Revenue Canada reports from Dufferin Children's
Aid for years 2000 through 2003. Use the first
link on the left to get a session cookie, then
return here and use the second link to get to
Dufferin Children's Aid. Go to the bottom for
Registered Charity Information Return. The same
website can be searched for all other Children's
Aid Societies in Ontario.
In April 2007 the Ministry of Children and Youth Services
announced two publications, Child Protection Standards in
Ontario and Ontario Child Protection Tools Manual.
That in addition to the mandatory Eligibility Spectrum
prescribe the actions of child protectors in Ontario. In case
the documents change with fashion, here are local copies of Standards, Tools and Spectrum (all pdf). In the
bland language of bureaucracy the tools document contains
instructions for forced drugging and shotgun divorce.
Regulations governing use of the risk assessment
tool. This tool is subjective. According to an
insider, when a caseworker wants to keep a case
going she fills out a bad assessment. When she
wants to get rid of the case, she fills out a
good one.
(pdf) Blueprint for efforts to eliminate the
court process for accused parents. The examples
are fictionalized, preventing critics from
verifying the data.
(pdf) First Report of the Pediatric Death Review Committee.
This report by a committee of social workers, police and
physicians purports to disclose facts about deaths of children
in Ontario, but lumps data so that the most important question
cannot be answered -- are children safer in foster care? Only
two charts relate to deaths of children with open CAS files, but
the numbers have no meaning since the number (or proportion) of
children with open files is not given. In 1630 deaths, there is
not a single named child. In case the OACAS withdraws the
report, here is our local copy.
Auditor General's report on Community and Social
Services. Near the end it gives the
reimbursement rates for the various kinds of
care. In case it disappears from the web, here
is the Auditor General's
Report in pdf.
(pdf) Region of Peel Child Abuse Investigation
Protocol. Dufferin must be similar, but their
protocol is not online. Here are the vague and
conflicting standards for judging families. You
have to wonder what kind of people work for CAS
when you see that one indicator of sexual abuse
is "pain in throat, difficulty swallowing".
A pdf document giving the procedures used by
professionals investigating child protection
cases. The protocol is common to 11 categories
of agencies in eight eastern Ontario counties.
It cites US statistics as justification for its
policies. Perhaps we are also justified in
using US statistics in refutation.
Among the reasons to suspect sexual abuse are
"pain or itching in genital area" and
"unwillingness to change clothing for physical
education class", things that can, and often do,
occur for causes unrelated to sexual abuse.
Another is "sophisticated sexual knowledge
beyond the normal expectations for the child's
age", an area where some parents deliberately
educate their children to enable them to ward
off abuse.
The following policy concerns confidentiality
of informants:
Normally, the Children's Aid Society will
withhold the name of the reporting individual.
Under the CFSA Part (8), once proclaimed, the
individual or family has the right to review
their file upon request. In these cases, the
CAS will 'white-out' the referral source and
other third party information prior to the
client reviewing the file. However, the
reporter's name cannot be kept confidential
where their evidence is required for the
police investigation or if the case enters
either the criminal or child protection Court
process.
This policy results in police taking children
from a parent, but refusing to disclose the
reason for the action, denying an ancient
principle of law that the accused has a right to
know the charges against him. It also results
in tragedy when a parent assaults a person
wrongly suspected of being the snitch.
Appendix XII contains a synopsis of the
Eligibility Spectrum.
The original web address was:
www.ucdsb.on.ca/ _docs/general/
finalVersion01.pdf
The use your voice site has content that varies from year to
year. The 2008 revelations feature the four foster kids of the
apocalypse: sexual abuse, physical abuse, emotional abuse and
neglect.
In this decision by the Ontario Information and Privacy
Commissioner, Children's Aid Societies are exempt from
requirements to disclose information under the Freedom of
Information Act. The local CAS was ruled independent, not part
of the Ministry. The relevant portions of the decision by
Mumtaz Jiwan are in the second half of the document.
Here is another decision, this time on employees of CAS. The
Pay Equity Hearings Tribunal decided the CAS staff is employed
not by the local CAS, but by the Ministry.
The revised Child and Family Services Act, enacted in 1999,
weakened most of the defenses against Children's Aid. In the
debate all three parties supported the bill. Amendments to
better protect Indians were defeated. Janet Ecker, then
Minister of Community and Social Services, spoke in favor.
Sandra Pupatello, later the Minister of Children and Youth
Services, suggested that efforts to take children into foster
care were supportive of families. She quoted many social
workers, but no parents. To thwart public debate, the entire
legislative process was squeezed into this one session, averting
a prorogue when an election writ was issued two days
later.
Convention on the Rights of the Child. This treaty contains
ringing phrases promoting child welfare. The word father does
not appear at all, and mother appears just once: "To ensure
appropriate pre-natal and post-natal health care for mothers".
The word parent appears 36 times, but always subject to the
restriction "best interest of the child". "States Parties"
(governments) have primary authority over children, delegating
some responsibility to parents.
The Sparrow Lake Alliance comprises the elite of
the multi-disciplinary child protection industry
in Ontario. This ms-word document is imortant
not for its text, but for the membership list.
The second link gives the membership only in
html.
National Youth in Care Network, purportedly
advocates for foster children, actually a group
staffed by social work professionals and funded
by government, directly or through
proxies.
Booby trap for troubled kids. The directors of
this organization are the upper crust of
Canadian industry, well insulated from knowledge
of activities at the operational level.
The National Judicial Institute (NJI) trains
judges to decide cases in conformance to
policies kept secret from the public — it
claims immunity from freedom of information
laws. A sanitized version of its agenda appears
on its website.
This website advocates expansion of the role of lawyers at the
expense of parents. The two opening paragraphs on the homepage
contain all the social worker buzzwords (in addition to smiling
faces): child welfare, abuse and neglect, protection, support,
multidisciplinary approach, advocates, benefit. Here is a local
copy of A Child's Right to Counsel
(12 megabytes, pdf).
Adoption:
Child protectors show great sensitivity to the
emotional needs of children when it suits their
purposes. But they have no sensitivity when
advertising their wards for adoption.
Ontario government website to humiliate fathers
delinquent in child support. Not many of them
look like they have the earning capacity to
support two households. Click on [Show All
Profiles] at the bottom of the target
page.
Blogger Jay recounts the joy of giving a baby to
an adoptive couple, while overlooking the horror
of the real parents. We wonder how she would
feel if her own baby, expected on September 21,
was to be taken away to provide joy for a pair
of strangers.
When a social worker takes a child from its
mother, who needs sympathy and support for the
resulting emotional turmoil? Why it's the
social worker! Read how they cope with their
ordeals, and also get the social worker's side
of the coercive tactics used to get mothers to
give up their children, in this pdf format
report from Wilfred Laurier University.
The Department of Justice, Canada, has a
description of Trafficking in Persons that
applies perfectly to the operation of Children's
Aid. In psychiatric jargon this is called
projection.
