Letters to Mary McConville

Dear all,

I am putting the letters I have written to Mary McConvill, Executive Director of CCAS. They are controversial and I debated about whether I should post them or not, but I want you all to know how this case has effected me and how angry I am at this woman. She is the Exec. Director and she did not monitor her agents or ensure anyone was doing their job. In my opinion, if there is a house cleaning, she should be the absolute first to go. I welcome comments and I hope no one is too offended, but if you should know that with all her experience, she should have known that something wasn't right and I don't buy over worked... she's not in the field, she is supposed to be guiding her agents and being their boss, making sure they are doing their jobs, and she didn't. Please notice the dates of the letters as some things have changed since they were written...
Amanda

Here goes....

Amanda Reed
jeffreyslaw@cogeco.ca

October 24, 2005

Mary McConville
Catholic Children’s Aid Society
26 Maitland Street
Toronto, ON M4Y 1C6
Fax: 416-395-1581

Re: Jeffrey Baldwin Tree and Memorial Ceremony

Dear Ms. McConville,

I would like to once again extend my invitation to you and all Toronto Catholic Children’s Aid Society staff to the Jeffrey Baldwin Tree and Memorial ceremony on Sunday, October 30th at 2 o’clock p.m. in Greenwood Park. The address is 150 Greenwood Avenue if you need to do a Map Quest. It’s only about two streets over from 354 Woodfield Road; that’s where Jeffrey Baldwin lived in torture and died alone. You may not be familiar with this address as neither you, nor any of your agents ever visited there.

I chose this park because had Jeffrey or his sister ever been allowed out of their hellhole, this would most likely have been the park they would have played in. But then what’s playing? They never even got a chance to do that at ‘home’, unless you can call a child banging his head on the walls and floor amusement; if that is the case, then I correct myself, Jeffrey had tons of fun.

I have had numerous e-mails from people who are so grateful that a memorial is being installed, people who have sent donations to ensure it is a success. People who think there are more parties responsible for this child’s death than Bottineau / Kidman clan.

I have mentioned to them in my responses that I have invited the CCAS staff, including you, the Executive Director to the memorial ceremony. Everyone is anxious to meet you and I have told them that your picture is on the internet; included on the sites that praise your accomplishments so they will be able to pick you out in the crowd. In fact, would you be interested in saying a few words? I have asked all speakers not to mention God. He was never in that house or in those people’s hearts, He’s not welcome at Jeffrey’s memorial.

Looking forward to seeing you this weekend, take care.

Sincerely,
Amanda Reed

Amanda Reed
jeffreyslaw@cogeco.ca

November 2, 2005

Mary McConville
Catholic Children’s Aid Society
26 Maitland Street
Toronto, ON M4Y 1C6
Fax: 416-395-1581


Dear Ms. McConville,

I was very disappointed not to make your acquaintance this past weekend at Jeffrey Baldwin’s memorial. A lot of people, almost 200, were also upset that you did not take time out of your busy weekend to attend. I thought you cared about Jeffrey, apparently not. Did you know that Ms. Mary Anne Chambers came? She brought beautiful yellow roses to lay at the base of the tree.

I was hoping to use the left over donations (and they keep coming in daily) to set up a trust fund for Jeffrey’s siblings. After the trial, I will ask Ms. Chambers how I can go about accomplishing this. I know your agency will dispose of them as soon as they are no longer useful in covering your collective asses, which will inevitably leave them unable to fend for themselves in this cruel world. Have they not aged enough? I hope they will have the chance to achieve post secondary education and I know your agency, nor the government will not help them, so once again, public generosity is a child’s only chance. You use these children up, burn them out, break their souls and then say ‘have a nice life.’ You should be so ashamed of yourselves, I hope you can not sleep at night. To be honest, you ain’t seen nothing of me yet…

These children have nothing, and even less now that you have torn them out of the only safe, sane environment they have ever known, and the Tuesday before the Thanksgiving long weekend? Are you all insane? It astounds me that you actually think that separating the children, and taking away the only family they have now, is actually beneficial to their psyche’s! You have now permanently lost probably one of your best foster homes which is shameful. But then, your agency is a disgrace, so why should you change now?

I can not stress enough how angry people are with the CCAS. Your agency has completely lost all public faith, we don’t ‘trust you now’ and I don’t think anyone should. Besides the fact that you inadvertently approved and conceded to the torture and death of Jeffrey Baldwin, (because no one was sharp enough to check the histories of Kidman or Bottineau; the information was in your OWN files and you were too goddamn lazy to read it!) you betrayed his surviving siblings by ripping them out of their loving foster home. You are not doing a very good job at convincing anyone that you have changed or care about children. Enough is more than enough…

I sincerely look forward to meeting you as I am sure we will eventually. Contact me anytime to go for lunch; it will be my treat as I know how minimally funded and underpaid you are.

Regards,
Amanda Reed


Amanda Reed
jeffreyslaw@cogeco.ca

November 7, 2005

Mary McConville
Catholic Children’s Aid Society
26 Maitland Street
Toronto, ON M4Y 1C6
Fax: 416-395-1581


Dear Ms. McConville,

I read your letter to the editor dated November 2nd, 2005. If you aren’t going to say anything the public wants to hear, why do you waste your time even writing a letter? You are accountable to us, the public, your employers, not solely to the Ministry of Children and Youth Services. They only give out funding, they don’t provide it; we do. You are also accountable to the countless children you betray and hurt everyday, they are your clients. Telling us exactly why you tore those three children from a loving foster home after three years of love and stability should be mandatory. Divulging the reasons why you separated and ripped them from their family would not give away the current whereabouts of the kids and so, should be public knowledge. I imagine that your agency being terrified of what the foster mother would say on the stand and the possibility the children would be asked to testify in the murder trial was enough for you to tear them apart, to confuse and hurt them.

No, I suppose those aren’t frivolous reasons, you should be really scared of what secrets those kids can give up.

I honestly don’t believe any of you understand the importance of stability and love in a child’s life or you would not have done what you did the Tuesday before the Thanksgiving long weekend. I’m very surprised you did not wait until Christmas Eve because only that date would have been more damaging than Thanksgiving. Once again, you should be ashamed of yourselves for your selfishness. No one believes you have the siblings’ best interests at heart so stop letting all this garbage and these lies come out of your mouth, it makes you look silly. You are consistently assuming we are all stupid and ignorant to your big policies and procedures. We are not.

The circumstances that led to Jeffrey Baldwin’s death are indeed very tragic and unacceptable, but not once have I heard you publicly apologize to your employers or to the children you have let become so badly damaged. I have not once heard of you taking the responsibility for being so lazy and unorganized, the public has not heard of your incredible life-saving changes to policy following his death. Surely you aren’t going to hide behind the very weak and transparent Bill 210 are you? We can see you hiding behind there grasping on to it for dear life. But let me tell you Ms. McConville, if you ever, ever want to gain back any inkling of public trust, you must admit that this child’s blood is on your hands.

I hope you are shaking in your boots, I hope you and your agency will be found partially responsible for Jeffrey’s death and be severely reprimanded. I hope you can’t sleep or eat or have a day pass by that you do not think of this child; we have all paid numerous precious hours sleepless, crying and feeling helpless as a result of your mistake.

We are waiting for an apology.

Regards,
Amanda Reed