what to do if you become a target of a CAS investigation.
They accuse CAS workers of high-handedness, manipulation, and lying in court proceedings.
In an interview, Robinson said having parents lash out verbally against a child welfare agency is nothing new.
"It's part of the territory, it's part of the job," she said.
"It's very stressful for people involved with us, we know that."
The agency seeks feedback from parents who have come into contact with them by asking them to fill out anonymous surveys, Robinson noted.
Everybody is Dead
February 22, 2010
At age 39 former foster child Cherry Kingsley describes her life as a sex
worker. Her most important quote casts light on career prospects for foster
graduates: “Everybody I grew up with is dead. Dead by suicide. Murdered.
AIDS. Drugs. Everybody's dead.”
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Vancouver 2010
Sex trade an open book during Games
Sex-trade worker Cherry Kingsley is taking part in the Living Library project during the Olympics at 33 East Hastings in Vancouver, BC.
Laura Leyshon for The Globe and Mail
Wendy Stueck
Vancouver, BC — From Sunday's Globe and Mail Published on Sunday, Feb. 21, 2010 12:56PM EST
Cherry Kingsley's life story is an open book.
Until the end of the month, Ms. Kingsley will be part of a “living library” put together by Atira Women's Resource Society, a non-profit housing agency in the Downtown Eastside.
Ms. Kingsley, 39, is, on occasion, a sex-trade worker. She prefers that term to prostitute. She's a mother and an injection drug user who's currently on methadone. She's a former foster child who cycled through more than a dozen homes when she was growing up in Ontario. She's been a spokeswoman for prevention of child abuse.
She knows some people have raised their eyebrows over people being seen as books. She hopes some good will come of it.
“I want the sex trade to be talked about in an intelligent way, I want women to be talked about in an intelligent way,” Ms. Kingsley said in a recent interview in a Hastings Street store that will serve as the “library” during the Olympic Games.
“We have to get a grip on the violence. We have to do better than we're doing now.”
The human library concept began in Copenhagen a decade ago, when a youth group put together an event that matched human “books” with borrowers as part of an anti-violence campaign.
Since then, the concept has spread around the world.
New Westminster's Douglas College launched the first in Canada in 2006.
It proved such a hit that the college maintains the “collection” online, and next month will launch a series with the Coquitlam Public Library that will feature, among other “titles,” a police officer, a midwife and a funeral director.
Participants in Atira's Living Library project have volunteered.
Those who are employed will not be paid; those who aren't working, including Ms. Kingsley, are to receive $50 gift certificates for groceries and other basics at the end of each week.
The project is advertised at Downtown Eastside Connect, a government-funded information centre on the neighbourhood.
About a dozen people are involved.
In her first session as a book, Ms. Kingsley answers a barrage of questions. She arrived in B.C. when she was 14, a runaway with an older man. She recalls walking down Davie Street, wide-eyed at the palm trees on English Bay.
That night, her companion told her they were out of money and that she'd have to go to work. She understood what that meant.
Cherry Kingsley is her real name. “It's on my birth certificate,” she offered.
There is no one type of man who buys sex.
There are drunken, young men on a tear, husbands with baby seats in the back of the car and violent misfits, the guys who show up on the neighbourhood's bad date list.
She supports the idea of brothels, saying they would allow women like her to avoid the dangerous alleys and rooms where they now ply their trade.
Asked if she's ever been attacked or beaten, she said she's managed to avoid some of the worst trouble. But she knows many who haven't.
“Everybody I grew up with is dead. Dead by suicide. Murdered. AIDS. Drugs. Everybody's dead.”
It's not known if any of the foreign journalists descending on Vancouver during the Games will take advantage of the library.
They can walk a block in any direction from the storefront and find all the scenes they need to put together a warts-included portrait of the neighbourhood.
And the venture could fizzle if the “books” decide the interviews are too time consuming, humiliating or painful.
Ms. Kingsley doesn't know if anybody will show up at the Living Library.
If they do, she thinks she could do up to three interviews a day.
She answers all questions, but some bring her to tears.
Gimme!
February 21, 2010
Travelers to poor countries are advised against giving a gift to a
beggar. Reason: One small gift will soon produce a mob of followers
begging for more.
Now that Laurel Broten has given
in to the demands of Ontario's children's aid societies for more money,
the press throughout the province is carrying articles filled not with
thanks, but with demands for even more. The enclosed article from Dufferin
quotes Trish Keachie asking for another $300,000 to cover her cost overruns.
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Provincial funding boost cuts DCAFS deficit
Financially strapped Dufferin Child and Family Services got a significant shot in the arm last Friday with an infusion of more than $822,000 in one-time funding by the provincial government.
DCAFS executive director Trish Keachie welcomed the news, but added the children’s aid agency will still finish its 2010 fiscal year with a deficit of about $300,000.
The new provincial funds “do not fully cover our deficit,” Ms. Keachie said in an interview Wednesday. “But, on a relative basis to other agencies, we did very well.”
The DCAFS financial woes hit home in the final quarter of 2009, when it learned the government would be providing $23 million less to children’s aid societies (CASs) than it had given in the previous fiscal year.
DCAFS was one of 36 children’s aid agencies across the province that filed for a Section 14 review, which meant it would not be able to balance its mandate to protect children with the funding by the province. The DCAFS was projecting a $1.1 million deficit for its current fiscal year, which ends Dec. 31.
It faces a similar deficit in 2011.
This recent cash infusion is a result of the Province providing $26.9 million in one-time funding to CASs that, in its estimation, face the “most immediate financial challenges.”
In a press release issued earlier this week, the government said the funds, issued through the Commission to Promote Sustainable Child Welfare, aims to strengthen service delivery, promote financial sustainability, and improve outcomes for the children, youth and families who receive child protection services.
The government said the additional funding includes $2.5 million for Aboriginal CASs, in recognition of the unique challenges that Aboriginal children and youth face.
The fresh funding gave a reprieve of sorts to DCAFS. Still, Ms. Keachie cautioned that the agency is “not out of the woods yet.
“We will still be $300,000 in deficit at the end of the year and we are certainly experiencing the effects of the recession. We’ve been very busy this year.”
One challenge the local agency faces is a cap on funding to finance its infrastructure needs, which include such fixed expenses as maintaining the building it leases on Riddell Road.
One way to ensure that infrastructure costs will be lower in years to come is to buy the building, an endeavour Ms. Keachie estimated would require about $822,000.
“We will be living within our means,” she said, “but we will need to lower our infrastructure costs.”
Vern Beck in Tillsonburg
February 21, 2010
Public Info Session on "How to Protect YOUR FAMILIY from the Children's Aid Society"
March 4th 2010 at 7 p.m. Tillsonburg Library ( Library Lane )
Guest Speaker "VERN BECK OF CANADA COURT WATCH"......... a powerhouse presentation including topics such as Electronic recording of WORKERS, CONVERSATIONS, LAWYERS, AND COURT PROCEEDINGS
Sponsored by Voices of Innocent Familes in Ontario
The library is at 2 Library Lane in Tillsonburg, expand for a map.
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Trojan Laptop
February 19, 2010
A Pennsylvania school has found a new way to watch its students naked.
They gave each student a laptop computer with a webcam that could be
operated by remote control. Students were disciplined for actions inside
their own home that violated school policy.
You can read the class action
complaint (pdf) by primary plaintiff Blake J Robbins. The expand block
contains a blog article followed by the school district response, which
admits that the remote-control webcams were used.
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Friday, February 19, 2010
If this is true—it's damn frightening.
This is one of the more troubling stories that I've read in a long time. What I'm reading is the court filing in a lawsuit against the Lower Merion School District, on behalf of the minor, Blake Robbins, filed by his parents.
The school district issued laptops to the students. The laptops had webcams installed. In legalese the suit contends that the school district has "been spying on the activities of Plaintiffs and Class members (Blake and other students)" through the "indiscriminant use of and ability to remotely activate the webcams incorporated into each laptop issued to students by the School District." '
The law suit contends that none of the literature given to students and their parents contains any reference "to the fact that the school district has the ability to remotely activate the embedded webacam at any time the school district wished to intercept images from that webcam of anyone or anything appearing in front of the camera at the time of the activation."
In other words, the government school district issued laptops to students and the district could activate the webcam and use it to spy on students anytime the computer was turned out. This was done without informing people this was possible and can be done without the knowledge of the computer user. Consider where students are likely to have their computers. It is not unusual for a student to take a laptop into their bedroom, where they undress, change clothes and engage in otherwise, very private activities. Yet school district bureaucrats can remotely use the students laptop to watch these activities.
This new method of spying on students, in the privacy of their home, was revealed when Blake was told by the Assistant Principal of Harrington High School, Lindy Matsko, that he "was engaged in improper behavior in his home." As proof of this improper behaviour the school showed him "a photograph from the webcam embedded in minor Plaintiff's personal laptop issued by the School District."
Blake's father, Michale, "verified, through Ms. Matsko, that the School District in fact has the ability to remotely activate the webcam contained in a students' personal laptop computer issued by the School District at any time it chose and to view and capture whatever images were in front of the webcam, all without the knowledge, permission or authorization of any persons then and there using the laptop computer." Equally important is that this can be done so it "will capture anything happening in the room in which the laptop computer is located, regardless of whether the student is sitting at the computer and using it."
The suit says: "As the laptops at issue were routinely used by students and family members while at home, it is believed and therefore averred that many of the images captured and intercepted may consist of images of minors and their parents or friends in compromising or embarrassing positions, including, but not limited to, in various stages of dress or undress."
Unless the allegations in the suit are entirely invented by the family, which seems unlikely, this indicates a dangerous new method of putting the public under surveillance. The law suit is making claims based on laws that are supposed to protect privacy, due process for surveillance, and similar manners. I think they should go for the jugular.
Let us make a few points to law the foundation for having the School District arrested and tried as sex offenders. The District gave laptops to 1800 teenage students. In the laptop was a webcam that could be turned on by government bureaucrats to observe those students at any time, including in the privacy of their home. Almost 100% of these students will, at one time or another, engage in legal sexual activity in the privacy of their bedroom. By legal I mean either with another teen considered legally capable of consenting, or in masturbatory activity. With 1800 students engaging in such sex acts the possibility that computer will be sitting there is very high. And government bureaucrats may be watching said activity. Thus the School District has created a webcam operation which shows teens engaged in sexual activity.
It is entirely possible that the signals could be intercepted as well, by others, who may view these "sex webcam shows" that the School District created. The School District officials who set up the program, those who implemented the system, and all school officials who may view these webcams should thus be investigated immediately for the production and dissemination of child pornography. All those found involved should be required to register as sex offenders. In teens who engage in "sexting" voluntarily are arrested then why wouldn't it be a crime for school officials to drag teens involuntarily into something equally explicit?
This is precisely what these School Districts do to teens who engages in "sexting." School Districts, that discover that students voluntarily, and consensually, photograph themselves in the nude, routinely have those students arrested as child pornographers. So why should school officials, doing the same thing, but without the consent of the teens involved, be treated any differently? Criminal charges should be filed immediately.
In fact, along with the law suit, I think parents should file criminal complaints against the School District for the recording and dissemination of child pornographer because the District could watch underage students in the nude, or engaged in sexual activity.
The School District admits that the computers came with the remote webcam feature, which it claims, is only used "to help locate a laptop in the event it was reported lost, missing or stolen" and that it is not used "for any other purpose." But Blake was disciplined for improper activity at home, which had nothing to do with a lost, missing or stolen computer. A photo, taken using the webcam, was provided to him as proof of his action. This indicates that the feature was, in fact, used for purposes other than tracking missing computers.
And while the School District says that the webcams will only be turned on, in the future, with the "express written notification to all students and families"—notice it doesn't require their consent, only that they be told it will be done—there is nothing to prevent school officials from turning on the feature, without notification, if only to browse for titillating scenes. What parent would take this sort of assurance seriously?
What the new policy boils down to is that the school district, or individual employees of the district, will have the ability to turn on the webcam at will, but promise they won't do so without warning students in advance. And, if the officials, don't announce they did it, but still do it anyway, how is that monitored? What assurances do parents have that school officials aren't getting their jollies by turning on the webcams during the hours students would be preparing for bed? The School District continues to have the ability to spy on students anytime it, or any one with access to the systems, wishes and all parents get is the promise that this won't be done. In other words, there is absolutely nothing to stop it happening but the solemn promise of a bunch of government bureaucrats—and we all know what that is worth.
posted by CLS at 2/19/2010 12:22:00 AM DiggIt! Reddit Del.icio.us Slashdot Slashdot It!
Lower Merion School District Announcements
LMSD initial response to invasion of privacy allegation
Updated 2/18/10 5:26 PM
Dear LMSD Community,
Last year, our district became one of the first school systems in the United States to provide laptop computers to all high school students. This initiative has been well received and has provided educational benefits to our students.
The District is dedicated to protecting and promoting student privacy. The laptops do contain a security feature intended to track lost, stolen and missing laptops. This feature has been deactivated effective today.
The following questions and answers help explain the background behind the initial decision to install the tracking-security feature, its limited use, and next steps.
• Why are webcams installed on student laptops?
The Apple computers that the District provides to students come equipped with webcams and students are free to utilize this feature for educational purposes.
• Why was the remote tracking-security feature installed?
Laptops are a frequent target for theft in schools and off school property. The security feature was installed to help locate a laptop in the event it was reported lost, missing or stolen so that the laptop could be returned to the student.
• How did the security feature work?
Upon a report of a suspected lost, stolen or missing laptop, the feature was activated by the District's security and technology departments. The tracking-security feature was limited to taking a still image of the operator and the operator's screen. This feature has only been used for the limited purpose of locating a lost, stolen or missing laptop. The District has not used the tracking feature or web cam for any other purpose or in any other manner whatsoever.
• Do you anticipate reactivating the tracking-security feature?
Not without express written notification to all students and families.
We regret if this situation has caused any concern or inconvenience among our students and families. We are reviewing the matter and will provide an additional update as soon as information becomes available.
Sincerely,
Dr. Christopher McGinley
Superintendent
| Posted: 2/18/10 at 4:54 PM | Updated: 2/19/10 at 8:02 AM
Cambridge Rally
February 18, 2010
There will be a Rally in support of bill 93 in Cambridge on March first.
Support Bill 93 Rally F&CAS Going Down
| Type: | Causes - Rally
| | Date: | Monday, March 1, 2010
| | Time: | 11:00am - 1:00pm
| | Location: | Cambridge Ont
| | Street: | 168 Hespler Rd
| | Description | Please join Chairman of Canada Court Watch,
Archbishop Dorian Baxter as he leads a rally
at Family and Children Services of The
Waterloo Region at 168 Hespeler Rd in
Cambridge. This is in support of Bill 93,
which would implement oversight by the
Ombudsman of Ontario and hold CAS
accountable. This event is being held on
March 1st from 10 am to 2 pm. Lets make
NECESSARY change together....
|
Expand to see a map.
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Addendum: A video Rallies for CAS
accountability (YouTube) supports this rally and the rally in Oshawa on March 19.
Fear of CAS
February 17, 2010
Kawartha-Haliburton Children's Aid is cutting compensation to foster
homes. The press article below reports that the foster parents "feared
reprimand if they went public with their concerns". Another interesting
point in the article, it's all about the money, for both CAS and the
fosters. The relation between CAS and foster parent is that between buyer
and seller, or employer and employee, but with a generous supply of
treachery and mistrust. In the event a foster parent develops a true
parental love for a child, CAS will take advantage by finding a reason to
reduce that parent's compensation. In another part of Ontario, a foster
couple that fell in love with their foster daughter was offered the chance
to adopt her. They agreed. As soon as they agreed, the foster payments
stopped. The adoption was never completed, and the girl reached age of
majority still in the foster home. While the CAS suspended payments, the
agency still billed the province for her care.
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Compensation changes worry some foster parents
Posted By GALEN EAGLE , EXAMINER STAFF WRITER, Posted January 22, 2010
Changes in the way the Kawartha-Haliburton Children's Aid Society compensate foster parents has sparked an angry outcry.
The agency told foster parents in December it planned to revamp its rate system, changing how it would pay foster parents for their expenses in caring for foster children.
During an information session earlier this month, however, the agency's plan was met with strong opposition.
Foster parents are characterizing the change as a direct funding cut that would make it increasingly difficult to care for children.
One foster parent called it a "slap in the face" to experienced caregivers. Another said her reduced pay would cause "devastation" for the children under her care.
The Kawartha-Haliburton Children's Aid Society says the changes would not reduce the overall funding given to foster parents. Its intention is to introduce a more efficient, goal-orientated system, rewarding foster parents for the goals they achieve with children, the agency says.
"There's no intent whatsoever to reduce the overall money that we are putting into supporting foster parents, we just want to use it more wisely," CAS executive director Hugh Nicholson said.
"What we want to do is develop a rate system that reinforces and rewards outcomes achieved with children in care and the efforts put into achieving those outcomes."
Currently, foster parents are paid on a sliding scale based on the neediness of the children in their care. Foster parents can upgrade their skills enabling them to accept children with higher needs.
Foster children are currently labelled into six or seven categories based on the type of care they require.
The agency wants to move away from labelling children, resource supervisor Marion Duguid explains.
"Right now we've had up to six or seven levels that foster parents could receive for a child. It makes for a cumbersome, inconsistent system," she said.
"There was a lot of focus on how difficult a child may be. Children ended up being labelled. We wanted to move towards better outcomes for children and focusing on the work a foster parent is doing with a foster child."
Under the new system, foster homes will fall under three categories -- regular, specialized or treatment.
Each home will be undergoing an assessment in the following weeks, Duguid said.
As a result, some foster parents might see a dip in their rates while others might see an increase, she said.
"Overall, it's going to equal out the same," she said.
The Examinerspoke to three experienced foster parents who expect to have their rates cut. Each said they feared reprimand if they went public with their concerns and would only talk on a condition of anonymity.
We have labelled them foster parents A, B and C.
Despite the agency's claims, the new changes will slash the rates paid to many foster homes, foster parent A said.
"I wouldn't say we are being cut, we are being sliced and diced," she said, the anger apparent in her voice. "We are going to get the shells from the peanuts."
After nearly 30 years of raising foster children and upgrading her accreditations, foster parent A fears she will lose everything she has worked towards.
"It has taken me 20 some years to get to the level I am by taking all the courses," she said. "In one swoop I'm back to where I started."
The children under her care are going to have to forgo the standard of living they have maintained in the past, she said.
"They come in and they slash (the rates) down to poverty level, how are we supposed to look after the children the way we have been?" she said. "There won't be any money for little extras."
Foster parent B, who fosters four boys ages 11 to 17, said her children will take a financial hit under the new system.
"I think this is definitely a money-saving technique," she said. "We cannot manage with the amount we are given for these boys. We have to use our own money to be able to send the boys off to school looking properly dressed."
Duguid said she understood how some foster families would see the new system as a rate cut, but those who put in the work will benefit with rate increases, she said. All training foster parents have achieved will still be recognized, she added.
"I really view this as an opportunity to recognize foster parents for the hard work that they are doing with children," she said. "This will be an opportunity for them to apply what they have learned."
But foster parents should not get into fostering looking to make money, she said.
"One of the very first things we tell people is this is not to be regarded as an income. Any funds they receive are specifically for the children," she said.
No foster parent with a right mind gets involved to make money, retorted foster parent C.
Predominantly raising troubled teens, she said the rates rarely take into consideration the many costs associated with raising teenagers.
"Teenagers, they break things, they steal things and I don't believe we are compensated enough," she said.
Her rates will drop $11 per day, per child under the new system, she said.
The revamped rate system was set to take effect Feb. 1, but was pushed back one month after a backlash from foster parents.
"When people have issues, we do listen to them. That's why we are taking the extra month," Nicholson said. "We have listened to them and we are now sitting down saying how can we make this a little bit smoother."
Nonetheless, the new changes will become reality, he said.
"Our major goal is outcomes for children. That's what we're all here for," he said.
The initial implementation is going to be the biggest challenge, as foster parents grapple with change, Duguid said.
Once the system is in place, however, Duguid anticipates foster parents will embrace it.
"I do believe it will be seen as the opportunity that it is," she said.
Foster parent B said the agency will face an uphill battle trying to sell the new system.
"Experienced foster parents are looking at this like a slap in the face," she said.
Foster parent C said she recently refused to take in a child, something she hasn't done in the past.
"I'm just feeling angry and so is every other foster parent," she said.
Most foster parents will either have to dig deeper into their own pockets or turn away children who desperately need their care, foster parent A said.
"(CAS) counts on you not saying 'I quit,'" she said. "Because you care for the child, they count on the fact you're not going to walk away."
geagle@peterboroughexaminer.com
Kitchener Rally
February 15, 2010
A rally took place today outside the Waterloo Children's Aid office in
Kitchener. Follow the source link in the expand block to see the CTV video
report, including the words of Dorian Baxter.
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A rally outside Children's Services of Waterloo Region
Updated Mon. Feb. 15 2010 6:32 PM ET
Children's Aid agencies across Ontario are getting much-needed financial help today.
The McGuinty Government announcing it will give more than 22 million dollars to make sure the cash-strapped organization can continue offering services.
But while these agencies are asking for cash ... others are calling for change.
The funding announcement comes on the same day protestors have gathered in Kitchener. They're calling for changes to the way CAS works.
A group of 20 people gathered outside Family and Children's Services of Waterloo Region, hoping to gain support for Bill 93.
If passed ... The Legislature would allow Ontario's Ombudsman to conduct independent reviews of CAS decisions.
People are this rally claim Children's Aid Societies across the province are making "poor decisions" and need to be held accountable.
Addendum: Here is a short video of the rally (flv) and five pictures. The Record also covered
the story.
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Family and Children’s Services target of protest
Peter Lee, Record staff
Christine Sorko-Houle holds protest signs and cries out to passing motorists during a protest in front of Family and Children's Services on Monday.
February 16, 2010, By Valerie Hill Record Staff
WATERLOO REGION — A small group of protesters picketing Family and Children’s Service of Waterloo Region in the bitter winds of Monday morning were demanding public accountability from an agency they believe destroys families. And they had a most unusual advocate.
The Newmarket man who calls himself the Most Reverend Dorian A. Baxter, Lord Archbishop of Yorke, leads a fringe independent Anglican group called Christ the King Graceland. He is also an Elvis impersonator.
While sporting a black Elvis wig and Elvis glasses, he recalled a personal experience with Family and Children Services in Durham Region, in the mid 1990s, when he tried to regain custody of his two daughters after they were taken from the home by their mother. His ex-wife had accused him of sexually abusing the girls and he said the agency never gave him a chance to prove his innocence.
After months in court, Baxter he got full custody and in court he won a financial settlement from Family and Children’s Services. Baxter has since launched a campaign against the agency to protect other families from enduring the same sort of treatment. He also helped found canadacourtwatch.com and was in town to support the protestors.
“We need to have justice, transparency and accountability from every Children’s Aid Society across Canada,” said Baxter who, along with the other protestors, carried placards on the sidewalk along Ardelt Road, in front of the Family and Children’s Services office. The group was also calling for the passing of 2008 Bill 93 which Baxter explained would allow the Ontario Ombudsman’s office to investigate Children’s Aid Societies.
Catherine Frei organized the rally for Family Day, a day she said visitors centres where parents have supervised visits with their children were closed for the provincial holiday. Frei was one of those parents, having had her three year old son seized and put into foster care “440 days ago.” She has since had a battle with the society to have her son returned and feels the system is heavily weighted against parents.
“It’s the complete annihilation of the human spirit,” said Frei, a well-spoken journalism student at Conestoga College. “They make you feel like you’re the unsavouries of society.” She also said, there is no recourse for parents with complaints and that even review boards where complaints against the society are suppose to be heard before going to court, is not impartial. Her only recourse now is to hire a child advocate lawyer who will work on her son’s behalf.
Alison Scott is the newly appointed executive director of the society and after only two weeks into the job, she responded to the protestors’ accusations by noting “there are several mechanisms in place” where parents can take their complaints, right up to the court level. Her agency’s mandate is to keep children safe, “we have an obligation to assess risk,” she said adding that parents sometimes view the Society’s work with suspicion.
“We know that families can be anxious and apprehensive when we get involved,” she said. “It’s pretty intrusive.”
Linda Plourde was one of the protestors, having experience with the Catholic Childrens Aid Society when her grandchild was seized from her daughter. Ploude subsequently self-published a book Protecting Canadian Children and in it she accuses the society of seizing children and putting their lives at risk in foster homes, where she said death occurs regularly.
Scott explained the statistics are very misleading, that in fact most of the 90 children who reported to have died in 2007 were medically fragile and died of natural causes while others were cases of suicide or accident. “None were preventable,” she said. Some of the deaths were, by law, reported to Children’s Aid by the hospitals though the agency did not have any involvement with the family or the child.
Having Children’s Aid involved “instills more fear in families,” admitted Scott. “It’s simply not true.”
vhill@therecord.com
Smitherman for Mayor
February 15, 2010
George Smitherman, candidate for mayor of Toronto, has been approved to
be one of two same-sex adopters of a fourteen-month-old boy.
This adoption continues the tradition of the politically powerful taking
children from the less-fortunate by force of arms. For example,
Michaëlle Jean,
Stephane Dion,
Jean Crétien and
John Roberts.
If you are, or know of, the family of the boy being adopted by Mr
Smitherman, send word to Dufferin VOCA by email, [ rtmq at fixcas.com ] or
phone, 705-744-6274. The story of the losers in this baby-transfer could be
enough to keep Mr Smitherman out of the mayor's office.
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George Smitherman, former deputy premier of Ontario, is seen with his husband Christopher Peloso in their home on November 12, 2009.
Monday, February 15, 2010 10:52 AM
Smitherman ‘intensely thrilled' to be approved for adoption
by Jane Taber
George Smitherman, who wants to become Toronto's Mayor, is becoming a Dad first.
The openly gay politician and his spouse, Christopher Peloso, are adopting a 14-month-old boy from Toronto.
They are expecting their son on February 26.
The two are in Vancouver for the Games and last night they were at a party at the Labatt Beer Institute where Mr. Smitherman could not hide his feelings, saying he has always wanted to be a father and describing himself as being “intensely thrilled.”
He says he knows, however, that although Toronto is progressive he and Mr. Peloso will receive some negative comments, a backlash from some corners, for their decision to adopt and bring up a child.
The little boy, who the couple has taken out on day trips in the first steps of getting to know him, has lived in foster care since he was born.
Mr. Smitherman and Mr. Peloso went through the adoption procedures and screenings, waiting nearly two years for their son.
The couple, who were married in 2007, is simply thrilled. Warned that their lifestyle will change dramatically with a toddler in their lives, Mr. Smitherman said, “Try being Health Minister for five years.”
He served in Dalton McGuinty's government has deputy premier, Health Minister and Energy Minister. He stepped down last November to seek the Toronto mayor's seat. That election takes place in October.
No bad seats – for Liberals
The figure skating venue last night was packed with politicians.
Former Liberal Prime Minister Jean Chretien and his wife, Aline were a few seats away from Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff and his wife, Zsuzsanna Zsohar.
They were sitting in the front row of the VIP section. Behind them were U.S. Vice-President Joe Biden and his wife, Jill, as well as the American Ambassador to Canada David Jacobson and his wife, Julie.
Ironically, it was the American Ambassador who told the Ignatieffs that Canada had won its first gold medal. Concentrating on watching the Canadian figure skaters, they had no clue that Alexandre Bilodeau had captured the men's moguls Olympic title.
At a reception afterwards – mostly attended by Liberals – Mr. Ignatieff gave a rah-rah, patriotic speech. And he said what everyone was thinking: the Gold medal “monkey” was now off Canada's back.
Meanwhile, Jean Chretien, who was also at the party, mentioned to the crowd that he had called Alexandre Bilodeau to congratulate him.
With impeccable timing, Mr. Chretien was able to speak to the young man between his win and getting to the podium.
And that's because Mr. Chretien's daughter, France Desmarais, who is the chair of the Canadian Olympic Foundation, which helps fund athletes through the Own the Podium program, knows Mr. Bilodeau and was able to reach him on her cell phone.
At 76 years of age, and having been out of politics since 2003, Mr. Chretien is still very well connected.
Service Above and Beyond
February 15, 2010
Connecticut DCF hired Mark Swan to provide services to an unnamed woman
for three years starting when she was 16 years old. He is now accused of
sexual assault against his client.
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DCF case worker charged with sexual assault
By John Pirro, Staff Writer, Published: 10:45 p.m., Sunday, February 14, 2010
NEW FAIRFIELD -- State police arrested a 48-year-old case worker for the state Department of Children and Families on Saturday after one of his clients accused him of sexually assaulting her at his home last week.
Mark Swan, of Deer Lane, is being held on $501,000 bond at the Troop A barracks in Southbury and is expected to appear in state Superior Court in Danbury on Tuesday.
Police began their investigation after the 19-year-old alleged victim went to the resident trooper's office in New Fairfield on Saturday and reported that Swan had assaulted her on Wednesday.
Swan had been the woman's case worker since she was 16, and an investigation "supported the victim's claim" that an assault occurred, police said.
Authorities took Swan into custody shortly before midnight Saturday, when a trooper stopped a vehicle that was observed being driven erratically on Route 39 near Bogus Hill Road and found him behind the wheel.
Swan was charged with second-degree sexual assault, unlawful restraint, sale of narcotics, reckless endangerment and harassment, in addition to reckless driving and drunken driving stemming from the traffic stop, police said.
Department of Children and Families spokesman Gary Kleeblatt said Sunday that Swan will be placed on administrative leave pending a departmental investigation and could face disciplinary action "up to and including termination."
Investigators gave no indication whether the sex between Swan and the victim was consensual or part of a continuing relationship, but under state law, a person can be charged with second-degree sexual assault when the victim is under the age of 18 and the accused is either a guardian or is responsible for their general supervision or welfare, or the victim is in custody of the law and the accused has supervisory or disciplinary authority over her.
Kleeblatt confirmed that the victim was "a current client" of Swan's, but said other information about Swan's employment history with the agency wasn't available on Sunday.
A state police spokesman said Sunday that since state offices are closed Monday for Presidents Day, no further information on the case would be released prior to Swan's scheduled appearance in court.
Police said the case remains under investigation by the resident state trooper, the State Police Western District Major Crime Squad and the Department of Children and Families.
Contact John Pirro at jpirro@newstimes.com or at 203 731-3342.
Alberta Foster Child Fatalities
February 14, 2010
Alberta lists its Fatality Inquiry Schedule on its government website. The schedules are
in four pdf files
[1]
[2]
[3]
[4],
local copies
[1]
[2]
[3]
[4].
Of the 19 persons under the age of 18, 13 have their names obscured because
the Child, Youth and Family Enhancement Act prohibits publishing the
name of the child. These are the children who died after the province took
responsibility for them. The names are obscured to protect the children
from harm, or conceal the culpability of the province, depending on you
outlook. A large majority of child deaths worthy of inquiry are from the
tiny portion of the population enrolled in foster care.
Surrender
February 14, 2010
Ontario's efforts to restrain children's aid by cutting their budgets
have ended in total surrender by Minister of Children and Youth Services Laurel Broten.
Children's aid societies across the province are getting immediate
supplementary funding of $27 million.
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Ontario throws children's aid $27M lifeline
Agencies watching over most vulnerable kids get money to put them 'on stable footing'
Published On Sat Feb 13 2010
Payukotayno James and Hudson Bay Family Services received $2.3 million, allowing the agency to stay open until the end of March 2010 after 120 staff faced layoffs due to lack of funding. (Dec. 9, 2009)
CARLOS OSORIO/TORONTO STAR
By Tanya Talaga Queen's Park Bureau
Ontario's cash-strapped children's aid societies will get a $26.9 million bailout to keep the agencies afloat until the next fiscal year.
Children and Youth Services Minister Laurel Broten told the Star 26 of 53 provincial societies will receive the money immediately to "put them on a stable footing."
"This infusion of money is a direct response to my commitment that we will not put kids at risk."
An announcement is expected Monday.
For the last few months, Broten has insisted the agencies must cut costs and find ways to get on a more solid financial footing as the province battles a $24.7 billion deficit.
Children's aid societies have argued the funding they receive is based on outdated projections and say if they are not given more, services for Ontario's most vulnerable kids will be reduced.
Last year, the Ministry of Children and Youth Services established a three-person committee of experts to examine why the agencies continue to have money problems at the same time each year and whether the current funding model is working.
"You can't solve these issues in the 11th month of the fiscal year," Broten said.
"We've assessed these funds are needed."
Without proper funding, the agencies warn they will not be able to meet the mandatory standards of seeing children every month, and case workers will assess children's safety and well-being less frequently.
Of the $26.9 million, $2.5 million is earmarked for First Nations children's aid societies in order for them to handle fiscal pressures other agencies do not face – such as high travel costs to get to at-risk kids in fly-in communities, and the exorbitant cost of living expenses in the North.
In December, the Star reported on the teen suicide epidemic plaguing the communities around the James Bay basin. Last year, 13 First Nations youth committed suicide, all by hanging.
The children's aid society in Moosonee – Payukotayno James and Hudson Bay Family Services – has struggled to cope with the suicide crisis while under constant threat of bankruptcy.
Broten came to the aid of Payukotayno in late December, giving it $2.3 million in emergency funding.
The agency's credit line was maxed out and pink slips had been sent to all 120 staff members. The funding bridged the agency until March.
"There are also broad, big, complicated issues we need to continue to work on with these (children's aid societies) and that is why these funds have been allocated," Broten said.
However, the Ontario Association of Children's Aid Societies say 49 of their agencies were experiencing a $67 million funding shortfall.
Some of the $26.9 million will go to the York Region Children's Aid Society, which faced a $6.6 million projected deficit and cut 18 positions last year. The Simcoe County agency will also receive funding.
By law, the agencies are mandated to protect children, investigate allegations of abuse and neglect, and provide care and adoption services.
Addendum: Not enough! Give us more! The report
describes CAS activities as: "ongoing services such as home counselling and
social workers helping to establish plans with other service providers which
intervene in the need for residential child care". It never mentions
separating parents and children by force of arms.
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Provincial funds not enough: CAS
DEFICIT: Share of funding falls short
Posted By VALERIE MACDONALD, NORTHUMBERLAND TODAY, Posted February 17, 2010
NORTHUMBERLAND -- Their share of the provincial government's one-time funding announcement of $27-million to Ontario's Children's Aid Societies is not enough to keep the Northumberland Children's Aid Society out of a deficit situation this year. Nor is it enough to pay off the cumulative debt since 2005, says its chief executive officer, Rosaleen Cutler.
The local CAS's projected deficit to fiscal year end March 31, 2010 is still about $550,000 more than the $279,000 in one-time funding announced by Children and Youth Services Minister Laurel Broten last week.
In addition, the cumulative debt 2005-8 adds another $551,000 to the total $1.1-million debt of the local Children's Aid, Cutler said.
This year's anticipated deficit is due to two factors, she said.
The local CAS is providing 10 fewer families each month with ongoing services such as home counselling and social workers helping to establish plans with other service providers which intervene in the need for residential child care. Although the number of investigations and referrals has remained constant year over year -- about 175 cases -- earlier intervention in this way is reducing the length of time the services are needed. It is also keeping the average number of those in residential care to about 100 monthly.
The new system shows the benefits of a community-based plan, but the funding formula penalizes the local CAS, and that is the reason it requested a Section 14 review last year. The results of the review are anticipated in a "couple of weeks," Cutler said.
The local CAS has asked for funding changes that would wipe out past deficits and this year's as well.
In addition, the Child Welfare Sustainability Commission is expected to report in early March and it is looking at funding over several years. The local CAS met with the commission was held Jan. 25.
This year's Northumberland Children's Aid Society operating budget was $10.4-million, but subsequently reduced to $9.1-million by a $230,000 board-adopted cost-cutting plan that included not replacing staff on temporary leaves, cutting travel costs, reducing training (there hasn't been any since last fall) and examining child placement to keep more in family settings and not more costly group homes, Cutler said.
The organization still anticipates spending $9.7-million to the end of next month, leaving the year's debt over half a million dollars even with the recent announcement.
vmacdonald@northumber landtoday.com
Law Amplifies Weak Case
February 13, 2010
Ron Unruh gives the latest news on the Bayne trial, with skillfully
chosen words.
Even a thin case can have the appearance of overwhelming and intimidating evidentiary value when it has been back lighted by a legislated power to remove children and hold on to them until a judicial ruling comes down. It has a perception of strength.
Expand for the whole article.
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Saturday, February 13, 2010
For Love and For Justice / Part 110 / Zabeth and Paul Bayne
The Best that Jensen Can Do
Even a thin case can have the appearance of overwhelming and intimidating evidentiary value when it has been back lighted by a legislated power to remove children and hold on to them until a judicial ruling comes down. It has a perception of strength.
In the case of Paul and Zabeth Bayne and three children, Kent, Baden and Bethany, that darkly sinister evidence becomes smaller and smaller as the lumens of the spotlight of truth and justice are ever intensified.
Finn Jensen may have developed his case believing that it was strong. He is certainly a competent lawyer. Even this far into the trial he may be convinced that he can win this. Sadly, that’s what litigation aims at, winning! If he is successful, what will MCFD win? It will win the entitlement to keep the children from Paul and Zabeth permanently. It will win the right to force each of these three children to live throughout their remaining childhood and youth with adoptive parents and never to see their birth parents again, until perhaps one day as adults they opt to make a connection that was severed willfully not by their parents or themselves but by a judge and a ministry of a government under which they live.
Here is the best that Finn Jensen, counsel for the Ministry of Children can do in court.
What kind of evidence do you consider the following testimony to be? Jensen called Mike and Elizabeth Hoffman, a pastor and wife from Hope, B.C. where the Baynes resided at the time that this story began. These couples were friends, sharing faith and worship. The Hoffmans reported to the police and to MCFD in 2007 and confirmed that report with testimony in the trial here in January 2010. Based upon what he had learned in seminary psychology classes Michael Hoffman believed that Zabeth was suffering from post-partum depression and that she had Munchausen's syndrome by proxy, an uncommon condition in which a person harms another in order to gain attention. Consider the nature of this hypothesis that would imply she might do harm to her children. Is that evidence? Hoffman is not a medical or psychiatric doctor. He is not an expert. I know because I have taken seminary psychology. Seminary pysch informs you enough to state an opinion but doesn’t qualify you to make an assessment that is entered as evidence that a woman is a risk to her children. This is specially true now that medical professionals were told in court that they could not state an opinion as to whether the Bayne baby's injuries were accidental or non-accidental. It is Jensen's folly not Hoffman's that this was entered as evidence in a court of law. Hoffman surmised, speculated, supposed, that Zabeth might be suffering from this condition. That is not evidence. Combine that with his wife's testimony and what does Jensen have? Elizabeth gave testimony that the two boys seemed small for their age and that the little girl started looking increasingly listless. Is that evidence? The children’s doctor was more aware than they and was satisfied with the children’s health status. This testimony is in the court transcript and in a CBC online story. Here is a sidelight. From a pastoral standpoint, since I pastored for four decades, I suggest that it would have been prudent and so much more in keeping with the calling of a shepherd to sit with Paul and Zabeth to talk, to inquire, to learn, to offer encouragement and to help and to pray. Perhaps there is even a plausible answer to the course the Hoffmans chose, but is this evidence?
Posted by Ron at 12:01 AM
Last week the court heard testimony from social worker Loren Humeny. Mr
Humeny based his opinion on six anonymous callers impugning the Baynes. In
his assessment that outweighed hundreds of persons who have openly supported
the Baynes.
In another post, Mr Unruh announces: Court has now recessed for one week
and will resume again on Monday the Feb 22 at 9:30 am. The next scheduled
witness is a radiologist and following his testimony social worker Kimberly
Grey is to appear most probably on Feb 23. That will conclude the MCFD's
witnesses.
Secret Death
February 12, 2010
In 2007 California enacted legislation providing for full disclosure in
cases of children who died while in the care of child protectors. Following
some embarrassing disclosures, Los Angeles DCFS has clamped down and refused
to disclose more cases to the press. They justify their actions under an
exception that, according to the law, may be invoked only by a district
attorney, not a social service agency.
Dufferin VOCA has long pointed out that disclosure laws applied to social
services agencies are futile, because foot dragging will render them
useless. California is a good example.
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L.A. County welfare agency refuses to release files on children's deaths
Director Trish Ploehn says a 2007 disclosure law unfairly 'denigrated' her department.
By Garrett Therolf, February 12, 2010 | 5:19 p.m.
Los Angeles County's embattled child welfare agency has clamped down on the release of information about 12 recent deaths among children who have passed through the child welfare system.
The decision follows a series of articles in The Times last year that detailed flawed casework. The cases prompted some reforms at the county's Department of Children and Family Services, including enhanced training for social workers.
But the state law that allowed much of the information to reach the public has been a source of discontent for Department of Children and Family Services Director Trish Ploehn. She has complained to a reporter that the law unfairly "denigrated" her department by placing such a harsh spotlight on the most tragic cases.
This week, she declined to release any records in the 12 most recent child deaths, invoking a provision of the law that allows prosecutors to keep parts of the records confidential during a criminal inquiry.
Among 31 deaths over the past two years that met the county's standard for abuse or neglect, Ploehn said she identified 18 cases in which social workers committed serious errors. The group of 12 cases now being withheld includes some of those cases.
Ploehn's decision had the strong support of at least one county supervisor.
David Sommers, a spokesman for Supervisor Don Knabe, said his boss "adamantly believes the personal and tragic details of a child's death should not be raked over by this newspaper. He stands behind the expert opinion of the county counsel, who says we are in full compliance with the law, and not the interpretation by lawyers and reporters representing the Los Angeles Times."
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed the law in 2007 to allow public access to information when a child dies of abuse or neglect.
The law's preamble stated: "Without accurate and complete information about the circumstances leading to the child's death, public debate is stymied and the reforms, if adopted at all, may do little to prevent further tragedies."
The law made an exception, however, for instances in which the district attorney states that information might jeopardize a criminal inquiry. Child welfare agencies across the state were ordered to redact such information before release.
William J. Grimm, an attorney for the Oakland-based National Center for Youth Law, which successfully lobbied for the law, said his agency regularly requests records from all of California's 58 counties. Two small counties have denied records on as broad a basis as Los Angeles.
"The law doesn't permit a blanket, across-the-board approach to entire cases," Grimm said. "It requires the D.A. to go into each case and not just redact everything but redact only those things that imperil an investigation. The sort of response you received in Los Angeles was not the intent nor was it justified by the text of the law."
In the cases of the most recent deaths, the agency said Dist. Atty. Steve Cooley's objections covered the entire files for four children, including basic details such as the victim's name. For the remaining eight cases, the agency said unidentified law enforcement agencies covered the entire files.
State law only extends the right to object in this way to the district attorney, but agency officials said they extended the privilege to law enforcement agencies under guidance from the California Department of Social Services.
District attorney's office spokeswoman Sandi Gibbons said she polled senior child abuse prosecutors but was unable to find anyone who knew of an objection. She recommended asking the agency for the name of the prosecutor who objected, but the agency's attorney, Katie Bowser, declined.
"We don't think we have to give you that," Bowser said.
garrett.therolf@latimes.com
Propaganda and Truth
February 12, 2010
Brant Children's Aid is pushing the I Am Your Children's Aid campaign. Following the promotional article,
we enclose a note showing their real action.
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Campaign boosts image of CAS
Posted February 12, 2010
A campaign aimed at brightening the public image of Children's Aid societies across Ontario is coming to Haldimand-Norfolk.
Called "I Am Your Children's Aid," it includes television and radio advertisements as well as posters.
The campaign features pictures of foster parents and former wards of the CAS who offer testimonials on how their lives were changed for the better thanks to the child welfare agency.
Janice Robinson, executive director of the Children's Aid Society of Haldimand-Norfolk, said her agency will make use of the posters.
"Research shows most people don't know what we do. They see us as an intervention agency," she said.
"We do prevention. We provide free public adoption -a lot of people don't know that."
The publicity campaign was two years in the making, but it comes to Haldimand-Norfolk at a time when public criticism of the agency is reaching a crescendo.
In recent months, angry parents upset with the local CAS have held placard-carrying protests and handed out flyers to the public. Last week, they held a public meeting in Delhi at which a guest speaker from an advocacy group called Canada Court Watch gave advice on what to do if you become a target of a CAS investigation.
They accuse CAS workers of high-handedness, manipulation, and lying in court proceedings.
In an interview, Robinson said having parents lash out verbally against a child welfare agency is nothing new.
"It's part of the territory, it's part of the job," she said.
"It's very stressful for people involved with us, we know that."
The agency seeks feedback from parents who have come into contact with them by asking them to fill out anonymous surveys, Robinson noted.
This couple has not given permission to use their names, so here it
is anonymously:
February 9 at 2:40am
After a lenghly battle with CAS, over 18 months of discrimination and jumping through their hoops. Today at court we were surprised to see a third judge. This judge listened to the CAS side for over an hour and then it was our turn. Wierd how paperwork goes missing from the continuing record when it favours the family. The judge stunned both my wife and myself by not allowing for paperwork that already should have been part of the record to be entered. The result we have lost another son to crown ward as of 5pm tonight. I'd like to thank all those who supported is through out the year.
In a later note, the authors gave permission to show their names.
— Rob Ferguson and Kalina Mallon
Politically Incorrect Family Destroyed
February 12, 2010
The two children of a Manitoba couple, victims of a shotgun divorce after
discovery of neo-Nazi behavior, have become wards of the province. Earlier
stories:
June 9, 2008 and
May 27, 2009.
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Foster care approved for kids in neo-Nazi case
Last Updated: Thursday, February 11, 2010 | 1:23 PM CT, CBC News
The Manitoba government has won permanent guardianship of two children whose parents were accused of teaching them neo-Nazi beliefs.
A Court of Queen's Bench judge has ordered that the boy and girl remain in the custody of Child and Family Services (CFS), which has placed them in foster care with a relative.
The court also dismissed a constitutional challenge from the father, who argued the government violated his right to raise the children according to his beliefs. He is the stepfather of the girl, now nine, and the biological father of the boy, now four years old.
To protect the identities of the children, no one involved in the case can be named.
The children were removed from their home in 2008 after the girl showed up at her elementary school with racist writings and symbols on her skin.
The government agency argued the children were emotionally harmed and were also being raised in squalor and suffering from neglect.
Girl described how to kill: social worker
During the trial of the custody issue last year, social workers testified the girl had said her parents hated people who were not white and talked of racial violence.
Social workers testified she used racial epithets to describe blacks, Asians, aboriginals and other minorities. One worker told the court the girl calmly described how black people could be killed with a ball and chain.
The father admitted to using Nazi salutes and telling the children that only white people belong in Canada. But he told the court his beliefs do not amount to racism and he never preached violence.
The mother, who now lives in another province, attended court infrequently, saying she could not afford the travel. In June, she testified that her estranged husband wasn't fit to be a parent, saying he was a heavy drinker and had been suicidal.
She also accused social workers of putting words in her daughter's mouth and said she never preached hatred to her children. The mother testified she wanted to co-operate with CFS officials in an effort to one day regain custody.
At one point, the mother appeared in court in shackles after being charged with a number of fraud-related crimes.
Appeals planned
In an email to CBC News on Thursday, the mother said she supported the decision not to grant custody to the father, but does not support a permanent order. She intends to appeal the decision.
"I deny any allegation of abandonment and will state that based on the judge's writings that she had made up her mind prior to the final arguments," she wrote.
"If she had paid attention to the evidence as opposed to [hearsay] from third parties speaking for a child that had no voice at the trial [and who were] never present in my home, then I believe her decision would be different.
"This is communism, state-sanctioned theft of children to punish their parents based solely on an alleged belief system. The social workers have stated that it is not their job to investigate the accusations through evidence, that [hearsay] is all that they need.
"Apparently the judge was in agreement with that. I am already working on my appeal."
The father's lawyer said they will review the judge's decision and plan an appeal. She described her client as being "very disappointed" with the verdict.
The father immediately loses any visitation rights with the children. Up until Thursday, he was allowed one supervised two-hour visit a week with them.
With files from The Canadian Press
Alice Daniels comments:
February 12, 2010
I find this decision extremely distasteful, and very upsetting. This
judge has now set a precedent where any child services can remove
children based on religion, and beliefs, it is a very slippery slope
this is.
I am very familiar with the case, and I have seen the apartment they say
was in squalor and that is a bunch of crap, there is no way it was in
that much of a disarray. You will always find something never mind how
big or small if you are the one looing to ensure that you find
something.
The mother has never preached violence to these children, the father may
have as I have had next to no contact with him, but I do agree that
he isnt in a position to parent the children but not because of
his belief's but because of his behaviour around alcohol and
other things.
I am thinking we are going to have to be extremely watchful over
the next few months to see how many other provinces child welfare
services jump on this band wagon and start kidnapping children based on
the parents beliefs.
Shhh
February 11, 2010
The Facebook fan page established
for friends of CAS to post their experiences has been abolished. During its
brief existence, it was overwhelmed by parents and children posting
criticism. CAS has decided it is best to silence its critics by abolishing
the forum.
Family Day Usurped
February 10, 2010
The Children's Aid Society of Ottawa is usurping Ontario's holiday
Family Day to promote foster care. The full press release is below.
John Dunn points out the significant paragraph.
[CAS] has ensured that the youth in care ... can be photographed and
interviewed. Proper consents have been obtained therefore the media will
not be in contravention of section 45 of the CFSA.
John Dunn says there is no exception under the law for consents. But
another way of looking at it suggests that once CAS has publicly taken the
position that consents are sufficient to contravene the law, they cannot
later seek to enjoin others from publishing names with consent, at least in
any forum recognizing the basics of law.
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"We Need Families" - Youth in Care hold press conference on Parliament Hill on Family Day
OTTAWA, Feb. 10 /CNW Telbec/ - Youth in Care use their voice and stand together to bring awareness to the need for foster families across Eastern Ontario. During the third annual Foster a Snow Angel event, youth in care are inviting the community to make angels on Parliament Hill. This emotionally charged event aims at bringing much needed attention to the number of children and youth in Eastern Ontario who need families.
Foster families and their children from Belleville to Cornwall, Pembroke to Brockville will be converging on Parliament Hill to demonstrate the need for foster families for children in the care of Children's Aid Societies in Eastern Ontario by making snow angels. Each snow angel represents a child or youth in care waiting for a family.
During their press conference the youth in care will speak of their personal experiences and will be introducing the special guests.
| When: | Day in Ontario
Monday, February 15, 2010
11:30 a.m.
| | Where: | Parliament Hill, Ottawa
The event will take place on both sides of
Centennial Flame before the steps
| | Special Guests: | Senator The Honourable Jim Munson
Sénateure Lucie Pépin
MP The Honourable Peter Milliken
MP Paul Dewar
Députée l'honorable Madeleine Meilleur
MPP Yasir Naqvi
Your Worship Larry O'Brien, Mayor of Ottawa
Clive Doucet, City Councillor
Jim Watson
| Photo ops & Interviews:
*
The Children's Aid Society of Ottawa has ensured that the youth in care who are participating in the press conference and those identified as spokespeople can be photographed and interviewed. Proper consents have been obtained therefore the media will not be in contravention of section 45 of the CFSA. France Clost of the Children's Aid Society of Ottawa Communications Office will assist the media with photo ops at the event. Should the media have questions regarding confidentiality requirements or the CFSA, please contact France Clost.
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For further information: Eastern Zone Children's Aid Societies: France Clost, Communications, The Children's Aid Society of Ottawa, (613) 747-7800 ex. 2033, (613) 513-8842 (mobile), http://www.casott.on.ca
Ride for Accountability
February 7, 2010
John Dunn has planned a Ride for Accountability of Children's Aid
Societies (RACAS) this summer. You can read the agenda in his announcement (pdf).
According to the enclosed letter, financial support has not been
adequate, and more is needed if the event is to proceed. Many readers of
this column have been reduced to penury by their encounter with children's
aid, but a few are able to afford a generous donation. Information for
donors is in the announcement.
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Saturday, February 06, 2010
Citizen Encourages Support for RACAS
A letter from a citizen in the community.
When the idea of a provincial ride for accountability was brought up, there seemed to be good support. But the facts suggest that there is a good possibility that this will have to be canceled. John has put himself out there in every way that he knows to in order to bring hope and some momentum to the issue of responsible accountability. What seem to be remiss is the fact that nothing will change unless we are all prepared to contribute or help to fund this project.
With respect for John he does not have the tenacity or the stomach to insist that he need financial support because he feels that he does not want to impose, moreover John is very cautious that he does not come across as being demanding for funds, because he knows how hard it is to find those extra dollars. I also recognize this fact...but the reality is, that such projects will not advance with out your support.
John is not aware that I am posting this message and he may not be pleased...but that's too bad. I have a question for all. Please respond with, either you intend to support this ride or not, if you can help raise some funds.
With all due respect your financial support is appreciated.
Sincerely,
Donald J. Lester
Posted by afterfostercare at 11:14 PM
You can read the financial status on the page Supporters - RACAS.
False Reports
February 6, 2010
Four Philadelphia social workers, Mickal Kamuvaka, founder of MultiEthnic
Behavioral Health Inc and employees Solomon Manamela, Julius Juma Murray and
Mariam Coulibaly are on trial for allowing Danieal Kelly to starve to death under their supervision.
Part-time co-worker Kim Cooke, not on trial, has testified in the case that,
on orders from Kamuvaka, she regularly falsified written reports.
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Ex-Phila. caseworker tells of false reports
By Nathan Gorenstein, Inquirer Staff Writer, Posted on Sat, Feb. 6, 2010
A former caseworker for MultiEthnic Behavioral Health Inc. testified yesterday that she regularly falsified reports about home visits that never happened, but said she was never explicitly told to do so.
Rather, supervisors said to "do what you have to do" to complete records required by the city, said Kim Cooke, a part-time employee at the agency that closed in 2006 after the death of Danieal Kelly, a 14-year-old who starved to death in her mother's home.
Four MultiEthnic employees, including two cofounders, are on trial in U.S. District Court, charged with falsifying records and destroying documents to hide that they failed to provide care for at-risk children, including Kelly, who had cerebral palsy.
Between 2000 and 2006, MultiEthnic was paid $3.7 million by Philadelphia to provide in-home social services for about 500 families.
Witnesses testified that the agency was effectively run by Mickal Kamuvaka, 60, who holds a doctorate in social work from the University of Pennsylvania.
When Department of Human Services officials scheduled an audit of agency files, Kamuvaka allegedly would call the staff members together and urge them to help each other fill out the required paperwork. "We are all in this together. . . . They can close us down," Kamuvaka said, according to Cooke.
Did you create false records? asked Assistant U.S. Attorney Bea Witzleben. "Yes," said Cooke.
On cross-examination, Kamuvaka's defense attorney, William Cannon, asked Cooke, "Did anyone say to create a document?"
"Not like that," replied Cooke. "To me, it felt like you had to do what you had to do, you had to fill in the file."
She said one defendant, Solomon Manamela, told her to do what was "necessary" when he learned that Cooke had not made all of the required home visits. Manamela, 52, is also a MultiEthnic cofounder.
"He never asked me specifically," she said, but said, "do what you need to do."
"I started out as a good social worker," said Cooke. "I wasn't so good a worker at the end. You just got tired and burned out. . . . Paperwork-wise, no, I don't think I was a good worker."
Cooke said she was working three jobs at the time - one with the Philadelphia School District, one with another social-services agency, and 15 hours a week at MultiEthnic. When she could not visit a home, she said, she typically would contact the family members by telephone and quiz them.
Yolanda Carr, a receptionist and typist, said she worked 24 hours straight typing up quarterly reports in preparation for DHS audits that occurred about once a year.
Another former employee, Blendenna Carter, was hired as a receptionist and later promoted to caseworker, but said she received "not much" of the supervision promised by Kamuvaka. In the office, Kamuvaka "would be grading papers" for a teaching job at a local college, Carter said.
Once, Kamuvaka had her forge another employee's signature, Carter said. "She told me to practice, because I didn't write like that," she said.
Cooke said some documents bearing her signature were signed by someone else. Looking at a report from May 2006, she said the signature was not her own. "No, I write more loopy," she said.
Contact staff writer Nathan Gorenstein at 215-854-2797 or ngorenstein@phillynews.com.
Don't think this is an isolated case. A Florida story shows that the
practice of falsifying records is endemic.
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Falsifications bring change in child abuse cases
By JOSH POLTILOVE, jpoltilove@tampatrib.com, Published: February 7, 2010
TAMPA - The resignation of a child protection investigator accused of falsifying documents has prompted changes in how the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office handles child abuse cases.
An internal affairs probe found that investigator Heather Stokes falsified and/or fabricated 25 investigations, seven of them completely.
Stokes said she made up details and forged signatures on one investigation because she was "overwhelmed" with cases, according to an internal affairs report. The seven-year veteran resigned a day after being confronted by investigators.
Stokes was one of two child protection investigators to resign since April after being accused of falsifying documents.
No children or families were harmed as a result of any of the fabrications, according to documents obtained by The Tampa Tribune.
But every child protection investigator must now photograph the child at the child's home, and that information goes in a case file, sheriff's spokesman Larry McKinnon said Friday.
Supervisors also now are tasked with randomly reviewing cases and making 25 to 30 quality assurance checks each month; investigators aren't alerted beforehand to which families will be contacted.
"We're imperfect," McKinnon said. "We try to police our own. And when we find errors, we're going to obviously try to correct them."
He said there's no indication of a deeper problem with the department's child protection services.
The sheriff's office assumed responsibility for child abuse investigations less than 10 years ago after state Department of Children & Families employees were accused of shocking shortcomings, including falsifying records.
The sheriff's office has about 85 child protection investigators and handles roughly 1,100 cases a month.
McKinnon said investigators' caseloads should not be considered overwhelming, despite the recent misdeeds.
"There's no excuse for inappropriate behavior, regardless of whether you're overworked or not," he said.
Not just a local issue
Investigators falsifying records isn't just a local concern. In a two-year stretch, more than 70 child welfare workers in Florida were caught lying about their efforts to protect children, according to an Orlando Sentinel report in July.
When questioned, those workers generally complained they had too many cases.
The internal affairs probe of Stokes revealed that in one case she fabricated what she documented concerning visiting a family on four occasions. The mother told investigators she had never met Stokes, or signed a child safety plan or a consent form for medical treatment.
Stokes admitted she had never visited the mother, father, children or home, saying she was "overwhelmed with her cases," the report states. She also said she forged the signatures of the mother and father.
Field training officers were assigned to audit Stokes' 59 cases from December 2008 through April, and found seven to be completely fabricated.
The internal affairs report does not identify the families involved.
Taking her medicine
Stokes resigned in April.
The sheriff's office forwarded its findings to the state attorney's office.
Stokes avoided criminal charges by entering a pretrial diversion program. She performed more than 200 hours of community service, said her attorney, Fred Carrington.
"Heather took her medicine, lost her job, her career and moved on with her life," Carrington said.
Another child protection investigator, Jerimee Joyner, resigned in June after nearly three years with the sheriff's office.
A colleague who was straightening documents on Joyner's desk found a piece of paper bearing the signature of Joyner's supervisor that had been taped to a form, a report states.
Joyner told investigators he didn't realize the form could be considered a falsified document. He said his supervisor wasn't available to sign the form, so "what I did was I kind of just made the forms and put them in the file so I could close the file."
Reporter Josh Poltilove can be reached at (813) 259-7691.
Addendum: After Danieal Kelly died, social workers
engaged in an orgy of document falsification.
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Posted on Tue, Feb. 9, 2010
Ex-caseworker says she faked documents after girl’s death
By Nathan Gorenstein, INQUIRER STAFF WRITER
Within hours of 14-year-old Danieal Kelly's death, officials at the social services company responsible for her safety were rushing to produce back-dated paperwork, an effort that apparently included forging the signature of the teen's mother on a form, according to testimony today in federal court.
Written on the day of Kelly's death, Aug. 4, 2006, the document was an "encounter" form recording a home visit that had actually occurred months earlier.
Kelly suffered from cerebral palsy and lived in a West Philadelphia household with seven other siblings. She died, covered in bedsores, of starvation. Her family was under the supervision of the city's Department of Human Services, which subcontracted the work to now-defunct MultiEthnic Behavioral Health Inc.
After Danieal's death, nine MultiEthnic employees were charged with billing the city for services they never provided to her and other children, and with fabricating and destroying subpoenaed documents. Five have pleaded guilty, and four are on trial in U.S. District Court.
Today, Christiana Nimpson, a former MultiEthnic caseworker, said that she filled out the encounter form on the day of Danieal's death at the request of agency co-founder Mickal Kamuvaka - and that she left the "recipient signature" line blank.
Officials were rushing to complete required paperwork for the family's file, which DHS was demanding.
Nimpson said that after she completed the form, either Kamuvaka or a Solomon Manamela, another supervisor, asked her to also sign the name of Danieal's mother, Andrea Kelly. Both supervisors are among the four on trial.
Nimpson said she refused, testifying, "I thought it wasn't right."
Under questioning by Assistant U.S. Attorney Bea Witzleben, Nimpson said she could not recall which of the two supervisors made the request.
The form - bearing a signature reading Andrea Kelly - was entered into evidence. Nimpson's testimony was not challenged by defense attorneys, and exactly how the form came to be signed, and who signed it, was not answered.
Nimpson also said that on 10 occasions, Kamuvaka asked her to go through other caseworkers' files and fabricate missing reports. She said Manamella asked her to do the same thing five times over the course of her four years with the agency.
Previous witnesses have testified that MultiEthnic managers worried that incomplete files would threaten the agency's contract with the city's Department of Human Services.
To generate data for the forms, Nimpson said she sometimes called the families who were supposed to have been visited by other caseworkers. She also sometimes fabricated her own "progress notes" because she did not have time to make the required visits.
Nimpson said she earned about $28,000 a year, and like other caseworkers who have testified, said she worked two or three jobs.
Nimpson said she did visit the Kelly household in late May or early June to teach Andrea Kelly parenting skills, and was accompanied by the family's caseworker, Julius Juma Murray. Nimpson said she spoke to the mother on the porch and waited outside while Murray entered the home.
Andrea Kelly later received a 30-year prison sentence for her role in Danieal's death.
Contact staff writer Nathan Gorenstein at 215-854-4797 or ngorenstein@phillynews.com.
Family Purgatory
February 6, 2010
The Kelley family in Nebraska lost three children to child protection in
2001. Though it quickly became apparent that there was nothing wrong with
the parents, the child protectors stalled for eight years before restoring
the family. There is nothing unusual about this case, it could be a model
for typical CPS intervention in a family. The only thing different is that
the press is willing to report the story.
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Family divided 9 years takes on the system
By Martha Stoddard, Published: Friday, February 5, 2010 4:13 AM CST, World-Herald News Service
LINCOLN - Lincoln police found Anthony and Arva Kelley's preschooler and two toddlers home alone one February night.
The house was "disorderly," with standing water in the bathtub, fecal matter on one bedroom wall and soiled diapers on the floor, an affidavit stated.
When no adults had returned within an hour, police took the children into state custody.
State officials were to keep the three children for the next nine years, even though the Kelleys eventually had four more children, none of whom was ever removed from the home or judged to be at risk.
And even though repeated reports said the three oldest children would be safe with their parents.
And even after top child welfare officials apologized to the parents because the case had gone on so long.
Now all seven Kelleys are suing the state. The parents and children seek damages, alleging that they were denied their constitutional right to family integrity.
The suit, which is expected to be filed today in Douglas County District Court, also alleges violations of the family's due process and equal protection rights.
The right to family integrity claim, more common in other states, has been made in only two other Nebraska cases, said Amy Geren of Omaha, the Kelleys' attorney.
The claim's success depends on showing that the only thing standing in the way of family reunification was the state's ineptness, Geren said.
"We're talking about a decade of serious interference with their fundamental rights," said Amy Williams, a law clerk in Geren's firm. "That family will never recover."
The list of defendants includes the State of Nebraska, the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services, several current and former HHS employees and the children's former guardian ad litem.
Geren and Williams said they took the case because they were concerned about what they said were systemic problems with Nebraska's child welfare system.
"We're both really tired of seeing how the department (HHS) screws up families," Geren said. "You can only turn your back on that so many times and say, 'It's just that case.'"
The suit seeks general and specific damages, but the Kelleys say money is not their objective.
"It's about doing the right thing, folks," Arva Kelley said in an interview Thursday. "You can't just play with people's lives."
The Kelley's story began Feb. 12, 2000, when Lincoln police responded to a "check welfare" call at the Kelley home, according to the complaint and to other court documents.
Police arrived at 11 p.m. An hour later, they removed the children, then ages 4, 2 and 1.
The children remained state wards until last April, when the Lancaster County Juvenile Court returned custody to the Kelleys.
During the intervening years, according to court documents:
The court ordered the parents to meet requirements to get the three children back, but the requirements kept changing.
The case goals shifted, from family reunification, to guardianship by the foster parents, to termination of parental rights, to guardianship by the four sets of grandparents.
The family dealt with 11 caseworkers and four HHS supervisors.
Anthony Kelley was repeatedly ordered to undergo psychological evaluations.
He also was required to get substance abuse treatment, even though no allegations of alcohol use or abuse were included in the initial allegations against him.
He ran into months of waiting lists and Medicaid funding problems when he tried to get into local outpatient treatment programs.
He went to a private therapist only to have the court say he was in the wrong type of treatment. He had to start over.
He finally completed an outpatient substance abuse program with Lutheran Family Services in July 2002. But when he was unable to pay his bill, the agency withheld his documentation and the court refused to credit him with completing the program.
He tried to go through inpatient treatment, but two programs said it was not warranted for his level of alcohol use.
In 2005, Anthony Kelley finally obtained the certificate of completion for the outpatient program. But that wasn't enough for HHS or the court, which ordered still more evaluations.
The children had regular visits with the parents, including overnight visits during some periods.
In 2001, the court, on a recommendation by HHS, stopped overnight visits for Anthony Kelley because the couple had not completed weekly "visitation logs." The visits later were resumed.
In 2002, HHS staff raised concerns about the couple not having driver's licenses or a car large enough for all their children.
Over the years, reports from various parties said the children would be safe with their parents.
The children's foster parent said in May 2000 that the children belonged with their parents.
In May 2005, an HHS case worker reported that the "issues that led to the initial removal ... have been alleviated."
In 2006 - six years after the children were removed - the Foster Care Review Board recommended reunification, saying:
"Case manager turnover, changes in visitation schedules and in the permanency objective being sought appear to have been more detrimental to the children than if reunification had occurred at some point in the past."
The review board also noted that while the parents had not been consistent in participating in services, "progress has been made and no significant safety concerns have ever been reported."
Nearly a year earlier, according to the lawsuit, then-HHS administrator Nancy Montanez told the Kelleys that their children should be at home but that the department could not move them for legal reasons.
At a meeting in July 2005, then-HHS administrators Todd Reckling and Chris Peterson met with the Kelleys and apologized that the case was taking so long.
But in May 2006, according to the lawsuit, HHS staff told the Kelleys that they would lose custody of all their children if they did not agree to the grandparents becoming guardians of the three oldest.
The Kelleys eventually hired a new attorney, and the children were placed back in the home in November 2008. By then, the preschooler was 13 years old and her two brothers - toddlers when removed - were 11 and 9.
State involvement ended last April.
James Holt of Omaha, a therapist who worked with the family, said in an interview that the Kelley parents and children suffered psychologically because of the separation. One of the children was hospitalized in 2006 for severe emotional distress, according to the lawsuit.
"The children definitely have feelings of abandonment," Holt said. "The system divided and conquered."
The Kelleys now live in South Carolina, near both sets of grandparents.
Anthony Kelley said the youngsters are doing well, for the most part.
"Basically, we're still trying to catch up for lost time, though some things you can't catch up on," he said. "We're just blessed to have them."
Vern Beck Speaks on CAS
February 5, 2010
Thursday Vern Beck addressed a group in Simcoe Ontario on the abuses
committed by Ontario's children's aid societies. This is the meeting announced earlier.
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Against the CAS system
Posted By DANIEL PEARCE, SIMCOE REFORMER, Posted February 5, 2010
Judges altering court transcripts. Kids being beaten in foster homes. Children's aid workers lying on the witness stand.
Coercion, collusion, trickery -- it's all part of what Ontarians have experienced while dealing with Children's Aid Societies, a family advocacy group said here Thursday night.
"It's a real mess," said Vern Beck, a volunteer with Canada Court Watch. "The system is corrupt and you have to know how to fight back."
More than 40 people, most of them with their own stories of dealing with CAS, listened as the Oakville resident gave a power point presentation warning of what to do when child protection workers come calling.
His organization advocates on behalf of families, and its research has revealed a litany of problems with CAS agencies, he said.
"Corruption, cover ups, and abuse of children and families is a reality."
Beck explained how parents are disadvantaged from the start. They are asked to come to court to get their kids back with as little as one day's notice. They're not prepared, can't afford a lawyer and usually lose the first case, he said.
Investigations by his group, said Beck, suggest CAS workers "fabricate evidence -- that's how they build cases," while other professionals, including doctors, say what the CAS wants them to.
"Transcripts are being altered by judges and court reporters," he added.
The way to protect yourself, Beck said, is to secretly tape record all conversations with child protection workers.
"If you expect to deal with them, it is one of the most important tools you can get to defend yourself . . . I cannot emphasize enough the importance of electronic recording equipment."
Tape-recorded conversations have caught CAS workers in lies, he said, and allowed people to get children back.
Child agencies are out to apprehend kids because they get money from the government for every child they have in care, Beck explained.
"A CAS is a private company," he said.
Beck also warned against voluntarily getting involved with them.
"Once they have your consent, they'll put you through endless hoops: drug tests, parenting courses. It'll drag on for one or two years, sometimes longer."
In interviews with the Reformer, the people who gathered in the basement of the Polish Hall said they came to get more information on how to help themselves.
One woman said every time a worker visits, she is made to strip down her baby son, hold him up and "spin him around" so they can see if he has any bruises.
Another woman said she was in foster care her entire childhood and now as a mother has lost her two children to the CAS.
"I'm trying to figure out how to get them back," she said.
A man in his 20s said the meeting was too late for him: his four-year-old son is now a Crown Ward and he'll never get him back.
"They never gave me a chance (to raise him) on my own," he said. "They made me sign all my rights away."
Daniel Pearce
519-426-3528 ext. 132 dpearce@bowesnet.com
Foster Parent of the Year
February 5, 2010
Foster dad Garry Prokopishin is the cream of the crop, a director for the
Calgary & District Foster Parents Association once honored as “Foster
Parent of the Year”. Yesterday he was charged with a long list of
sex-crimes against his wards. Details in the story suggest that for twenty
years he kept teenaged foster boys in his home to satisfy his unnatural
lust. Now if he is the best foster parent ...
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Foster dad facing sex charges
By NADIA MOHARIB, QMI Agency
The Calgary house believed to be the home of a man charged with sex-related charges against minors.
STUART DRYDEN/QMI AGENCY
CALGARY -- Police accuse a Calgary man once named “Foster Parent of the Year” with numerous sex-related offences spanning several years.
As the disturbing allegations were revealed Thursday, those who know the 51-year-old long-time foster parent say they cannot believe the man they know as a pillar of the community could be guilty of engaging in sex acts with underage boys.
Garry Prokopishin, a director for the Calgary & District Foster Parents Association, is charged with luring a child via a data device, three counts of obtaining or attempting to obtain sex from a person under age 18 and sexual contact with a youth by a person in authority.
Police allege he offered cash in exchange for sex acts.
They also said they found evidence of inappropriate cell phone camera images.
The charges stem from an investigation started by child abuse detectives last summer after an agency, who they would not disclose, contacted them with concerns about the foster home in Beddington where Prokopishin and his wife took in high-risk youth, police spokesman Kevin Brookwell said.
“These are kids who have had some trouble with the law and issues with substance abuse they were working through,” Brookwell said.
Prokopishin was the primary care-giver for his three alleged victims, police said.
Police tracked down 13 of 55 foster children, all boys ranging from age 14 to 17, who lived in the home over the past 20 years as part of the investigation.
They still want to track down the other individuals fostered in the home over the years.
“Our investigators have literally travelled from one end of the country to the other to try to talk to these kids,” Brookwell said.
“There is the potential there could be other victims.”
The alleged offences happened between January 2006 and April of 2008.
The operation was shut down immediately after the investigation began.
Children and Youth Services Minister Yvonne Fritz learned of the charges Thursday and ordered an investigation into the case, spokesman Trevor Coulombe said.
“She wants to know what occurred from A to Z and wants the report in her hands as soon as possible,” he said.
Joanne Atkinson, general manager at a Royal Canadian Legion branch where Prokopishin worked in the dining room for the past 20 years, said she is shocked by the charges.
“I would find it hard to believe,” she said.
“Garry is a nice man.”
While many fellow foster parents are also incredulous there could be any merit to the allegations, Brookwell said the investigation was exhaustive, involving interviews with youth fostered in the home, friends and associates to garner “corroborating evidence” before charges were laid.
Prokopishin is out on $800 bail.
— with files from Bill Kaufmann and Kevin Martin
Another newspaper, the Calgary Herald, supplied a photo of Garry
Prokopishin.
Addendum: Lawyer Robert P Lee, who has spent years suing on
behalf of abused Alberta foster children, comments on the arrest.
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Critic says foster care system chronically dysfunctional
By NADIA MOHARIB, Calgary Sun, Last Updated: 5th February 2010, 6:30pm
On the heels sex-related charges against a Calgary foster parent, other victims of abuse in such care say they’re outraged problems within the system are never addressed.
Edmonton lawyer Robert Lee represents about 300 people abused in foster care and for the past seven years has had a class action suit against the Alberta government seeking compensation for the victims.
Disturbed by sex-abuse charges this week laid against a longtime foster parent Garry Prokopishin for alleged incidents with three male youth in his care, Lee said he’s also disappointed to hear provincial authorities once again vowing to deal with chronic issues within the system.
He said the system struggles with “well-meaning welfare workers trying to do their best with kids,” but hampered by heavy workloads.
And while the top issue is abuse — with countless cases where children’s complaints are not believed — it is followed by neglect, where they simply fall through cracks in the system, said Lee.
“There have been numerous reviews of the child welfare system over the last thirty years and unfortunately, those recommendations are not implemented,” he said.
This week, Calgarian Prokopishin, was charged with offering teens in his care money in exchange for sexual acts.
Police said the 51-year-old and his wife cared for 55 male youth over 20 years at their Beddington home.
Investigators interviewed 13 out of 55 former foster children before charging Prokopishin with luring a child by cellphone, three counts of obtaining or attempting to obtain sex from a person under 18 years of age and sexual contact with a youth by a person in authority.
Newly-minted Children and Youth Services Minister Yvonne Fritz announced a review of that case on Thursday, the same day police went public with the charges.
Friday, she stressed the review is not of the “entire foster-care system,” but rather the Calgary case to see whether policies and procedures were followed.
“It is focusing on this particular situation,” she said.
“It is an internal review and if changes are necessary I will make those changes immediately.”
Fritz also defended the foster-care system.
“We have very strong foster-care and very stringent screening process,” she said.
There are about 4,600 youth in foster care in Alberta.
The bulk have been abused or neglected and end up in care when guardians are unable or unwilling to look after them.
nadia.moharib@sunmedia.ca
Participate in a Documentary
February 4, 2010
Mary Janiga is in touch with a film maker interested in doing a
documentary on children's aid societies of Ontario. You can help by sending
your story (single paragraph, no long tales) to Mary at her email address in
the expand block. For an example of how effective a documentary can be,
watch Innocence Destroyed by Bill Bowen, on YouTube:
[1]
[2]
[3]
or local copies:
[1]
[2]
[3] all flv.
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Wednesday, February 03, 2010
ACCOUNTABILITY and ACTION
I am presently speaking with colleagues and associates within this Children’s Aid Society cause(if that’s what you would call it) and have been approached to provide documented evidence and proof of alleged abuses within the CAS system of Ontario.
Can I provide case scenarios and victim’s names of their side of the story of CAS’ victimization within their lives, giving them their own voice that they need to give?
I have many stories of the victimization of the Children’s Aid Society against families.
This can only be done through the producing of a documentary television movie here in Ontario. This is being proposed and researched right now.
If you would like to be a part of this ground-breaking documentary and information movie please contact me via email at maryjaniga@hotmail.com with a one paragraph or less (Not a full page) about your “CAS Horror story” along with contact information such as phone number, address and your permission for me to pass on your information to the producer and director of this movie, it would be greatly appreciated.
I will be meeting with my associates in the coming weeks so it would be good to go with 50 – 100 stories instead of just a few of the many stories that must be told. This is our chance to get the accountability we so deserve in our fight against the Children’s Aid Society.
Thank you for your support!!
Voices of Innocent Families
February 4, 2010
Radio station CHCD-FM (CD 98.9) in Simcoe Ontario reports Brian Caldwell
is leading a group opposing children's aid.
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Norfolk County : Group Voicing Out Against Children's Aid Society
Posted by Adam Liefl,
A local group advocating for the creation of a governing body to look into operations at the Children's Aid Society is looking to help locals know their rights through an information session. "Voices of Innocent Families" member, Brian Caldwell, says until the government passes a Bill that would see outside policing of the activities at the Children's Aid Society, he will keep working to educate the public on their rights. Among those, Caldwell says, is the right to electronically record any court proceedings and meetings with CAS workers. Meanwhile Executive Director of the Children's Aid Society of Haldimand and Norfolk, Janice Robinson, said in a statement that the organization supports the right of individuals to register their complaints regarding services to them directly, through a formal complaint process or to the Child and Family Services Review Board. Robinson understands Court Watch to be an advocacy group who are currently working with parents to develop strategies for recording information when they are involved with CAS. Meanwhile, Caldwell says 9 our of 10 children in the care of the CAS should not be there, and claims the organization is abusing parents' rights and simply walking out the door with their kids. Robinson says the organization is always interested in providing services to their families and children within a respectful relationship. HNCAS was not invited to the meeting and have not been asked to participate. The "Voices of Innocent Families" information session is scheduled for tomorrow night at 7pm at the Delhi Polish Hall with a guest speaker coming from Canada Court Watch.
on 2010/2/3 12:32:49
Jilted
February 3, 2010
When lesbians Taylar Nuevelle and Janet Albert broke off their
relationship, Taylar got even by stalking Janet, going so far as to file a
false claim with child protective services saying that Janet abused her
young son.
For ordinary people, CPS would spend months or years harassing Janet.
But this time it was different. Janet was a Washington DC judge, and Taylar
has been convicted of stalking.
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Taylar Nuevelle was convicted on Tuesday, February 2, 2010 of stalking Judge Janet Albert.
Woman Found Guilty of Stalking DC Judge
Updated: Tuesday, 02 Feb 2010, 6:43 PM EST, Published : Tuesday, 02 Feb 2010, 6:41 PM EST, By PAUL WAGNER/myfoxdc
A D.C. woman has been convicted of stalking a magistrate judge following a week long trial in D.C. Superior Court. Guilty verdicts were returned Tuesday against Taylar Nuevelle, who had also been charged with burglary and unlawful entry.
The trouble began in 2008 when the judge ended a romantic relationship with the defendant.
What followed, prosecutors say, was a series of actions designed to destroy the judge’s life.
The testimony showed Taylar Nuevelle was furious with Judge Janet Albert for ending their year long relationship.
So much so investigators say she waged a campaign to torment and frighten the judge, bombarding her with emails, text messages and phone calls. She even filed lawsuits and a claim of judicial misconduct.
After the verdicts were read, Taylar Nuevelle was taken into custody and ordered held without bond until she is sentenced in April. She faces up to 15 years in prison.
The 40-year-old consultant to non-profits was convicted despite taking the stand in her own defense. Claiming the emails, texts and phone calls were all about getting her property back-- clothes and other items she had left at the judge’s house.
But the prosecutor said it was much more sinister than that. Nuevelle, the prosecutor said, waged a campaign of harassment, going as far as to call Child Protective Services and make two unfounded claims against Janet Albert. The judge has a young son.
Taylar Nuevelle was found unconscious in the attic of the judge’s Northwest D.C. home two days after their breakup.
Oshawa Rally
February 3, 2010
A rally in support of bill 93, providing for provincial ombudsman oversight
of children's aid, has been scheduled for Friday afternoon March 19 in Oshawa Ontario.
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Rally at Memorial Park to Support Bill 93 (Oversight of CAS)
| Type: | Causes - Rally
| | Network: | Global
| | Date: | Friday, March 19, 2010
| | Time: | 2:00pm - 5:00pm
| | Location: | Memorial Park - Simcoe and John Streets (Oshawa)
|
Description
This rally is to raise awareness and promote support of Bill 93 to amend the Ombudsman Act to include independent oversight of the Children's Aid Society.
Please come and show your support!!
Matthew Reid Inquest
February 2, 2010
Testimony has started in the inquest into the death of Matthew Reid,
smothered to death by a fourteen-year-old foster girl in 2005. It may be
more of a cover-up than public disclosure, since publication of names has
been banned. The first day's testimony showed that Reid had been molested
earlier by a different foster girl.
Because of the volume of continuing articles on this inquest, the news
has been moved to a separate page for Matthew
Reid. Woman Chases Off Social Worker
February 1, 2010
Two Kentucky social workers were stalking when Brigette Howard, who was
not their target, chased them away at gunpoint.
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Recent incident stresses need for social worker safety
Posted January 27, 2010, By Becky Graham, Posted by Sarah Harlan
HENDERSON CO., KY (WFIE) - It was a scary moment for some social workers in Henderson.
Sheriff's deputies said a woman with a gun chased them.
The woman, 50-year-old Brigette Howard, has been arrested, but the incident does bring up the issue of social worker safety.
In 2006, Boni Frederick proved social work was a deadly profession.
The Union County woman was brutally murdered while on duty.
Months later, Kentucky passed the Boni Frederick Memorial Bill, which promised to improve the safety of her peers, but one recent incident has Henderson officers wondering if social workers are in fact any safer.
Henderson social workers know the protocol. If they feel uneasy about a house call, immediately call for back up.
"Their job is absolutely dangerous and they have to take every precaution they can take because they're not in the position we're in," Col. David Crafton with the Henderson County Sheriff's Office said. "They're not armed."
Tuesday, two Henderson social workers did just that.
Deputies said Ashlee Alexander and Rhonda Hagan pulled over in front of a house on Kentucky 416 to wait for law enforcement to assist them on a visit, but before they got there, the unexpected happened.
"They were near a house that belonged to Ms. Brigette Howard," Crafton said. "Ms. Howard came out of the house and came toward the social workers with a rifle. The social workers then drove away."
Col. Crafton said Howard kept chasing the car on foot with the gun.
When the driver stopped the car, the women said they showed Howard their social services I.D.s and told her they weren't coming to see her, but they said she wouldn't put away the gun.
"They had to put it in drive and drive rapidly past her," Crafton said. "She was blocking the way."
Howard was arrested, but a Henderson Police officer wants to know where the additional protection promised to these men and women by Boni's Bill is.
"I think they are fine if they are expecting danger, but it's when they get to these locations and there is something they're not anticipating," Sgt. John Nevels with the Henderson Police Department said.
The complaint is being echoed statewide.
Kentucky lawmaker Tom Burch, who introduced Boni's Bill, said only $2 million of the $6 million allocated for extra protection for social workers materialized, and that money was spent poorly.
Burch said he wants to introduce a new Boni's Bill.
"I've often thought they outta have some sort of panic button or alarm or something like that just in case they get in a situation like Ms. Frederick was," Nevels said.
14 News contacted the Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services and they said great changes come from Boni's Bill, including more training for their employees.
Lawsuit Against Phony Doctor Carter
February 1, 2010
Greg Carter, a Whitby psychologist, has been
arrested for fraud, obstructing justice and perjury. If you have been
affected by this man please call David Bulmer at 905-263-4127. David has a
lawyer in Toronto who is putting together a class action suit. David has
been gathering evidence for the last eleven months and went to the Ontario
College of Psychologists and the Durham Regional Police in November 2009
with his information. The Police investigated for two months verifying his
information before charging Mr Carter. They are requesting any other
victims of this man's testimony in custody cases contact them.
Burned at the Stake
January 31, 2010
Child Protective Services in Michigan placed Calista for adoption with
Marsha and Anthony Springer. This week CPS investigator Patricia Skelding
testified that before Calista's adoption was complete, CPS knew about the
Springers' practice of chaining the girl to a bed. CPS ignored the abuse
and finalized the adoption. Four years later sixteen-year-old Calista
Springer was incinerated in a fire while chained to her bed.
Though there is no chance of real accountability, CPS is clearly
responsible for the death of this child.
A news article is enclosed below. The corroborating testimony of Marilyn
Lafler is on YouTube or our local copy (flv).
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Day Three in Springer murder Trial: CPS worker testifies the county knew Calista was chained in '04
Thu January 28, 2010
KALAMAZOO--Shocking testimony revealed today in the murder trial of Calista Springer.
According to a former Child Protective Services investigator of 18 years, Patricia Skelding, St. Joseph County was aware that Calista was being chained to her bed before they closed the case back in 2004.
During the investigation into those allegations of abuse in the Springer home Calista had reported that she was being restrained to her bed by a chain.
“I believed and trusted the people in my office and community mental health that they knew what they were doing when they diagnosed her and that the overall end was that she needed to be protected, she needed to be safe, and she needed to be restrained and that the parents couldn’t be up 24 hours a day supervising her,” said Skelding.
“And so it was accepted that everyone knew that and so during my investigation when my supervisor handed me the referral she didn’t say anything about the part of Calista being chained to her bed, as if we’d already known that.”
Skelding became involved in the case after allegations surfaced that Calista reported she was not only restrained to her bed but was also being under fed, unable to use the restroom at night, forced to clean her mess if she did soil the mattress and even claimed her mother had once awaken her after she fell asleep while reading by pulling her hair with such force that it left a bald spot.
These claims were later found to be unsubstantiated and the case was closed.
The trial continued into the afternoon, hearing testimony from Calista’s teachers and educational professionals indicating that she was performing at grade level, despite being two years older than most of the students in her grade.
Several witnesses portrayed Calista as a quiet child, somewhat introverted, but eager to please and be praised. There was testimony that although there were some behavioral issues, mostly regarding petty theft or touching other student’s items, nothing was highly abnormal for a child her age at that time.
In regards to the stealing, Calista’s 5th grade English and social studies teacher, Stacy Sheehan, indicated that she was both open and honest about her wrongdoings when confronted and was “very willing to give items back.”
The prosecution seemed to end the day on a high note with the introduction of a 6th grade writing assignment of Calista’s from 2005. Peggy Roach, a 6th grade teacher at Centerville Elementary, testified that as part of the first day of class she gives her students five minutes to write a journal entry about themselves, telling the students that it would only be seen by her.
Calista wrote the following to Roach:
“I have a problem with stealing and lying. My birthday is May 22. I live in the Vincent house across the courthouse and diagonal to the Baptist church. I have a relative that was in your homeroom. I have two sisters, Courtney and Heather, two cats and a dog.”
To which, Roach responded, “who’s your relative who’s in my homeroom. Thank you for being honest about stealing and telling lies. That is the first step to working on your problem. If you need to talk to someone let me know.”
Calista responded, “…I have problems with my family and I miss my old school. I’m tired of my family and I feel like doing these things; runaway, kill myself and hide, throw all the boys out of the school except TJ and Josh. I cannot stand my family at all. I need some time alone from my family. I need to talk to someone. I want to get out of this prison at home. I want to be free instead of being in a prison. I want to be free as possible like any other teenager.”
It was this response which may have been very telling of her state of mind back in 2005.
Testimony will continue tomorrow as Calista’s closest friends are expected to take the stand.
Please Don't Feed the CAS
January 30, 2010
Simcoe County CAS, based in Barrie, has gone hat-in-hand begging for a
$10,000 loan from the town of Collingwood to get through its financial difficulties. Attila Vinczer
[1]
[2]
has written a letter to Collingwood
(pdf) urging them to refuse the loan. Another document contains the
referenced working paper by the Family
Justice Review Committee (pdf). Even better than refusing the loan
would be for Collingwood to insist on improvements within Children's Aid as
a condition for financial support.
Addendum: According to Attila Vinczer, on February
1 Collingwood voted against funding CAS. CFSA Submissions
January 30, 2010
The Ministry of Children and Youth Services will conduct a
five-year-review of the Child and Family Services Act as required by law.
In December the Ministry solicited
comments to be delivered by the end of January. Here are two submitted
comments, one by Canada Court Watch
(pdf), the other by Robert T McQuaid in the expand block.
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January 29, 2010
Laurl Broten
Minister of Children and Youth Services
Child and Family Services Act Review
email: CFSAreview@Ontario.ca
Subject: Five year review of the child and family services act
Honorable Minister:
The Child and Family Services Act (section 224) provides for a periodic
review of its operation. By web posting you have invited email comments.
Last February Irwin Elman, Ontario's Provincial Advocate for Children
and Youth, stated that 90 children had died in one year in the care of
Ontario's Children's Aid Societies. In a rebuttal a few days later the
Ontario Association of Children's Aid Societies pointed out errors in Mr
Elman's assessment, stating that children's aid society involvement in
some of the children occurred only after their deaths, so that only 53
died in the care of children's aid. Depending on which set of numbers you
use, the death rate in foster care is seventeen or only ten higher than
the death rate in the general population. Notwithstanding this
unconscionable level of abuse, most children in long-term foster care
reach the age of majority still alive, but lesser forms of abuse,
impossible to measure on their own but reasonably scaled up at the same
rate as deaths) lead to insurmountable problems once the children age out
of the system. An article by Lori Culbert in the Vancouver Sun for June
27, 2008 said that for foster children aging out of care jail was more
likely than high school graduation. There are many other negative
outcomes such as homelessness, prostitution, mental hospitals and untimely
death.
The child protection system qualifies as the greatest danger to the
welfare of Canadian children. It is driven by the perverse incentives of
bureaucracy. When a children's aid society provides assistance to
children in their parents' home, their funding is subject to cuts in
future years by the legislature. But when crown wardship severs the bond
between child and parents, their future welfare depends on the generosity
of the legislature in providing funds. Elected officers, such as you, are
never stingy with this kind of funding, feeling that the welfare of foster
children will be enhanced by generosity with appropriated funds. The
funding is large enough to serve as an incentive to children's aid
societies to take yet more children.
The only real way to stop this cycle is to end the use of appropriated
funds for the care of children, turning the job of feeding orphans back to
private charities, as it was before the development of provincial welfare
systems. Since you are unlikely to do that, here are some lesser reforms
that may improve the lives of children.
- Open the process.
The process should be open to public scrutiny at all stages. An
open-records rule for Children's Aid Societies might become
ineffective through foot-dragging, but applied to the courts it could
work.
Most courts dealing with criminal and civil matters are now open to
public scrutiny, and family courts should be as well. Then anyone
could sit in a family courtroom and more important, he could examine
the document file where most of the legal action takes place, viewing
the same record presented to the judge. For children as well as
adults, public trial is an ordeal, but secret trial is worse.
Such a reform could provide a remedy for families falsely accused,
through reference to the court record exonerating them. Rogue
Children's Aid Societies would come to public attention quickly, and
scholars could sample the files to measure the level of effectiveness
of child protection.
- Allow the provincial ombudsman to review children's aid.
The ombudsman is shut out of children's aid by law. Expanding his
mandate could allow many of the abuses to come to public view in a
form that would allow for early legislative correction.
- Limitation or elimination of immunity for caseworkers
Currently, child-protection workers are immune from all legal
actions unless they can be shown to act in bad faith, placing them
beyond the reach of the law even for rather blatant wrongdoing. In
private meetings between caseworkers and parents, they regularly bully
parents with their power. One caseworker told a father: "Fathers
have no rights"; another was only slightly exaggerating when she
boasted: "We have as much power as God". Giving the caseworker, not
the taxpayer, civil responsibility for wrongdoing would effectively
eliminate most abuse by caseworkers.
- Never suggest divorce
One activity that needs to be stopped is forcing a divorce on a
couple against the will of both, a shotgun divorce. In tiny Dufferin
county, a dozen instances were reported in just three years, a rate
that suggests thousands of such cases for the province as a whole.
- Do not seize children until after hearing both sides
The law now in most places requires judicial authorization before
child removal, but excepts children in immediate danger. In practice,
children are always picked up first on pretense of emergency, and
court hearings are after-the-fact. Owing to caseworker immunity, they
cannot suffer from any misrepresentation.
The law could be changed to eliminate the exception, delaying child
abduction until a judge has signed a warrant on probable cause. This
may have limited effectiveness, since societies with millions of
dollars in revenue may get friendly judges to rubber-stamp their
requests. A more meaningful reform is to require an adverse hearing
in which the parents can present evidence in opposition before the
issuance of an apprehension order. This would at least protect
innocent families with means to hire competent counsel.
- Trial by jury before crown-wardship
Juries, not judges, should have the final word on removing parents
from a child's life and turning them into crown wards. This
protection exists now for liberty and money, things normal parents
value less than their children.
- Require that the child be in the courtroom during proceedings about him.
This procedure is followed now in criminal matters, though not in
the more consequential custody cases. There have been many instances
in which a child was advised he had a legal right to be in the
courtroom, but was still excluded. Requiring the child's presence
would prevent consideration of the case of any child currently out of
the jurisdiction of the court, even when the court had jurisdiction in
the past. And as long as the child is old enough to understand, he
could witness the proceedings in his own case.
- Fully investigate all child deaths, including those in care
The large number of deaths in children's aid care has little impact
because the public only sees (disputed) numbers. Publishing the names
and circumstances in each death could lead to reforms cutting the
death rate. I note that a dead child cannot suffer emotional harm
from publication of his case details.
- Refusing psychotropics is not neglect
Failure to follow a doctor's orders is now treated as neglect, so
when a medical professional prescribes psychotropic drugs for a child,
parents cannot refuse to administer them. In a few American states,
parents now are granted authority to refuse such drugs, without that
being treated as a reason for child protection intervention. Ontario
should give parents the same authority.
- People should be able to see their own records at all levels
The records open to an adult should also include the records made
of his life while in foster care. Now the disclosure of records is
discretionary with CAS, allowing them to conceal wrongdoing by social
workers and foster parents.
- Outlaw anonymous reports, and fully disclose reports to family
Anonymous reports of child abuse should be disregarded. Right now,
an anonymous report is an easy way to sic CAS on a personal enemy.
And parents kept in the dark may suspect the wrong accuser. In June
2003 the press reported that mother Marguerite Dias lost her children
to Toronto Children's Aid. She (falsely) suspected a neighbor,
Madeline Monast, attacking her with a machete and cutting off both
hands. Had the identity of the accuser been disclosed to the mother,
the neighbor might have kept her hands.
- Eliminate mandated reporting
Because of mandated reports by child care professionals (doctors,
teachers, day-care operators), parents are fearful of taking an
injured child to a professional. Every child care professional knows
of cases in which persons have been prosecuted for non-reporting,
inducing them to over-report, causing extra work for CAS, and more
fears for parents. Recent trends are toward more mandatory reporting
in a system that needs less compulsion and more voluntary action.
Love does not come out of the barrel of a gun.
- Notify parents when children are removed
Several parents have reported not learning of an apprehension until
their children failed to return from school, when they began frantic
inquiries. Parents deserve to be notified immediately when their
children are taken into custody.
- Provide meaningful accounting of the distribution of public funds
Currently, the published accounts do not answer the most basic
questions about CAS operation: How much is spent on foster care? How
much on group homes? How many child-days of care are provided? How
many child-protection cases were opened? There are lots of numbers
printed in the financial statements, but they do not answer the real
questions.
- Allow other family (grandparents) to get kids when parents are unfit
The law formally favors this now, but it is infrequent.
- Do not separate parents from children when placing with family members
When the child of a teenaged single mother gets placed with his
grandmother, the mother should continue to see the baby.
Should you need clarification or additional information, you are
welcome to call or write.
Yours truly,
Robert T McQuaid
558 McMartin Road
Mattawa Ontario P0H 1V0
phone: 705-744-6274
email: rtmq@fixcas.com
Addendum: Recommendations (pdf) from the Foster Care Council of Canada
Addendum: A message sent in English gets a
bilingual thank you/merci. Lets you know they are paying attention.
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| From: | "@MCYS-G-CFSAREVIEW" <CFSAreview@ontario.ca>
| | To: | <rtmq@fixcas.com>
| | Subject: | RE: Five year review of the child and family services act
| | Date sent: | Fri, 5 Feb 2010 15:35:34 -0500
|
Thank you for your submission / Merci pour votre soumission
Alamo Families Terminated
January 30, 2010
Six families all members of the Alamo Ministries had their parental
rights terminated yesterday in Arkansas. The judge found that that they had
defied his earlier order to leave church property and secure employment
elsewhere. CPSWatch founder Cheryl Barnes was ejected from the courtroom.
For an opinion piece, refer to Daniel Weaver.
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Parental rights of six Alamo church members terminated
By Andrew Davis
A judge on Thursday terminated the parental rights of six members of the Tony Alamo Christian Ministries, clearing the way for the members’ children to be put up for adoption.
The rulings by Miller County Circuit Judge Joe Griffin followed the recommendation of the Arkansas Department of Human Services, which said the parents had failed to comply with orders that they move off of church property and find jobs outside the ministry.
The rulings, which came after three days of testimony in Miller County Circuit Court in Texarkana, affected the parents of 13 children from four families.
After the hearings ended, shortly after 9 p.m. Friday, the parents hurried away from the courtroom, declining to comment as they left. One mother, Mirriam Krantz, sobbed uncontrollably, clutching her husband’s arm as he led her to a sport-utility vehicle.
Cheryl Barnes, litigation specialist for the parent advocacy group CPS Watch Legal Team, called the rulings unnecessarily harsh. She noted that Tony Alamo, the ministry’s leader, is expected to spend the rest of his life in prison. She said the parents will appeal the termination of their parental rights.
“The chances of these kids being exposed to Tony Alamo are slim to none now, and it’s just a tragedy that these families have been destroyed,” Barnes said.
A sheriff’s deputy said Griffin would have no comment on his ruling.
The proceedings were closed to the public, and Griffin has issued a gag order barring parents, attorneys and others from speaking with reporters about the case.
Julie Munsell, a spokesman for the Arkansas Department of Human Services, said children whose parents’ legal rights over them are terminated would typically not put up for adoption until the appeals are resolved. She said she couldn’t comment on the ministry children’s cases because of the gag order and laws requiring child welfare proceedings to be kept confidential.
The children were taken into custody in Fouke and Texarkana in September and November 2008 amid an investigation into allegations of physical and sexual abuse.
Tony Alamo, the ministry’s 75-year-old leader, was sentenced to 175 years in prison in November after being convicted of taking five underage girls across state lines for sex.
Last year, judges in Miller County ruled that the parents could be eventually reunited with their children, but only if the parents moved off of church property and found jobs outside the ministry. While some parents have complied with the orders and have been reunited with their children, others say the orders infringe on their religious freedoms.
In November 2009, the Arkansas Court of Appeals upheld the removal of five of the children, all girls. However, the court did not rule on the parents’ constitutional argument because the court said the parents did not raise the issue at the trial level.
Several other appeals are pending, and the ministry has also challenged the removals in a lawsuit in federal court. The Human Services Department has asked for the lawsuit to be dismissed.
Thank you for coming to the Web site of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. We're working to keep you informed with the latest breaking news.
This article was published January 29, 2010 at 11:01 p.m.
Damage Control
January 30, 2010
Wanda Secord, from Durham Region News
More on the scandal surrounding phony
psychologist "doctor" Gregory Carter. For six years he had a lucrative
practice providing evaluations for the Durham CAS. Each time CAS got
custody of a child, the province provided funding of $30,000 per year, plus
whatever extras CAS could justify by putting labels on the child. Along the
way, other parts of the family destruction apparatus drained the family
funds until they were penniless. Wanda Secord, Durham CAS executive
director, was the person who got to spend the provincial money. Now she is
claiming the status of innocent victim, trying to right the wrong done by Mr
Carter. Below is an article in the Toronto Sun by a reporter who
interviewed Secord. Our comments are interspersed in red.
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Arrest sparks review of Durham CAS custody cases
By DON PEAT, Toronto Sun, Last Updated: 29th January 2010, 10:44am
The Durham Children's Aid Society is diving into six years' worth of files to determine the role a Whitby man accused of posing as a psychologist in court may have played in child custody cases.
Greg Carter, 63, was charged this week with three counts of fraud, two counts of obstructing justice and two counts of perjury. He'll be back in court in March.
Wanda Secord, executive director of the Durham Children's Aid Society, told the Sun Thursday the society is "very concerned" about the criminal allegations and the College of Psychologists' complaints against Carter.
She should be concerned. She was the chief beneficiary of
"doctor" Carter's chicanery, but shows no indication in this interview of
willingness to accept responsibility for the fiasco.
"We're taking this matter very seriously," Secord said. "We are looking at our files to determine what role (Carter) played in the cases and then we'll undertake a review if necessary."
So far, the society doesn't know how many cases he was involved in.
Carter was contracted by the society to provide services like behavioural assessments from 2003 to '09.
The CAS terminated his contract in the spring because of complaints, Secord said.
But she said the society did check with the college and at the time Carter was a member in good standing.
He's registered as a psychological associate -- not a psychologist.
Police allege Carter presented himself as a psychologist and called himself a doctor during testimony in court.
Secord added Carter was "well established in our community, having provided services to a number of other services, such as school boards and the court systems. He was a well-respected and an established practitioner in our area."
This suggests "doctor" Carter was a member of the Den of Thieves, the group of professionals
switching roles from case to case, always with the objective of draining
the family financially and raiding the taxpayers for reimbursements.
The work he conducted for the society fell within the range of a psychological associate, Secord said.
But she couldn't say whether the society was aware whether Carter ever claimed to be a psychologist in court for one of its cases.
Maybe she should read the papers. Christie Blatchford
reported in the Globe and Mail that in one case Ontario Superior Court
Justice Craig Perkins referred to him 32 times as "Dr Carter".
Despite the controversy, Secord said the society isn't reviewing the qualifications of all its professionals under contract.
The most revealing statement of all. Mrs Secord does not
care whether her experts are qualified. She will only check up on them if
a public scandal develops.
"We have not at this point but that's food for thought," she said.
Jail safer than CAS
January 29, 2010
A Sarnia Ontario teenager in CAS custody found it so dangerous that he
begged a judge to send him to jail for his protection. The judge punished
the boy by sending him back to his CAS group home.
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Youth demands jail
Posted By NEIL BOWEN, THE OBSERVER, January 29, 2010
A 13-year-old who demanded jail time for stealing an iPod so he could be protected from bullies was sentenced Thursday to six months probation.
The youth pleaded guilty to stealing a classmate's iPod and violating a court order to live at a designated address.
The theft was reported and school staff identified the boy as a suspect. Officials at at a group home at which he was living were notified and found him listening to the iPod.
He was grounded but ran away from the home for a short time.
Defence lawyer Don Henderson the youth feels safer in secure custody compared to group homes, where he is bullied.
He spent about a week in custody awaiting resolution of his case.
Justice Deborah Austin said she understands it's tough for him to be the youngest in a group home, but that doesn't allow her to place him into custody. She sentenced him to probation with the condition he perform 16 hours of community service.
She also scheduled a hearing in two weeks to review residential placement for the youth, who is under the supervision of the Children's Aid Society.
The youth justice act prohibits publication of his identity.
nbowen@theobserver.ca
Lose Kid, Jail Mom
January 29, 2010
New York ACS took Patrick Alford from his mother and placed him in foster
care in another part of the city. They lost track of him when he ran away.
After police searched a swamp for his body using boats and helicopters, his
name got on our list of dead foster kids. So did ACS apologize to the
mother? Of course not. They have put her in jail until she reveals the
whereabouts of her son. It could be a long wait if the boy is in the swamp.
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Judge jails mother, believes she knows location of 7-year-old Patrick Alford
BY Barry Paddock, Michael J. Feeney and Jonathan Lemire, DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS, Friday, January 29th 2010, 4:00 AM
Oates for News
Jennifer Rodriguez, mother of missing 7-year-old Patrick Alford (below), is escorted by police from Staten Island Family Court.
The biological mother of a 7-year-old who vanished from his foster home last week has been jailed by a judge who insists she's hiding the child.
Patrick Alford disappeared Friday night from the Brooklyn apartment building where he was placed with a foster family three weeks earlier.
His mother, Jennifer Rodriguez, 23, lost custody after she was arrested on theft charges and the Administration for Children's Services decided she had neglected her son.
The NYPD believes the boy may have run away alone and could be in danger. They deployed boats in the swamps near the foster family's Starrett City home and helicopters in the skies to search for him - but Patrick has yet to be found.
ACS officials and Staten Island Family Court Judge Terrence McElrath - citing Rodriguez's statements to case workers and court officers - insist that Rodriguez knows where Patrick is.
McElrath sent her to Rikers Island on Tuesday - and said yesterday he's keeping her there on contempt charges until the boy turns up.
"Did she comply with order to produce the child? No," McElrath said.
Being led out of the court, Rodriguez blurted out to reporters, "Get me out of here - call my aunt, she has him, she knows where he is."
The aunt, Blanca Toledo, 51, told the Daily News from her Brooklyn home last night that she doesn't have the boy - and has already told that to cops multiple times.
"My niece and I have a love and hate relationship," she said through tears. "I guess she has nothing else to say."
Toledo, who cared for Patrick before he was put in foster care, said the family is furious at her because she told ACS about attempts Rodriguez allegedly made to "kidnap" the boy.
Cops also interviewed a relative in Baltimore based on a tip - but he wasn't there, police said.
Patrick was last seen with his foster mother, Librada Moran, 58, in the lobby of the Spring Creek Development at 9p.m. Friday, police said.
"The foster mother was putting out the trash," said Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly. "Next thing you know, he's gone."
jlemire@nydailynews.com
With Sarah Armaghan
Addendum: Mother Jennifer Rodriguez was released
from jail on February 2.
Foster Luxury
January 29, 2010
Children in Ontario's foster care system often get accommodations in sub-standard housing, get a typical
allowance of $10 per week and sometimes get a nutritionally inadequate diet. Here is a
story of a foster teenager who gets a three-bedroom 1,800 square foot home
to himself and lives on an allowance of $150 per week. He has two
caseworkers looking after him, one during the day and another at night.
What makes him so special? He is an accused sex criminal. No, this is not
a spoof from the Onion.
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Sex crime suspect, 14, lives 'like a king'
14-year-old alone in group home, By TOM GODFREY, QMI Agency
Tracy MacIsaac of Peel Children's Aid wouldn't comment on allegations that a teen facing sex charges is living in a $350,000 home, collecting $150-a-week in allowance.
(Dave Abel/QMI Agency)
TORONTO - A 14-year-old boy facing sex charges in Toronto is the sole resident of a $350,000 Mississauga group home and gets $150 a week for allowance, officials say.
The youth, who can't be identified because of his age, is supervised by a case worker during the day and another at night, the Toronto Sun learned on Thursday.
The home is run by the Children's Aid Society.
The case surfaced two weeks ago after the youth was arrested in Downsview by police and charged with sex offences against a male family member.
Det.-Const. Michelle Bond of 31 Division Family Services Unit said the boy was charged under the Criminal Code for sex offences and is before the courts. He was released at a bail hearing providing he remains at the home.
Officers from 31 Division said they were called to a North York address by a person urgently requesting help.
Sources said the boy was allowed to visit family members as part of a rehabilitation program when the incident occurred.
He has been living at the group home in a new Peel subdivision since 2008.
Officials were surprised to learn the youth was the only resident of a home that "any family would want."
The boy, who has the latest computer games, receives his allowance in addition to having his meals prepared and laundry washed, sources said.
"He lives like a king," one insider said. "I am concerned as a citizen as to how much money is being spent on this case."
"About 90% of the neighbours on that street won't know there's a group home among them," one worker said. "It is in a nice neighbourhood with new homes."
Sources said a number of CAS group homes in the GTA are for use by single youths. This one is a three-bedroom home, about 1,800 square feet, not intended for more than one resident.
Peter Spadoni, a spokesman for the ministry of children and youth services, said his officials couldn't comment on the case as it involves a youth before the courts.
"We just don't have enough information and it is not something we would talk about," Spadoni said on Thursday.
Rob Thompson of the Toronto Children's Aid Society couldn't comment because of privacy laws.
"Once a person is in the care of the CAS, the amount of information that can be given out is almost zero," Thompson said.
Tracy MacIsaac of Peel Children's Aid said she also couldn't comment because of privacy laws.
Homeschoolers Flee Germany
January 28, 2010
The United States has granted asylum to the German Romeike family fleeing
from persecution for homeschooling.
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US grants home schooling German family political asylum
Couple who fled to Tennessee fearing persecution for keeping their children out of school win first case of its kind in US
Daniel Nasaw in Washington, guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 27 January 2010 19.45 GMT
Uwe Romeike and his wife Hannelore work with their children.
Photograph: Wade Payne/AP
A US judge has granted political asylum to a German family who said they had fled the country to avoid persecution for home schooling their children.
In the first reported case of its kind, Tennessee immigration judge Lawrence Burman ruled that the family of seven have a legitimate fear of prosecution for their beliefs. Germany requires parents to enrol their children in school in most cases and has levied fines against those who educate their children at home.
Christians Uwe Romeike, a piano teacher, and his wife, Hannelore, moved to Morristown, Tennessee, in 2008 after German authorities fined them thousands of euros for keeping their children out of school and sent police to escort them to classes, Romeike said. They had been holding classes in their home.
Along with thousands of torture victims, political dissidents, members of religious minorities and other persecuted groups who win political asylum every year, the Romeike family will now be free to live and work in the US. The case does not create a legal precedent unless the US government appeals and a higher immigration court hears the case.
"Home schoolers in Germany are a particular social group, which is one of the protected grounds under the asylum law," said Mike Connelly, attorney for the Home School Legal Defence Association, who argued the case. "This judge looked at the evidence, he heard their testimony, and he felt that the way Germany is treating home schoolers is wrong. The rights being violated here are basic human rights."
In 2006 the Romeikes pulled their children out of a state school in Bissingen, Germany, in protest of what they deemed an anti-Christian curriculum.
They said textbooks presented ideas and language that conflicted with their Christian beliefs, including slang terms for sex acts and images of vampires and witches, while the school offered what they described as ethics lessons from Islam, Buddhism and other religions. The eldest son got into fights in school and the eldest daughter had trouble studying.
"I think it's important for parents to have the freedom to chose the way their children can be taught," Romeike told the Associated Press.
About 1.5 million US children are taught at home. In Morristown, a town of about 27,000, the Romeikes have connected with other home schooling families, organising field trips and other activities.
The German consul general for the southeastern US said in a statement that mandatory school attendance ensures a high education standard for all children, adding that parents have many educational options.
In 2008, the US government received more than 47,000 applications for political asylum and granted 10,743, including four from Germany.
Connelly said this was the first time home schooling had been the central issue in a US political asylum case.
Amber Alert
January 27, 2010
An Amber alert was issued today for three-year-old Madison Young of
Etobicoke Ontario, and the girl was picked up hours later unharmed. As
usual in this kind of case, news sources erase the original record almost
immediately, but we did find one copy of the alert and a news article with
pictures, both enclosed below.
The real reason for the "abduction" is in the news from another source
below:
The Children’s Aid Society had obtained a court order granting them temporary custody of the child. Arrangements were made for the mother to drop off her child to CAS offices on Tuesday, said Det. Sgt. Madelaine Tretter with 22 Division.
She never showed up.
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Ontario Provincial Police - Amber Alert
Posted on: Wed, 27 Jan 2010 11:21:00 EST
TORONTO, Jan. 27, 2010 (Canada NewsWire via COMTEX) --
THE Toronto POLICE SERVICE HAS REQUESTED AN "AMBER ALERT" FOR AN ABDUCTED CHILD IN THE 120 Seventh Street Etobicoke (in the area of the Home Depot) AREA.
Last seen in the Home Depot parking lot area last night (26Jan2010) with an unknown female.
Victim details:YOUNG, Madison, DOB: 2006/11/03 (f) 2 feet tall, 31-40 lbs, chin length brown wavy hair, brown eyes. Clothing possibly wearing a pink winter jacket.
Childs mother Sarah YOUNG age 33 yrs, (f) light black skin, freckled face, brown eyes, wears glasses, long brown partly gray curly hair, approximately 99 lbs, May or may not be with child or with unknown female.
(Photo available from the Toronto Police Service)
Believed to be in the company of: Unknown Female and or mother Sarah YOUNG
Vehicle Information: Sky Blue SUV, (no additional information)
If observed call 911.
This Amber Alert broadcast request will end at 3:30 PM, unless a further extension is requested.
SOURCE: Ontario Provincial Police - Amber Alert
SOURCE: Ontario Provincial Police
MEDIA Contact: Toronto Police Service Phone: (416) 808-2254
Missing girl found safe, mother taken to hospital under police guard
Ryan Cripps, Global News: Wednesday, January 27, 2010 5:12 PM
Police have now found a 3-year-old and her mother after an Amber Alert was issued on January 27, 2010.
Photo Credit: Toronto Police Handout
The search for a missing 3-year-old girl is now over, after the little girl and her mother were found at a Mississauga hotel on Wednesday afternoon.
An Amber Alert was issued Wednesday morning for the little girl, who had last been seen three days ago at her home on Seventh Street, near Lake Shore Blvd. W. & Islington Ave. in Etobicoke.
The girl and her mother were located at about 3:00 p.m. and taken to a Toronto police station in Etobicoke.
"The little girl was very cheerful," said Detective Patrick McGrade of Toronto police at a news conference late Wednesday afternoon.
"We provided her with a couple of teddy bears and a couple of books."
Det. McGrade said the girl is now in the custody of the Catholic Children's Aid Society and is in good health.
The girl's mother, upon arriving at Toronto Police 22 Division, complained of a medical condition. She was treated by EMS and taken to a local hospital under police guard.
Det. McGrade said the mother "is going to be questioned" after she is released from the hospital.
Police had been searching a three kilometre radius around the little girl's home. Officers on foot were being assisted by the mounted unit and the K-9 unit.
Police say a warrant was issued for the apprehension of the 3-year-old girl, and arrangements were made by the Catholic CAS to have the mother turn over the child to them.
When they went to the mother's home, the mother and child were not there and police were contacted.
Addendum: The mother who cared for her own baby
has been arrested as a kidnapper.
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The mother was taken to hospital on Wednesday, Jan. 27, 2010 after being taken into custody.
Mother charged in aftermath of Amber Alert case
Updated: Thu Jan. 28 2010 2:06:25 PM, ctvtoronto.ca
A Toronto mother has been charged with parental child abduction after disappearing with her daughter, triggering an Amber Alert on Wednesday.
Police issued the alert on Wednesday morning, saying they were worried about the three-year-old girl's safety.
A maid at the Avenue Motel in Mississauga noticed the pair on Wednesday afternoon and contacted police. When police arrived, they found the mother trying to hide with her daughter in a stairwell, CTV Toronto reported.
Det. Patrick McGrade said Wednesday that the little girl was cheerful when they found her. "We provided her with a couple of teddy bears, a couple of books," he said.
The mother complained of a medical problem after being taken to 22 Division headquarters in Etobicoke and was transported by ambulance to St. Joseph's hospital.
Her daughter will be placed in a foster home as a temporary measure.
The 33-year-old mother was supposed to surrender her daughter to the Children's Aid Society on Tuesday. The agency had obtained a temporary custody order.
However, she never showed up.
By 11 a.m. Wednesday, police obtained permission to issue an Amber Alert, which allows them to highly publicize the fact that a child is missing and possibly in danger.
With a report from CTV Toronto's Jim Junkin
Impostor Shrink Arrested
January 26, 2010
Wanna know why those parenting capacity assessments always favor
children's aid? Maybe it's because the shrinks conducting them are fakes.
Alleged doctor Gregory Carter provided reports and services for his
client, the Children's Aid Society of Durham. His credentials were fake,
and he has been arrested.
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Ron Pietroniro / Metroland
WHITBY -- The office of Gregory Carter is in the Dundas-Centre Medical building at 220 Dundas Street West. Mr. Carter has been charged by the Durham Regional Police. January 26, 2010.
Whitby 'doctor' faked credentials, police allege
January 26, 2010, By Jeff Mitchell
DURHAM -- Police have laid criminal charges against a Whitby man, alleging he committed perjury by presenting false professional credentials while testifying in child custody cases.
Gregory Carter presented himself as a psychologist and dubbed himself a doctor while testifying about the suitability of people to care for children, police and other complainants allege. Mr. Carter, who has a long-standing practice in Whitby and associations with agencies including the Durham Children's Aid Society, was charged Monday with fraud, perjury and obstructing justice.
The development came as a relief to one Clarington man who has complained to both police and Ontario's College of Psychologists. The man lost custody of his granddaughter after a 2006 family court trial in which Mr. Carter testified on behalf of the birth father.
"I'm quite pleased," said Mr. B., whose full name can't be used to protect the child's identity. "He's been doing this for years and no one has stopped him until now."
He suggested court cases Mr. Carter has been involved in ought to be subject to review.
Mr. Carter, 63, did not return messages left Tuesday at his home and at his Whitby office. The allegations against him have not been proven in court.
Mr. Carter is registered with the College of Psychologists as a psychological associate. According to the college's website, he is authorized to work with children and families, but is prohibited from independently diagnosing symptoms or disorders, and is required to perform duties under the supervision of a qualified psychologist.
The website also indicates at least two complaints have been made, alleging Mr. Carter breached the limitations placed on him.
Mr. B. said Mr. Carter presented critical evidence during his family's custody battle in a Durham family court proceeding, including an assertion Mr. B. is "narcissistic" and hostile towards the child's father. In explaining his decision, a judge said Mr. Carter's testimony "tips the balance" in favour of the father, according to a transcript.
Mr. B. feels the case was decided by testimony from a witness who wasn't qualified to offer an opinion. The outcome was devastating to him and his wife, he said.
"A 10-year-old girl has been forced against her wishes to leave the only home she has ever known and we have been left both emotionally and financially ruined in our retirement years," Mr. B. said. He said he and others have contacted a lawyer about launching a civil suit.
In a letter responding to Mr. B's complaint Mr. Carter indicates he completed a Masters Degree in 1978 and pursued further education, including a doctorate obtained from Pacific Western University in 1991. Pacific Western, renamed California Miramar University in 2007, was the subject of controversy in 2004 when American media outlets alleged the school was a "diploma mill" offering expedited credentials for a price.
Mr. Carter operates a practice out of a professional building on Dundas Street West in Whitby. He is past president of the board of Durham Mental Health Services and has been associated with the Durham Children's Aid Society. Among his duties for the CAS was carrying out parenting capacity assessments, said spokeswoman Andrea Maenza.
Such assessments play a role in determining if children remain with their parents or are made wards of the Crown, she said. While performing assessments Mr. Carter had limited access to CAS records, she confirmed.
Mr. Carter's involvement with the CAS was suspended recently and the agency is awaiting the outcome of the college's investigation into complaints against him, Ms. Maenza said.
"We've made no judgment," she said. "We'll let the college takes its course ... and then we'll determine whether or not we'll pursue any other contracts with him."
Rob Adams, executive director of Durham Mental Health Services, said Mr. Carter has served as a volunteer director, assisting with agency governance and strategic direction.
"He had no involvement in the agency's day to day operations or client services and supports," Mr. Adams said.
Mr. Carter is scheduled to appear in court in March. A police investigation continues; call 905-579-1520, extension 2704.
Addendum: The testimony of the phony shrink forced
a father to share custody of his children with their mother in a decision
made after the father had pointed out Carter's fake credentials to the
court. A real shrink says the mother now is a danger to the care of the
children. She allegedly restrained the nine-year-old by throwing him to the
ground and sitting on him. Children's aid has refused to remove the
children from the mother.
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Dad lost his kids due to bogus doctor
By MICHELE MANDEL, QMI Agency
An alleged victim of Greg Carter's - who cannot be identified - holds a business card identifying him as Dr. Carter.
(Ernest Doroszuk/QMI Agency)
WHITBY, Ont. -- A child custody battle is an ugly, twisted jungle at the best of times, but a Whitby father never stood a chance after family court accepted a disparaging assessment done by a man posing as a psychologist.
And ignored the one by the true PhD.
Now the terrified 48-year-old dad must share custody of his two young boys with a woman who the real psychologist has warned is mentally ill and poses a danger to their care.
Greg Carter, 63, has been charged with three counts of fraud, two counts of obstructing justice and two counts of perjury for allegedly impersonating a psychologist.
He is also facing a complaint of professional misconduct by Ontario's College of Psychologists.
"Nobody should go through what I went through," says "Mr. S", the angry father who can't be named because the case involves the Children's Aid. "If he had kept his unqualified opinion to himself, my children would be safe and we wouldn't have lost all our money to lawyers."
The dad had his suspicions after Carter presented an assessment to family court that said the father had a narcissistic personality disorder -- despite never meeting him -- while administering one test on his ex-wife to completely dismiss an exhaustive, 37-page evaluation by a highly respected psychologist who diagnosed her with a borderline personality disorder.
Rattled by his findings, Mr. S. contacted the College of Psychologists of Ontario and discovered that Carter was not a psychologist at all, but a psychological associate whose registration stipulated that he was not allowed to make an independent diagnosis without the supervision of a qualified psychologist.
He had also told the court that he had a PhD from Pacific Western University, the now-defunct school that awarded degrees based on "life experience" and was branded a "diploma mill" in a report by the U.S. Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs.
"I can't believe nobody checked his credentials until I came along," says Mr. S.
What's even more astounding is that Justice Alexander Sosna was then presented with a letter from the College outlining Carter's restrictions -- and the fact that he wasn't a psychologist as advertised -- but still chose to accept the bogus doc's assessment and set aside the damning one by the real psychologist.
The judge, who has a background in criminal, not family law, rejected the dad's bid for sole custody, threw him out of the matrimonial home and ordered him to pay his ex-wife's $13,000 in legal costs within 90 days or he wouldn't be able to see his kids at all.
He had to go to the bank to get a loan because the protracted custody battle had wiped out his $400,000 in savings. But the drain on his finances pales beside his constant fear of what will happen to his sons in their mother's care.
He doesn't understand why a former criminal lawyer is ruling in family court.
"Carter is just one piece of a whole broken puzzle," insists the beleaguered father.
But an integral piece. Mr. S. went on to launch a complaint of professional misconduct against him with the College as did the real psychologist.
"He has been masquerading as a psychologist for some time and had deceived myself and the public about his credentials," the doctor wrote Mr. S. "His conduct is simply unethical."
Carter did not respond to messages left at his home and his Whitby office.
He did offer a tepid mea culpa in a December 2008 letter. "While my concerns are not groundless, I now believe that expressing them in written form based on the information I had was wrong. I owe Mr. S. an apology for that mistake."
But his apology will not give Mr. S. sole custody of his children or undo the harm Carter has allegedly caused in at least two other child custody disputes, including one where his testimony led to a granddaughter being wrenched away from her grandparents after she'd spent most of her 10 years in their care.
"What's an apology if you don't fix the problem you created?" demands the heartbroken father. "He's got to have affected hundreds of people. He's been doing it for 18 years."
And that is why all of his cases need to be reviewed if he is found guilty.
In the meantime, what about all the poor children?
In Mr. S's case, the Children's Aid is now involved after the mom allegedly restrained the 9-year-old by throwing him to the ground and sitting on him. In a list of written expectations on a CAS contract, his ex-wife has been told that her discipline "at no time shall include sitting on either child."
The worried dad has pleaded with them to remove the boys from her care, especially now that Carter's assessment has been discredited, but they refuse.
They say there is nothing they can do but monitor the situation. After all, there's two conflicting psychological reports and the judge accepted the one by Carter.
They don't seem unduly concerned that he's a man now facing charges for fraud.
Shackles
January 26, 2010
For at least fourteen years all juveniles transported to and from courts
in New York traveled in shackles. Since children appearing in New York City
courts usually came from upstate, this meant hundreds of miles of travel
while shackled.
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City Room - Blogging From the Five Boroughs, January 26, 2010, 1:30 pm
Juvenile Offenders Shackled Illegally, Judge Rules
By NICHOLAS CONFESSORE
Legal Aid Society
A juvenile prisoner in handcuffs, waist chains and leg shackles.
The agency that runs the state’s juvenile prison system routinely violates the law by shackling youthful offenders when taking them to court even in cases in which the youth poses no obvious threat, a state judge ruled on Tuesday.
The ruling, by Justice Milton A. Tingling Jr. of State Supreme Court in Manhattan, would repeal a policy of the state’s youth prison system that has been in place since at least 1996. The case, a class-action lawsuit on behalf of about 500 youths held in units run by the state’s Office of Children and Family Services, was brought by the Legal Aid Society.
The suit’s named plaintiff is John F., a teenager who was kept in shackles — hands and feet cuffed, with a belly chain linked to the handcuffs — for roughly 15 hours on one day in November 2007.
Justice Tingling issued his decision as a summary judgment against state officials, who did not contest the facts of the case, meaning it is unlikely that they would win an appeal.
“The court’s recognition that O.C.F.S. cannot treat children this way is part and parcel of a culture of abusive practices that is not rehabilitative and does not reorganize that these are children who are in the care of the state,” said Nancy Rosenbloom, the Legal Aid lawyer leading the case.
A spokesman for the agency said that officials there could not comment until they had reviewed the decision.
The agency’s current policy requires any child in custody to be shackled while being taken between state facilities or from a facility to anywhere else, such as a courthouse. While most of the prison units are far upstate, most of the youths are from New York City and must be transported hundreds of miles for routine appearances in Family Court.
The shackling policy even covered youths being held at what are known as nonsecure facilities.
“We had evidence of kids not being able to drink their milk on the way to court because of the chains,” Ms. Rosenbloom said.
Justice Tingling found that the policy violated the state’s own law on shackling youths in custody, which dictates that shackles be used only as a last resort, for youth who are out of control and dangerous, and then only for half an hour. Shackles can be used during transport only, the judge found, when the youths pose a physical threat.
While the ruling covers shackling only during transportation to and from court, and only children from New York City, it will most likely force the Office of Children and Family Services to revise its overall policy on shackling.
Below, a diagram from a training manual from the Office of Children and Family Services illustrates how to shackle children.
CPS Kills Mother
January 26, 2010
The coroner will record it as a suicide, but CPS killed Arizona mother
Brenda Suzanne Ownby.
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Woman hit by multiple vehicles on I-17 after jumping from car
by Natalie Rivers, Posted on January 25, 2010 at 12:32 PM, Updated yesterday at 8:06 PM
PHOENIX - A fatality on Interstate 17 resulted in the freeway being shut down for much of the late morning and afternoon near the accident scene at Thomas Road.
Lt. Robert Lee Bailey said at about 10:15 a.m. the Department of Public Safety received a call of a person who fell out of their vehicle and on to the roadway on the northbound lanes of the I-17 under the Grand Avenue overpass near the HOV lane.
According to DPS the woman was stuck by one vehicle and that vehicle was rear-ended by a utility truck.
DPS confirmed the Phoenix woman had just lost custody of her children and apparently committed suicide by jumping out of the back seat of a crew-cab truck she was riding in with her mother and sister.
The woman has been identified as Brenda Suzanne Ownby, 36. She died on scene.
According to Ownby's family she had been quiet and hadn't said much after leaving court before the incident.
The freeway re-opened just before 2:30 p.m.
CAS Abuses Children
January 26, 2010
Canada Court Watch reports on two cases in which children are abused, in
one case by their mother who is a CAS worker, in the other case by a foster
mother.
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Teens claim CAS workers concealed abuse and criminal assault by their mother
(January 20, 2010) Court Watch interviewed two teens independently on videotape who both claimed that they reported to CAS workers that they were physically and emotionally abused by their mother over a long period of time but that CAS workers told them that this was OK because their mother was under stress because she had left the home and taken the kids with her. In one incident the children said that they told CAS workers how the mother put one boy's head face down in a sink of water, not once but four times repeatedly while he choked and gasped for air to keep himself alive. The teens described how their mother had a temper which she could not control. Court Watch suspects that CAS workers kept silent for political reasons because the mother works as a child and youth worker herself and works closely with the CAS. The testimony from these children will be emailed out to all the MPP's in Ontario and will shock all those who read it. This story is yet another example to support why CAS workers must be required to electronically record their meetings with children. It's time to put an end to CAS cover-up and abuse of children. To you CAS workers who read this site, we now know who you are and you know who this mother is. As is right, there will be a formal complaint made against you in the near future so get ready for your CAS agency to be exposed for doing shoddy work in the community to protect children.
More very recent CAS foster home abuse
(January 22, 2010) Court Watch was contacted by a teen who has reported that residents in the CAS foster home were only allowed one glass of milk per day by a single foster mother who ruled over the kids with an iron fist. According to the foster teen because the mother was single, paid CAS staff were constantly coming into her home to sit the foster children in care. All of this at taxpayer expense of course! It was reported that this foster mother took trips to Germany each year with the money she made of the CAS foster kids. The one teen reported that she was forced to wear another foster teens old shoes. While the Ontario Government pays CAS to feed and cloth children, CAS foster parents are pocketing the extra money and making the kids suffer. It was also reported that this foster mother beat and kicked the kids in care but as usual nobody listened, not even the Office of the Children's Lawyer. The teen started writing down in her journal about some of the abuse she was being exposed to only to have CAS workers come into her room and steal her journal to ensure that information does not get out into the public.
Abuse of children in care is going on right now and the Ontario Government does nothing.
Addendum: Here is yet another case from Canada Court Watch:
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CAS workers blackmailing children in care
(January 28, 2010) Court Watch was contacted by a teen today who has reported that children in care at his foster home are being threatened with having their access visits with their parents cancelled if they attempt to exercise their lawful right to contact their biological parents outside of the times that CAS has decided. The teen has provided us with names and the address of the foster home and details of the threats.
Below Charles Dickens comments on starving children for profit:
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Upon this the parish authorities magnanimously and humanely resolved, that Oliver should be "farmed," or, in other words, that he should be despatched to a branch-workhouse some three miles off, where twenty or thirty other juvenile offenders against the poor-laws, rolled about the floor all day, without the inconvenience of too much food or too much clothing, under the parental superintendence of an elderly female, who received the culprits at and for the consideration of sevenpence-halfpenny per small head per week. Sevenpence-halfpenny's worth per week is a good round diet for a child; a great deal may be got for sevenpence-halfpenny, quite enough to overload its stomach, and make it uncomfortable. The elderly female was a woman of wisdom and experience; she knew what was good for children; and she had a very accurate perception of what was good for herself. So, she appropriated the greater part of the weekly stipend to her own use, and consigned the rising parochial generation to even a shorter allowance than was originally provided for them. Thereby finding in the lowest depth a deeper still; and proving herself a very great experimental philosopher.
Please, sir, I want some more.
Bayne Trial
January 25, 2010
The Schedule for Court Days for the Bayne Child Custody Trial is as
follows: Feb 2 -5; Feb 8 - 9; Feb 11-12; Feb 22-23; Feb 25-26. You
are welcome to attend, to hear the witnesses' testimonies, the cross
examinations, and to be an encouragement to the Baynes by your presence at
the Chilliwack Court House.
There is a new website on the case, A Plea for Justice. Enclosed
below is a report by Ron Unruh on the trial and a note from a former victim
on the testimony of Dr Colbourne.
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Sunday, January 24, 2010
For Love and For Justice / Part 91 / Zabeth and Paul Bayne
The trial is scheduled to last sixteen days and these days are to stretch through January and February. The first three court days were held on Wednesday 12th , Thursday 13th and Friday 15th . The focus of the early days of the court case have been upon the testimonies of social workers and the regional Director for this case. That is precisely how it came down.
The Baynes’ demand for their children has been a public and high profile claim particularly during the past year. Global and CBC news networks have done stories on the Baynes’ contest with the Ministry of Children and Family Development. The Baynes themselves have maintained an online presence through websites and Facebook pages. People like me have easily recognized the injustices within this case and have sought to explain facts, some of us doing it objectively and others expressing objectionable opinions. Always the Baynes have asserted that MCFD’s legitimate task of protecting children was based on a wrong medical diagnosis and then a series of skewed MCFD decisions not in the interest of the Bayne family but in the interest of building a case for MCFD’s seizure and custody of three Bayne children. Little effort was made by MCFD to truly know Paul and Zabeth, their characters, principles and values and family commitments. The Baynes’ vigorous and persistent fight for their children over the two and one half years of this torment was perceived by MCFD as a declaration of war rather than being seen through the understanding eyes of social workers with authentic sensitivity to humanity. I am sorry to have witnessed that. I am appalled that this flaw appears to be a common feature in child protection networks across our country, in every province, in the UK and in Australia. Do some googling and you will soon be confronted by an avalanche of worrisome reports about insensitive and inept case handling and worse, incarceration of parents falsely accused.
Ministry of Children and Family Development attorney, early in the court proceedings, applied for a ban on all publicity and news coverage. During a 15 minute presentation, Bayne’s lawyer Doug Christie ardently opposed this application, arguing for the public’s right to be informed about a case as significant as this and about a Ministry that is charged by the public to fulfill its responsibilities. Christie contended that the media has a right to participate, report and defend its reported accounts. He further stated that it would be inappropriate for the Judge to make a decision on this application within fifteen minutes of hearing the application. The judge then adjourned for 30 minutes and upon his return indicated that he would not so soon approve the application for the ban because it might affect this case and others that would follow this one. If the MCFD intended to pursue the ban application, then the media must also be allowed to defend its position. MCFD attorney Finn Jensen then told the court that he would not proceed with the application. So this was dismissed. In truth this may result in better accountability through public exposure.
CBC ran a story on the opening day of this court case and that content was sympathetic to the Baynes’ claim that the children should be returned to them.
Posted by Ron at 6:28 PM
Since we don't know whether the author of this not wants to be
identified, the name is concealed.
I was reading the posting about the Bayne trial and was shocked that
they have Dr Colburne involved, if its the same Dr I knew 24 years ago in
Vancouver. She got my first child taken from me by lying to the courts in
documents for the MCFD and I believe I in fact have some of her testimony
still in a file that I kept. It took me 6 months to get my child back, no
thanks to her. She mislead the courts and submitted false affidavits
about me and in fact some of the stuff in her reports were second and
third hand information, not even direct information that she witnessed or
got from me.
If it is the same Dr then the BC government needs to do the same as
they did with that Dr Smith back east and review all cases that involved
her and the MCFD in regards to people losing their children based on her
testimony.
Long Arm of the Social Worker
January 23, 2010
Scottish social workers intervened to prevent the marriage of Mark
McDougall and his pregnant partner Kerry Robertson, and alerted them that
their baby was in danger of seizure at birth. They fled to Ireland where
the baby was born on January 15. Irish social workers took the baby at age
four days.
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Mother 'not clever enough to raise child' has baby snatched by social workers after running away to Ireland to give birth
By Alison Smith Squire, Last updated at 1:13 PM on 22nd January 2010
A couple who fled to Ireland after social workers threatened to remove their baby at birth have had the newborn snatched after all.
Kerry Robertson, 17, who has mild learning difficulties, and Mark McDougall, 25, went on the run after British social services said she was not clever enough to raise a child.
But just four days after Ben was born, Irish social workers marched into the maternity ward and forced them to hand him over.
Proud mother: Kerry Robertson and Ben, who she isn't allowed to bring up
They were told they were acting at the behest of their British counterparts.
The couple, from Fife, Scotland, have been on the run for three months.
In September, their wedding was halted just 48 hours before the service when social workers claimed Miss Robertson was not bright enough to understand the marriage declaration.
Then in November they were told that her ‘disability’ meant their baby would be taken away at birth.
With Miss Robertson 29 weeks pregnant, they fled their house in the middle of the night and travelled to Ireland.
Ben was born healthy and weighing 7lb 3oz last Friday.
Last night Miss Robertson said: ‘When the Irish social workers said I had to give the baby to them, I felt sick.
‘I didn’t want to hand him over and I started crying because I couldn’t believe what they were saying. I thought I had misunderstood.
‘I had just been breastfeeding him.
Just before they took him away, I told Ben I loved him and gave him a kiss.’
Mr McDougall added: ‘Kerry let out a dreadful cry when she realised what was happening – it was terrible. She is just in pieces.
‘We believed that the Irish had more traditional values than social workers in the UK. We found a two-bedroom cottage in a beautiful village in Waterford overlooking the sea.
A family divided: Father Mark with Kerry and the baby, who is now in foster care
‘Kerry booked herself in with the local GP and at last we began to feel as if we were safe.’
An anonymous benefactor has been funding the couple after they left home with just £200, and has even paid for the house.
Artist Mr McDougall has also been selling pictures while friends and family have donated clothes, baby gear and further money.
Miss Robertson has been cared for by her grandmother since the age of nine months after her own parents were unable to look after her, with her care overseen by Fife Council.
She began getting contractions last Friday and the couple went to the local hospital, where she gave birth after a natural labour.
‘Both of us were overjoyed,’ said Mr McDougall. ‘Ben was absolutely perfect.’
But on Tuesday morning two Irish social workers – a man and a woman – came to the hospital and delivered the bombshell.
Mr McDougall added: ‘It seems that through Kerry’s medical records – although we have been on the run she has always ensured she had all the checks and scans on the baby – Fife Council had been alerted.
‘The social workers said that now Ben was born, Fife had put him on the at-risk register and he was subject to a care order.
As the social workers told us the news, the two midwives who have been caring for Kerry were so distressed that they fled the room.’
Ben is being cared for by foster parents.
Family law experts said that if Fife had genuine concerns about the baby it had a duty to pursue the couple even once they had fled its jurisdiction.
Under a 1980 European convention on child welfare, they would have contacted the Irish authorities to alert them and the Irish would then have sought an order from a judge allowing them to intervene.
Irish social workers now have to investigate for themselves and have until Monday to make a decision on the case or apply for an extension.
The couple have been allowed to see their son for two hours every other day.
Miss Robertson said: ‘Holding him made me upset all over again. I’ve told the social workers I don’t want him to have bottled milk or a dummy. I feel breastfeeding is so important and at least then he is still having some of me.’
Mr McDougall claimed the care order had the wrong baby’s name on it and the wrong date of birth. He added: ‘Kerry and I are now absolutely furious because we believe our baby has been kidnapped by social services.’
LibDem MP John Hemming, who has been supporting the couple, said: ‘There is no evidence that Mark and Kerry cannot be good parents and I just hope that the Irish authorities can resolve this as quickly as possible.’
The Irish authorities refused to comment last night.
Stephen Moore, executive director of social work at Fife Council, said: ‘I can confirm that although the Robertson family are not presently within Fife, we are committed to working closely with professional colleagues elsewhere to ensure safety and welfare of the child and indeed the whole family as this is of paramount concern to us.
‘I would urge Kerry to use all the support that is being made available to her and her baby and to get appropriate help should she need it.’
Addendum: The family has the baby back, but under
intense supervision.
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The woman told that she was too stupid to keep her baby boy
By Alison Smith Squire, Last updated at 8:10 AM on 28th January 2010
The Moses basket sits beside the bed, its new blankets carefully arranged awaiting its owner's arrival.
Piles of newborn baby clothes - mostly in shades of blue - lie neatly folded on a chair.
Like any new mother, Kerry Robertson spent weeks excitedly preparing for her first child's arrival - and yet 13 days after his birth, all the carefully arranged baby paraphernalia remains unused.
And yet today Kerry and her partner, Mark McDougall, 25, will finally be able to lay their son Ben down to sleep in the basket they bought for him with such hope.
Loving mother: Kerry Robertson, 17, was told she would not be able to bring up her baby son Ben because she has mild learning difficulties
Kerry, who has mild learning difficulties, and Mark went on the run from their home in Fife, Scotland, last November after British social services said she was not clever enough to raise a child.
They hoped that by escaping to Ireland they would be left alone to be a family together. But when Ben was four days old, social workers caught up with them, marching into the maternity ward and forcing them to hand him over.
Only after a court hearing last Friday were the parents told they will get their child back - albeit under supervision.
Today, Kerry will move into a mother and baby unit where the 17-year-old will be under constant surveillance - but that is undoubtedly the lesser of two evils for the couple, given that they feared they might lose custody of the child they fought so hard to keep.
'To say it's been a roller coaster is an understatement,' says Mark. 'Witnessing them take Ben from Kerry made me cry. He was sleeping in her arms after his feed and looked so peaceful.
'I tried to argue with them, but they said no. It's only after they've read medical reports from the hospital, in which the midwives and medical staff said we are loving parents, that it appears they've decided we can have Ben back after all.
'Kerry will be able to care for Ben all day, every day and I'll be allowed to stay at the unit as often as I like.
'Needless to say, we can't wait to be reunited with our beloved son.'
This isn't the only battle the couple have fought to ensure Kerry leads a normal life.
She has been brought up by her grandmother since she was nine months old, with the care overseen by Fife social services.
But she says that, as an adult, there were no signs of the problems to come until social services heard she was pregnant and getting married.
Devoted: Kerry and partner Mark McDougall, 25, pose proudly with their baby son. The couple fled to Ireland after social services said Ben would be taken away
Last September, in an unprecedented step, the couple's white church wedding was halted just 48 hours beforehand, in a row over whether Kerry was intelligent enough to marry.
Shortly after, Fife social services told the couple they believed that, because of Kerry's learning difficulties, her unborn baby would be taken into care.
The claim that Kerry is too stupid to get married or have a baby is something she and Mark, an artist, vehemently refute.
'Social services are ruining my life,' she says. 'First, I was stopped from getting married and then they took my baby.'
Kerry and Mark say she has never even had a formal psychological assessment. And the couple point out that before Kerry became pregnant herself, she worked as a childcare worker with children at a local school - and in fact, with considerable irony, holds a certificate in child care.
Kerry says: 'It's true I didn't get many qualifications at school, but I never had very good teaching.
'I did study for my childcare qualification, I can read and write. I send texts, go on the internet and do everything for myself.
'I usually cook for us. I chose most of the clothes for our baby and sorted out all the piles of nappies, tubs of baby creams and toys. I wanted everything to be ready for him when we brought him home.'
Indeed, upon first meeting, Kerry strikes you as no different to many other young woman. Slim and quirkily dressed, it's clear that, like anyone of her age, she loves to experiment with make-up and clothes.
Nevertheless, she is painfully shy - it is Mark's belief that it is this which gives social workers the impression her learning difficulties are worse than they are.
But gain her trust and she chats away happily like any other teenager. In fact, I don't believe anyone meeting her in a group of young people would even identify learning difficulties.
As for Mark, he has an impressive clutch of GCSEs under his belt, as well as two As in his Highers - the Scottish equivalent of A levels - in art and English.
He is an accomplished artist who makes a reasonable living selling his sketches and charcoal pictures worldwide - he showed me a picture he drew of newborn Ben, and it is a very accurate likeness.
Mark says: 'Neither Kerry nor me have ever had any conviction for cruelty or violence. I don't understand why the authorities have treated us like this.'
So what is the truth?
The Mail, it must be stressed, is not privy to all the information social services hold on this couple. Kerry admits she is no Einstein, but she seems like any other teenager.
Seeing her with Mark, hand-in-hand on the sofa at their rented house in Ireland, some would say they seem more mature than many young lovers.
Binge-drinking, casual relationships and parties couldn't be further from their minds. Both say they prefer an evening in with friends. If anything, they could be described as somewhat old-fashioned.
Mark says: 'When we discovered Kerry was pregnant we wanted to get married. It was important to us that our baby was born to married parents.'
That wedding was set to take place in a church, organised by Mark's father, who had arranged for the congregation to produce a homemade buffet for their reception.
Although Kerry was brought up in the care of her grandmother, she comes from a close-knit community with a large extended family of aunts and uncles. Her younger brother, who's nine, still lives with her grandmother.
The couple met last January through friends. 'I certainly didn't think Kerry had learning difficulties,' says Mark.
'At first she just seemed quiet, but I soon discovered a quirky sense of humour, and that's what attracted me to her.'
Family: Ben was born on January 15 weighing 7lb 3oz
By March, they were a couple and the following month Kerry moved into Mark's one-bedroom flat. It was shortly after this that Kerry became pregnant.
Kerry says: 'When I told my grandmother I was pregnant, she got a care worker to take me to the GP.
'It was then that the care worker said to me: "You know you won't be able to keep this baby don't you?"'
Mark adds: 'It was only at this stage I realised how seriously social services viewed Kerry's so-called condition.
'It was a very upsetting time, as the care worker suggested to Kerry it might be better if she had a termination.
'But neither of us wanted an abortion. Kerry said she could never do that.'
So the couple pressed on with the pregnancy and, as they heard nothing more from social services, put their worries to the back of their minds.
Mark says: 'When Kerry was three months pregnant, we decided to marry.
'I bought Kerry an engagement ring - a little pink one with a diamond-type stone - and we held a party.'
The pair set the date for the wedding in September. Mark recalls: 'Kerry had bought her dress, the church was booked, a cake made and the reception organised.
'But two days before, there was a frantic knocking at our front door and we were confronted by two social workers who told us our wedding was illegal.
'Kerry and I were devastated, but we had no option but to cancel our big day.'
It later transpired Fife social services had made the extraordinary step of writing a letter of objection to the registrar, claiming Kerry was too dim to understand her vows.
The couple have since attempted to marry again, but have been told that, as an order is still in place, a wedding is forbidden.
But if that weren't enough, in October, when Kerry was five months pregnant, the couple were called into a meeting with social services and told their baby would be taken into care at birth.
Kerry says: 'I couldn't stop crying. By then, I'd already found out I was having a little boy and we had decided to name him Ben. I'd felt him kick inside me.'
Mark adds: 'There was no mention of trying to help Kerry or give her the chance to be a mum.
'At that time, they said Kerry would be allowed only a few hours with him. It seemed then he would go to foster parents, and there was the fear he would be adopted and we would lose him for ever.
'It didn't seem to matter to social services that we loved one another and wanted to get married.'
The worry was so great that Mark began researching on the internet other cases in which parents had faced losing their babies in this way.
He says: 'I discovered that many couples had been forced to flee the UK and go to other countries where the authorities take a different view and are keen to keep families together.
'It seemed a huge step to take. Neither Kerry nor myself wanted to leave home, where we had family and support. But in the end we felt we had no choice.'
The couple decided to go to Ireland, where they believed their case would be looked on more sympathetically.
So in November, having held a tearful farewell gathering - and with just £200 in their pockets, a suitcase and a bag of sandwiches made by Kerry - the pair stole out of their house in the dead of night.
The couple made it to Belfast, where they stayed for eight weeks.
'Not having social workers knocking on our doors, wanting meetings all the time, was fantastic,' says Mark. 'For the first time in Kerry's pregnancy, we could enjoy it.'
The pair were financed by friends and family - although Mark continued to sell his artwork.
'I missed my grandma, my little brother and my family terribly,' says Kerry. 'It was hard to be away from them at Christmas. But I consoled myself that it would be worth it. I could hold Ben in my arms and not worry he would be taken.'
Kerry and Mark made the final leg of their journey to Waterford in the Republic of Ireland - which is not governed by UK laws - two weeks after Christmas, with the birth of the baby looming.
Accomplished artist: Mark drew a sketch of his son while in hospital
There, with the help of a donation from a secret benefactor, they were able to find a safe house.
Mark recalls: 'We rented a beautiful little house. Waterford is a seaside resort and we decided to make a new life there.'
On Friday, January 15 at 8.41pm, their hopes were realised when, after a natural labour, Ben was finally born.
The happy couple took photos of their 7lb 3oz bundle. And for three days all appeared to be well.
Mark visited the hospital daily, and close friends who knew where they were sent congratulations cards. Meanwhile, Kerry took to breastfeeding and caring for Ben without any problems.
Behind the scenes, however, social workers were gearing up to strike.
Through medical records, the Irish authorities had discovered that social workers in Fife had an interest in Kerry.
'It seems they contacted Fife, who told them they feared because of Kerry's "disability" our baby could suffer physical or emotional neglect,' explains Mark.
The following Monday, the couple were told a social worker would visit them the next day, and at that point they were not unduly concerned.
'We are honest, so we were happy to co-operate fully,' says Mark. 'We would have been pleased to be monitored.
'Even putting Kerry into a home for new mums with babies so she could prove she can be a good mother would have been fine.
'We understood that the Irish social workers needed to make their own inquiries, and were perfectly happy to do whatever it took to keep Ben.'
So they were totally unprepared when, at the 9.15am meeting on the Tuesday, they were forced to hand over their baby. Since then he has been looked after by foster carers.
They have been allowed two-hourly visits with Ben. But even now, as they're about to be reunited with their baby, there is no denying that the episode has been highly distressing.
Kerry says: 'I was so upset when I saw him the first time with the social workers because he had a dummy in his mouth.
'I told them I didn't want him having a dummy. And he is being bottle fed, but I wanted to breastfeed him.
'I'm just so happy that I'll be with my baby. I don't know how long I'll be at the unit. I'll miss Mark if he's not allowed to stay over - but Ben comes first.'
There's no denying that she and Mark sincerely hope today heralds the start of life as a normal, happy family.
How to Stay Solvent
January 22, 2010
The CAS in Barrie claims it is running out of money and will be closed by
the end of February. I wrote in and suggested they stop spending money on
high priced lawyers to keep families apart. Also to stop spending money on
cars, meals and vacations. It sickens me that the paper didn't bring this
up to begin with. — Melody Blackier on Facebook, January 21.
Here is a video of the police removing
Melody's cousin Natalie (flv) a year and a half ago, and our article Police Remove Girl. How much more
money do they need?
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CAS nearly bankrupt: official
Posted By DOUGLAS GLYNN, Posted January 21, 2010
Simcoe County Children's Aid Society is facing bankruptcy next month and the fate of more than 400 children in its care is uncertain.
"As of Feb. 28, this agency can no longer pay it creditors," said Midland Mayor Jim Downer, a member of the CAS board. "That raises concerns about whether we will be able to pay the people who care for these children. If that happens, there will be nowhere for them to go."
Mary Ballantyne, the CAS's executive director, said the agency "will continue to try and work with government and our creditors to ensure this doesn't happen. It is not in anyone's interest to put Simcoe County children at risk."
The agency -- whose current annual budget is $40,949,211 -- served 10,890 children in 2008-09. As of Dec. 31, 2009, there were 442 children in its care.
Mayor Downer, who sits on the finance committee, says the province increased the agency's workload in 2009-10. "At the same time, it cut funding by 10.4 per cent, or $4.26 million. We re facing a projected $4.9 million shortfall."
In the past when there has been a deficit, he said the province has come in at the 11th hour and erased it. There's no indication of that happening this time.
The 10-year veteran board member says the province doesn't seem to recognize the agency has no control over the caseloads. We're required by the province to look after children who can't look after themselves.
"I watch spending closely. There are no consultants used. We scrutinize spending every month. I know what the staff face on a daily basis. These people work tirelessly, sometimes all hours of the night on emergency calls."
Downer says two things are contributing to the shortfall: a $16 gap in the daily funding for children in foster care and a government requirement to provide more services.
"Simcoe County CAS receives receives $73 a day for a child in care, but the actual costs are $89. We absorb that $16 difference. That amounts to about $2 million a year.
"Children's aid societies in the Greater Toronto Area receive $103 a day for a child in care," he noted, saying that he can't get an explanation of why there is a $30 difference.
"Since the ministry announced funding cutbacks, the Simcoe County CAS has reduced costs by more than $1.2 million.
"We've clawed back everywhere we can," Downer said. "We've frozen some salaries and reduced administration. We've cut to the bone."
For instance, he said the cost for average case in 2008-09 was $7,261, compared with a provincial average of $9,557.
Downer says the province has appointed a three-member commission to advise agencies how they can cut back. While he says the CAS board appreciates the commission's work, he views the move as: "smoke and mirrors."
"The funding shortfall has to be addressed immediately," he said. "Unless it is, Simcoe county's most vulnerable citizens will be at risk."
Simcoe North MPP Garfield Dunlop said he raised the issue in the Legislature in November and was told the government had put money into child care and that there would be no more funding
"It's evident the CAS needs money right now. You won't raise $5 million holding a bake sale. These are programs the Ontario government says the CAS must do.
"This government tells people it can do wonderful things for them. They say they will bring in all-day kindergarten. They have a $25 billion deficit, but will do it anyway.
"Yet," Dunlop added, "when it comes to the most marginalized, most disadvantaged children in the province the same government says there's not enough money to look after them. There's just one contradiction after another. This guy (Premier Dalton McGuinty) has gotta go. His government is out of touch with the public."
Dunlop said he will raise the issue again when the legislature resumes Feb 16, but he is not optimistic the government will act.
Pills for Payukotayno
January 22, 2010
Laurel Broten has responded to the suicide epidemic in Ontario's north. Instead of dealing with the
community problems, she is dispatching four mental health workers to
Payukotayno James and Hudson Bay Family Services. What is the chance that
prescription pill popping will lower the suicide rate?
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CTV Toronto
Northern CAS to get help with suicide 'epidemic'
Updated: Wed Jan. 20 2010 1:41:14 PM, The Associated Press
TORONTO — A struggling Children's Aid Society in northern Ontario will get four new mental health workers to help it deal with what's being called a suicide "epidemic" in the James Bay area.
The province's Ministry of Children and Youth Services has granted a request from Payukotayno James and Hudson Bay Family Services director Ernest Beck for the additional workers, at a price of approximately $400,000.
The four will work with the community and the Children's Aid Society office to try to come up with a way to deal with the growing problem of youth suicide.
Critics have been urging immediate action, saying children who are at risk of being left in abusive homes or contemplating suicide will have no one to turn to.
In December, Payukotayno and the Tikinagan office in Sioux Lookout got a $4.4-million lifeline after the James Bay office warned it would have to close down without more operating funds, despite a growing number of suicides.
Those funds will keep Payukotayno in operation until the end of March while the government works on a longer-term strategy.
NDP critic Gilles Bisson has been calling for a long-term plan to deal with underfunding at other Children's Aid Society offices in the north before similar crises erupt elsewhere.
Children's Aid Societies in several other areas face funding shortfalls, and are contemplating cuts to core services including abuse prevention programs and court-ordered visits to children in foster and residential care in the face of a $67-million shortfall.
Offices such as Centre Jeanne Sauve, which serves the francophone community in Kapuskasing, are also struggling, and threatening to lay off staff by February.
Letter Writing Campaign
January 19, 2010
Dufferin Children's Aid (DCAFS) is urging people to write letters to
premier Dalton McGuinty asking for more funding. Opponents can take the
opportunity to write letters suggesting no additional funding, or even more
cuts. An Orangeville Banner article and one response letter are in the
expand block. This is a chance to show the premier what the real public
sentiment is.
For those who decide to participate, DCAFS has a suggested letter
(MS-Word) and a website for submitting
your letter to the premier. For even more impact, forward a copy of
your letter to [ rtmq at fixcas.com ] for inclusion on this website.
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DCAFS launches ‘pre-emptive’ funding strike
Provincial funding cuts would be “devastating” to children’s mental health programs, warns Dufferin Child and Family Services (DCAFS).
That’s why the agency has set out on a letter-writing campaign aimed to preventing a drop in dollars allocated for the next fiscal year. The campaign runs Jan. 18 to 22.
“It’s pretty important that we at least maintain current services,” said Gloria Campbell, the DCAFS’ program manager for children’s mental health. “We see some kids and families who really are struggling with pretty significant issues.”
For the past two years, DCAFS children’s mental health services have been operating with provincial funding of about $1.28 million. During the past 16 years, the agency said it has received three base-budget increases and no additional funding.
A spokesperson for Laurel Broten, minister of children and youth services, couldn’t be reached for comment, but previously said the province will work with agencies to “manage within the funds they have” and “mitigate” any potential problems.
DCAFS’ children mental health programs include supervised visits and exchanges with non-custodial parents, crisis response and individual counselling — to name a few.
“We’re seeing kids here who are the victim of sexual assault, assault, neglect, we work with kids who have diagnoses of attention problems ... autism, anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder,” Campbell said, noting there are 22 people currently on the waiting list for programs. “Some individuals will wait several months for services. That’s not OK.”
The agency hasn’t heard anything from the province about what to expect in the next budget. But officials are aware of the $25 billion provincial deficit and want to get their message out ahead of any potential cuts to children’s mental health. That’s why they’re asking people to send letters to Premier Dalton McGuinty, Broten and Dufferin-Caledon MPP Sylvia Jones, a member of the official opposition.
“We’re standing up and saying ‘Hey, we’re underfunded for children’s mental health services and please ... at the very least, don’t reduce what you’re giving us’,” Campbell said.
“The letter-writing campaign has gone mostly to people of influence,” she explained, noting several individuals have already written letters of support. “We’re really pleased that our colleagues, business people and individuals in the community are saying ‘Our kids in Dufferin really count’.”
Anyone interested in writing a letter to support DCAFS’ position can find a template letter online at www.dcafs.on.ca.
“We’re hopeful that it will have some impact,” Campbell added. “Our children and our youth are really important and we can’t let them down.”
January 19, 2010
Dalton McGuinty
Premier of Ontario
Room 281, Main Legislative Building, Queens’s Park
Toronto, ON M7A 1A1
Subject: Funding for children's aid
submitted by web form at
https://www.premier.gov.on.ca/feedback/feedback.asp?Lang=EN
Honorable Premier:
I am urging you to maintain the recent cuts in funding
for children's aid societies, or even better, to make
further cuts. The suggestion to write to you came from
Dufferin Child and Family Services, currently organizing
a letter writing campaign for the opposite purpose.
Our family was driven from Dufferin County after a
children's aid worker backed up to two armed policemen
seized our three-year-old son from our home. While we
got our son back, dozens of other families in Dufferin
were not so fortunate. In the course of conducting a
membership drive to get policy or management changes for
children's aid, I spoke to hundreds of affected
families. It is rare for a children's aid intervention
to improve the condition of a child. The best solution
would be to reduce the funding of these monsters to
zero, or, if you are unwilling to contemplate such a
drastic change, then lowering their funding as far as is
possible.
I leave intact the last paragraph of the letter as
suggested by Dufferin Children's Aid, below:
We need you, Premier McGuinty, to address this funding
situation in fair and adequate ways. We cannot fail our
young people.
Sincerely,
Robert T McQuaid
558 McMartin Road
Mattawa Ontario P0H 1V0
phone: 705-744-6274
email: rtmq@fixcas.com
cc:
mcsmin@mcys.gov.on.ca
( Laurel Broten, Minister, Children and Youth Services )
sylvia.jonesco@pc.ola.org
( Sylvia Jones, MPP, Dufferin-Caledon )
Addendum: As part of her fund-raising effort,
Dufferin Children's Aid executive director Trish Keachie addressed a letter (pdf, local copy) to persons
she described with: "You are an influential community member". Dufferin
VOCA did not receive a signed copy.
No Gifts for Florida Foster Kids
January 19, 2010
Kristie Feliz Smith, a worker with an agency overseeing children in
Florida custody, has been arrested for stealing gift cards intended for
Christmas gifts for foster children.
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Ex-social worker spent gift cards meant for kids, cops say
By JOSH POLTILOVE | The Tampa Tribune, Published: January 19, 2010, Updated: 04:06 pm
Kristie Smith
An employee for an agency that oversees thousands of children in state custody was supposed to mail Walmart gift cards to foster families.
Instead, she used several of the gift cards for her own purchases, Tampa police say.
Officers arrested Kristie Feliz Smith, 23, Thursday morning and charged the Hillsborough Kids Inc. employee with third-degree grand theft.
Smith was supposed to mail gift cards so foster families could buy items for children, police say, but 13 gift cards earmarked for foster families were not received.
In October, Smith was captured on a New Tampa Walmart's surveillance cameras making a purchase with six of her employer's gift cards, buying $288.13 in personal items, Tampa police say. Another gift card was used at a Walmart at Florida Avenue and Busch Boulevard, and another was used at a Walmart at Dale Mabry Highway and Bearss Avenue.
Five gift cards were deactivated before purchases were made.
Smith told officers she had used the gift cards at the New Tampa Walmart but that she thought they were cards her mother had sent her, an arrest report states. She also said she had been responsible for mailing the foster parents the envelopes that didn't contain gift cards.
Police say Smith had reimbursed Hillsborough Kids Inc. for $400, the value of eight gift cards, but she denied having shopped at two of the three Walmarts.
Smith, who became a full-time employee of Hillsborough Kids in August, served as an administrative assistant, said Ed Savitz, the agency's general counsel. She is no longer employed by the agency.
Smith has been released from jail on $2,000 bail.
Reporter Josh Poltilove can be reached at (813) 259-7691.
OACAS Overwhelmed by Critics
January 18, 2010
OACAS has created an open Facebook fan page in connection with the I Am You
Children's Aid campaign, for supportive messages. Instead, it has been
overwhelmed by angry parents and foster children.
Addendum: From another open Facebook site:
Chris York The CAS fan site is now deleting people and blocking them from posting as well as deleting posts of people who do not agree with their ways. I was one of those people. All of the info I posted was true but they don't want the truth to come out. Well WE WILL NOT BE SILENCED.
Volunteer Supervisors Wanted
January 17, 2010
Hey teenagers! Do you want practice bossing adults around? Once you are
18, you can volunteer to help Durham Children's Services. You get to tell
parents that they are not allowed to question their children about new
bruises. You will also have to stop parents who try to say they love their
children. Sorry, Children's Services is too cheap to pay for this work.
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Volunteers needed to supervise parent and child visits in Oshawa
Jan 08, 2010 - 10:13 AM
DURHAM -- Volunteers are needed to supervise visits between children affected by separation or divorce, and their non-custodial parents, as part of the Durham Supervised Access Program.
The program aims to help children and parents build and maintain relationships in a safe, neutral, group setting.
Volunteers must be 18 or older, enjoy working with children and be empathetic to the needs of separated or divorced families.
Visits are two hours in length and take place in Oshawa on Tuesday and Thursday evenings and Sunday afternoons. Ongoing training is available to all volunteers, and the amount of time volunteered can be tailored to each person's schedule.
For more information, call 905-619-4565 ext. 318.
Call to Former Alberta Wards
January 17, 2010
In a lawsuit on behalf of former foster children, Alberta is resisting
disclosure of names to the plaintiffs, claiming to protect former wards by
hiding them. If you are a former ward of Alberta, you can help by making
contact with John Dunn, details in the expand block.
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Friday, January 08, 2010
Alberta Government Hiding Behind Child Welfare Confidentiality in Legal Matter
In Short. Lawyer in Alberta initiates class action lawsuit against Alberta Government on behalf of foster children who suffered damages while in foster care. Government tries to say kids in care want their privacy respected and won't give names and addresses to lawyer to join the suit because they will not want to reveal their personal information to a lawyer and the lawyer needs all the support he can get in the form of former and current foster kids swearing affidavits that say otherwise.
We want to hear from you, if you are a current or former ward or foster child, and if you would help our fellow foster brothers and sisters in that province by simply swearing an affidavit stating that you as a current or former foster child would have no problem giving your identifying information and address to the class action lawyer and to the court so that you could possibly win financial or other awards if your case were won.
Don't let this particular government hide behind legislation that was put in place to protect kids in care, not to provide a wall for officials to hide behind.
Spread the word about this post to everyone you know. We need as many affidavits signed as possible.
IF you want to contact
John Dunn
613-220-1039
johndunn@afterfostercare.ca
Posted by afterfostercare at 5:11 PM
Bayne Trial Opens
January 16, 2010
The Bayne trial has opened in British Columbia. The opening testimony
showed that the intitial complaint came from a former family friend forced
into the position of competitor when the Baynes opened a music business.
The press is not using the name "Bayne".
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Surrey couple challenge shaken baby allegation
Last Updated: Thursday, January 14, 2010 | 2:51 PM PT, CBC News
A Surrey B.C. couple accused of shaking their baby girl are taking their case to court to try to prove she has a medical disorder, in an attempt regain custody of their three children.
The couple's three children were taken away by the B.C. Ministry of Children and Families 2½ years ago after the allegation of abuse first arose.
The two boys, aged four and three, and the girl, who was just a baby at the time, have since been placed in foster care.
Outside a courthouse on Wednesday the couple, who have never been charged in the case, said their girl was never abused.
"We've asked for a second medical review and the ministry stated that they weren't interested in seeking that," said the mother, who can't be named because of a court-ordered publication ban that restricts any information that might identify the children involved.
"From the start, we have been in an uphill battle to prove our innocence, because we did not shake our baby. We did not harm any of our children," she said.
They claim the girl suffers from a rare medical condition and they have expert opinions to back them up, which they intend to present in court.
"We do know that we have 10 medical experts that have submitted reports that state that it's not shaken baby," said the mother.
Ministry documents back claims
The couple said they obtained internal documents last spring from the ministry which they say indicate their daughter likely suffers glutaric aciduria, a rare disease often mistaken for child abuse, because it can result in swelling of the brain and bleeding.
They said one of their sons tripped over the girl, which combined with the rare disease, led to a misdiagnosis of abuse.
But on Wednesday the court heard from two witnesses who originally informed the court about their suspicions that the couple's children were being abused.
Pastor Michael Hoffman and his wife Elizabeth were in charge of a church in Hope and were friends with the couple at the time.
Michael Hoffman advised police that based on psychology classes that he took at seminary that he believed the mother was suffering from post-partum depression and that she had Munchausen's syndrome by proxy, an uncommon condition in which a person harms another in order to gain attention.
The pastor's wife testified that the two boys seemed small for their age and that the little girl started looking increasingly listless.
But it also came out in court that both couples had started running rival businesses offering music lessons and their friendship deteriorated around the time the baby girl was born.
The parents who work as night janitors have hired high-profile defence lawyer Doug Christie to represent them in court.
Outside court on Wednesday, Christie said many parents often lack the resources to fight allegations of abuse.
"[It is] very difficult emotionally for parents who are innocent — and there are some — and that's what this case is about. All the power it seems to me is on the side of state in these cases," said Christie.
"Many experts and many doctors make their entire living working for government authorities and the case of Dr. Charles Smith in Ontario has demonstrated how dangerous that can be," he said, referring to the case of a doctor who was found to have falsely testified in a large number of court cases.
"People were put in jail for accusations of shaken baby syndrome and those people have served time for crimes they did not commit. That's why this becomes a very serious matter when you make allegations of this kind and base it entirely on opinion evidence," said Christie.
Support found online
The couple said they have received a lot of support from an online campaign they have been running, using Facebook, Twitter and blogs, and from a recent fundraiser.
"We're just glad that after two-plus years we're finally able to come before the court and present our medical evidence that we do have … and we are praying that at the end of the day the truth will come out and our children will be restored to our home," said the mother.
Since their children were taken away, the couple said they have only had limited visitation rights.
"Six hours a week is absolutely nothing … the visitations are actually quite hostile. We have been in every visitation supervised," said the mother.
"They have actually lost weight. They are actually about five pounds lighter than when this thing first started all this," said the father, referring to the boys.
" We are devastated by all the time we miss with her," said the mother, referring to her daughter.
The court hearing is expected to take three weeks.
Addendum: The crown application for a publication
ban failed. Zabeth reports on the cross-examination of crown witnesses.
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To All Our Supporters,
I want to apologize that I have not written everyone much as court has
placed heavy demands on me in assisting Doug Christie our lawyer with the
evidence he needs as he cross examines the Ministry witnesses. I thought
you might be interested in the developments today as the Ministry tried to
place an application on a publicity ban I think you call it due to the CBC
story on the 13th.
Doug Christie opposed and was quite passionate about the subject. He
presented on the spur of the moment a good 15 plus minute speech on the
rights of the public to be informed. He could provide a more in depth
outline of his presentation. One of his arguments was that the media had
the right to participate and defend their position on reporting and for
the Judge to decide after 15 minutes of receiving an oral application with
no hearing was doing the justice system no good.
The Judge adjourned for about 30 minutes to decide and when he returned
he stated that he was not going to approve the application this quickly as
he felt that the decision to ban media from reporting on this case would
not only effect this case but others that could come after this one. If
the Ministry decided they still wished to proceed with the application
then the media would need to have notice to defend their position in this.
Finn Jensen MCFD counsel stood and told the court that they would not
proceed with the application to ban publicity from media on this case.
Dismissed.
There is no ban and Doug Christie defended the rights of the media to
report and the people to be informed.
This is interesting as the MCFD lawyer quoted from the Act where it was
an offense for participants (he thought we were quoting the Hoffmans, but
your reporter sat in) to inform the media of proceedings from child
protection hearings. For there to be no ban in this case may open more
doorways for better accountability through public exposure of the family
court system.
An update from the MCFD cross examination:
On Thursday, Doug Christie cross examined team leader Berhe Gulbot.
Under cross examination Berhe Gulbot agreed that he had a duty through his
office to only present accurate and reliable information to the court. He
agreed that he had a duty to inform the court of any information that he
finds is false. Then under cross examination he was exposed to have
submitted false information to the court records, which was relied upon to
make the decision to remove all three children. He agreed that he knew
the correct information prior to completing the court forms. Doug
Christie suggested to him that he included false information in order to
ensure he received the Interim Order he was seeking.
Other information includes, the MCFD is in confusion over how many
experts reports they have. Previous communications prove ten reports were
sent to the MCFD. Confirmation of nine reports has come in from MCFD
counsel to be followed by counsel stating they have only six reports and
then followed in court today by counsel stating they have only four
reports and that their Dr. Colbourne has only seen four reports, yet in a
previous email they state she has seen six. Doug Christie has requested
they procure all ten reports and submit them to the court.
The MCFD has now retained Dr. Randell Alexander for a second medical
opinion. He was key organizer of the event in Vancouver with the National
Center For Shaken Baby Syndrome in Oct 08. He was presented as being an
independent review but yet research reveals that he and Dr. Colbourne
have long participated in these events and in this organization for many
years. They also have participated in many "mock trials" in which a Judge
participates and they learn how to prove the parent or guardian as guilty.
You see they do not believe that there are any other differential
diagnosis even in light of the Goudge Inquiry which had an opportunity to
review the changing science in a medical legal setting.
Berhe Gulbot states that they have attended his events and that he
believes in these positions regardless of how much he has read about the
Goudge Inquiry. He believes in anything Dr. Colbourne tells him and
finds any other expert without credibility. He went so far as to call the
parents liars on the stand and tried to apologize - too late - his heart
and mindset was revealed under oath. Since the onset of this case it has
been the intention of the Ministry to solely seek a confession and in
taking this position they have ignored the explanation of accidental
injury and the subsequent ten experts who upon review support this
explanation. In court it was also discovered that in taking this position
they did not follow up with the many others who know us and had written
their support and confidence in our family, skills as parents and members
of the community and church.
Berhe Gulbot has been led through testimony from his counsel on
Thursday morning and then cross examined by Doug Christie for the next day
and a half. Doug Christie's reputation for "body slamming" his questions
at the witness were not understatements.
Please keep us in your prayers as we continue to prepare for the next
court sessions. Further to that our needs have expanded as we have been
told by our lawyer to either quit work or take a leave for one month or we
will not be able to assist him properly and will be too tired. He has
told us that he wants us to stay in the Hotel near the courthouse he will
be in during the trial dates and the room will have a extra meeting room
in it for us to prepare each morning and evening with him. I will have to
talk to our employer about this so please pray that following the trial we
can continue in our work or that God provides something else.
Those of you that have been supporting us - thank you - and if there is
any way that your support can continue to assist us through this time as
with the lack of employment we will need to continue to keep our home as
well as cover living expenses. On top of this we have an excellent lawyer
who has proved these past three days that he is definitely up to the task.
God has answered our prayers and sent us Doug Christie. Please help us
support him.
Thank you,
Zabeth Bayne
I Am Your Children's Aid
January 16, 2010
The Ontario Association of Children's Aid Societies is pulling out all
stops to change its image. They will be returning all children removed by
force from Ontario mothers and fathers. Oops, better start over.
The Ontario Association of Children's Aid Societies is pulling out all
stops to change its image. They are running an advertising campaign titled:
"I Am Your Children's Aid". The campaign has been
under development for two years, and features thirteen people telling their
stories, nine of them recipients of money or children from children's aid.
It took two years to find three graduates and one mother willing to say good
things about children's aid.
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CAS campaign aims to change people's perspective
Posted By JASON MILLER THE INTELLIGENCER, January 13, 2010
The Ontario Association of Children's Aid Societies is pulling out all stops to change its image.
Hastings CAS executive director Len Kennedy said the OACAS has launched a provincial campaign dubbed "I Am Your Children's Aid," aimed at shifting the perception and securing more public support for Ontario's Children's Aid Societies.
"It's been two years in the development and finally it's starting to be rolled out," Kennedy said during Wednesday's CAS board meeting. "It's a provincial strategy we supported from the outset, has been needed to help communities understand the important work children's aid societies do."
He said the advertising blitz hitting airwaves across the province this month will enable more public transparency and ease the increased media scrutiny of the agency, blasted for been unable to tackle its $67 million shortfall.
The campaign was launched after a two-year market research study started in 2007 discovered the work of Ontario's child welfare agencies is recognized by most Ontarians, but the message from CASs is not resonating, Kennedy explained.
He said the study also revealed the work done by CASs is not well understood by most Ontarians and the work done by child welfare professionals remains obscure.
The survey of 800 Ontarians showed that 87 per cent of Ontarians know that CAS places children in foster homes but just 54 per cent know that agencies also place children in adoptive families.
The ads are currently being run on television networks such as Global and print outlets such as the Globe and Mail. Kennedy said the same ads can be heard and seen locally in The Intelligencer, on CKWS Television, and a string of radio stations.
The stories used in the ads will be told through the experiences of children, youth in care, foster parents and workers in 30 second sound bites, Kennedy said.
While the local CAS is not in a dire financial situation, Kennedy said other agencies across the sector are battling an uncertain future.
He said the ads are aimed at getting people more involved with agencies across the province. He said there has been an evolution of thinking through all the member agencies that the CAS has to take some responsibility for its brand and profile.
"Market research told us that people don't understand enough about what we do or have a full impression of the kind of things that we are involved in," he said. "We needed to invest more effort and some resources in getting the word out there."
Kennedy said ideally there should be a local component morphed into the current advertising blitz to put emphasis on stories in our region. He conceded there is currently no production money to bring these local stories to life.
"We might see if there is a way to find some local stories to supplement the provincial advertisements," he said. "Maybe there is some modest projects we can do to get a couple of short video or audio clips developed."
jmiller@intelligencer.ca
Anonymous Inquest
January 16, 2010
An Ontario ministry has announced an inquest into the death of an unnamed
child who died on December 15, 2005. That is the day Matthew Reid died.
Previous stores on Reid are:
in 2005:
Dec 18,
Dec 19,
Dec 26.
in 2007:
Jan 23,
Jan 25,
Jun 28,
Aug 29,
Oct 23.
Of the 90 (or only 54) children who die in CAS care annually, this is the
only one in five years to come to an inquest. Ordinarily, children's aid
suppresses unfavorable stories with threats of litigation. Through
circumstances unknown, it looks like the Welland Tribune managed to get this
story into print before CAS could intervene.
Experience with other inquests before 2005 allows a forecast of the
results. The jury will return a set of recommendations written by social
services, all proposing more money and power for children's aid.
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Inquest into the death of a child announced
TORONTO, Jan. 14 /CNW/ - Dr. Bonita Porter, Deputy Chief Coroner for Inquests, today announced that an inquest will be held into the death of a child.
The three-year-old child died on December 15, 2005, at the Welland General Hospital while in foster care.
The inquest will examine the events surrounding the child's death and the jury may make recommendations aimed at preventing similar deaths.
The inquest is expected to last three weeks and will hear from approximately 30 witnesses.
The inquest will begin at 9:30 a.m. on Monday, February 1, 2010, at the Quality Hotel Parkway Conference Centre, Concord Ballroom, 327 Ontario Street, St. Catharines. Dr. James Edwards will preside as inquest coroner and Mr. Eric Siebenmorgen will be counsel to the coroner.
For further information: Dr. Bonita Porter, Deputy Chief Coroner for Inquests, Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services, (416) 314-4000
Ontario Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services
Wonderful Children's Aid
January 12, 2010
While children's aid societies are complaining of the need to eliminate
"services" on account of funding cuts, their trade association and lobby
group, the Ontario Association of Children's Aid Societies (OACAS), has
taken funds from childcare to finance an ad campaign promoting children's
aid. Three of the radio ads are available here:
Candy,
Reena and
Marian.
There are also eleven print ads:
Chantell,
George ,
Reena ,
Orlena ,
Candy ,
Nandita ,
Jennifer,
Linda ,
Connie ,
Nick and
Jessica .
All of the ads direct you to the website Use your voice for more information. The
website has six video ads on YouTube, but each produces only the message:
"This video has been removed by the user". John Shipman reports ironically
that he has seen the tv ads only on the Comedy Network. The propaganda
extends to the About
Us page, where we read: "Each year, Children’s Aid in Ontario responds
to more than 155,000 calls from concerned members of the community about the
possible abuse and neglect of children and youth". According to Statistics Canada, Ontario had only 140,255 births in the most recent
year. All children are under watch.
A reality check shows that these ads are silly fantasies. Since no full
names are given, it is impossible to independently check the facts. They
make no mention of the 90 (or is it only 54?) children who die annually in CAS care, or
numerous other failings such as in our satirical list of duties for a CAS executive
director. Are you someone who can afford to run counter-advertisements,
telling the real story? Sorry, no Ontario publication will run such an ad,
out of fear of litigation by children's aid. The very first posting to this
news blog is of a newspaper turning down
such an ad. More recently, the Toronto Sun refused to run a small
classified ad in the personals section asking for reports from persons who
have had a family member die in children's aid care.
Addendum: Here are the tv ads:
All of the ads end by asking you to get involved with your children's
aid. John Dunn has been rebuffed for years in his efforts to get involved,
and he is now on his second prosecution of children's aid for a provincial
offence. He suggests that all Ontarians respond to the ads by applying for
membership in their local children's aid society.
Altered Transcripts Wanted
January 11, 2010
Sean Slaven wants to hear about cases of altered court transcripts. You
can respond to the email at the end of the enclosed letter.
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| From: | Sean Slaven
| | To: | ... yahoogroups.com
| | Subject: | Wrong doings?
| | Date sent: | Sun, 10 Jan 2010 12:11:41 -0800 (PST)
|
I have been approached by a reporter of one of our nationals regarding wrong doings within the court system.
He is looking for cases where transcripts have been altered etc etc.
This is not just related to family court but I know there have been a lot of wrong doings within the family court.
I will be presenting my findings to a university class that is studying investigative journalism as this is a subject they have decided to study.
I think there is a good opportunity here to bring some of our issues to the youth of our country as they will be the ones that will bring about the much needed changes to our judicial system.
Anyone with input please contact me on or off list.
Thanks for your support
SS email: [ seanslaven at yahoo.ca ]
Who Needs Fire Alarms?
January 11, 2010
In a CAS proclaimed "place of safety" there were two fires within hours,
and the fire alarms failed, requiring door-to-door notification of
residents. The home operator Pathways has a self-promotional website.
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Up in SMOKE! CAS group home (Pathways in Markham) destroyed after kids report that fire alarms not working in the CAS facility
(January 7, 2009) Residents of a CAS approved group home in Markam called Pathways have contacted Court Watch to advise that the group home at 65 Oakley Rd. in Markham was destroyed after two separate fires only hours apart forced kids to flee the facility. Some were only in their underwear when they escaped the burning building. What is most shocking is that the fire alarms at the CAS group home were not working and the only way in which sleeping kids were alerted to the presence of the out of control fire was by knocks on their doors by other residents. While CAS agencies claim to be placing children in safe places, questions must be asked as to why the fire alarms were not working. How many other foster homes and group homes in the Province of Ontario have faulty fire detection equipment?
No Good Dad Goes Unpunished
January 9, 2010
When a group of people tried to take a baby from father Chad Thomas he
responded in the manner of a protective guardian — he defended her
with his life. Unfortunately, the group of child snatchers included
children's aid workers, making his heroic stance criminal. Children's aid
is keeping his daughter.
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Peterborough Examiner
Posted January 9 2010
DAD GUILTY OF THREATS
Grasping his baby daughter in his hands, 20-year-old Chad Thomas threatened Children's Aid Society workers and told police they would have to shoot him if they wanted to take away his child.
Thomas pleaded guilty yesterday in Ontario Court of Justice to two counts of threatening death.
Mr. Justice Robert Graydon gave him a suspended sentence and 18 months of probation.
Two CAS workers went to Thomas's Crawford Dr. home May 19 to take away his daughter, court heard.
Thomas reacted aggressively and threatened to kill both workers. When police arrived he told them they would have to put a bullet in his head to remove the baby from the home, court heard.
The child remains in CAS custody, court heard.
Thomas told court he wanted to get his life back on track and provide for his family.
Immaculate Rejection
January 9, 2010
When unemployed, disabled mother Laura Traversy asked for help getting
Christmas toys and clothing for her two children, St Thomas-Elgin children's
aid turned her down because her home was too nice. Adding to the irony,
Laura is a former crown ward, so the rejection came from her own (legal)
parent.
She could have left a pile of clothes in the laundry room, a spoiled food
item in the fridge and fresh poo in the catbox, but then she would be
fighting for her kids now. There is no right home for children's aid.
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Home too nice, agency claims
ST. THOMAS: Laid-off mother of two astounded by refusal to provide Christmas help
By KYLE REA, QMI AGENCY
Last Updated: 8th January 2010, 9:45am
Laura Traversy, 34, of St. Thomas is upset after agents with Family and Children's Services of St. Thomas-Elgin refused to provide Christmas help for the laid-off mother and her family. (KYLE REA, QMI Agency)
ST. THOMAS -- The day before Christmas, Laura Traversy was sure she was getting some help from Family and Children's Services of St. Thomas-Elgin to give her children a merry Christmas.
The 34-year-old laid off mother of two was referred to the local agency by Christmas Care for some assistance with toys and clothing for her children, ages 13 and 15. Instead of gifts, the 34-year-old St. Thomas woman said inspectors arrived and turned down her request, saying her home was "too nice" and she was "too well-off" to receive aid.
Traversy worked for eight years as a temporary worker for Presstran and Formet and was set to be hired on full time earlier this year, before layoffs hit. Now unemployed and on disability, she wanted to provide her children with a good holiday season and turned to Christmas Care for a bit of help.
She was referred to Family and Children's Services (FACS) and told they adopt families for Christmas.
Traversy was initially told no help was available, but then received a call from a woman she identified as "Jennifer" who asked what her children wanted and their clothing sizes, among other questions.
"She said she would get back to me and everything would be OK," Traversy said. "Come the day before Christmas, I still hadn't heard anything back. I started panicking."
Traversy noted she got in touch with "Jennifer," who informed her staff would be there in an hour with gifts for her children.
Instead of presents, two workers arrived and began inspecting her apartment.
"They investigated me like I had done something wrong."
When they were done their inspection, Traversy said she was told no help would be available.
"(They) told me I was too well off to need anything," she explained, adding she was also informed, "I keep too nice of a home to be in need."
The inspection, and results, stunned Traversy. She said she keeps her house neat and tidy and does have some items, such as an eight-year-old TV.
"Am I supposed to go and sell my TV to buy my kids something for Christmas?"
Originally a ward of the Crown, Traversy has dealt with Children's Aid her entire life and previously acted as a foster parent.
"They've known me my whole life, I have nothing to hide."
Dawn Flegel, director of services for Family and Children's Services, said she couldn't comment on Traversy's situation, citing confidentiality rules.
She said FACS does run a limited Christmas assistance program, but only if someone has an open and active case with the agency.
Replace CAS
January 8, 2010
Six Nations is resuming efforts to develop its own child protection
system, replacing children's aid, though at a slower pace than desired by
the grassroots.
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Six Nations to develop own child protection system
Posted By SUSAN GAMBLE, Posted 7 hours ago
Six Nations band council has renewed a plan to ease the Children's Aid Society off the reserve.
Council this week voted to approve a working group that will look into what's needed to develop a Six Nations child protection agency.
"It's still going to be a long process," Coun. Carl Hill said Thursday.
Hill, chair of the social service committee, said that, although previous groups have researched what's needed to protect Six Nations' children without the help of the CAS, it's necessary to "go back to Square 1" on the project.
The proposed working group will include clanmothers, community members and representatives from social services agencies.
"We have to go out to the community and start with input. I don't see the CAS going anywhere too soon but this is a start for us."
That's not good news for some on the reserve who have been actively lobbying to have the CAS removed from the territory.
Some traditional Confederacy supporters and several clanmothers have advocated having the clanmothers take over their traditional responsibilities in the protection of children. A petition being that started circulating last the fall demanded that the CAS immediately get off the reserve.
"We wouldn't have anything in place if they were removed tomorrow," said Hill.
"They still need to be involved because we want to protect our kids but we have the capacity to do it ourselves."
Andrew Koster, executive director of the CAS in Brantford, agreed that Six Nations should eventually take over the responsibilities.
"Our agency is mandated to provide a service and we have to follow the protocol and ensure Six Nations follows what the government demands we do to protect children. But we expect the day will come when our expertise will be transferred to Six Nations' hands."
Currently, there are about 40 CAS workers on the reserve and almost all are aboriginal but some are not from Six Nations.
Koster said the CAS has been working toward a goal of seeing Six Nations take total responsibility for its children but government changes have stymied the process at times.
He said didn't know about band council's recommendation this week but added that he respects the process Six Nations is exploring.
"We want them to run their own child welfare system and we could be a big help to them in establishing the process."
Ottawa Delay
January 7, 2010
In the provincial offence prosecution of Ottawa children's aid by John
Dunn, CAS again pulled out its favorite weapon: delay. The matter has been
adjourned to February 11.
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Thursday, January 07, 2010
CAS Charges - 1st Appearance - Adjourned Feb 11, 2010
Note: The Pros and Cons of this Outcome so far
- Cons: CAS Not Held Accountable for illegal activity yet again
- Pros: Letter gets to members at no cost to requestor (think fifty+ photo-copies of two or more page letter, stamps, envelopes etc.)
Society counsel appeared at court today for first appearance on the charges against them and their Executive Director Barbara MacKinnon under the Corporations Act. Once at court, Society counsel requested to speak to the Crown regarding the matter. The Crown invited John Dunn into the room as well in order to ensure fairness of the process to all parties.
CAS Counsel finally discussed their reason for why they are choosing to violate the provision of the Corporations Act which enables any person to request a list of the members by refusing to furnish the list. The reason stated by Society counsel was that they feel John Dunn would use the list of members to bombard them with e-mails which are unrelated to the actual purpose for the request because of the fact that he has had continuous communications with the Society on many issues.
John Dunn clarified the fact that he has sworn an affidavit to only use the list for purposes connected with the Corporation as allowed under the Act and only for that one purpose each time a request is legally made and that the members are protected by law from him abusing the use of that list.
John Dunn's ultimate purpose in requesting the list is not just to have the list itself, but for the purpose of communicating with the members so that he can ask them to call a meeting of the Board members to vote on a by-law amendment.
Since this is, and always has been John Dunn's intended and expressed purpose for requesting the list of the Society's members as opposed to just prosecuting the Society for violating the Act, regardless of how much John Dunn feels the Society should be prosecuted for this violation of the Act, a long discussion was held for the purpose of letting Society counsel go back to his client (the Society) for the purpose of obtaining instruction as to whether they will again resolve the matter as was done for the similar request in February of 2007.
In that matter, the resolution of the problem was to have the Crown receive the list of members from the Society in the form of pre-printed, postage-paid envelopes with the addresses of all members printed on them, and for John Dunn to send his letter of advocacy to the members.
The letter of advocacy would be sent to the members in the hope of having them agree to request the Board of Directors to call a meeting of the members as allowed under section 295 of the Corporations Act, for the purpose of having them vote on amending the Society's By-Laws to create a new class of members, other than the existing regular and honorary memberships, that would include former wards of that Society, regardless of where they live, so that they can have a legally protected voice in the affairs of the Society since they are the people who lived under it as children and would have an interest in bringing changes to that Society's policies and practices.
The Society's Counsel requested an adjournment of approximately one month to which John Dunn agreed, setting the next appearance at court for the matter to be spoken to as February 11, 2010, 1:30pm in Court room 2010.
Posted by afterfostercare at 3:33 PM
Arrested for Education
January 7, 2010
A homeschooling family in New York state has been arrested. They did not
have the right approvals on official forms. A news story and cleverly
headlined commentary by William N Grigg are enclosed.
When parents tell others of their homeschooling, the most common response
is some question relating to the required approval from authorities.
Several generations of public education have fostered the attitude that
schools, not parents, are primarily responsible for the education of
children. It's not just holier-than-thou bureaucrats.
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Richard Cressy
Margie Cressy
Parents arrested for failing to register home-schooled kids
January 04, 2010 3:33 PM, Marci Natale / Michelle Kim
FONDA -- A Montgomery County couple has been arrested on child endangerment charges for failing to register their children with the school district as they were home-schooled, the Montgomery County Sheriff's Office said Monday.
Richard Cressy, 47, and Margie Cressy, 41, both of the town of Glen, never registered their four children or their home-schooling curriculum with the local school district, said the Sheriff's Office.
The Superintendent of the Fonda-Fultonville Central School District, Richard Hoffman, confirmed the four children, ranging in age from 8 to 14, had not been registered with the school district for the last seven years.
"From what I can gather, it sounds like there was education going on, so I don't know if they really slipped through the cracks," Hoffman said, "[but] they didn't fulfill their legal responsibility to file with the school district to be home-schooled."
Under state law, parents who choose to home school their children must register their curriculum with the local school district superintendent. The Cressys never submitted one in the seven years they lived in the Fonda-Fultonville Central School District, according to the Montgomery County Sheriff's Office, which began investigating the parents after receiving an anonymous tip.
The Cressys were issued appearance tickets to appear in the Town of Glen Court on Jan. 26. The case has been turned over to the Montgomery County District Attorney and the Child Protective Unit.
Hoffman said the Cressys have since submitted a home-schooling curriculum, which he has approved.
January 5, 2010
All Your Kids Are Belong to Us
Posted by William Grigg on January 5, 2010 11:53 PM
Richard and Margie Cressy, homeschooling parents of four children who live in Glenn, New York, were assaulted and kidnapped by local tax-feeders for the supposed crime of educating their children at home without receiving the required benediction from the local high priest of the educrat cult.
That’s how this story should be reported. The court stenographers for Leviathan’s regional appendage described those events as follows:
“A Montgomery County couple has been arrested on child endangerment charges for failing to register their children with the school district as they were home-schooled, the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office said Monday.”
Under the pernicious doctrine of parens patriae, the default assumption is that children belong to the State. Under that scheme parents (whether biological or adopted) are granted the highly conditional privilege of feeding, housing, and otherwise caring for children unless and until the State claims them as its own.
In the story broadcast by WRGB, Albany’s ABC affiliate, the parents are treated as entirely incidental to the matter of educating their own offspring. The epicene newsreader exudes incredulous disapproval as he observes that the Cresys “failed to register” their children with the school district seven years ago.
“How was this allowed to happen? Who should be held accountable?” demands the anchorperson, handing the baton to a correspondent who asks the local education commissar if these children “fell through the cracks.” The “news” clip is entitled “Homeschooled or Forgotten?” — conveying the message that children who are raised, educated, and cared for by parents without the State’s blessing are neglected by definition.
In classic totalitarian police state fashion, the Cressys were arrested on the basis of an anonymous tip.
“So who should be held accountable?” the correspondent-cum-prosecutor asks an unidentified police officer near the end of the clip.
“Well, the parents,” replies the officer, a tax-feeder of ample carriage. “It’s not the school’s fault; the schools are doing the right thing trying to get the parents to file the proper paperwork, which they have now.”
The “law” requires that certain forms be filled out and disfigured with specific official signatures. No actual crime was committed here, of course, but like the Vogons who populate Douglas Adams’s neo-Swiftian sci-fi novels — an interstellar race of intellectually torpid, morbidly obese bureaucrats — the county mis-education establishment and its enforcers were willing to kill (if “necessary”) two parents and steal their children because the “necessary” paperwork hadn’t been filled out.
Foster Death
January 7, 2010
A nameless foster boy has died in northern Manitoba. If this case comes
up again without a name, we will refer to this boy as Iskotew.
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2nd body found in house fire rubble
11-year-old boy reported missing Monday may have been in the house
Last Updated: Wednesday, January 6, 2010 | 9:03 PM CT, CBC News
RCMP remained at the scene of a fatal fire in Shamattawa on Wednesday. The home burned down on Saturday, but human remains weren't discovered until Tuesday. (CBC)
The remains of a second person have been found in the rubble of a weekend house fire in Shamattawa, a remote First Nations community in northern Manitoba.
A search through the debris will continue Wednesday but there are no reports of missing persons in the community just south of Hudson Bay, the RCMP said. A house-to-house search was being conducted in hopes of identifying who the second person is.
The remains of two people have been found in the rubble of a house fire on the Shamattawa First Nation in northern Manitoba. (CBC)
A body was found in the rubble Tuesday. An autopsy has yet to be performed but RCMP suspect it is that of an 11-year-old boy reported missing on Monday.
An autopsy to identify the remains of the second body is also being arranged, but Sgt. Line Karpish admitted it will be a challenge.
"It's quite difficult to identify the body with no starting point. The body is burned beyond recognition," she said.
"Either dental records or DNA will be used."
The fire, which destroyed the home, broke out at about 4 a.m. on Jan. 2, the RCMP said. Initially it was believed nobody was in the residence but on the evening of Jan. 4, the RCMP were notified by a band councillor about the 11-year-old, who had been staying at the home with his grandparents.
Other recent fire deaths on Manitoba First Nations
- March 2008: Three boys aged three, four and five and their uncle, 57, are killed in a fire on Pukatawagan.
- November 2008: Two men, aged 38 and 62, die in a fire on Sagkeeng.
- February 2009: A nine-year-old girl dies in a house fire on Sandy Bay.
- May 2009: A five-year-old boy dies in a house fire on Sandy Bay.
- Jan. 1, 2010: A man, believed to be 26 years old, dies in a fire on God's Lake Narrows.
The RCMP along with local band constables and councillors tried to find the boy in the community but were unsuccessful. RCMP officers and representatives from the Manitoba Office of the Fire Commissioner then searched the rubble and found human remains on Tuesday.
They continued to search through the rubble and discovered the remains of a second person later the same day.
Searching through the rubble was a challenge because the water supply to the home was not shut off immediately after the fire. As a result, the water kept running froze over the rubble, RCMP said.
Police have erected a tent over the site in an attempt to thaw it out and further examine it.
Boy in care of Child and Family Services
Pharoah Thomas, a Pentecostal pastor in the community, said Tuesday the 11-year-old boy was in the care of the Awasis Child and Family Services (CFS) agency and was home for a family visit during the holidays.
The Awasis Child and Family Services agency office located on the Shamattawa First Nation. (www.kitayan.ca)
According to members of the community, the boy was staying at the house with his grandparents.
Thomas told CBC News on Tuesday that he received a phone call early Saturday from a woman saying it would be the last time he ever heard from her and asked him to watch over her son. Then she hung up.
Thomas ran to the woman's home to try to find her and said he saw smoke.
He said he kicked the door open and crawled inside, feeling around in the dark. He tried to check all the bedrooms but the heat and flames drove him back before he was able to enter the last one, he said.
He hollered but received no response, and then got out of the house.
Of 66 kids in the community in the care of CFS, all but one has been accounted for, First Nations officials said.
Child welfare officials said proper protocols were followed in the boy's case, but there may have been a miscommunication between the boy's foster home and his grandparents.
"There's no evidence that the standards were not followed as far as looking for a child that may be missing that is in care," said George Muswagon, acting head of the Awasis CFS.
"When the children are returned to their parents for visits, the expectation is that the parents monitor [them] as anybody would, as far as coming in on time, having a place to sleep," he said.
No response from firefighters
When officers from the Shamattawa RCMP detachment arrived at the burning house, they attempted to contact the local volunteer fire department without success, the RCMP's Karpish said on Tuesday.
No one from the Shamattawa Fire Department could be reached when the house fire was discovered, the RCMP said. (www.kitayan.ca)
She said she didn't know why there was no response from fire crews and deferred comment on the matter to band officials.
Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak Grand Chief David Harper said on Wednesday that he is also waiting to find out why local firefighters didn't respond. The organization Harper leads represents most First Nations communities in northern Manitoba.
Band council Chief Jeff Napoakesik refused to comment on Tuesday but confirmed the community does have a fire chief. Napoakesik didn't identify him.
However, Curtis Smith, who heads the Manitoba Association of Native Firefighters, said fire response in remote communities can be a hit-and-miss venture.
He said that Shamattawa has a fire truck and that a few of the community's volunteer firefighters attended training sessions in Winnipeg last summer.
Smith said he wasn't sure what emergency communication infrastructure the community has.
On Sunday, the day after the blaze, RCMP officers located the owners of the destroyed home at a relative's house in the community. They were safe, and they gave no indication that anyone else might have been in the burned house, Karpish said.
"We were told there was no reason for anyone else to be in the house — there shouldn't have been anyone in the house," Karpish said.
RCMP initially did not call in fire officials because the fire wasn't deemed suspicious in any way. It wasn't until Monday that officers were told about the missing boy, and Karpish said that triggered an immediate call to the provincial fire commissioner's office.
With files from The Canadian Press
Addendum: A later CBC report names the dead boy as
Edward Redhead. He becomes the first casualty of 2010 on our list of dead foster children.
Airport Kiddie Porn
January 5, 2010
New body scanners for enhanced airport security cannot be used for
travelers, or terrorists, under the age of 18, that would violate child
pornography laws.
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New scanners break child porn laws
Alan Travis, home affairs editor, guardian.co.uk, Monday 4 January 2010 22.14 GMT
A 12-month trial at Manchester airport of full body scanners only went ahead last month after under-18s were exempted. Photograph: Paul Ellis/AFP/Getty Images
The rapid introduction of full body scanners at British airports threatens to breach child protection laws which ban the creation of indecent images of children, the Guardian has learned.
Privacy campaigners claim the images created by the machines are so graphic they amount to "virtual strip-searching" and have called for safeguards to protect the privacy of passengers involved.
Ministers now face having to exempt under 18s from the scans or face the delays of introducing new legislation to ensure airport security staff do not commit offences under child pornography laws.
They also face demands from civil liberties groups for safeguards to ensure that images from the £80,000 scanners, including those of celebrities, do not end up on the internet. The Department for Transport confirmed that the "child porn" problem was among the "legal and operational issues" now under discussion in Whitehall after Gordon Brown's announcement on Sunday that he wanted to see their "gradual" introduction at British airports.
A 12-month trial at Manchester airport of scanners which reveal naked images of passengers including their genitalia and breast enlargements, only went ahead last month after under-18s were exempted.
The decision followed a warning from Terri Dowty, of Action for Rights of Children, that the scanners could breach the Protection of Children Act 1978, under which it is illegal to create an indecent image or a "pseudo-image" of a child.
Dowty told the Guardian she raised concerns with the Metropolitan police five years ago over plans to use similar scanners in an anti-knife campaign, and when the Department for Transport began a similar trial in 2006 on the Heathrow Express rail service from Paddington station.
"They do not have the legal power to use full body scanners in this way," said Dowty, adding there was an exemption in the 1978 law to cover the "prevention and detection of crime" but the purpose had to be more specific than the "trawling exercise" now being considered.
A Manchester airport spokesman said their trial had started in December, but only with passengers over 18 until the legal situation with children was clarified. So far 500 people have taken part on a voluntary basis with positive feedback from nearly all those involved.
Passengers also pass through a metal detector before they can board their plane. Airport officials say the scanner image is only seen by a single security officer in a remote location before it is deleted.
A Department for Transport spokesman said: "We understand the concerns expressed about privacy in relation to the deployment of body scanners. It is vital staff are properly trained and we are developing a code of practice to ensure these concerns are properly taken into account. Existing safeguards also mean those operating scanners are separated from the device, so unable to see the person to whom the image relates, and these anonymous images are deleted immediately."
But Shami Chakrabarti, of Liberty, had concerns over the "instant" introduction of scanners: "Where are the government assurances that electronic strip-searching is to be used in a lawful and proportionate and sensitive manner based on rational criteria rather than racial or religious bias?" she said.
Her concerns were echoed by Simon Davies of Privacy International who said he was sceptical of the privacy safeguards being used in the United States. Although the American system insists on the deletion of the images, he believed scans of celebrities or of people with unusual or freakish body profiles would prove an "irresistible pull" for some employees.
The disclosures came as Downing Street insisted British intelligence information that the Detroit plane suspect tried to contact radical Islamists while a student in London was passed on to the US.
Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab's name was included in a dossier of people believed to have made attempts to deal with extremists, but he was not singled out as a particular risk, Brown's spokesman said.
President Barack Obama has criticised US intelligence agencies for failing to piece together information about the 23-year-old that should have stopped him boarding the flight.
Brown's spokesman said "There was security information about this individual's activities and that was shared with the US authorities."
Addendum The best commentary yet.
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Support for Devon
January 5, 2010
There will be another rally in support of Devon Sweeney
[1]
[2]
in Hamilton on Wednesday, January 13.
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I am just letting people that Child Assist Services will be out protesting in front of the Family Court at 55 Main St West Hamilton, ON on January 13, 2010 in support of Devon and his family. The Hamilton Children's Aid Society is trying to get an additional 6 months involvement with the family. Stay tuned for rally times and updates!! I wonder what they are up to now?
Hamilton Family Courthouse
55 Main Street West
Addendum: The time of the rally has been announced.
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Update on the rally. Family Court starts for Devon and his family on January 13, 2010 at 9:30am so we will be there early by 8:30am, with our signs and Tim Hortons coffee. I have already had a few phone calls and emails of support to attend our rally on January 13, 2010.
Addendum: This small event was watched by the
police.
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Thursday, January 14, 2010
the day after...
I took the bus downtown and grabbed my coffee at Tim Horton's DD, and went over to the family court house at 55 Main St. West Hamilton, ON. I was greeted by a few friends and the parents of Devon that were there for their son and fighting against the Hamilton Childrens Aid Society. Affidavits were served, duty counsel lawyers fighting for control over one parent remaining on the case. There was a police presence on site even though we did not carry signs just peaceful quiet assembly on the front steps of the court house.
As to be expected the court case was remanded until March 22, 2010 at 9:30am. This will give the lawyers on all sides to respond to affidavits and paperwork that was served on them. This will give us ample time as well to plan our next peaceful assembly protest on March 22, 2010 as well so stay tuned for another RALLY time and date.
This date also coincides with our 6th year anniversary when our children were forceably removed from our care on March 24, 2005. 6 years is a very long time. The children have grown and time has been lost with years passing by.
Posted by Advocate at 8:33 AM
Help for Runaway
January 5, 2010
John Dunn asks friends of Amanda Marie Koetter
to get in touch with him so he can offer her assistance.
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Monday, January 04, 2010
Ontario Foster Child Running Away - Let's Help Her
It has been reported on FixCAS.com that a teen girl has run away from her foster home recently is being sought. I would ask that anyone who knows her to please contact us so we can learn directly from her why she has run away. If she is being abused in the home, or has a story to tell the public, she can contact us to tell it.
1-613-220-1039 or e-mail johndunn@afterfostercare.ca
Posted by afterfostercare at 11:40 PM
Baby Theft Down Under
January 4, 2010
Australia has been among the world's most secretive countries about its
child protection system. Newspapers print stories about coronial inquests
into the death of foster children without so much as a name for the deceased
child. While the prime minister has apologized for the stolen generation,
today's children are stolen at an even higher rate. A story published in
Adelaide, still without names, suggests that the press is catching on to the
scope of the atrocity going on under its nose. If Australian reimbursements
are similar to Canada, the 26 children taken from the four mums in the
article are bringing FamiliesSA a half million dollars yearly more than they
pay the fosters. Nuff said.
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We asked for help - but they took our kids
Article from: The Advertiser, BRYAN LITTLELY, January 05, 2010 12:01am
HEARTBROKEN: One of the mothers places a doll she made in a cot for her daughter who was taken from her along with her son by FamiliesSA. Picture: CHRIS MANGAN
TRIGGER-HAPPY social workers are taking children from their homes and creating a new "stolen generation", a group of distraught mothers claim.
The four women, with 26 children between them, say what started as cries for help became the catalyst that destroyed their families.
They say care workers bullied and threatened them and coerced them to put their children into care.
In some cases, the children were ripped from the arms of their parents outside court houses and schools without any warning.
The mums also say their children are now living in situations worse than the conditions they had at home.
Some have unsupervised visits with fathers convicted of child neglect and other crimes, others are separated from siblings and children as young as three have run away from foster homes.
Recent FamiliesSA figures show that at the end of June last year, there were 2111 children under care and protection orders, an 8.6 per cent increase on the previous year's 1943.
HAVE YOU HAD DEALINGS WITH FAMILIES SA? Tell us your story in the comment box below.
There are now about 1780 children in state care, the office of Families and Communities Minister Jennifer Rankine confirmed yesterday.
The minister's office provided reasons for FamiliesSA intervention in each of the cases of the four mothers, and emphasised it was the Youth Court that assesses the department's applications and makes the protection orders. But the mums argue they face no charges of neglect and believe they are good and capable mothers who were "tricked" into handing over their children to the state when they asked for help.
The mothers say FamiliesSA social workers have been "jumpy" and "trigger-happy" since June, 2008 when 21 children were found living in squalid conditions at Parafield Gardens. Six people face child-neglect charges over that case.
All four mothers who approached The Advertiser to tell their stories say they have never been charged with any child neglect crimes.
MUM 1, a 21-year-old from the southern suburbs, has lost the neat, comfortable rental property she had secured to raise her two young children. She says FamiliesSA has not only "stolen" her children, but also her joy of being a mother. She first came to the attention of the service when she and her mother asked for help to deal with her six-week-old daughter.
"They told me that they would help me to get on my feet, that the order would only be for six weeks and I would get her back," the mum said.
"Three months after she was born, I was pregnant. The order got extended to 14 months and throughout my pregnancy they threatened to take my baby away when he was born."
Her daughter was returned to her care and she looked after both children until December, 2008, when her son, now aged three, was admitted to hospital with head injuries sustained while he was in the care of a babysitter. The mother claims her son was in the babysitter's care for just 15 minutes.
No charges were laid over the incident but both children were taken from the mother and are now in the care of their father's parents.
The father lives in the home with the children but an order states he is not to have unsupervised access to the children, the mum says.
The mother says she now lives with her parents and they would like to help her raise her children in that home. But they have only recently been allowed limited unsupervised access to the children.
She said she is required to undergo a psychological assessment before her case can progress and that the current guardians have taunted her, saying she would never get her children back because they are now accredited foster carers.
MUM 2 is a 26-year-old mother of six who was herself under the care of the state as a child.
"I was under the guardianship of the state from 11 to 18 and I learnt what I know about being a mum from FamiliesSA," said the southern suburbs mum, who is pregnant.
"When I needed help with my five-week-old twins, I had to turn to them for help . . . that's all I knew to do.
"They said I would get my boys back, but I can't see that I will get my boys back and now they have taken my other four children.
"I am pregnant and I am scared they will take my baby away, too."
The young mum said her infant twins were taken from her more than a year ago and her other four children - whom her current partner had helped care for - were placed under a protection order in November.
She said she now only has supervised visits with her children, for a few hours twice a week, while the father of the four eldest children has unsupervised access despite having being jailed for child neglect of her eldest son.
"The three eldest kids were taken from school . . . We didn't even know it was happening," the woman's partner said.
"We had our three-year-old daughter with us and they were forcibly removing our girl from my arms. I was distressed and they handcuffed me when they did it."
The mother said: "They are creating the new stolen generation.
"I just want to be a mother. I want for my children to not have to go through what I went through as a child in the care of the state."
MUM 3 lives in the northern suburbs, has 11 children, and seven of them were living with her.
In November, five children were taken from her outside the Youth Court under a protection order.
She said the children who were put into care, aged 3-11, had all tried to run away from their foster home.
These included a four year old and a five year old who had both tried to hitch-hike home. After a month in foster care, they were placed in the care of their grandmother.
The mother's lawyers wrote to the mother, saying the magistrate overseeing her case deemed the foster care home had not provided "superior care" to that which she had offered.
In May, the mother admitted in a TV interview to being a neglectful parent when she was evicted from a rental property because of the putrid environment she lived in.
This week, she told The Advertiser she had done the best she could and had asked for help in a bid to adequately provide for her children.
"This is the worst experience of my life," the mum said.
"The minister . . . needs to come out here and talk to people like me to work out what's going on."
MUM 4 is the 32-year-old Frewville mother who had seven children removed from her care on Christmas Eve. She said she handed her children to social workers on the promise they would be kept together.
She first visited the children briefly five days after they were removed and she says they are being cared for in four different homes.
Flu Shots! Clearance! Bargains! Last Chance!
January 4, 2010
The drug companies can't seem to get people to take enough of those H1N1
swine flu shots. France is putting millions of doses on sale at bargain
prices.
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Page last updated at 17:30 GMT, Sunday, 3 January 2010
France sells off surplus swine flu vaccine
France ordered 94 million doses of swine flu vaccine
France is selling off millions of surplus swine flu vaccine doses to other countries, officials say.
They say the move was decided after health authorities found they had more than enough to deal with the outbreak.
Germany and The Netherlands announced similar sales late last year. The H1N1 virus appears to have peaked in North America and parts of Europe.
However it remains active elsewhere. More than 11,500 people worldwide are believed to have died from swine flu.
A French health ministry official told AFP on Sunday: "We started with a plan for two-dose vaccinations but since one dose is sufficient we can start to resell part of the stock."
The government bought 94 million swine flu vaccine doses - more than one for every French person - and started vaccinating in October.
Only about five million people are recorded as having been vaccinated in France so far, AFP reports.
Le Parisien newspaper quotes officials as saying Qatar had bought 300,000 doses and Egypt was negotiating to buy two million.
Last week the head of the World Health Organization Margaret Chan said it was "premature" to say that the H1N1 pandemic was over.
Pay to See Your Kids
January 2, 2010
Canada Court Watch reports that a father was required to pay lawyers'
fees before he could see his children. Does this sound like a ransom
demand?
In a later posting, Canada Court Watch solicits court insiders for
information on policies toward recording in the courtroom.
The initials M.S. below refer to the father of Anne.
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Justice Craig Perkins, the Grinch who stole Christmas is back again keeping children from seeing their parents at Christmas
(December 18, 2009) A teen has contacted Court Watch to advise us that he is disgusted with Justice Craig Perkins because Justice Perkins refused to allow his father to ask the court for access to his younger siblings unless his father pays money owing to the mother's lawyers. This is very similar to the kind of treatment that Justice Craig Perkins did to the M.S. family in the Barrie, Ontario courthouse a while back. Justice Perkins also ordered that siblings could not see each other.
The Attorney General always claims that child support and access are two separate issues when it comes to mothers being paid child support, but when it comes to dads having access to their children, they must pay their legal fees first.
All judges who are shown by their deeds to be a Grinch should be tossed off the bench.
To you Justice Craig Perkins, we know you read this website, you have told us so yourself. You should read and remind yourself of the Canadian Charter where it says, "Whereas Canada is founded upon principles that recognize the supremacy of God and the rule of law:" In the opinion of many Canadians your judgements in your court are violating not only God's rules but violating the very Rule of Law in Canada. The children affected will be writing to you to let you know what you have done to them and their families and they will share their letters so that all Canadians can see what is going on in our family courts today. One day God will be judging you.
Public participation invited
(Dec 23, 2009) A while back, an ethical Ontario judge secretly passed a copy of the Practice Direction of former Ontario Chief Justice Howland to Court Watch indicating that there were efforts being made by many within the justice system in Ontario to keep this document from being seen by the public. The judge had to remain anonymous because of potential harassment from powerful forces within the justice system. This purpose of keeping this document hidden from the public of course was to prevent the public from being properly informed about their rights under the Courts of Justice Act to record their own court hearings so that court staff and judges could continue to harass and intimidate the people of Ontario and to prevent any record of what was being said in court to exist which may catch court workers altering transcripts. Other internal government documents have been uncovered by Court Watch which would appear to indicate that there continues to be a deliberate attempt by persons within the Attorney General's office of Ontario to misinform the public which is resulting in the citizens of Ontario being harassed, intimidated and threatened by judges and court workers over the legal use of recording devices in our courts. There have been numerous requests to have court signs changed so that they properly inform the public of their rights under the law.
Court Watch is requesting input from any member of the public who has had issued of recording in the courts to contact us with your story. An investigative committee has been established at Canada Court Watch which is gathering evidence regarding the issue of recording in the courts and would like to hear from members of the public. Court officials, present or past, who have insider knowledge about this issue and who would also like to contribute to this effort are invited to contact Court Watch at info@canadacourtwatch.com
Law Against Nature
January 2, 2010
Seven-year-old Isabella is at the center of a custody dispute. Her
mother Lisa Miller has left her spouse and claims sole custody. The courts
have ruled that the ex is entitled to visitation with the child, but Miller
refuses to comply with the court, blocking her ex from seeing Isabella.
Up to this point, it is a totally routine case, repeated thousands of
times in family court. The usual outcome is that the courts do little to
enforce visitation, but compel dad to pay child support to the defiant
mother while the child grows up fatherless. But in this case, the ex-spouse
is another woman, Janet Jenkins. Janet has no biological connection to the
child, her only claim comes from the law; Miller and Jenkins were joined in
a Vermont civil union in 2000. In direct defiance of nature, the law treats
Jenkins as co-parent of Isabella. Courts are going to be wasting a lot of
time on cases like this until the law recognizes a fact of nature: two
people of the same sex cannot produce a child.
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7:26 p.m. Friday, January 1, 2010
Va. woman fails to give up child to ex-partner
By BEN NUCKOLS, The Associated Press
A woman at the center of a complex dispute with her former lesbian partner defied a court order to give up custody of her 7-year-old daughter Friday, opening the door to possible criminal charges.
FILE - In this April 17, 2008 file photo, Lisa Miller answers questions about her custody battle during a news conference immediately following arguments for her case before the court at the State Capitol in Richmond, Va. The birth mother of a 7-year-old Virginia girl must transfer custody of the child to the woman's former lesbian partner, a Vermont judge has ruled. Vermont Family Court Judge William Cohen ordered Lisa Miller ofWinchester, Va., to turn over daughter Isabella to Janet Jenkins of Fair Haven at 1 p.m. EST Friday Jan. 1, 2010 at the Virginia home of Jenkins' parents. (AP Photo/Lisa Billings, File)
FILE - In this Nov. 17, 2006, file photo, Janet Jenkins of Fair Haven, Vt., appears in Vermont Family Court in Rutland, Vt. The birth mother of a 7-year-old Virginia girl must transfer custody of the child to the woman's former lesbian partner, a Vermont judge has ruled. Vermont Family Court Judge William Cohen ordered Lisa Miller of Winchester, Va., to turn over daughter Isabella to Jenkins at 1 p.m. Friday Jan. 1, 2010 at the Virginia home of Jenkins' parents. Miller and Jenkins were joined in a Vermont civil union in 2000. Isabella was born to Miller through artificial insemination in 2002. The couple broke up in 2003, and Miller moved to Virginia, renounced homosexuality and became an evangelical Christian. (AP Photo/Rutland Herald, Vyto Starinskas, File)
A Vermont judge had ordered Lisa Miller to turn over daughter Isabella to Janet Jenkins at 1 p.m. Friday at the Falls Church, Va., home of Jenkins' parents. Miller did not show up with the girl, according to Fairfax County, Va., police and Jenkins' Vermont-based attorney.
"She's very disappointed, obviously," said Sarah Star, Jenkins' lawyer. "She's very concerned about Isabella and asks that if anybody sees Isabella, that they please contact the authorities."
The Jenkins family called police after Miller failed to show. A detective interviewed the family and determined that Fairfax County authorities would not be investigating the girl's whereabouts because of jurisdictional concerns, said Officer Tawny Wright, a police spokeswoman.
Star said she had also contacted authorities in Rutland County, Vt., where Jenkins lives, and Bedford County, Va., where Miller was living the last time Jenkins knew her whereabouts. Wright said it would be up to authorities in those counties to decide whether to investigate.
If police believe a crime has been committed, they would obtain a criminal warrant charging Miller with parental abduction. For the time being, the case remains a civil matter.
Miller and Jenkins were joined in a Vermont civil union in 2000. Isabella was born to Miller through artificial insemination in 2002. The couple broke up in 2003, and Miller moved to Virginia, renounced homosexuality and became an evangelical Christian.
When Vermont Family Court Judge William Cohen dissolved the couple's civil union, he awarded custody to Miller but granted liberal visitation rights to Jenkins.
The supreme courts of Virginia and Vermont ruled in favor of Jenkins, saying the case was the same as a custody dispute between a heterosexual couple. The case was appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, which declined to hear arguments on it.
Cohen awarded custody to Jenkins on Nov. 20after finding Miller in contempt of court for denying Jenkins access to the girl. The judge said the only way to ensure equal access to the child was to switch custody.
But Cohen also noted that it appeared Miller had stopped speaking to her attorneys and "disappeared" with the child.
Miller's last known address is in Forest, Va. A telephone number listed for her at that address rang unanswered Friday.
Her attorney, Mathew D. Staver, the law school dean at Liberty University, did not respond to a request through an assistant for comment.
Carl Tobias, a University of Richmond law professor who has followed the case, said it was likely the Vermont judge would issue another contempt order in the wake of Friday's developments.
Mothers Jailed
January 2, 2010
Two unnamed Australian sisters, both mothers of pre-school children, are
staying in jail to keep their children out of the hands of welfare
authorities. Bail was refused because of their "extremely serious offence".
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Jailed mothers refuse to help find their children
GEESCHE JACOBSEN CRIME EDITOR, January 2, 2010
POLICE are concerned about the welfare of two children allegedly kidnapped by their mothers from their foster carer more than two months ago.
A three-year-old boy and a five-year-old girl are believed to be moving around NSW and Queensland and their mothers, who are refusing to help police find them, have been ordered to stay in prison.
The children were removed from the women, believed to be sisters, in August 2008 after police were called to their home in Waterloo after an alleged drug-related assault. The older woman, 25, is believed to be an actress who has starred in an Australian feature film.
In documents tendered to Parramatta Bail Court yesterday police said that when they arrived at the women's home they found a blood trail leading to the front door, and found drugs, a knife and a bullet shell in the flat.
The children were removed into the care of welfare authorities within days and placed with a foster carer.
A Family Court order allowed the mothers supervised access but police said that in October one of them told the foster carer to let the children go to a children's birthday party.
When the children had not returned by 9pm, their carer raised the alarm. Police later found the mothers had taken the children by plane from Sydney to Port Macquarie that evening. Police and the Department of Community Services checked various addresses but have so far failed to find the children.
The girl's mother, 21, was found by police on New Year's Eve after allegedly taking amphethamines, and was charged with kidnapping. Police allege the woman admitted knowledge of the children's whereabouts when she told officers not to worry about them because they ''were well and being looked after''.
She swore repeatedly yesterday when Registrar Ross Lawton refused her bail, saying it was an ''extremely serious offence'' and there was a risk she would not return to court if granted bail. The other woman was charged last month with kidnapping her son.
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