Today, the Honourable Justice Stephen Goudge released his report on the Inquiry into Pediatric Forensic Pathology. I had the pleasure of representing Defence for Children International-Canada (DCI) at the Inquiry. DCI responded to the report as follows:
When a parent is wrongly convicted of killing a child, there are devastating consequences for the remaining siblings. In his report, Justice Goudge recognizes the significant impact on surviving children: “For the surviving children, the impact is profound as well. They are often very young themselves, yet must cope with the sudden inexplicable loss of a sibling. If one of their parents is suspected, the children will likely be removed from their home and family, sometimes for years or even permanently. ....They must live with the horror that the parent they love is suspected of killing a brother or sister."
Today, the Ontario Government apologized for the serious harm that has resulted from a flawed pediatric pathology system. Concern was expressed for adults who have been wrongly conflicted. Promises were made to improve the system. But what about the children whose lives have been so profoundly affected by separation from their families? They are both innocent and invisible victims in this process. Some of these children have been placed in foster homes, others adopted. There is no process in place to identify some of these children even to let them know that their parent has been exonerated.
Defence for Children International-Canada calls on the Ontario Minister of Children and Youth Services to address the moral, ethical and legal obligations to young people whose lives have been devastated as a result of wrongful separation from their families. Specifically, we call for the establishment of a Task Force to deal with the child welfare issues arising from this Inquiry and to develop a process to remedy the harm done to some of our youngest and most vulnerable citizens.
William Sparks
President
Les Horne
Executive Director
Let's hope that the Minister will listen.
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4 comments:
I could not agree more, this is STILL happening in Ontario, children are taken because of maybe's, When a women can be jailed after the loss of a baby, makes headlines, cop states when the facts come out we will all be disgusted, to FIND she did nothing at all, the baby died of SIDs.
mother jailed for months, BECAUSE she was in shock.
this leaves many of us in shock and disgusted, by the "systems"
CAS also needs oversight, and children must be heard and seen.
It would have been a good day for children and families if more was done in the inquest, and government puts measures in place now, to stop the abuse of children and families, by the state.
This case and the words used by the Judge demonstrate that being taken into foster care is devastating to children. Having said that, there are parallels to kids being separated from their families, including siblings and extended families due to things such as "neglect" or "inability to parent" due to poverty or other issues which if the same amount of money were to be spend on that particular family (non-abusive) as what is spent on taking the family to court, and the daily per-diem rates of foster / group home care they could be kept together and provided with supports instead.
The need for Ombudsman oversight is just the beginning. Corporate oversight also needs to be put in place. At the moment, in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario there is a private members bill (Private Members Bill 41) which seeks approval from the Assembly to have the Ministry of Government Servies ensure that CAS's advertise the fact that their agencies offer memberships to people in the community, to inform them that they hold publicly accessable Board meetings on a monthly basis, and to allow people access to the Minutes of those meetings and to the agencies By-Laws so people can join and get involved in local oversight which the Ministry often avoids by stating that the CAS's are autonomous bodies governed by a "Community Elected Board of Directors".
The question is, who elects the board? Who are the members of a CAS? The staff? or just a few local and very select few community members who have been privately invited to become members?
The people need to know how to use a CAS membership to review corporate records, to call members meetings to vote on issues of concern to the local community in connection with CAS agencies and how they operate.
Correction: Private Members Motion 41 asks the Ministry of Children and Youth Services to.... not the Ministry of Government and Consumer Services.
I am a father of three native children whitch I have not seen in 20 years my purpos to this brief is they were in the child family native services of fort frances ont. they were subjected to sexsual abuse in homes they were placed in on two known homes.on the two reserves in that area'I have been pushed away and was told
I mean nothing to them . I am not there abuser and I have had taken the too court and they lied to the courts covered there actions and used me as a escape goat.I am grown very bitter and wish to tell my children the truth .but there's a problem''' my children hate me think im the monster that weechi protrade me too them ''' now ill do any thing to win there harts
but don't want too hurt them any more than they are at this time in there lives.but W5 news chanel seems to be my only option to ecspose this in the open to see what the media thinks,, I have had no so much as any thing as to this matter Ither that a -uck you''' response well ok I will do that but with great big voice ..well please give me a response mr Bryant
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