Jeffrey Baldwin Memorial Site

2011-01-08T09:04:00.002-06:00

Hello everyone,

I am just finishing up my last semester as a Paralegal then off to work! I am hoping to work for Legal Aid Ontario so I can help families, especially those with children. I will keep you updated.

If you want to see Greenwood Park with Google satellite, google the park. Use the satellite feature and zoom in. The bench is amid a cluster of yellow bushes, close to Gerrard Avenue. There is a pretty trellis in front of it and it looks onto the children's splash pad. I will be going there soon and will post new pictures.

About a year ago, I found out that James Mills, one of the adult's living in that house and who was playing video games the night Jeffrey died, had a son. The CCAS is not involved and as far as I know, have not been keeping track of these people. I sincerely hope I do not read about that child in the news. Though.. no one knew about (well, besides the government agencies, police and CCAS) Jeffrey until it was too late.

Keep watching for sorrow in small eyes...

Amanda

2009-10-07T18:37:00.002-05:00

Also... a beautiful song at the bottom of this page by Ben Harper called 'Waiting on an Angel'. You can listen while you read... enjoy.

Waiting on an angel
One to carry me home
Hope you come to see me soon
Cause I dont want to go alone
I dont want to go alone
Now angel wont you come by me
Angel hear my plea
Take my hand lift me up
So that I can fly with thee
So that I can fly with thee
And Im waiting on an angel
And I know it wont be long
To find myself a resting place
In my angels armsIn my angels arms
So speak kind to a stranger
Cause youll never know
It just might be an angel come
Knocking at your door
And I'm waiting on an angel
And I know it wont be long
To find myself a resting place
In my angels arms...

2009-10-07T17:59:00.003-05:00

I have been very busy lately! I'm going to school to become a paralegal then hopefully off to law school. Watch out Minister of Child and Youth Services, here I come to take your job! :)

I am also working on a big project that I would love help with. It is in the same vein as the crisis nursery, but not quite the same thing. I will be posting more details in January.

I am also busy making some 'Jeffrey's Comfy Quilts' that I will take to the Canadian Center for Abuse Awareness at Christmas. They then pass them on to children in foster care, or who are having a rough time. It's a great charity and I really recommend donating money or toys, clothes, personal hygeine products, etc. to them. Please see their link on this site.

Also, I'm hoping the woman (I'm so sorry, I forget your name!) I lent my binder of newspaper articles relating to Jeffrey's case reads this blog and would please get in touch with me so I can pick it up... if you still have it.

Thanks!
Amanda :)

Bill 93

2009-10-07T17:56:00.002-05:00

http://www.care2.com/next/528212318/503938031

Please, please go to this site and 'sign' the petition! To ensure the Ombudsman can hold the Children's Aid Societies accountable!

Ontario's Bill 93 2008 (*Formerly Bill 88 2006)
Target:
The Premier of Ontario, Canada and all the Ontario MPP's
Sponsored by:
bill88.ca
If passed, Ontario's Bill 93 will allow victims of malicious legal attacks by Children's Aid Societies to have an opportunity to be heard. Allowing the Ontario%u2019s Ombudsman Office to investigate the Children's Aid Societies will not interfere with legitimate child protection cases or child safety its objective allows Government to bring accountability back to Children%u2019s Aid Societies with the power to investigate these non-profit organisations in cases of wrongdoing

Right now there are only 383 signatures... surely we can do better! Please ask everyone you know to take 3 minutes to sign it. Thanks!

Plaque

2007-09-21T17:00:00.000-05:00

After an unforgivable length of time, I have finally installed the plaque at Jeffrey's memorial in Greenwood Park. The tree is getting so big and the city has maintained the flowers beautifully! I installed the plaque, weeded the garden, cleaned up the very minimal garbage around it and then sat for awhile thinking about Jeffrey. I have been out of the loop for so long and feel like I have not fulfilled the promise I made to him to change some laws and shake up the Children's Aid system. I felt very sad sitting there looking at his beautiful face, but then all these kids came to play and it was very peaceful to sit there and watch them. It really is a very nice place to sit and watch and reflect. When the tree is full grown, that bench will be the nicest place to sit in the summer...

I am going to get back into my mission, but this time will ask for help... I got a little burnt out and emotionally drained two years ago because I was trying to do everything myself.

I would like to set up or join a group who's main goal is to make the C/CCAS held accountable to the public for every child. Would anyone be interested in helping me with this? I was thinking of a meeting every month or every other month in Toronto as well as a blog account to keep in touch on a daily/ weekly basis.

I thank everyone who still visits this site and I will be maintaining it more consistantly from now on.

Best regards to all

Amanda Reed

2007-03-14T06:40:00.000-05:00

Please see the Auditor General's report on CAS:
http://www.auditor.on.ca/en/reports_en/en06/302en06.pdf

Very easy to read and understand... very disturbing!!

Also, I posted an excerpt from my proposal below, please let me know what you think.

Amanda

2007-03-14T06:32:00.000-05:00

I don't want to let the cat out of the bag as I'm sure this site is being watched by the CAS, but here is an excerpt from my proposal. Feedback would be appreciated. Thank you to all who continue to post information, I read the blog all the time and find it very beneficial!

Take care and I will let you know my progress on this project.
Amanda

Goals and Mission
Why A Crisis Nursery?

There is a very large gap between loving, encouraging parents and extremely abusive, unfit parents. At present, there are very few social services for families who need help through a rough time in their lives, but who are capable, enthusiastic parents. Most of us have an extended network of loving family members and friends who are able to help us during our hard times; to take our children for short a duration, help out financially, to even just offer their company and listen to us. A lot of people do not have this web of close people to rely on; and let’s face it, everyone needs a little help on occasion. Asking for help should be considered a sign of strength, not of failure or weakness.

Jeffrey’s Place will be a safe place for parents to bring their children while they get the help they need to overcome a life crisis. This may be a loss of employment, loss of housing, financial difficulty, high levels of stress or sever depression, domestic violence, or the end of a relationship. It is, in effect, a children’s shelter.

Children will be able to stay at the house for up to two weeks while staff help their parents find a job, find affordable housing, get professional counselling for substance abuse, depression, stress, domestic violence, etc., receive parenting education and access to any other social service available that they need. The emphasis of all family social programs should be on helping parents to properly take care of their children so that families can stay together. Staff will visit the family’s at their homes after a child has stayed at the nursery to offer support and guidance for a year following release. In addition, parents or children can call the center 24 hours a day 365 days a year if they have questions or concerns.

The goal of Jeffrey’s Place is to reduce child abuse and neglect by educating and assisting parents as well as reducing the intervention by the Children’s Aid Society. It is understood that some cases may require more services than Jeffrey’s Place can offer, and it is in these circumstances that the CAS’s help will be requested.

Child Services:
Children will receive care in a safe and healthy environment while their parents get assistance with a life crisis.
Children will be assessed immediately after being brought to the center. The initial intake procedures and assessment will include the following and be documented:
the child’s name and age
the child’s physical appearance
the child’s emotional state
any belongings the child has will be labeled with their name and given back to them
the child will be asked favorite foods, drinks, activities, colours, etc. to encourage the child to become comfortable in the center and so the staff member can get to know the child
the centers services and rules, as well as the reason the child is there will be explained to the child in a manner suitable to the child’s age and emotional state
Children will be given three meals and two snacks a day. The meals will adhere to the child’s diet, (vegetarian, lactose intolerant, allergies, etc.) and will follow the Canada Food Guide. Meal plans will be prepared in advance and posted so that parents and children can see what will be served.
Children will have the opportunity engage in a variety of activities that suit their ability and age. Activities will be educationally based with time both outside and inside. There will also be toys, puzzles, books and craft items available for children to play with.
A report will be written at the end of each day about each child documenting:
the child’s behaviour when interacting with others (staff and the other children)
sleeping habits
eating habits
any aggressive, depressed or sexual behaviour
willingness and ability to learn new things
ability to cope with the environment around them

This report will be made available to the counsellor so they may effectively help the children in care. The child’s overall behaviour will determine the amount of time with them, but every child will see the counsellor upon arrival at the center.
Children will have journals available to them and will be encouraged to write or draw in them. They will keep these when they leave.

Older children will have light household responsibilities. They will basically include helping the staff to tidy up. A child will never be forced to do something, but helping around the house will be encouraged.

Children will be disciplined under the guidelines the Ministry provides for foster parents.
Should the Children’s Aid Society’s assistance be required, the child may remain at the center while a suitable foster family is being located unless otherwise specified by the CAS.

Parental Services
Parents will receive assistance with a life crisis in a nonjudgmental, compassionate environment.
As their children are being admitted into the center, parents will meet with a staff member to assess their situation. Parents will be asked a series of questions to determine their emotional state, approximately how long the child will be at the center, how we can effectively aid them, abuse history in the family, and what outcome they expect to gain from using the center.
From there, parents will be required to set up a plan of action. Using this information, we will put them in touch with the services they require. Housing, the job bank, a financial advisor to help with budgeting, counselling services, substance abuse organizations, women or men’s support groups, financial assistance programs, etc. They will be responsible for making and keeping appointments with these services, but will let us know what progress has been made. Some parents will be asked to attend parenting courses.
The parents, unless violent or under the influence, may contact their children. They can call their children anytime or visit their children at the center with prior notice.
At the end of two weeks, the parents will meet with staff again to discuss progress made and future goals.
Staff will visit the children and parents in their home throughout the following year at intervals:
Two days after the child has gone home
One week after the child has gone home
One month after the child has gone home
Once every three months after

Staff will be required to physically see and speak with the child and must spend time with the child alone and with the parents alone. Progress, concerns, questions and the general well-being of the family will be discussed at each visit. Staff will be documenting discussions, physical and emotional state of child, state of the household, (i.e. is there sufficient food in the house, are there any smells to indicate neglect of hygiene, are there signs of violence, etc.) and emotional state of the parents. If staff have concerns for the child’s safety, they may ask the parents permission to take the child to the center or they may call the CAS.

Diapers, formula and children’s clothing will be available at all times for parents to come and pick up.

Free parenting courses will be offered one evening a week to parents. Transportation and childcare will be arranged so it is easy for parents to come.

Anticipated Impact:
Statistics show that people who abuse were abused as children. They usually remember how it felt to be lonely, in pain, made to feel worthless, and miserable. In most cases, they probably don’t want to treat their children badly but don’t know how else to raise a child. This is how they were taught to deal with a child that cries or that wets their bed or who is messy when they eat.
People are afraid to ask for help because of the repercussions that may follow. The Children’s Aid Society has a reputation for taking children for a variety of reasons, some very questionable and unwarranted. The other problem with the CAS, (besides the reasons that the Auditor General’s report state) is that they don’t help the parents. The solution isn’t always as easy as removing children from their parents. Research shows that in many, many cases, the child would rather be with it’s parents, no matter how bad things got at home.

So why not help the child by helping the parents?

In many cases, although the parent is the adult, they act like children when they find themselves in frightening, stressful or strange circumstances because they weren’t given the tools to cope with anything unfamiliar. How do young children ask for help? They act out aggressively, they throw a tantrum, they cry and they get frustrated if they aren’t successful in what they are trying to do. However, these parents are adults and do need to be responsible and accountable for their actions but society can not fault someone for not knowing how to ask for help, or did ask and were punished for it.

By offering people a safe, nonjudgmental place to receive assistance and leave their children with confidence, it is anticipated that parents will be open to getting help and will use this service. Except in certain cases where the CAS will have to intervene, there are no disadvantages to this service. Parents can start getting their lives together while not having to worry about the welfare or whereabouts of their children, the children can get the counselling and education they may need and the end result is that the family can stay together.

The cycle of abuse will just continue spiraling out of control. This service is intended to help people cope with the stresses in their lives, learn how to raise their children and stop the pattern of abuse.

2007-02-22T05:50:00.000-06:00

I need help... if anyone knows of previous foster / abused children who are now adults who would be interested in speaking with me, please let me know. I am trying to research what happens to these children once they are out of the system. I need to get figures and statistics about how many children become depressed adults, abuse others, get into criminal activities, etc. If anyone also knows of websites or books they could direct me to, that would be great as well. I am in the drafting stage of my crisis nursery proposal and need evidence that a service I am trying to set up would be beneficial. I am also off to Edmonton next month to tour a crisis nursery there.

I am so confident that a crisis nursery would reduce child abuse and neglect because it offers real help to parents while dealing with hardship. Loss of employment, loss of housing, termination of a relationship, etc. Everyone needs help once in a while; everyone.

I think the CAS should be an absolute last resort. It needs to be totally overhauled. 90% of CAS workers (especially the 'big cheeses' or Don's as I like to say because the organization may as well be a mafia) should be fired and then put in jail. Until that happens, a crisis nursery is needed.

I appreciate any help any of you can offer! My e-mail address again is jeffreyslaw@cogeco.ca

Thanks!
Amanda

2007-01-04T05:34:00.000-06:00

I'm sorry to say that I haven't put the plaque on the rock yet. It has either been too cold or too wet when I have had time to go. I've also been busy making quilts for kids similar to the ones I sent Jeffrey's siblings last Christmas. I call them 'Jeffrey's Comfy Quilts' and I will be donating them to the Canadian Center for Abuse Awareness.

I'm also moving right along with my building plans, though the idea has changed slightly. In addition to being a crisis nursery, I want to also have room for up to 16 children, and 6 babies and toddlers. A big foster home. I will keep you up to date on that project.

If you need to get a hold of me directly, my e-mail address is jeffreyslaw@cogeco.ca

Take care and hope this is the year of change for society's; for our children!

Amanda

Jeffrey's Memorial Site

2006-12-22T05:58:00.000-06:00

To get to Jeffrey's memorial site in Greenwood Park: (this is the only way I know, however, the actual address is 150 Greenwood Park should you need to do a mapquest)

From 401 west take 427/ Renforth exit (I suppose it's the same if you're coming from the east)

Take 427 south lane

Go east on Gardiner Parkway or Lakeshore Blvd. eventually both merge together to become Lakeshore

Turn left onto Leslie Street

Turn right onto Dundas Street West

Turn left onto Greenwood, you will see the park on your left

Jeffrey's bench, tree and plaque are near the children's playground and water park, in between the washrooms and arena buildings. Just so you know, it's usually wet in that area, I didn't take into consideration the area was lower there when choosing the location.

I hope many, many people will still go and visit. There are ribbons in the tree, so people have been going which is good. Unfortunately someone has written on the bench, so I will re-paint it in the spring.

Happy holidays all and if you're looking for a place to donate money or time this year, may I suggest your local Humane Society or the Canadian Center for Abuse Awareness. (which is NOT affiliated with any C/CAS!)
www.ccfaa.com

Take care,
Amanda

I'm back, sorry for the delay!!

2006-12-01T18:08:00.000-06:00

I'm so sorry to have abandoned the blog for so long! I will be going to Greenwood Park this weekend with the permanent plaque to see if it will fit (somehow) on the rock. If it won't, then I will attach it to the bench. In either case, I will be installing it next weekend for sure. I have to borrow or rent a hammer drill to drill the holes in the rock, but I have the bolts and adhesive all ready. Again, I'm sorry for getting too caught up in other things and neglecting this site.

I'm back in the fight, I guess I just needed a rest!

First things first, please write to all politicians listed on this site once again demanding that the Ombudsman be granted oversight of Ontario C/CAS's, especially in light of what has just happened with the revelation of irresponsible spending of our money.

I'm starting to work on my proposal for a Crisis Nursery in Toronto to present to the city next summer. There are only TWO in all of Canada and they are run completley independant of CAS. If anyone can help with this (architects, engineers, child and youth workers, etc.) I need help tweaking my thoughts by professionals before sending out a proposal and would appreciate help!

Thanks for sticking around and posting here!

Take care,
Amanda Reed

Will this FINALLY rouse the public??

2006-12-01T18:00:00.000-06:00

Subject: Auditor General Report
CBC: Ontario's Auditor General has found money the province provided for the protection of young children was misspent on expensive cars, meals and other perks for staff at some Children's Aid Societies. CBC News has obtained a final draft of the province's first value for money audit of Children's Aid which is to be released next week. The report looks at four of Ontario's biggest agencies in Toronto, York, Peel and Thunder Bay. The audit details the lack of controls on more than a billion dollars worth of taxpayers money that Ontario Children's Aid Societies spend every year, and as Margo Kelly reports, the Auditor also says the agencies aren't following the laws that protect children.

REPORTER: The Auditor's report contains disturbing details of misspent money. Several executives were given luxury vehicles including two SUV's worth more than $50,000. An employee had a staff car, but was also given $600 a month for the use of their own vehicle. One manager received a $2,000 a year gym membership and $650 every three months for a personal trainer. Numerous meals for child welfare staff at high end restaurants were expensed with no explanation. And the Auditor also questions expensive trips to the Caribbean, China and Buenos Aires.

MICHAEL DAVIS (Retired homicide detective): It's outrageous when you read it.

REPORTER: Retired homicide detective Michael Davis helped Ontario's Coroner review the deaths of hundreds of children who died while in the care of the Children's Aid. He's upset about the Auditor General's revelations about the lack of controls on hundreds of millions of dollars handed out to group and foster homes, and concerns that some services were never delivered.

DAVIS: Where is the paper trail with regard to the money that you're spending, the taxpayers money that you are spending, and...but where is the Minister in this?

REPORTER: Other findings illustrate how the societies aren't following the law to protect children. In one-third of cases reviewed, initial visits to children at risk were late by an average of three weeks, some children weren't seen at all. In the cases reviewed 90 per cent of the plans meant to keep children safe weren't completed as required and some were 10 months late. The Auditor asks why government funding for Ontario's Children's Aid Societies has more than doubled over six years, while the number of families served increased by only 40 per cent. The Children's Aid Societies have refused to comment, but CBC News has learned that the agencies have hired a public relations firm to help managed the damaging news. In their words - to preserve the reputation of Children's Aid Societies and their leaders. Margo Kelly, CBC News, Toronto.

Thursday, November 30, 2006 8:24:57 AM

2006-06-25T07:30:00.000-05:00

Addresses:

Dalton McGuinty
Premier of Ontario
Legistlative Building
Queen's Park
Toronto, ON M7A 1A1

Jack Layton
1506 Danforth Ave.
Toronto, ON M4J 1N4

Andrea Horwath
MPP Hamilton East
720 Main Street East
Hamilton, ON M4Y 1C6

Andre Marin
Ombudsman of Ontario
Bell Trinity Square
10th Floor, South Tower
Toronto, ON M5G 2C9

Mary Anne Chambers
Minister of Children and Youth Services
56 Wellesley Street West, 14th Floor
Toronto, ON M4S 2S3

Mary McConville
Executive Director
Catholic Children’s Aid Society
26 Maitland Street
Toronto, Ontario
M4Y 1C6

Jeanette Lewis
Executive Director
Ontario Association of Children’s Aid Societies
75 Front Street East, 2nd Floor
Toronto, Ontario
M5E 1V9

2006-06-09T21:11:00.000-05:00

Baldwin grandparents sentenced to life in prison
Updated Fri. Jun. 9 2006 1:07 PM ETCTV.ca

Toronto grandparents found guilty of second-degree murder in the starving death of their five-year-old grandson have been sentenced to life in prison with no hope for parole for at least 20 years.Elva Bottineau, 54, was sentenced to 22 years before becoming eligible parole, while her common-law husband Norman Kidman, 53, was handed 20 years, said Superior Court Justice David Watt."The inhumanity revealed here has shocked the community," Watt said. "They must pay a very steep price."But the couple will be eligible to apply to have their sentences lowered after just 15 years under the so-called faint hope clause.Reaction to sentencesCrown Attorney Paul Culver was pleased with the sentences."It was a great judicial reaction to an indescribable situation. Jeffrey was totally ignored during his life and certainly wasn't afterwards. It was a great investigation, a great prosecution," Culver said shortly after the sentencing.Second-degree murder carries an automatic life term, but the judge could have set parole eligibility after as little as 10 years.Bottineau and Kidman were found guilty in April for the death of five-year-old Jeffrey Baldwin.The horrid living conditions that led to Baldwin's death in 2002 have been described as one of the worst cases of child abuse in the country's history.Jeffrey and his siblings were put in the care of Bottineau and Kidman while the Catholic Children's Aid Society (CCAS) probed allegations of abuse by their birth parents.Instead, court heard the couple used Jeffrey and his sister to draw income through government support cheques while they were confined to a cold, fetid room each night.Court was told Jeffrey was hidden away in the unheated bedroom for as long as 14 hours a day, and forced to dig through garbage to find food and use the toilet for drinking water.The boy, who was called "Pig" by his grandparents, weighed an emaciated 21 pounds when he died just short of his sixth birthday in November 2002, weighing less than he did when he turned one.Officially, he died of starvation and septic shock.Worried about futureJeffrey's maternal grandmother said she wonders about the suffering the boy experienced and worries about how his sister will deal with what she experienced."I can't imagine what he must have felt," Susan Dimitriades said Friday. "I can't imagine how he lived under that condition and his sister too. Like the judge said, the sister has to deal with what happened to her, and maybe the rest of her life will never be the same."When authorities rescued Jeffrey's sister from the squalor, she too was showing signs of starvation with a distended belly and open sores.Bottineau and Kidman were also found guilty of forcible confinement for the sister's care.Although Jeffrey and his sister lived in squalor, the living quarters for the other children were normal, court was told.Bottineau's lawyer Anil Kapoor, had argued his client was mentally handicapped with a personality disorder that prevented her from seeing Jeffrey waste away.
No cooperation
Homicide investigator Mike Davis expressed frustration with the CCAS outside the courthouse Friday. He said the agency provided "little - if any - cooperation" during the investigation of Jeffrey's death.Davis said there are "policies and procedures" for organizations such as police and the CCAS, "and at no time did I see any cooperation whatsoever with the Catholic Children's Aid Society.""This is something that only a public inquiry can look into and look into the systemic issues that are underlying with the Catholic Children's Aid Society," Davis said."We were and continue to be shocked and surprised by the level of cooperation that was given by the various children's agencies," Culver said.After last month's guilty verdict, Ontario's chief coroner announced an inquest will be held, which will look into how the system failed to protect Jeffrey and the involvement of the CCAS.It is alleged the CCAS did not do a background check on the grandparents prior to the placement. Each of them has previous child abuse convictions.No date has been set for the start of the inquest.

2006-05-20T10:24:00.000-05:00

The unbearable darkness of being
CHRISTIE BLATCHFORD
I have been writing about Jeffrey Baldwin off and on for more than three years, since shortly after his miserable death in his prison of a room in an east-end Toronto house on Nov. 30, 2002.
In that 42-month period, I knocked on the front door of the house, this in those early days before his grandparents were ever arrested, and was chased away by his obese, glowering and remarkably entitled grandmother, who later called police to complain about me; broke the story of how the Catholic Children's Aid Society had agreed to give custody of Jeffrey and his siblings to the grotesque grandparents without even checking its own files that detailed the pair's earlier, separate convictions for child abuse; covered much of the grandparents' criminal trial (they were found guilty of second-degree murder and will be formally sentenced on May 30); attended a tender memorial, organized by strangers, for the dead boy; and read and wrote about a searing report written by an external consultant, who described in crisp prose the ways the CCAS had failed Jeffrey.
For the longest time, I had a picture of the little boy on a wall of my home office and, later, a T-shirt with a blown-up version of the same photo.
I took them down a couple of weeks ago.
Jeffrey's grandparents, Elva Bottineau and Norman Kidman, are likely to pass the rest of their lives in prison — second-degree murder carries an automatic "life" sentence with only the parole ineligibility period still to be decided by the judge — but, as an outcome, this is so profoundly unsatisfactory as to evoke despair.
Last month, Mr. Justice David Watt of Ontario Superior Court ruled that, as Jeffrey's caregivers, the grandparents are guilty of killing him, and so they are. For her part, the grandmother is of borderline intelligence but a vicious, self-referential woman, and surprisingly capable and cunning. The grandfather is a big, lethargic dope, uninterested in much beyond his own creature comforts and unwilling to put himself out one bit to help the child who was slowly dying before his eyes.
They richly deserve their sentences, and not a whit of pity.
But, my God, Jeffrey and his little sister, centred out for cruel treatment by the grandparents though Jeffrey bore the worst of it, lived in that small house surrounded by adults.
Two of the Bottineau-Kidman grown daughters, and their men, also lived there, the most notorious of them one James Mills. Mr. Mills is the best known because he was the only one of that household to testify at trial — Judge Watt described him as "a curious mixture of blatant self-interest and unfathomable loyalty to the persons charged" — and because, as the only one in the house not related by blood or marriage, he might have been presumed to be less bound to the studied indifference that was the household's reaction to the little boy's plight.
Alas, like Mr. Kidman, whom he so admired, Mr. Mills lifted not a pinky, not once, not ever, to help the suffering Jeffrey. The night the little guy died, Mr. Mills was in the bedroom next door, playing video games.
The only price he paid for his stunningly heartless behaviour was the sting of publicity, the same price, albeit to a much lesser extent because they were not called to the witness stand, paid by the other adults who lived in the house.
So, while the grandparents are the perpetrators, while it was their legal duty and theirs alone to have properly cared for a vulnerable child, there was a larger pool of adults who donned blinkers. This is not criminal conduct, but it is morally reprehensible and depressing.
Institutionally, there were three different systems involved one way or another in the case. Two of them — the police and the administration of justice — did their jobs and emerged with honour, in reasonable good time.
Though homicide detectives probably harboured dreams of charging every person in that vile house and the agency that agreed to give the grandparents custody in the first place, and though they would have done so to wide applause, they correctly arrested only the grandparents, because only they had legal liability and opportunity and could be successfully prosecuted.
The accused were robustly defended before one of the best judges in the nation, who heard the case without a jury and wrote a 200-plus-page decision that is as sound as it is literate.
Only the Catholic Children's Aid Society came out of the abyss if not entirely unscathed — the agency, too, was called to account in the realm of public opinion — then unbowed.
At the crux of the agency's explanation for what happened was that there was, at the time Jeffrey's grandparents gained custody of him, a policy vacuum in child care.
Back then, went this explanation, when relatives stepped into the breach when parents were deemed unfit, there was no rule that workers do background checks on the relatives — as though it were perfectly acceptable that a requirement for a thorough family history, in any custody case, should flow from a formal directive.
Child-welfare agencies, chiefly the CCAS, were intimately involved with Jeffrey's various family members for 36 years; there was a wealth of frightening information about the grandparents in the files the agency failed to review.
To my knowledge, the agency has never explained — nor been asked to explain by anyone other than the press — how it was that it also approved Ms. Bottineau as one of its own paid child-care providers a mere four years after her husband was convicted of assaulting two of her youngsters from a previous marriage and despite her own conviction in the 1970 pneumonia death of her first baby, an infant named Eva who later was found to have suffered multiple fractures consistent with battered-child syndrome.
Its front-line workers involved in the case have never publicly explained their thinking.
There remains one last hope that the agency and those workers will be asked these questions and others — Ontario's chief coroner has called an inquest into the little boy's death.
The cynical view is that little good can come of these proceedings, because the recommendations of any inquest jury are only that — recommendations — and because the inquest cannot assign blame.
I don't subscribe to that view. I think the more such decisions are examined, the more publicity brought to bear on the workings of secretive organizations, the more good, ordinary people see that wasted little boy as he appeared on the autopsy table, the better.
Studies show that the sort of slow, semi-starvation Jeffrey Baldwin endured is worse, physiologically and psychologically, than total starvation. In the latter, hunger pangs disappear within a few days; in the former, there is no such blessing.
I can't bear to look at his picture any longer, but he remains in my heart. I await the inquest with eagerness.
cblatchford@globeandmail.com

2006-05-20T09:47:00.000-05:00

To all:

I am still away at school and haven't read the blog for so long until today. I don't encourage hate or nasty comments, I don't like that people use what is supposed to be an open forum to discuss idea's and feelings about C/CAS, Jeffrey, child care, etc., to vent their problems or attack each other. I probably won't have the chance to read this again for another month.

John, thank you for all the work you are doing. Believe me, it is frustrating and hard to try and fight the 'machine'. I got sick of slamming my head into a brick wall whenever I dealt with Mary Anne Chambers or Mary McConvile! Don't get consumed!! You WILL burn out and your family will suffer because you're so busy. The absolutely must be a joint effort from everyone who wants change, one person CAN NOT do it alone.

Hope everyone is well, take care,
Amanda

Public Rally May 17, 2006

2006-05-06T21:08:00.000-05:00

Wednesday May 17, 2006
10:30 a.m.
Courtroom 4-9
361 University Ave.

is the date for sentencing subissions before Justice Watt.

Please come out and show your outrage for failure to protect Jeffrey, failure to permit Ombudsman investigative oversight of CASs and for failure to take steps to hold CCAS criminally accountable as well for its unconscionable failure to protect Jeffrey. Stand up for Jeffrey, don't just hide behind the scenes!!!

2006-05-06T21:07:00.000-05:00

Even the Toronto Sun gets it! In case you missed it, here's the lead editorial today: May 1, 2006 EDITORIAL: Give this watchdog more biteEver since he was appointed Ontario Ombudsman a year ago, Andre Marin has been making trouble for Premier Dalton McGuinty’s government.And that’s good, because that’s his job. Marin investigates cases where citizens receive poor service from the province, just as the auditor reports on fiscal mismanagement. Beyond dealing with individual complaints, Marin has increasingly been taking on cases where he sees a system-wide or “systemic” failure of government. Thus far he’s exposed:- Bureaucratic bungling which forced parents of severely disabled children to give them up to children’s aid societies.- A shocking failure to update the screening of newborn babies for diseases, a situation that could easily have been fixed for $2.4 million.- Arbitrary and secretive conduct by Ontario’s Municipal Property Assessment Corp. in setting property assessments. These assessments directly impact on how much property tax people pay.Such rulings haven’t made Marin popular with the government, even though he was chosen for the job by an all-party committee and says most of the problems he’s uncovered started before the Grits took office.Now he’s worried the powers of his office are being curtailed. He notes a law passed recently by the Liberals establishing a civilian review process for complaints about the police contains a specific clause keeping the agency out of his jurisdiction.Ontario, Marin says, is also lagging behind other provinces which empower their ombudsmen to probe municipalities, universities, school boards and hospitals — the “MUSH” sector which accounts for 80% of provincial spending — as well as children’s aid societies, which receive $1.5 billion annually.Soon after he was appointed to his job by the government, a committee of senior civil servants recommended his entire office be scrapped as a cost-saving measure. Bad idea.As Ontario’s ombudsman and in his previous jobs as the federal military ombudsman and head of Ontario’s Special Investigations Unit, which probes the use of police force, Marin has shown himself to be a tough, compassionate defender of ordinary citizens.We agree with him that his office should be given the same jurisdictional authority as the auditor.Marin says he doesn’t know what the government is afraid of, given that he only has the power to report on and publicize his findings. Neither do we.

2006-04-22T19:56:00.000-05:00

Remember we have collected over 5,500 sigs, from doctors nurses, hospital social workers, in 2 cities, one in only a small affluent area, all stating agreeing with the below statement, one has been presented, already, the other should be next week, and still going strong. I am shocked by the stories from the medical community they are NOT fans of the child protection agencies, nor are the teacher, they see this system doing more harm then good. Its time to really listen to the people, of this province after all we are whom they represent. So yes we have spoken to doctors social workers nurses, lawyers, judges, parents, there needs to be change, this petition has yet to reach the family's that have had involvement , but it will be interesting to see what they have to say. The mandated reporters are not happy. They report they feel more harm is done to the child and family.

PETITION

TO The Legislative Assembly of Ontario:

WHEREAS The Child and Family Services Act of 1999 has been misused toapprehend large numbers of Canadian children; it is financially onerous tothe people of Ontario;

WHEREAS the current legislation gives CAS workers more power than anypoliceman, physician or judge, the rights of Canadian children are routinely trampled in the name of "child protection";

WHEREAS the funding of this agency is piecework based, it is financially rewarded for each file opened and each child apprehended;

WHEREAS to insure accountability and transparency, we need to have the Ontario Ombudsman have oversight over Bill C210

We the undersigned petition the Legislative Assembly of Ontario to open up the process to public scrutiny to ensure a level playing field, and ensure a proper judicial review with proper representation.

Name (Please Print)
City Signature________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Name

(Please Print) City Signature

If people want a printable copy of this petition calling for Ombudsman oversight, Andrea Horwath will email them one. You can then print and circulate it to family, friends, neighbours, etc.

2006-04-18T20:39:00.000-05:00

Jeffrey's case
If any 'good' comes from Jeffrey Baldwin's death it will be from the inquest called by Ontario's chief coronerBy MARK BONOKOSKI
The Grandparents Grimm -- custodial monsters Elva Bottineau and Norman Kidman -- will appear in court again May 17 to learn how long the jailer's key will be thrown away before they can apply for the unthinkable prospect of parole following their convictions for second-degree murder.
Their barbarism has been well documented in recent days, of course, despite words falling short of fully describing what is surely indescribable for even the best of writers.
When their 5-year-old grandson, Jeffrey Baldwin, died from the brutality and starvation they had inflicted upon him, for example, his weight was that of a 10-month-old baby -- his years, according to Ontario Justice David Watt, "eked out" in the "miserable existence" of a locked room described as a "dungeon" that was cold, urine-soaked and coated with the filth of human feces.
There is no mind's-eye picture that could possibly conjure the reality of that scenario -- unless, God forbid, a photograph of the poor boy's wasted corpse was able to flash on some screen in the psyche of us all.
Until then, it must hopefully remain unimaginable.
INQUEST IS NEEDED
If there is any good that can come from this horror, and the word "good" is used because of the lack of any other, it is that Ontario's chief coroner, Dr. Barry McLellan, has ordered an inquest into young Jeffrey's death -- with the focus clearly centred on the Catholic Children's Aid Society.
And rightly so.
For it was that agency -- a taxpayer-funded, social safety-net of guardianship -- that handed the boy over to his eventual killers when a simple background check would have uncovered a high degree of child abuse in that family.
In 1998, when Jeffrey's own parents were being investigated for child abuse, and he and his siblings were seized, the CCAS never opposed Bottineau's bid for legal custody of her daughter's children -- meaning they never checked their files to learn that, as a teenage mother, Bottineau herself was convicted of assault causing bodily harm in the 1970 pneumonia death of her first child, Eva, who was also found to have suffered multiple fractures.
And then there was Bottineau's husband, Norman Kidman, whose documented history has him convicted of the extreme beatings of two of Bottineau's children from a previous marriage -- another record easily accessed by the CCAS.
Yet into those abusive arms young Jeffrey Baldwin was tossed, as well as three other siblings.
Following the trial, Paul Dimitriadis -- husband of Jeffrey's paternal grandmother, Susan -- minced no words when it came to the CCAS which, according to reports, backed Bottineau and Kidman in barring the two from even visiting their grandchildren ... a visit which, in retrospect, might have led to young Jeffrey being rescued from their clutches.
But this was never to happen.
CASTLE WALLS
"I believe the Catholic Children's Aid Society lives in a big castle with high walls," he said. "And when they come out, they are guarded by pit bull terriers called lawyers, who are ready to tear anyone apart (who) try to question them."
And he, in many ways, is not far from being wrong.
Not a week goes by that I do not get one or two e-mails, and just as many calls, from a parent or a grandparent with what they see as critical concerns regarding one children's aid society or another -- concerns they want to see go public.
And this is where the "high walls" come into play. Privacy laws not only prevent names from being used, they are also used as a shield by all CAS to deflect, not only comment, but often even acknowledgement of the case in question.
And this is a dilemma for those in the news business who, after time, often find it easier to walk away from a potential story than face the inevitable dead end of the agency invoking privacy laws as a convenient and effective way to legally cover ass until the story goes away.
And it could have even happened here in the Jeffrey Baldwin case, if not for the chief coroner calling an inquest.
While the vast majority of CAS cases are undoubtedly well handled, the few that are not demand scrutiny.
Perhaps the upcoming inquest into Jeffrey Baldwin's death will find a way to address that concern as an important sidebar issue in the juggling act between privacy and protection.
While it may seem small in the greater scheme of the unfathomable picture of the horror that brought the Grandparents Grimm to trial, what of the case I wrote about a month ago about the Cobourg father who discovered -- through a third party, not the CAS -- that the man living with his ex-wife and their 7-year-old daughter was also the man written up in the local newspaper as being sentenced to "house arrest" for sexually assaulting his teenage stepdaughter's best friend?
Facts being facts, it would seem a simple task to get his daughter out of harm's way.
Surely the Children's Aid would see absurdity in these living arrangements, as well as the inherent danger of a 7-year-old little girl having an admitted sex offender as an authority figure.
But that is not the way it played out.
SEXUAL ASSAULT
In fact, the Children's Aid refused to acknowledge that the man in the newspaper convicted of the sexual assault on a teen was the same man now living with his ex-wife and therefore sharing the joint custody of his little girl.
"All I am asking is for one of two things to happen," the girl's father told me back then. "Either give me full custody of my daughter, or get him out of that house."
Neither has happened.
Today, his daughter is still living under the same roof as that convicted sex offender, but it is no longer in Cobourg.
They have packed up and moved because they have supposedly "found God," and the only church where that "God" can be found is apparently nowhere else but Peterborough.
Perhaps the children's aid there will find this odd.
But, then again, likely not.

Public Rally

2006-04-14T15:55:00.000-05:00

I'm sorry I couldn't be at the sentencing on April 7th, however, I e-mailed all my media contacts asking them to be there and heard there were a small hand full of people. So, let's try again. Unfortunately I won't be at this one either, (in the Fall, I will be back in force) but please see post below. I will again e-mail my contacts, if you think you can get out of work or make it, PLEASE do! I don't want to cry wolf and have no one except the media show up. Hopefully this is enough of a notice so you can ask for the afternoon off work or make arrangements to be there. Please post your thoughts so I can guage if I should formally 'announce' it to the media.

Thanks,
Amanda

POST:

Anonymous said...

TO EVERYONE RE. RALLY:

Please note that I am advised by Nick Pron of T.O. Star that Wednesday May 17, 2006 starting at 10:30 a.m. in courtroom 4-9 at 361 University Ave. is the date for sentencing subissions before Justice Watt. If it goes a second day, Friday May 19th is reserved.

I told Mr. Pron that we are attempting to have public rally on the sentencing date, he suggested it be on May 17. I agree. Please come out and show your outrage for failure to protect Jeffrey, failure to permit Ombudsman investigative oversight of CASs and for failure to take steps to hold CCAS criminally accountable as well for its unconscionable failure to protect Jeffrey. Stand up for Jeffrey, don't just hide behind the scenes!!!

Posted: Thursday, April 13, 2006 11:02:27 AM

Some hate mail... WHO is this guy??

2006-04-13T14:20:00.000-05:00

I assume he is elva's son who was one of the two children taken before she had the three girls? Elayne, can you elaborate? I don't think he is part of the paternal family...?

Date:
Wed, 12 Apr 2006 23:34:55 -0400
To:
jeffreyslaw@cogeco.ca
Subject:
Jeffrey Baldwin
From:
FRED CROTTA

Amanda Reed,
Where do you get off interfering in family matters? Why do you feel the need to fight for someone you don't even know? Do you not have a life of your own? I truly believe you should consult the family before broadcasting a plaque memorial when the family hasn't been consulted. I'm sure his family would have quite a bit to say about you interfering with their personal losses. I know I do and none of it can be stated in this email, due to proper ettiquette. Being his uncle I thin k you should butt out! This is a family matter and last I checked you weren't family.
F. Crotta

My response:
That's unfortunate then because I WON'T butt out of this! YOU should have done something... he's not yours anymore. He will be the catalyst for change for all future children in this country! It's good you didn't swear because I'm posting your letter on my blog... feel free to visit me there and voice yourself, you won't offend me, though I'm SURE you must have SOMETHING better to do with your time!

By the way, I'm thrilled I'm not part of your family!

Amanda Reed
Jeffrey's Law Organization

2006-04-12T21:06:00.000-05:00

Did you see:

"Failing Jeffrey"
The Fifth Estate

Will re air on CBC Newsworld over the weekend

2006-04-12T14:24:00.000-05:00

RE: Plaque

I can not move installing the plaque to the Spring because of a few reasons, however, if someone else would like to be 'in charge' of organizing this, I will certainly hand over the plaque. Please let me know and please remember I have very limited internet access so may not respond as quickly...
Thanks

2006-04-12T07:32:00.000-05:00

Is she joking??

Death cannot cloud work
Apr. 11, 2006. 01:00 AM
Abusers convicted of killing grandchild
April 8.
When a child dies or is maltreated, especially when the circumstances were preventable, demands for a full and thorough investigation are warranted. It is important that every effort be made to examine what went wrong and to identify the checks and balances that must be put in place to prevent future tragedies. Moreover, it is important that the implementation of recommendations receive both priority and adequate resources.
In the case of Jeffrey Baldwin, the 5-year-old child who died of malnutrition while in the care of his grandparents, the Toronto Catholic Children's Aid Society (CCAS) has acknowledged that its records were not checked when the grandparents applied to the courts for custody of Jeffrey a number of years ago. The CCAS has since put protocols in place to ensure this will not happen again.
While the hardships associated with Jeffrey Baldwin's tragic death must not be diminished, the Ontario Association of Social Workers cautions against allowing his death to overshadow the important and effective work the CCAS and other child welfare agencies carry out each year.
In Ontario, highly skilled child welfare staff, many of whom are social workers, conduct more than 82,000 investigations a year and provide services to 30,000 children in care. They operate seven days a week, 24 hours a day. Caseloads are complex and the demands on staff immense. Professionals working in this important, yet often times maligned role, need the support of the community as they continue to protect our most vulnerable citizens, our children.

Beverley J. Antle, President, Ontario Association of Social Workers, Toronto

_____________________________________________________
Well said!

Change child welfare rules
Apr. 11, 2006. 01:00 AM
Abusers convicted of killing grandchild
April 8.
Jeffrey Baldwin's death is a tragedy. Everyone from government to children's aid societies to the people who care for children and youth in need of protection like Jeffrey must learn from his experiences (and those of his siblings) so they are not repeated.
In our view, there needs to be fundamental changes to Ontario's child welfare system to avoid the chances of something similar happening to another child in the future.
Changes are needed to ensure that children are placed with the best people to provide proper care; to provide the ability for a third party to independently review the child's care and to fund the child's care and treatment accordingly. In short, providing children with the care they need, not just the "minimum" as can sometimes be the case.
As providers of high-quality treatment foster care and group home care to more than 4,000 children and youth in Ontario yearly, our members continue to work with the Ontario government, children's aid societies and other partners to recommend ways to make the system better.
Jeffrey's death must serve as a catalyst to ensure vulnerable children can get the best chance at a good life.
Richard Solomon, Executive Director, Ontario Association of Residences Treating Youth, Richmond Hill

2006-04-12T07:23:00.000-05:00

Amanda - FYI

CBC has posted the audio and a summary of the Jeffrey Baldwin case discussion with the Ombudsman this morning at

http://www.cbc.ca/thecurrent/2006/200604/20060411.html.

If you didn't catch it this morning, thought you might want to listen in or share it with your readers.

_____________________________

Hi everyone,
I'm at school now and there is NO internet access except early in the morning. So, I won't be posting very much but will be of course reading the newspapers and keeping up as much as possible.

Take care,
Amanda

2006-04-11T20:32:00.000-05:00

Bill 88, 2006, Ombudsman Amendment Act (Children's Aid Societies), 2006.
Andrea Horwath NDP MPP has introduced to the Legislative Assembly, Bill 88, 2006. By Introducing this to the Legislative Assembly, she is forcing the Government to publicly admit that they do not want any form of external accountability over CAS's.

2006-04-08T06:46:00.000-05:00

Here is the permanent plaque I will be installing in Greenwood Park this summer with my dad. I will of course let everyone know when I'm going so you can all come.

May this sweet child be the catalyst for change in a corrupt, broken system to save other children from suffering the same fate... he is an angel.

2006-04-08T05:47:00.000-05:00

Please write the Chief and Deputy Chief Coroners thanking them for calling an inquest. They could have ignored it, they could have been in bed with CCAS, but they didn't and they're not.
Thanks!
Amanda

Dr. Barry McLellan, Chief Coroner
Dr. Jim Cairns, Deputy Cheif Coroner
Office of the Chief Coroner
Coroner's Bldg, 2nd Floor
26 Grenville Street
Toronto, Ontario M7A 2G9
Phone: (416) 314-4000
Fax: (416) 314-4030

2nd Degree Murder and a Public Inquest Called!

2006-04-07T17:42:00.000-05:00

April 7, 2006
T.O. grandparents who starved boy to death guilty of second-degree murder

TORONTO (CP) - A Toronto couple who allowed their five-year-old grandson to starve to death have been found guilty of second-degree murder.

Fifty-four-year-old Elva Bottineau and 53-year-old Norman Kidman were supposed to have saved their grandchildren from a life of abuse after they were taken from their birth parents. Instead, five-year-old Jeffrey Baldwin was confined to a locked, unheated bedroom for as much as 14 hours a day, breathing in the smell of his own urine and feces.

The details of his tragic life were outlined for the court Friday in a lengthy address by Justice David Watt that took much of the day.

Court heard he was treated like a dog, made to eat out of a bowl with his fingers and he often drank from a toilet when he was thirsty.

Immediately upon the verdict's release, Ontario's chief coroner announced that an inquest would be held.

"The circumstances surrounding Jeffrey's death have been a matter of public interest," Dr. Barry McLellan's office said in a release.

"Issues to be addressed at the inquest include the Toronto Catholic Children's Aid Society's involvement in Jeffrey's placement and the role that agency, and others, had in monitoring his well-being prior to his death."

Emergency crews were shocked when they found Jeffrey's frail body, weighing less than he did on his first birthday.

He was just 21 pounds when he died of starvation and pneumonia in November 2002, weeks before his sixth birthday.

When his sister was rescued from the house she too showed obvious signs of starvation with skinny limbs, a distended belly and open sores.

Although the children lived in squalor, the rest of the house was immaculately clean, court heard.

The couple was also found guilty of forcible confinement for the girl's care.

Bottineau's lawyer Anil Kapoor had argued his client did not deliberately kill her grandson. He cited a psychologist who testified Bottineau was mentally retarded with a personality disorder that prevented her from seeing Jeffrey waste away.

But another expert witness, Lisa Ramshaw, contradicted that assessment and said Bottineau had "a higher order of thinking than someone with mental retardation" and lied to protect herself.

Lawyer Catherine Glaister told Watt that Kidman did not plan to kill Jeffrey and had little involvement in the children's lives.

1:15pm...

2006-04-07T12:15:00.000-05:00

... still not too much from the courthouse, but there probably won't be illegal confinement charges in regards to Jeffrey's sister...

2006-04-06T05:03:00.000-05:00

April 5, 2006

GIVE OMBUDSMAN OVERSIGHT IN FORBIDDEN KEY AREAS
Queen's Park - Ontario

New Democrats are pushing a legislative package thatwould give the provincial Ombudsman powers to better protect Ontarians when government institutions fail them. NDP Critic for Children and Youth Issues, Hamilton East MPP Andrea Horwath,and Trinity-Spadina MPP Rosario Marchese, the party's Education Critic,unveiled a trio of private members bills they'll introduce today. They want the government to adopt the entire package and give people a fair opportunity to appeal unjust decisions.

"We believe the Ombudsman should have a broad and unfettered mandate.There's no reason why a government should stand in the way of the Ombudsman's investigation of any problem," said Marchese. "Getting to the bottom of complaints about schools, health care facilities and children's welfare is the right thing to do for kids' sake and foreveryone's sake," Horwath said.

Horwath is proposing two new laws giving the Ombudsman the currently forbidden power to investigate matters concerning the administration of Children's Aid Societies and hospital and health care facilities. Five provinces - Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, New Brunswick and NovaScotia - have Ombudsman oversight of child welfare issues, including child protection. Saskatchewan, Quebec and Newfoundland have independent oversight through separate offices. Eight jurisdictions in Canada --British Columbia, Manitoba, New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador,Quebec, Nova Scotia, Saskatchewan, and Yukon Territories -- give their Ombudsman Offices the mandate to investigate hospitals. Concerning schoolsand boards, the Ombudsman has a role in BC, New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia and Yukon.

In December, Ontario Ombudsman André Marin told a government committee hewas "duty-bound" to seek independent oversight of CAS administrativedecisions following the death of Jeffrey Baldwin.

Currently, the CAS board of directors investigates complaints.

Similarly, the government doesn't let the Ombudsman investigate problems inhealth care or education, said Marchese. His private members bill wouldenable the Ombudsman to investigate complaints relating to school boardpolicies, such as suspensions and expulsions under the controversial SafeSchools Act. "It is vital that people have a neutral third party who can investigate andmake recommendations. Just because the government won't listen, doesn't meanpeople don't deserve to be heard," he said. "Independent oversight is crucial for families dealing with the harsh and heart-wrenching impact of decisions that adversely affect them," said Horwath. -30-

2006-04-03T20:45:00.000-05:00

There have been a couple of requests for a public rally this Friday April 7. The day of the verdict. Is anybody interested?

2006-04-03T06:42:00.000-05:00

April 3, 2006
Toronto Sun
Should foster care be licensed?
By VIVIAN SONG

Like licensed daycare, foster care should also be professionalized, says a professor of child and family studies and a foster parent.
"When our own children go to daycare, we as parents insist that the daycare is licensed and insist that the provider has some educational background like early childhood education," said Thomas Waldock, a professor at Nipissing University and a published child-advocate author.
"We demand more of those systems, but when it comes to foster care, because we're talking about marginalized kids from marginalized populations, we place ads in papers requesting foster parents to join the system."
On average, the base rate foster parents receive is about $26.71 a day, not including incidental fees like soccer, music lessons or special needs costs.
$350 A DAY
Costs of keeping a child in a group home - which eats the biggest chunk of the system's budget - can get as high as $350 a day.
By investing resources and money into foster parents with educational backgrounds in social work and early childhood education, children would be looked after with the same kind of standard parents exact of the daycare providers who only look after their children eight hours a day, Waldock said.
"What tends to happen is that people and the press focus on the fact that kids are left in (horrible) situations ... but where the children get placed after they're removed tends to get lost ... There's very little focus on the quality of system children go into," Waldock said.
For Jeanette Lewis, executive director of OACAS, the licensing notion is at once idyllic and impractical.
"There's something to be said for that," she said. "But at the same time, you can't professionalize love, attachment, respect and caring. That's the dilemma."

April 3, 2006
Wards move every 22 months
Aim of Ontario's new child-care legislation is to bring permanency for children in care
By VIVIAN SONG

Young people in foster and group homes move on average every 22 months, according to the ministry of children and youth services.
There are about 9,000 permanent Crown wards in Ontario, but only 10% of them are adopted each year.
Last Monday the province passed new child protection legislation in Bill 210, for children like the youth in the documentary Wards of the Crown, who spent loveless childhoods being shuffled from home to home.
Minister Mary Anne Chambers said the new bill places priority in creating greater permanence for kids in care.
"If kids are changing homes on average every 22 months, that means new schools, getting accustomed to new neighbourhoods and friends. It's not the kind of stable environment that support strong growth in kids," Chambers said.
There are no caps on the number of times a foster child can be uprooted and moved to another foster home, says Jeanette Lewis, executive director of the Ontario Association of Children's Aid Societies, in part because there's a shortage of foster homes.
As of March of last year, the OACAS counted 8,004 foster homes and 1,460 adoption homes in the province.
"Overall, the whole question of taking care of another person's child has changed and the reality is more difficult," Lewis said.
As they grow older, existing foster parents stop fostering and retire the children back into the system. Increasingly multicultural communities also present unique challenges to an already overburdened child welfare system.
"There's a tremendous emphasis on the recruitment of foster parents from different cultures. But it's tough because in some cultures there is no word for foster care in their language. It's quite a challenge," Lewis said.
Claudette Maheux, manager of child and youth care services of the Ottawa CAS said the whole premise of foster care needs to be redefined.
"We need to do away with the term 'long-term foster care,'" she says in the film. "Foster homes should be for purposes of temporary care of children until we can find them permanence. It should not be the permanent plan."

2006-04-02T07:33:00.000-05:00

Someone posted this link and I've spent the morning reading these stories. Although it is an American site, they are still relevant stories. Some of the abusers got long sentences, others have been let off with a slap. Please see it if you get a chance.

http://www.amfor.net/KillerAdopters/

2006-03-31T19:52:00.000-06:00

Programs to watch:

Global Television's Focus Ontario program this weekend as the Ombudsman will be discussing the issue of CAS oversight. The program is scheduled to air on Saturday at 6:30pm and will repeat on Sunday morning at 7 a.m. and 11:30 a.m.

"Failing Jeffrey"
The Fifth Estate
Friday April 14, 2006
10:oo pm

From the clip they showed last night it looks like it is going to be good.

2006-03-27T18:29:00.000-06:00

Hi Amanda:

I am a Toronto Star reporter working on a story to come out April 7 the day of the ruling into Eva Bottineau & Norman Kidman on Jeffrey's death.
I am trying to find other cases of kinship care where children have been killed or abused in care of other relatives after having been taken from their mother.

Please contact me,
Sincerely,
Dale Anne Freed
Toronto Star
416-869-4436
email dfreed@thestar.ca

A CAS story...

2006-03-27T12:58:00.000-06:00

Program Supervisor
Ministry of Children & Youth Services
119 King Street West, 7th Floor
Suite 600
Hamilton ON L8P 4Y7

To whom it may concern

This is a letter explaining my situation and complaint with the Brant County Children’s Aid Society. The Society has been involved with my family on and off since July 1992 on assumption of alleged abuse on my children, poor parenting skills and too much stress.

In October 2002, a worker by the name of Donna Symes was assigned to my case, who since then has remained involved to this day even though I have no more children in my care since December 5, 2002. All of my children live in different homes. My youngest has been in foster care since that date, and is waiting for the courts to make her Crown Ward for the purpose of adoption. I was required by them to take parenting courses, group sessions, counseling and be seen by a psychiatrist for hopes that my children would return in my care. I followed through with each of their demands in order to be in good standing with the Society. Yet, it seems that my honesty and willingness to improve myself has caused much grief and pain to my family and to me. There have been accusations made against me that were untrue and overly exaggerated. For example, having high expectations of my children; punching them, which I never did because my approach to hot situations has always been to walk away; neglecting them, lack in parenting skills; failed to protect them; forcing my daughter to toilet train, which was never the case. My family life and my mental health haven been shattered which brought me to a depression and undo stress. This mental state was use against me and was told that I could not be a good parent. A parenting assessment was done in 2004 and so much information was untrue and distorted also. At that time, it was obvious to me that the doctor in question, seemed very bias on the whole situation and the recommendation was exactly what the worker wanted in the end.

I am presently expecting another child and I am being told, by this worker, that apprehension is very possible. There are many uncertainties on this at the present time. I am taking it one day at a time but still wonder what the agency will do. An alert has been place throughout Canada against me. So upon the delivery of this child, C.A.S. will be contacted and I will loose this child. She has stated that I can bond with the baby in the hospital and can nurse but to not expect the child to come home with me. In the last few weeks, Donna Symes was getting me to go to the office on a bi-weekly appointment. I have signed all the Form 14 required so that at the time of birth of this child, the Society can call the authorities involved in my life. I have been told that I need to continue counseling and see a psychiatrist, which I have no problem doing this even though I do feel that all is well with me. I was told to take, once again, a parenting course which if my memory serves me right, I have taken at least 4 of them to this date. She also told me that I would be re-assessed around the time of the birth of the new baby. I have no solid evidence of the outcome of my near future. I did tell Ms. Symes, why not let me take the baby home and have a worker at my home every day of the week if necessary even on Sunday. Her instant response to this was that this was not possible.

This worker, Donna Symes, has made many promises that she did not kept on more then one occasion. For example: Do what is required and your children will be returned to you; scheduled make – up visits with my daughter with no show from her part and no calls to cancel either. A few weeks ago she even told me that C.A.S. does not apprehend babies from the hospital and then stated differently. My doctor was upset that this woman was being dishonest with me and said that she should be telling me the truth.

I have often sought, in the pasts, the help of the Society, for help and advice. My children are my life and my world. All I want is a chance to prove that, but it seems that once again it’s impossible to prove anything to the Society when a worker is bias and seems to not follow what the Society really represents. I do understand that you are there to protect children but it’s also been my understanding that the Society is suppose to try to keep families together. It seems that this particular worker has been working very hard in keeping my family apart and continues to do so. I honestly believe that there is no reason for C.A.S. to be involved at this time or anytime in the future. But Ms. Donna Symes seems to think that she needs to be involved to be in control of the situation, which at this time there is no situation or anything else for that matter. How do I get the Society to stop being in my life and what damage is she trying to do or continue to do?

The only reason this worker knows of my pregnancy is because I’ve told her. In April 2005, I had to remove myself completely from the whole situation that surrounds me and moved to another province. At the time, it was something that was very much needed for my mental state. Removing myself away from all stressors that was surrounding me was the only thing I could think of doing at that time. I had nothing left to give to anyone including myself. I was so stressed out that I would break down at the least little thing. Before I left, I had my last visit with my daughter (April 7, 2005) who is in foster care as mentioned above. Upon my return to Ontario (Jan.16, 2006), I thought that being there still was nothing settled for her case, that maybe I could see my daughter again, so I called the worker. At that time, I told her about the pregnancy because I figured, if I was to see my girl, the Society would then notice my condition and so that I would not withhold any information, I voluntarily gave the info but now it’s causing me more grief once again.

I have found that over the years, there have been many contradictions with the Society. Some workers use to say that a spanking was ok but others would scold me for doing so. I am not talking about hard-core spanking; I’m referring to one or two spanking on the bottom with clothing. For one thing, how is a child suppose to be raise to respect and obey when we have no right to do anything to show them the right path? The Society and the Government has taken all of our parenting rights away and as we see the children now, we have children that are out of control and turning to a life of crime.

I’ve had workers in the past, wondered why they were involved with the family. They could not see what the problem was. So how can in so little time all of that has changed? I am not a monster as I have been made out to be and I want a chance to prove this but it seems to be impossible to do. I feel that I can’t breathe with C.A.S. constantly being involved and telling me what I can and cannot do. Yet I know that I have put into practice what I have been taught over the years. My biggest problem is that I’ve allowed to many people around me to tell me what to do and ended up feeling and believing that I was no good at anything especially in parenting. That is why I have often let others take over because I had no more self-esteem. If I’ such a bad parent, at it’s been perceived, then why do my older children keep telling me how good of a mom I am and all wish to be residing with me? I do admit that my choices of relationships were not healthy, even though it took me a while to see this, I did eventually take care of it. Unfortunately, not always when I should have. I get scared and it takes me some time to get this accomplished. I have a tendency to give the benefit of the doubt to all whom cross my part. I’ve allowed people to abuse my kindness and it’s something that I do have to work at so that I may not repeat my previous mistakes.

On a final note, I wanted to say that I have read your beautiful brochure call “Working together to protect children”. I will say that it’s well put together. Unfortunately, not even 1/3 of it’s content was applied towards my case since Donna Symes go involved.

If you require any additional information from me, please feel free to contact me in any way that is convenient for you.

Sincerely,

Nathalie Gauthier
Brantford ON
nathalie19682000@hotmail.com

2006-03-27T11:05:00.000-06:00

March 20, 2006

Dear members of the Social Policy Committee,

I am writing to ask each of you to visit the blog; http://jeffreyslawnow.blogspot.com
so you may get an idea of what the general public thinks of Bill 210. We are all very apprehensive of it going through and feel we are losing the battle. If you are elected to decide what society accepts and does not, then you should be listening to what society wants, not use your own personal judgment! Society is demanding accountability from the people who determine our future generations’ fates.

The child welfare agencies need more accountability for their actions, never mind none at all! They must answer to someone and the first step is to give the Ombudsman the power to investigate them. We, as taxpayers, are paying for the 'Canadian Mafia' to do whatever they want to Ontario families and children and we refuse to let this continue! The CCAS and CAS's of Ontario should be made public agencies, accountable to us, their employers. You, as
government officials do not pay these societies, we do. All government does is dish out our hard earned money and I want a say in where it goes.

If you refuse to listen to the public, then maybe the public should stop paying their taxes. You would fine and put us in jail for not paying, yet these social workers suffer no consequences when a child dies or is tortured or starved to death as a direct result of their poor judgment or laziness.

Do any of you honestly believe that Margarita Quintana visited Jeffrey or his siblings after they were placed? Did the social worker visit Matthew Reid after he was placed or listen to the child's grandmothers complaints against the foster family? I know for a fact Mary Ann Chambers didn't.

Please do not let this bill go through. The public is demanding this of you, our elected officials. Visit the blog and pay attention to what we want, NOT what you or the children's aid societies want.

Sincerely,

Amanda Reed
jeffreyslaw@cogeco.ca

c.c
mracco.mpp.co@liberal.ola.org
kramal.mpp.co@liberal.ola.org
ted_arnott@ontla.ola.org
ted_chudleigh@ontla.ola.org
kcraitor.mpp.co@liberal.ola.org
pfonseca.mpp.co@liberal.ola.org
jleal.mpp.co@liberal.ola.org
rmarchese-co@ndp.on.ca
info@kathleenwynne.ca

2006-03-22T09:52:00.000-06:00

March 22, 2006
Toronto Sun Publication
Foster parent guilty of abuse
'He's the father I never had'

By IAN MCDOUGALL, COURTS BUREAU

A former foster parent has admitted sexually abusing two wards of the Catholic Children's Aid Society in a surprise guilty plea entered yesterday.
Paul Blackwell, 64, was convicted of one count of indecent assault and four counts of sexual assault on five different victims, including the two CCAS wards, between 1977 and 1992.
The victims were from 12 to 16 years old.
"It took a lot of courage for these people to come forward," said assistant Crown attorney Cara Sweeny. "For them it's good to see that the system works."
The trial had barely begun when Blackwell changed his not guilty plea. He was originally facing 22 charges.
None of his victims can be identified under a court-ordered publication ban.
But the Crown's first witness, a 43-year-old man, testified Monday he was first assaulted when the CCAS placed him in Blackwell's home as an emergency measure in 1977.
Despite the abuse, the man said Blackwell treated him well otherwise.
He said he quit school in Grade 10 to go to work for Blackwell's construction company.
NO EXPLANATION
"He's the father I never had," the man said yesterday as he continued testimony before Blackwell entered his guilty plea.
"You felt he treated you well," defence lawyer Louise Botham said.
"Yes," the man answered.
No explanation for the change in Blackwell's plea was given in court.
Justice Frances Kiteley said she will hold a sentencing hearing Friday.
"I think you have taken a very important step," she told Blackwell.
When Blackwell was arrested and charged in September 2004, a spokesman with CCAS said they had no reports of abuse.

The victim who testified Monday said he was also abused by his caseworker and at one point contemplated legal action against CCAS. Instead he went to the police.

"There may be more victims," Sweeny said outside court yesterday.
"If there are I would urge them to call Toronto Police 55 Division," she said.

CCAS in the hot seat... AGAIN

2006-03-21T14:14:00.000-06:00

March 21, 2006
I was abused: Ex-ward
Says guardian, CCAS staffer molestersBy IAN MCDOUGALL, COURTS BUREAU
A former ward with Catholic Children's Aid Society was sexually abused first by his guardian and then by his social worker, court heard yesterday.
Paul Blackwell, 64, is facing 22 charges allegedly involving five victims over 20 years, assistant Crown attorney Cara Sweeny said as the trial began.
The first witness, now 43, was a CCAS ward in 1977 when he was placed with Blackwell and at first things seemed fine, the jury was told.
"It was one of the first times in his life he felt loved," Sweeny said.
But when the man took the stand, he described a recurring pattern of abuse that began with a trip to Florida -- he was 14 at the time -- when the pair shared a bed.
'TOUCHING MY GROIN'
"Paul had started fondling me," said the man, whose name is protected by a publication ban. "He was touching my groin ... I was a little scared ... I probably asked him to stop. I can't remember if he stopped at that time."
The abuse continued into the man's 16th year, when he was asked by a social worker if Blackwell was abusing him. He said there was nothing going on.
The worker invited him to stay over and also sexually abused him, he said.
"There was no one I could talk to. They were both molesting me," the man said.
He said Blackwell's sexual advances, which had included oral sex and touching, gradually lessened after he turned 15.
EMBARRASSMENT
In the fall of 2004, he recalled seeing a police story on the TV news announcing Blackwell's arrest and asking that witnesses come forward.
He had thought before about going to the police, but the fear of embarrassment always kept him from going ahead.
Still angry about the treatment he suffered from his social worker, he contacted a lawyer about Catholic Children's Aid.
"I told him I was molested as a child, and I wanted to hold CCAS responsible for it," he said, adding the lawyer said he should go to the police.
"I was a little reluctant," he said. "I just didn't want to be in a position to have to tell somebody."
Blackwell is also accused of slipping one of his victims sleeping pills in milk, Sweeny said in her opening address.
//

Things the CCAS wants you to do for free...

2006-03-19T18:02:00.000-06:00

Current Volunteer Opportunities
The following volunteer opportunities are currently available at the Catholic Children's Aid Society of Toronto:
The Hope for Children Foundation raises funds to provide services to children and youth in the Society's care that are not covered by government funding. The four core programs (Education and Scholarships, Youth, Emergency and Enhancement, Community Development) the Foundation supports, brings hope to thousands of children and youth every year.
At the Hope for Children Foundation of the Catholic Children's Aid Society of Toronto, we have several openings for donor-relations volunteers. As a volunteer, you will assist in:
data input
organizing information
mailings
donor calls
other administrative support.
You have:
good organizational and communication skills
computer skills
previous donor-relations experience an asset
sensitivity in handling confidential information.
Time commitments:
a half to full day every week, for a minimum of six months.
If you are interested in volunteering with the Hope for Children Foundation, please call 416-395-1500. Fore more information on the Hope for Children Foundation and the programs it supports, please check the Foundation page on this web site, by clicking on the Foundation logo.
Return to top
Special Friends, male and female, needed for children in families in the Scarborough Branch area. For more information contact our Scarborough Branch at 416-395-1900.
Volunteers are needed for the Child Access Program at the Scarborough Branch. This is a volunteer supported program, bringing children in foster homes and their birth families together for access visits and operates on Saturdays from 10:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. For more information contact our Scarborough Branch at 416-395-1900Return to top Child Access Program requires volunteers at the West Toronto Office (Dufferin/Bloor), which is a volunteer-supported program, bringing children in foster homes and their birth families together for access visits. The program operates on Saturdays from 10:30 am to 3:30 pm. For more information contact Toronto West (416) 395-1785.

My 'parallel' crusade

2006-03-17T14:48:00.000-06:00

Please read this. I think this deserves our attention as well. Letters to the government demanding tougher sentences for these menaces, these perverted, demented people preying on our babies! This article will turn your stomach, guarenteed.

They were talking about it last night on CH 5:30. If you saw it or want to comment, please do at the same e-mail address. 530@chtv.ca

Thanks,
Amanda

Save the Children

W-FIVE Staff
The Internet Connection

If you worry that more pedophiles are out there than before, you're not alone. Hardly a day goes by without news of an arrest -- for luring a minor, possession of child pornography, or, worst of all, an assault on a child by a sexual predator.
At the Child Exploitation Section of the Toronto Police, they deal with that reality every day.
It's an uphill battle, but there are also moments to celebrate. Like the arrest in August 2005 of 36 year-old Kenneth Symes, a church pastor and married man from Ajax, Ontario, who was charged with luring a minor on the Internet.
The minor in question wasn't a minor at all, but Detective Constable Scott Purches, a specialist in Internet luring. The detective had been communicating with Symes for four months in an online teenage chatroom, where Symes had never concealed the fact he was an older man.
"When he started to formulate a plan on how to meet is when it really moved from the realm of the virtual world to the real world," says Purches. "And simultaneous to that, he was becoming more sexually interested, asking about the experience my online persona had been involved in as far as sexual experience and things like that."
Symes pleaded guilty to two counts of luring a minor and was sentenced to 12 months in prison. He was released after serving six because time spent in custody before conviction was counted as double time.
He's just one in a growing army of predators, but catching them is just one of the problems confronting the unit.
Most of their time is spent analyzing the flood of pornographic images and videos on the Internet, most of it produced in the United States, Canada and Western Europe.
The head of the Child Exploitation Section, Detective Sergeant Paul Gillespie, says the producers are people who have worked themselves into a position of trust with children.
"The boyfriend, the uncle, the father, the doctor, the person who all of a sudden is willing to spend a whole bunch of time with a child."
Every day, in cramped quarters and using equipment that can hardly be called state of the art, investigators trawl the Internet, sorting through thousands of images of almost unimaginable depravity. They're searching for clues, any detail that might lead them to the children and their tormentors.
Most people wouldn't want to see these images, but Gillespie and his team have no choice. That's their job.
"To say that there's thousands, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of people around the world who are trading and producing these horrific photographs and movies of children being tortured and babies ... it's very hard to get a handle on," says Gillespie.
He believes the Internet has led to a huge increase in the amount of pornography.
"It has combined modern technology with an age-old problem. And it has allowed a number of these offenders to realize how many others are out there, other like-minded individuals."
The sheer volume makes it hard for the police, harder still because much of it is hidden in dark corners of the Internet. Beyond the reach of most surfers and search engines, only those in the know are invited to join what's become a kind of exclusive club for the depraved. It's here the investigators find the worst of the worst.
"I think a lot of people now are a little more educated, especially in Canada, as to how bad it is, but they still don't want to let their mind go there," says Gillespie. "They don't want to force themselves to realize it's not a 10-year-old frolicking on a beach naked. It's a baby being bound and gagged and tortured and crying until they pass out."
Such sights and sounds haunt even hardened investigators like Detective Constable Warren Bulmer, who says he'll never forget watching the rape of a 16-month-old baby.
"During the entire two or three minutes of video, he screamed from start to finish. And I will never, ever forget that sound. Because visually, you can look away, or you can picture something else that's going on, but you can't get rid of the sound. While that movie's playing it doesn't matter where you look in the room, you'll hear it."
Gillespie says that such atrocities have prompted a shift in priority at the Toronto unit ƒ{ from hunting down the perpetrators, to identifying and rescuing the victims, the estimated 50,000 children from around the world who have been abused.
The Toronto Police were one of the first to recognize that child pornography knows no borders. With help from Bill Gates at Microsoft, they've developed a tracking system for police forces around the world to use, in identifying abused children, no matter where they are.
"Their only cry for help is the fact that we watch the action and with our limited resources, do our best to try and make a bit of a difference," says Gillespie.
That international outlook led to one of the unit's most dramatic rescues.
Attention To Detail Pays Off
In February 2005, undercover officers in the Toronto Child Exploitation Section posing as online pedophiles received some unusual pictures of a young child -- unusual because there was nothing pornographic about them. They showed a boy of about 18 months wearing a diaper and posing on a sofa, or playing with a computer keyboard -- the kind of picture a proud parent might show to friends and relatives.
But Detective Constable Warren Bulmer was intrigued. Why would a pedophile send such harmless looking pictures? Bulmer suspected he was being checked out.
"I think some of the offenders are getting a little bit wise that if certain things occur during Internet conversations that in fact it could be an undercover officer," he says. "And some of them are just a little bit careful, maybe meeting you for the first time online."
Bulmer passed the test -- he was accepted into the club. Then the images became more graphic and more disturbing. The toddler was being raped on camera.
The officer studied the images in every detail. Was there anything that might tell him the identity of this child and where he was from?
Bulmer noticed a light switch in one of the pictures and recognized right away it wasn't a type found in North America.
In another image, he examined the computer keyboard held by the child and when he blew it up, spotted a manufacturer's name and keys with Spanish symbols.
A call to the company confirmed that this type of keyboard was only sold in Spain.
But Spain's a big country and police needed another detail to narrow down the search.
Bulmer found it in another image -- what looked like a ticket held in an offender's hand.
The Toronto Police sent their information to Spain via Interpol, where it ended up on the desk of Inspector Luis Garcia, the head of Madrid's Child Pornography Unit.
Garcia hadn't seen these images before and, shocked by the age of the victim, quickly opened an investigation.
He focused on a key clue -- the ticket discovered by Toronto Police. Examining the video, Garcia watched the ticket being given to the child and clutched in his tiny hand as he's being raped.
"It's a way of distracting the boy," he says.
But revealing that ticket was a huge mistake and turned out to be a key clue in the investigation. The Spanish police recognized it immediately as coming from Madrid's suburban train system. It helped narrow down the search because information printed on the ticket showed it was only valid for five stops on one line of the system.
Then Garcia noticed another detail on another image sent from Toronto -- what looked like a towel with lettering on it. When he enlarged the picture, he identified the letters A and Z, and a cross. The towel was from a hospital.
Turns out that hospital was called La Paz and served a community called Villalba, one of the five along the train line police were looking at.
Villalba was 40 kilometers from Madrid, a community of working couples and plenty of children. A perfect hunting ground for pedophiles.
Now police had somewhere to show the child's picture and quickly got results.
"The boy was identified first and then his family," says Garcia.
The Spanish police discovered the family had lived for a time in one particular apartment in Villalba, but had moved.
When they searched the apartment, they took photographs and immediately recognized it from the furniture. The sofa was the same one as in the images sent from Toronto. They'd found the scene of the crime.
The parents had rented the apartment from a man who had offered them something no working couple could refuse -- cheap babysitting.
But while they were at work, their child was being abused in unimaginable ways. That man also ran his own computer store, which police immediately put under surveillance.
And they began to wonder. Could he be the same man they'd been tracking on the Internet for some time? A pedophile who went by the online name of Nanysex.
So just two months after getting their first clue from Toronto, Spanish police had a possible suspect under surveillance. But they couldn't be sure it was him. He'd always been careful not to show his face on video
They asked Toronto Police for more help. Warren Bulmer began going through the videos again, this time, frame by frame and found what he was looking for in one of them. It was only four frames, a fraction of a second. But it was enough.
"The offender shows his face as he's abusing the child," says Bulmer. "And once we sent that video to Spain, that was ultimately the final straw."
It was the same man Spanish police had under surveillance. As soon as confirmation arrived from Toronto, they raided the computer store run by the suspect, Nanysex.
They found a treasure trove of evidence -- thousands of horrific videos and images. Nanysex was running a porn factory -- other children abused in the same horrible ways.
Inspector Garcia told W-FIVE that the parents had no idea what was going on because they trusted Nanysex and his friends.
"If you've never experienced something like this and you're living in a normal social environment, it's hard to believe it could happen," he says.
Three suspected pedophiles were arrested, including the ringleader who called himself Nanysex.
And police believe the group may have on the verge of expanding their operation. They found books about child care and application forms needed to open a day-care centre in Spain.
In all, seven abused children were identified and rescued, including the little boy who came to the attention of the Toronto Police ... untold others spared the horror of Nanysex and his ring of pedophiles.
It was the high point in Warren Bulmer's career, knowing the work he and his colleagues started in Toronto led to the arrest of Nanysex.
"I don't think we really have the time to sit and bask in it as much as we might think," he says. "But it becomes a confidence builder that no matter how small you think something is, even if it's just one or two pictures, you never know where that's going to lead you."
Victim and Offender
He was only four at the time, but Max -- not his real name -- will never forget what happened on a winter's night in 1993.
"That's in my head forever," he says. "No matter how old I get, it's still going to be there."
His parents had gone out for the evening and two teenage boys who lived nearby offered to look after him. As Max played video games in their living room, he was lured to another room and sexually assaulted by one of the babysitters.
"I was scared. I was petrified," says Max. "It's hard to tell other people about it when it's something you want to keep away from everybody. But when stuff like this happens, it has to be told."
W-FIVE can't reveal Max's real identity because he's still a minor. That's the law.
It's designed to protect young victims. But that same law often prevents victims like Max from doing what they often want -- and need -- to do. Speak out and tell their stories of ruined childhoods.
"Even though it's happened to me, I just don't want it to happen to anybody else," says Max. "It's just something that hurts and it's indescribable. When I was younger, I used to beat on my Mom and, now, looking back, I feel so bad because I didn't mean to. But it's something that happened because I was rebelling against what happened to me. I've been in and out of behaviour schools. Nothing's worked. I'm not in school anymore cause they can't handle me."
Max believes his troubles can be traced all the way back to the assault, an assault that imposed a kind of life sentence on him.
Charged with that assault were twin brothers, Stephen and Junior Spencer. Stephen pleaded guilty, but the charges against Junior were dropped. Since then, both brothers have piled up a string of convictions involving children
"Jail's nothing to both of them," says Max. "They've gone in, they've come out, they've gone in, they've come out. And they think it's a joke. It's life. They've ruined people's families, ruined children's lives."
Stephen Spencer recently moved to Ottawa, and Junior is finishing a five-year sentence for producing child pornography.
"He sees nothing wrong with having sex with kids," says Detective Constable Stefan Mueller of the Toronto Police Child Exploitation Section who has been tracking Junior Spencer's career.
Mueller believes this attitude may be typical for some pedophiles.
"I think that's what it's all about for them, that in their own minds they justified the fact that kids are sexual objects and they should be allowed to do whatever they want with the children."
If that's hard to believe, reading what Stephen Boone has to say may be even harder.
Now living in Winnipeg, he's been convicted three times for sexually assaulting children, some as young as eight years old.
Boone insists it's the children who want to have sex with him.
"Children would like to be sexual if they were allowed to," he says. "They're just politically repressed, repressed to the point where it actually kills them, to the point where it's almost fanatical. It's like a religion. You're not allowed to say it could be possible that some children like sex and would have sex if they could."
He doesn't see children as victims. "Because they tend to be open. Children seem to be so amazingly open to that experience. That is what causes the problems for me. People see children who take an interest in me as unnatural and suspicious."
If Boone is convicted a fourth time, he could be declared a Dangerous Offender and put in jail indefinitely.
While that's kept him from re-offending so far, he argues that the morality of sex with children depends on how you define sex.
"I have never tried to make a baby with a child," he says. "If you define sex as purely procreative, I haven't tried to sex a child. If you're asking me if I've been sensual with a child, or with children, or with adults in various contexts with the collective sort of approval, or with the understanding of the children's intent, I have been sensual. I will go as far as that."
Trying to navigate the mind of a pedophile is what Dr Julian Gojer does for a living.
He teaches psychiatry at the University of Toronto and is one of Canada's leading experts in deviant sexual behaviour. He believes there is no scientific explanation as to why a person is a pedophile. They are just born that way.
"It's like saying you or I are born gay or heterosexual," he says. "We can't change that."
Dr. Gojer also believes pedophilia can't be cured.
"If you're going to look at it from a treatment perspective, it's like diabetes. Can we cure diabetes? No. You can manage it, and I'd say pedophilia is a condition that can be managed but not cured."
Stephen Boone is being managed by means of a court order restricting his movements. He's refused psychiatric help, refused hormone therapy that would control his urges.
And he admits that steering clear of children -- as he's been ordered to do -- won't be easy.
"You try limiting yourself, your personal life to not having children around you," he says. "Just try it. Just try going for a walk, going to the grocery store. Do anything at all and see how many children you come across. It's impossible."
This creates a dilemma for the men and women whose job it is to protect our children from the likes of Stephen Boone.
"What are we supposed to do with these people?" asks Detective Sergeant Paul Gillespie of the Toronto Police Child Exploitation Section. "Some would say let's lock them up. Some would say it's not fair, and I certainly agree, you can't lock them up forever. But I just wish we would build a better support system and a better way of enforcing compliance. These are our children that we're playing with. We shouldn't be using them as bait to see whether or not these guys are going to be able to control themselves or control their sexual urges."
Pedophiles and the Justice System
One of the tasks at the Toronto Police Child Exploitation Section is checking up on people convicted, or charged, with offences against children to make sure they stick to their conditions of release.
It should be routine, but it often turns out to be an exercise in frustration. In many cases, conditions of release or bail are changed by the courts, but the police aren't told.
"This is ridiculous," says Detective Constable Stefan Mueller. We have to have a say in the bail variations. There's got to be a hearing."
You're not supposed to be out walking around and going around and do whatever you want, but that's what it's come down to," Says Detective Ian Lamond.
"They know that we don't have the resources to go check them every day," says Detective Constable Paul Krawczyk. "So they know the chances of getting caught are slim to none."
Just keeping track of pedophiles is hard enough. Getting them locked up in the first place is even tougher.
"I can simply say I'm way past frustrated," says Detective Sergeant Paul Gillespie. "The fact that child abuse itself is not dealt with properly. These are children that are destroyed. Their souls are destroyed. They'll never live up to their full potential. Their lives are wrecked. And that someone might do this out of pleasure and go to jail for one or two years or one or two months, I don't understand it."
No one knows that better than Max. Assaulted when he was a child, he makes a point of turning up every time his former babysitters, Stephen and Junior Spencer, are in court on another charge.
"The victims need to be heard," he says. "It's hard to get closure on something when you have no say in anything because of age. They need to have something where the courts, or a lawyer, or something will talk to the victim and figure out what's gone on and use that against them."
Even more heartbreaking for the victims and frustrating for the police are the light sentences being handed out by the courts.
Believe it or not, 42 per cent of people convicted of some sort of sexual offence against a child never see the inside of a jail cell. And when it comes to child pornography, 70 per cent of those convicted get off with a conditional sentence, probation or a fine.
"It's very apparent to me there are some judges and justices in Toronto that are just way too sympathetic," says Detective Sergeant Paul Gillespie. "And maybe they just don't understand the problem. And they're not that often that willing to look at the images that we have to present in court. They often don't want to see them or they don't want to see all of them. I don't get it. These are crime scene photos of torture of children. And would that child be something else, perhaps an animal, I suggest people would be all over it.
But for some reason, if it's an unknown child, it's not our problem. And it's a big dilemma."
Among judges, Ray Wyant, the Chief Judge of Manitoba's Provincial Court, is seen as something of a renegade.
Once a month, he goes on the radio to take calls from listeners. He thinks it's important for judges to stay in touch.
And what he's hearing about jail sentences disturbs him enough to take the unusual step of speaking out publicly through W-FIVE.
"I think the perception is in the public that sentences may be too lenient in certain cases," he says. "And I'm concerned that public confidence in the system may be eroded from that particular view."
That concern also troubled politicians in the House of Commons in Ottawa, who recently brought in a mandatory minimum jail term for possession of child pornography of 14 days.
"It's better than what we had," says Detective Sergeant Gillespie. "It's a start. My own personal opinion, the fact that we even had to go down that road of introducing mandatory minimums says something about our whole system. Why did it have to get this far? Why are judges, why is that discretion taken out of their hands? Because they obviously were not dealing with this the way that society thought it should be dealt with."
The light sentences may have something to do with how the crime has been sanitized.
Take child pornography for example. In most cases, plea bargains are worked out in the backrooms between lawyers, meaning the victims aren't heard from and the evidence isn't seen.
Even when cases do come to trial, judges often choose not to look at the evidence. It's simply too disturbing.
In Manitoba, a crusading Crown Attorney, Mick Makar, is working to change that.
He says it's not enough for prosecutors to simply describe what's in the pictures and videos.
He's tried and he remembers one particularly disturbing example.
"The adult male was a very large male," he recalls. "The little girl was laying on a bed and she was very thin. And when he began to force intercourse on her, obviously causing her to be in pain, she pulled a little sucker out and put it in her mouth to comfort herself when it occurred. So how can I describe that orally in front of a court? I can't."
Working with police, Makar helped develop what's called the Integrated Child Exploitation Project (ICE for short).
As part of that project, judges and lawyers are provided with video monitors and are now required to see and hear the evidence for themselves."
Manitoba judge, Ray Wyant, believes this allows judges to full understand the nature of the evidence, but has it affected the length of sentences?
"I don't know whether it has or not," he says. "I certainly can't comment on whether or not other judges feel they've been affected in a particular way by seeing the images. I can simply say it's evidence that's there. It's real evidence. It's the best evidence. Why not see it?"
The problem is that this type of program doesn't exist in most other provinces. So judges don't have to look and often choose not to.
But those on the front line, like the members of the Toronto Police Child Exploitation Section, have no choice.
Paul Gillespie has been at it since the unit was formed five years ago.
Five years that feel like a lifetime.
"I'm not quite sure how much longer I'm going to be able to do this," he says. "I don't do as much viewing as I used to. I have a wonderful team and they do a terrific job. The fact that we on a daily basis now pull dozens and dozens of new full-length movies of babies having their diapers removed and being raped. How many times can your heart break before you just can't do it anymore?"

Sites to Visit...

2006-03-16T05:39:00.000-06:00

http://www.casinternment.com/

www.afterfostercare.com

www.fixcas.com

2006-03-15T06:52:00.000-06:00

Murder charge laid in case of missing child

Last Updated Mar 14 2006 06:51 PM
CSTCBC News

Child welfare agencies in Manitoba are under scrutiny for losing track of a five-year-old girl believed to have been killed last summer.
Phoenix Victoria Sinclair had been missing for nine months, but it seems no one noticed or reported the case to authorities.
The alleged crime came to light last week when police received new information about the girl, who had been living on the Fisher River First Nation reserve, 150 kilometres north of Winnipeg.
Although the girl's body has not been located, RCMP Sgt. Steve Colwell said police were able to lay the charges through "an investigation that has been conducted in the past week."
Samantha Dawn Kematch, 24, has been charged with assault with a weapon, aggravated assault, forcible confinement and failing to provide the necessities of life. Her 43-year-old common-law husband, Karl Wesley McKay, is charged with second-degree murder. Both are awaiting bail hearings.
'She was a loving baby'
Phoenix was in and out of foster care during her short life, spending some time in the care of Kimberly Edwards, a friend of Samantha Kematch.
"She was a loving baby. She loved everybody," said Edwards. "Everybody loved her."
Near the end of 2003, the cases of many aboriginal children were transferred from Child and Family Services to three native-run agencies. Edwards says she was told Phoenix was one of those cases – however, it appears that never happened.
Eventually, Phoenix lived in the home of Edwards' ex-husband. Edwards says Kematch came to her ex-husband's house and took the little girl away one day in April 2005, saying she would return in a few hours. Edwards says that's the last time anyone saw the girl.
Court documents indicate police believe Phoenix was abused, confined and eventually murdered in June 2005.
"They failed her and they fail children every single day. How many babies have to die before politics are changed?" said Chief David Crate of the Fisher River First Nation.
"The question has to be posed to the provincial agency, the Winnipeg Child and Family [services agency], why the file was closed."
Three investigations launched into the case
Provincial officials can't say exactly what actually happened in the case, but say Phoenix was not lost in the transfer to the new native child agencies.
"The actual transfer of cases in devolution occurred between May and June of 2004, so this case was actually not one that had been transferred," said Family Services Minister Christine Melnick.
Melnick says three investigations have been launched into the case – by the chief medical examiner, the RCMP and Child and Family Services – in order to uncover the facts.
She would not speculate on when the investigations would be complete.
"I know that everyone is anxious for the answers – I'm anxious for the answers, too – but I also have to respect the processes that have been in place for many, many years in this province," Melnick said.
Conservative family services critic Mavis Taillieu says it ultimately doesn't matter which agency was responsible or who's to blame, saying the province failed a child in its care.
"This little girl, unfortunately, didn't just fall through the cracks. She fell into the abyss," Taillieu said.

2006-03-14T07:10:00.000-06:00

Please keep e-mailing CH TV with comments regarding the discussion between Mr. Marin and Andrea Horwath! They are being flooded, but there can never be too many!

530@chtv

Thanks!
Amanda

2006-03-10T17:11:00.000-06:00

The 'Wards of the Crown' airs again on CBC tonight at 10pm. Here is the link to the show http://www.cbc.ca/thelens/program_070306.html

The following is the e-mail I received from Andree Cazabon, the filmmaker of this documentary.
I urge everyone to take the time to please e-mail the show after the program tonight.

Thanks!
Amanda

__________________________________________________
Hi,

Thanks for your comment and please help pass the word along... your passion is so appreciated! If we can get over 67 email comments to CBC this would help tremendously in setting this issue as a national priority. Please pass along this notice to all those who want to see changes in the child welfare system and do keep me posted!

Andrée Cazabon
Filmmaker

2006-03-08T20:58:00.000-06:00

TV to watch

CHTV
Discussion with Mr. Marin and Andrea Horwath
Bill 210
Thursday March 9, 2006
5:30 pm

"Wards of the Crown"
CBC Newsworld The Lens
Saturday March 11
10:00 pm

2006-03-08T17:13:00.000-06:00

Please see inside for Bill 210 Amendments posted. Thanks.

Open comments

2006-03-07T06:32:00.000-06:00

The last posting was getting too big, so here's a new one. All of your comments are absolutely phenomenal and I thank everyone for posting Hansards, idea's and information. I know political people read this blog, maybe they should take note of what the general consensus is and stop Bill 210, and COMPLETLEY overhaul and clean out this branch of Canadian government.

Who ever said Canada doesn't have skeletons in the closet never investigated the 'child protection' agencies!

Again, thank you all for your contributions!

Amanda

Uh Oh...

2006-02-28T08:30:00.000-06:00

Hi Amanda,

As I believe Minister Chambers has mentioned to you, last Fall we issueda directive to all Children's Aid Societies in Ontario to ensure that afull and comprehensive background check is completed in all kinshipcases. Minister Chambers followed this up by issuing a new regulation toprovide for the strongest enforcement of this requirement. The Ministerhas asked me to provide you with a copy of the regulation, which youwill find attached. You may also be aware of the fact that we have introduced much strongeraccountability measures for CASs, through a strengthening of Bill 210.Bill 210 should be entering final reading this week and may even pass bythe end of the week. I would be more than pleased to offer you anoverview of what the new accountability measures entail. Best regards,
Chris

Chris Carson
Senior Advisor, Issues Management and Legislative Affairs
Office of the Hon. Mary Anne Chambers
Minister of Children and Youth Services
Ph: (416) 212-7118,
Fax: (416) 212-7431
http://www.children.gov.on.ca

My response:

Hi Chris,

Thank you for this information.

Why does the minister not agree with allowing the Ontario ombudsman the authority to investigate?

I would very much like to know, in laymen's terms as I am not educated in law, what exactly the new accountability measures are.

So many people are opposed to the Bill passing, why is it going through so quickly and ever so quietly??

Regards,Amanda

Letter Templates

2006-02-21T12:21:00.000-06:00

If anybody has any letter templates that can be shared by the group please post them.

Stop Bill 210!

2006-02-20T03:07:00.000-06:00

Letters to the Editor of the major newspapers are good!!

Contact information for individual members of the Social Policy Committee:
Chair: Mario Racco, Liberal www.marioracco.onmpp.ca
Vice Chair: Khalil Ramal, Liberal www.khalilramal.onmpp.ca
Members: Ted Arnott, Conservative www.tedarnottmpp.com
Ted Chudleigh, Conservative www.tedchudleigh.com
Kim Craitor, Liberal www.kimcraitor.com
Peter Fonseca, Liberal www.peterfonseca.onmpp.ca
Jeff Leal, Liberal www.jeffleal.onmpp.ca
Rosario Marchese, New Democrat www.rosariomarchese.ca
Kathleen Wynne, Liberal www.kathleenwynne.ca

The committee's address is:
Room 1405, Whitney Block
Queen's Park Toronto, Ontario M7A 1A2
General emails may be addressed to its clerk:
anne_stokes@ontla.ola.org

Dalton McGuinty
Premier of Ontario
Legislative Building
Queen's Park Toronto ON M7A 1A1
Fax: (416) 325-3745

Mary Anne Chambers
Minister of Children and Youth Services
56 Wellesley Street West, 14th Floor
Toronto, M4S 2S3
Fax: (416) 212-7431

Marilyn Churley
MPP Toronto – Danforth
Rm. 116Legislative Building
Queen’s Park Toronto ON M7A 1A5

Jack Layton
1506 Danforth Ave.
Toronto, ON M4J 1N4
Fax: (416) 405-8918mailto:405-8918laytoj1@parl.gc.ca

The Right Honourable Stephen Harper
Prime Minister of Canada
Office of the Prime Minister
80 Wellington Street
Ottawa, ONCanada K1A 0A2
Email Addresspm@pm.gc.ca

Stephen Harper
Premier of Canada
Phone: (613) 755-2000
Fax at: (613) 755-2001

Ombudsman
Ontario Bell Trinity Square
483 Bay Street, 10th Floor, South Tower
Toronto, ON M5G 2C9

Verdict April 7

2006-02-17T12:20:00.000-06:00

The Toronto Star announced today that the verdict in Jeffrey's case is now scheduled for April 7 9:30am.

Public Rally Court House

2006-02-15T08:01:00.000-06:00

Public Rally

2006-02-14T12:03:00.000-06:00

I hope the Dufferin VOCA won't mind:

2006-02-08T13:51:00.000-06:00

Crown Ward Murdered

February 8, 2006

Child protection has failed for another crown ward. This time he was murdered.
Metroland, Durham Region
Police releasing few details in teen's slaying

Feb 7, 2006

By Jeff Mitchell
OSHAWA -- An investigation continues into the stabbing death of a teenager on a downtown Oshawa street.
Durham Regional Police are releasing few details about 15-year-old Jerome Bennett and the circumstances under which he died. Homicide Detective James Stewart-Haass would not say whether or not police have identified suspects in the slaying.
"All I can tell you right now is the investigation is moving forward," he said.
The boy's body was discovered around 8:30 p.m. Saturday in a lot at the Glazier Medical Centre, at Simcoe and Gibb streets. Police said there were obvious signs of trauma to the body, which sustained sharp-force injuries.
The incident marks the first homicide in Durham Region this year.
Not much is known about the boy. He is estranged from his north Oshawa family, a source said. The Durham Region Children's Aid Society has confirmed he was in the agency's care.
"Jerome Bennett was a Crown ward in the care of the CAS," said agency spokeswoman Jacqueline Spencer.
She would not comment on how long the boy had been under CAS protection, where he was living when he died, or where he was going to school.
"The only thing I can confirm is he was one of our Crown wards," Ms. Spencer said.
The boy is also unknown at the Second Chance youth drop-in centre in downtown Oshawa. Young people at the Mary Street shelter Tuesday morning said they did not know the boy and records indicated he had not visited the centre, said executive director Clarence Keesman.
The centre caters to a clientele aged 16 to 24. Mr. Keesman said the vast majority of Oshawa's homeless youth do not choose to be on the streets, but find themselves there when they're thrown out or find life at home intolerable because of abuse or other pressures.
The remainder of the story, relating to other deaths, is omitted

Source:www.durhamregion.com/dr/regions/oshawa/story/3306236p-3828038c.html

The objective of this blog; my motto if you will...

2006-02-03T14:31:00.000-06:00

Union:

I don't know, y'all, we in a real deposition
In the midst of all this negative condition
Divided by beliefs, different sink and religion
Why do we keep missing the point in our mission?
Why do we keep killing each other, what's the reason?
Listen, I know it's really hard to make changes
But two of us could help rearrange this curse
Utilising all the power in our voices
Together we will unite and make the right choice
And fight for education, save the next generation
Come together as one
I don't understand why it's never been done
So let's change on the count of one
It takes one, just one
And then one follows the other one
And then another follows the other one
Next thing you know you got a billion
People doing some wonderful things
People doing some powerful things
Let's change and do some powerful things
Unity could be a wonderful thing...

-Black Eyed Peas

2006-02-03T11:22:00.000-06:00

The plaque is resolved, but thanks for all the donation offers! :)

Does anyone want to take over this blog? If someone else has time to keep it up, that would be great, although I suggest blocking certain people. Please let me know if someone has the time for it because I think it important for people to share idea's and information with each other, regardless of the occasional nasty post.

Let me know. Thanks!

To everyone e-mailing me, please keep it up. I'm really busy getting my school stuff together right now, but read all of them! (I'm taking Sustainable Building and Design... I'm a huge tree hugger!!) I also don't have the internet at home anymore, so I will be restricted to week day e-mails and posts.

Thanks for everyone's support and kind, kind words.

Amanda

2006-02-02T06:40:00.000-06:00

There are a few things I wanted to let all of you know.

1. The permanent plaque to be installed at the memorial in Greenwood Park is ready. They originally quoted me $776.00 plus shipping. I paid $388.00 before the memorial so the temp plaque would be ready. They are now changing it and saying I still owe $796.53. I DON'T have $800.00! So, unless this is resolved, I will be paying the balance out of my own pocket. Or more than likely, not at all because I just don't have the money!

Please do NOT say I stole money from anyone or didn't use donations for this cause! That blue bracelet you're wearing that says jeffreyslaw@cogeco.ca? That cost $5.00, (each, I ordered 100) but instead of charging people for them at the memorial, I gave them out. Again, don't make me look like a thief when you obviously know nothing!

2. I'm closing this blog, for sure, at the end of next week. It is NOT because of all the small minded, malicious people who have been posting. Their opinions and comments don't mean anything to me because they won't say who they are. But by the way, I'm an athiest, so don't pray on me losers! Religion is what's keeping kid killers from having a conscience! If they go to confession and say a few hail Mary's, all will be ok and their place in heaven is still secure, what a JOKE! No accountibility in life, death or supposed after life! God had nothing to do with the parents I ended up with, value's morals and kindness is why I had a good childhood. That you would even suggest it was something else makes me shake my head at your complete ignorance!

To all the amazing people I have met and been in contact with, I just want you all to know that you have kept me going this long. Knowing that there are other people out there who feel as strongly about injustices in this world will be our ONLY saving grace. You can always contact me by e-mail.

Thanks,
Amanda

2006-01-31T10:47:00.000-06:00

My new e-mail address is jeffreyslaw@hotmail.com.

Thanks,
Amanda

Jeffrey's Birthday

2006-01-20T15:48:00.000-06:00

Today would have been Jeffrey's 9th birthday. I donated some money to the local Humane Society in his name. Animals have so much in common, they don't expect anything in return for their unconditional love. ..

I wonder what yvonne and richard are thinking today... if they even remember.

It's such a contrast when my son's birthday is celebrated to the nines because it will always be the happiest day of my life, as I'm sure it is for all of you. I will never understand or sympathize with this people, I can't even be empathetic towards them because I can not relate at all. I can not put myself in their shoes. I suppose we might as well all give up trying to rationalize what happened and just keep waging the battle...

Happy birthday Jeffrey.

Public Rally

2006-01-20T15:29:00.000-06:00

Therese suggested in one of her posts that we should hold a public (peaceful) protest / rally in front of the CCAS. I think it's a great idea, but like she mentioned, they will laugh if I show up there alone, so please let me know if you would be interested in attending and if there are enough of us, I will start making posters and contacting the media.

I was thinking Friday February 17th in the afternoon. I know a lot of you work during the week, hopefully you could get the afternoon off work though.

Let me know if you have any idea's for the posters.

Inquiry and some articles from 2003...

2006-01-18T13:47:00.000-06:00

Although, in my opinion, an inquest is not very beneficial, I think that we should write to Dr. Jim Cairns and Dr. Barry McLellan urging them to call one immediately following the sentencing of bottineau and kidman.

If nothing else, the investigation may answer a lot of questions we have about why / how the CCAS failed Jeffrey and it would definitely publicly tarnish the organizations name.

26 Grenville Street
Toronto, ON M7A 2G9
416-314-4000

I also found two articles from 2003 that are very interesting. I have highlighted the key points:

CCAS: 'NO ROLE' IN CASE
AGENCY PROMISES 'RIGOUROUS STANCE' ON CAREGIVERS
Monday, March 24, 2003
BY ROB LAMBERTI, TORONTO SUN

The Catholic Childrens Aid Society is taking a "rigourous" stance in checking the backgrounds of aspiring caregivers following the death of an emaciated five-year-old Toronto boy.
Jeffrey Baldwin weighed just 19 pounds when he was rushed from his Woodfield Rd. home, where he lived with his grandparents, to the Hospital for Sick Children last November. The boy, who was allegedly kept locked in a room, was pronounced dead shortly after arrival, suffering from pneumonia.

The CCAS didn't oppose or approve a custody application for Jeffrey by his grandparents.
The couple are now accused of first-degree murder and forcible confinement. They're to appear in court Wednesday for a bail hearing.

Society spokesman Fernando Saldanha said the society regrets not checking its files, which showed that both grandparents had criminal records involving child abuse. Jeffrey's grandmom was sentenced to a year's probation in 1970 after her daughter died of pneumonia. His step-grandfather was convicted in 1978 for the assaults of two of his wife's children.
"If the records had been properly checked by the workers involved at the time, then the situation would have been very different."

A Toronto Sun story Thursday said the society allowed the children to stay with their grandmother despite the fact the society's own records showed she had a prior conviction of child assault. Saldanha said the society actually played "no role" in the granting of the children to the grandparents.

Saldanha said procedures are "much more rigourous in terms of doing a thorough check of all of the names of individuals coming forward ..."

******************************************

SOCIETY PROBED IN TOT'S DEATH
CRIMINAL RAPS EYED
Tuesday, March 25, 2003
BY ROB LAMBERTI, TORONTO SUN

Toronto homicide detectives are investigating the Catholic Children's Aid Society and an unspecified number of case workers to determine if there was any criminal negligence in the death of Jeffrey Baldwin.

The emaciated 5-year-old boy weighed 19 pounds when he died last Nov. 30. An autopsy showed Jeffrey died of pneumonia as a result of the debilitating state of his body.
The lad allegedly lived as a virtual prisoner in a room he shared with his 6-year-old sister. Sources described Jeffrey's body as having sunken eyes and cheeks, loose skin about the buttocks, sores on the buttocks and penis, and a distended belly. His legs and arms were described as sticks.

Two other siblings also lived in the Woodfield Rd. home, in the Gerrard St.-Coxwell Ave. area.
Det.-Sgt. Mike Davis wants to know why the agency had never checked the grandparents' files during any of three separate applications the couple made for the children between 1997 and 2000.

The grandparents' files contained records of previous incidents. The grandmother was sentenced to a year probation after tiny fractures were found in the body of her five-month-old child, who died of pneumonia in 1970. The grandfather was convicted in 1978 of beating two of his wife's other children.

Elva Bottineau, 52, and Norman Kidman, 51, are charged with first-degree murder and forcible confinement, and are to appear in court on Wednesday for a bail hearing.

"I'm looking at the agency and its workers with the possibility of criminal wrongdoing, vis a vis, criminal negligence causing the death of Jeffrey Baldwin, and criminal negligence causing bodily harm involving the other children," Davis said.

"They know it," he said, but added he's not certain if the agency realized he planned a criminal investigation rather than just gathering information for a possible inquest.
The agency and its staff are "not responsible" for the death, Davis said. "It's a parallel investigation. It's a different issue."

Jeffrey was awarded to his grandmom and step-granddad along with a sister in 1998.
The agency had neither approved nor opposed the grandparents' private applications for custody of the children, CCAS spokesman Fernando Saldanha said. But he said the society should have had a role in the grandparents' applications. He said the agency concentrated on the childrens' parents and the grandparents were not under scrutiny.

**********************************************************

So what happened?? Dt. Davis is now retired, so I don't know how to get a hold of him.
He testified at the trial because he interviewed james mills initially.

I would really like to know what the result of his investigation was, so if anyone knows how he may be contacted, please let me know.
Thank you.

Ordering a court transcript

2006-01-18T11:42:00.000-06:00

If you would like to order a transcript of the Bottineau / Kidman trial (after sentencing) here is the information:

Fax your request to 416-327-5886

Include:
* Judges name: Honourable David Watt
* Date began and finished: September 9th, 2005 - February 16th, 2006 (exact date may be different)
* # of copies requested
* your name, address, phone number, etc.

I assume they will either fax back or call you about payment plus shipping which is probably by credit card.

You can not request a transcript until the criminals have been sentenced though.

2006-01-18T07:31:00.000-06:00

Jeffrey's short, tragic life
Jan. 18, 2006. 06:16 AM
NICK PRON
COURTS BUREAU

Jeffrey Baldwin was just a few weeks old and already he had a nickname.
Looking at the baby with the sweet smile and adorable blond ringlets, the proud father said the tight curls reminded him of popcorn. So he dubbed him “Jeffy Pops.”
“He was such a cutie,” Jeffrey’s grandmother, Susan Dimitriadis, recalled. “We all adored him.”
Less than six years later, little “Jeffy Pops” would be dead, starved of food and affection in what one doctor later described as possibly the worst case of child malnutrition ever seen in Canada.
Jeffrey’s short, tragic life can be told through snapshots taken by his father, Richard Baldwin, which he later gave to Dimitriadis. One shows him with his siblings at Christmas 2001, Jeffrey almost a head shorter than his younger brother.
The photos are all she has left to remind her of her doomed grandson, who later became the “invisible child in the middle room” at the east end home of his maternal grandparents, Elva Bottineau and Norman Kidman. Jeffrey died in the house near Gerrard St. E. and Greenwood Ave. on Nov. 30, 2002.
The couple was charged with first-degree murder, but proclaimed their innocence. Jeffrey was dim-witted, Kidman complained to the police, and couldn’t be toilet trained. He was damaged goods when they got custody, she said. Their four-month trial by judge alone ended yesterday. In his closing remarks, Bottineau’s lawyer Anil Kapoor said she never intended to kill Jeffrey and added that with her I.Q. of 69, she never thought that he might die.
Kidman was “grossly negligent” for doing nothing to help Jeffrey, and guilty of manslaughter but not murder, his lawyer Robert Richardson said in his final remarks to Mr. Justice David Watt, who will deliver his verdict on Feb. 16. If convicted, Bottineau, 54, and her common-law husband, Kidman, 53, could get life in prison.
Throughout the trial, Bottineau and Kidman sat expressionless while they listened to evidence that brought tears to the eyes of courtroom observers and left them wondering how a defenceless child could suffer such a terrible fate. How could a child starve to death in the heart of Canada’s richest city? Why did nobody come to his aid? Where was the Catholic Children’s Aid Society?
Those questions were never answered at the trial that offered some stark glimpses at the short, tragic life of Jeffrey Baldwin. In a brief moment of joy during an interview with the Toronto Star, Dimitriadis recalled the infant Jeffrey’s cheery little smile as she bounced the 10-pound baby boy on her lap shortly after he was born at Doctor’s hospital on Jan. 20, 1997.
Dimitriadis had never wanted her son, Richard, to become a father so soon, and definitely not with Yvonne Kidman. After all, both were still children themselves in 1994 when they first moved in together, he 17 and she 16.
The ill-fated union of the two teenagers would be a continuation of a cycle of abuse that dated back at least two generations in both families.
Dimitriadis had tried but couldn’t stop her strong-willed son when he dropped out of high school to get a job as a mover, then left home and moved in with Yvonne.
It was a volatile relationship from the start. In 1994, the Catholic Children’s Aid Society was called to investigate reports that a baby had been left alone by her squabbling parents. The couple was out in the street, screaming at each other while their first child, a daughter, was alone in the crib of their basement apartment.
It was recommended that the couple get counselling, and that Richard, who had a learning disability, get further therapy for anger management. He didn’t, and their daughter was later placed with Bottineau and Kidman by a court order.
Three years later, the baby Jeffrey appeared healthy and happy, even in the tumultuous home of his young parents. But there were signs that their fighting was affecting him. As soon as he was able to crawl, around seven months, Jeffrey started banging his head on the concrete floor of the basement apartment. A doctor told the couple Jeffrey would grow out of it.
Heavier than most babies at birth, Jeffrey was also taller than 97 per cent of infants his age, according to developmental charts. Had Jeffrey continued at the same rate of growth, he would have weighed about 44 pounds by his sixth birthday. When he died two months before he would have turned 6, he weighed just 21 pounds, about the body weight of a 10-month-old infant, and a pound less than his first birthday.
About a year after Jeffrey, their third child, was born, the couple had decided to split up. They have since got back together. It was agreed that Yvonne would take Jeffrey and his sister, and Richard would continue to pay support.
At the time, Bottineau was considered “an ally” of the Catholic Children’s Aid Society, a seemingly concerned grandparent trying to help her daughter and her common-law spouse sort through their difficulties. So there was no opposition from the society when Bottineau and Kidman got custody of two more of the couple’s children, Jeffrey and his sister.
In October 1999, when Yvonne had her fourth child, the boy was once again given to Bottineau and Kidman through a court order, and once again, there was no opposition from the society.
Initially, at least, the placement of the four children with the grandparents seemed to be working. Kidman took them for treats to McDonald’s restaurant, and reportedly “doted” on his grandchildren. Pictures show Jeffrey cuddling up to his grandad.
Neighbours recall seeing Bottineau walking about the neighbourhood with Jeffrey safely tucked into his stroller, a seemingly happy and well-fed child.
During arranged visits - a court had given Bottineau full authority over the children’s visitors - Dimitriadis remembered watching Jeffrey merrily playing trucks with his siblings in the livingroom of their new home. Or frolicking in the backyard on the swing set. A neighbour even wrote a letter of reference for Bottineau who wanted to look after other children. “The children are in good health and well cared for ... very happy-go-lucky kids,” the neighbour wrote Jennifer Noseworthy in the fall of 2000.
“I have witnessed the amount of love and affection the children get on a daily basis. I am very confident in the good care they are receiving. Elva should be congratulated on the way they have accepted and cared for the children.”
But there were signs of trouble in late 2000. A case worker with the Toronto Children’s Aid Society noticed Jeffrey had a bruise under an eye. It was passed off as an accident on the swings. The file was closed on Sept. 15, 2000 with the note: “No indication of imminent risk to the children.”
A year earlier, 1999 when she last saw the children, Dimitriadis recalled that it was a short, strained visit. Although her grandchildren were happily playing in the living room, she sensed there was trouble in the crowded, semi-detached dwelling, home to six children, six adults and a dog, Bear.
When Dimitriadis returned at Christmas, bringing presents, she had the door slammed in her face by Kidman who told her not to bother coming back. Dimitriadis complained to the Catholic Children’s Aid Society and was told that it was up to Bottineau to decide who saw the children.
Early in 2001, Dimitriadis got the first of what would be a string of disturbing pictures of Jeffrey. While her grandson still looked healthy, his cheery smile was gone.
“There’s something wrong with that child,” she told her son. “Why is there so much tension in his face?”
She was told he had a cold. The boy’s father complained that he never got to see Jeffrey that much either, and then only with the permission of Bottineau.
Behind the closed doors of the east end home a human tragedy was evolving. Jeffrey and a sister had become branded as “the bad ones” in the family, while his oldest sister and baby brother were known as “the good ones.”
Bottineau no longer took Jeffrey for walks around the neighbourhood. He was about to become the “invisible child,” the “freak,” while his next oldest sister was called “psycho.”
Bottineau once complained to a neighbour about being overwhelmed by the demands of raising four children. She was having trouble toilet training Jeffrey and his sister.
Despite having six kids of her own, raising four grandchildren and babysitting other youngsters in the neighbourhood, Bottineau was not comfortable around pre-pubescents.
While growing up in a town north of Toronto, Bottineau had watched helplessly as her alcoholic stepfather pushed her mother down the stairs and chased her around the house with an axe, once nearly cutting off a breast.
After leaving home at 16, Bottineau married a distant cousin, a union that resulted in three children. The couple’s first child, a four-month-old girl, died under suspicious circumstances. Bottineau was later convicted of assault causing bodily harm in the girl’s death. After divorcing her cousin, Bottineau’s subsequent common-law marriage to Kidman produced three more children, including Yvonne.
A psychological report submitted at the trial described Bottineau as having borderline intelligence and being quick-tempered, hostile and a “danger to herself and others.” She was an “incompetent parent” who was “incapable of coping” with the demands of children.
Kidman, a groundskeeper with Metro Housing, was also not comfortable in his role as a parent. He got “anxious and frustrated,” overwhelmed by the demands of children.
He let Elva set the rules for the family, and he was the enforcer. Disobey, and the children got a spanking, a whack on the head with a rolled up newspaper, a smack with a metal spoon.
Perhaps sensing she needed help, Bottineau once asked a neighbour if she wanted to adopt Jeffrey. The woman, with a newborn of her own, declined the offer.
By 2001, Jeffrey had become a “non-person,” the family’s little secret who stayed at home, hidden away from the world. He should have been getting ready for junior kindergarten. But since his grandparents had given up trying to toilet train the child, he never went to school.
Jeffrey and his next oldest sister were banished to the middle bedroom of the second floor and locked in at night. The furnace vents to the room were closed. The room that was always cold, also served as their bathroom.
While his sister eventually got toilet-trained and went to school, Jeffrey was constantly being screamed at for soiling his pants, his bed and the floor around his crib.
His daily routine was always the same: After being freed from his bedroom around noon, he would be bathed to wash a night’s worth of fecal matter off his body.
Then he had lunch, eating out of a bowl with his hands, sitting on the floor in his designated spot on a rug by the door, dubbed the “pig corner.” He wasn’t fit to eat at the table with the other children, who wouldn’t play with him.
In the afternoons he was allowed to play by himself with toys belonging to his siblings. His favourite was trucks. Or he watched television while his grandmother chatted away on the Internet.
When Kidman returned home from work late in the afternoon to take over the television, parking himself in his La-Z-boy chair, Jeffrey was often ordered back to “his spot,” the dirty mat by the door, where he stayed until bedtime. Some days, when she was busy chatting on the Internet, Bottineau kept Jeffrey locked in his room all day, his cries to be let out ignored. Instead of affection, Jeffrey was ridiculed, and hit whenever people got frustrated with him.
When James Mills, an unemployed boyfriend of one of the couple’s daughters, moved into the house, he said he was there for nearly two weeks before he even saw the child.
Mills was in the kitchen when he heard a tiny voice, and swung around to see Jeffrey sitting in his spot by the wall. “Hello, James,” said Jeffrey. The boy who was called “the retard” was bright enough to have learned the newcomer’s name.
Mills was shocked at Jeffrey’s wasted frame and even though he suspected the child was dying, he never thought of going to the authorities for help.
Jeffrey was back in his locked room nightly by about 8 p.m. Toward the end, his body was so weak that it took him 10 minutes to get up the stairs. Nobody thought to help him. It was like he wasn’t there.
One summer evening when the other children were taken to the park to watch a fireworks display, Jeffrey stayed behind, locked in his bedroom. After the fireworks, his oldest sister returned, filled with childhood excitement at the explosions of colour she had witnessed that evening. She went up the stairs to Jeffrey’s bedroom, sat on the floor outside his room and called out his name.
Shivering in his damp room, Jeffrey listened through the door while she described the wonders he had missed. It was one of the rare displays of affection he would experience in his brief, painful life.
On Nov. 30, 2002, Bottineau called 911 to report a child not breathing. Emergency crews gasped when they first saw Jeffrey’s wasted body. He was all skin and bones, covered in sores with a scaly rash from sleeping in his own bodily wastes. He had more than a dozen distinct bruises and abrasions. His once-sparkling brown eyes were mere sink holes in his shrivelled-up face.
The official cause of death was septic shock, his body too weak from hunger to fight off the ravages of bacterial pneumonia.
Throughout the trial of Bottineau and Kidman, people cried unashamedly, flinching over eyewitness accounts of Jeffrey’s wretched existence, of how he drank water from the dog bowl or the toilet, or got a beating when he was slow cleaning his feces off the wall.
In murder trials, there is usually an undercurrent of anger against the accused, though they are presumed innocent until a judge or jury decides otherwise. In Jeffrey’s trial there was an added emotion - disgust.
Not only for the grandparents accused of his murder, but for the system which failed to protect a helpless child.
Throughout the trial, the finger of blame was pointed at the Catholic Chidren’s Aid Society for their part in the tragedy and their apparent reluctance to turn over files about the case.
That prompted a society lawyer to step forward, and clear the air of the apparent “misinformation” given to the court. A factum filed at the murder trial said the society had “at all times” co-operated with the police and the prosecutor.
The society had been “aware” that the family court had awarded custody of Jeffrey, and his three siblings, to Bottineau and Kidman, and agreed with the decision.
How could an agency whose sole job is the welfare of children support rulings that turned over four innocent children to a pair of convicted child abusers, people wanted to know.
Surprising indeed since the society had a file on Bottineau, at the time, dating back 29 years to the death of her first of six children, whose injuries were described as Battered Child Syndrome.
As for Kidman, his file with the society at the time dated back 19 years to his conviction on two counts of assault causing bodily harm. But the damning information was never passed along to the three separate custody court hearings. Why?
One brief line in their factum explained the oversight by the government-funded agency. It read: “Unfortunately, its records were not checked.”
During the trial, a memorial was erected to Jeffrey in Greenwood Park. It was meant not only as a tribute, but also a reminder for everyone to be vigilant for “other small voices” who might be in trouble. Despite the belated concern from the community for Jeffrey, even in death he has suffered one final indignity.
His remains were cremated and given to his parents in a small, standard-sized container from the funeral home after a private service. Since his parents didn’t have an urn for Jeffrey, they decided to pour his ashes into an urn that contained the remains of another of their children, Gregory, who was stillborn, and cremated.
But there wasn’t enough room for the two sets of ashes in the teddy bear-shaped urn. So only part of Jeffrey’s remains fit into the urn containing the ashes of the other child.
The rest of Jeffrey’s ashes are in a box on a shelf at the east end home of his parents, both receptacles awaiting a final resting place. A mother, Amanda Reed, who came to the trial was inspired to write a poem that is now part of the memorial to Jeffrey in Greenwood Park. It reads, in part:
“In remembrance of a forgotten child, Who lived his short life locked away in hungry darkness, “Kept out of sight, out of mind, Starved of love, joy and kindness, “But smile now child, be free now child Your sweet face will live forever in our hearts.”

The Trial Continues...

2006-01-17T05:36:00.000-06:00

The Globe and Mail
By TIMOTHY APPLEBY
Tuesday, January 17, 2006 Page A15

Five-year-old Jeffrey Baldwin was killed by his grandparents because they hated him, the accused couple's first-degree murder trial was told yesterday as the prosecution and defence launched their final arguments in Superior Court.
"Elva Bottineau and Norman Kidman disliked Jeffrey and [his older sister] to the extreme," Crown attorney Bev Richards told Mr. Justice David Watt, who is hearing the case without a jury. That "animus," she said, resulted in "severe child abuse over an extended period of time."
Jeffrey perished of septic shock in November of 2002, after spending most of his final months locked with that sister in a bedroom at the east-end Toronto Bottineau-Kidman home.
"Ms. Bottineau and Mr. Kidman knew that was going to happen," said Ms. Richards."This was a continuous downward spiral."
Lawyers for the accused presented an altogether different picture, with both defence camps contending that Jeffrey fell victim to extreme neglect rather than murder, which implies intent to kill.
But in one key regard, lawyers for the two accused diverged.

Anil Kapoor and Nick Xynnis, who jointly represent Ms. Bottineau, want their client acquitted not only of first- and second-degree murder but also of manslaughter, which generally means killing somebody by accident.

That's because her "mental impoverishment" is so extreme -- placing her within just 2 per cent of the population -- that she is incapable of realizing the consequences of her actions, Mr. Kapoor said.

That borderline mental retardation was documented as far back as 1970, when she faced criminal charges in connection with the death of one of her children, he said.
Then, as now, "she did not seem to have any real appreciation of the risks she took for others," Mr. Kapoor said, urging she be acquitted.
But Bob Richardson, Mr. Kidman's lead counsel, said his client bears some responsibility for Jeffrey's death and that the proper verdict should be manslaughter.
Taking a swipe at the Catholic Children's Aid Society, which approved the placement of Jeffrey and his three siblings in the couple's home after complaints of abuse, Mr. Richardson conceded that "out of a general state of indifference" Mr. Kidman had failed in his duty to protect Jeffrey.
But within the dysfunctional household, "it was Elva Bottineau's rules" that applied, Mr. Richardson said.
Mr. Kapoor argued that in examining "the appalling facts" of the tragedy, glaringly absent from the Crown's case against Ms. Bottineau is any proof of her intent to kill.
Not only did she call 911 on the day Jeffrey died, he said, but she wanted the boy alive rather than dead because of the welfare money he and his three siblings generated.
"She was abusive, and she wanted to abuse him, but she didn't want to kill him." Jeffrey died because Ms. Bottineau "doesn't see what we see," Mr. Kapoor contended.
The prosecutor rejected that thesis. When paramedics arrived at the house on Nov. 30, 2002, they found a near-skeletal five-year-old who was bruised, dehydrated and covered with sores and bacteria, she said, describing "a child who . . . was probably on the cusp of death."
As for intent, the fact Jeffrey and his sister spent long months locked up in their unheated bedroom offers proof that Jeffrey's death was not only intended, but also planned, Ms. Richards said.
Ms. Bottineau, 54, showed no emotion as defence and prosecution tussled. Mr. Kidman, 53, spent most of the day staring at the floor of the prisoner's box.

OACAS; or JOKE for short

2005-12-24T10:40:00.000-06:00

I will post the link to Jeanette Lewis' letter to the editor of the Globe yesterday, but first I wanted to let all of you know what an absolute JOKE and waste of money this agency is! It should be completely shut down and all their funding go directly to the ombudsman who will hopefully have the power to investigate. I've also thought it might be funny to see pigs fly, but I'm not holding my breath!

Ontario Association of Children's Aid Societies is an agency set up to advise the 53 CAS and CCAS's on their policies and procedures... that's about the total purpose of the OACAS. They are also paid for all the marketing and, if I'm not mistaken, the fundraising for the CAS's. I wrote to them in September asking them to investigate what went wrong with Jeffrey's case; to do something that would let the CCAS know they were in the (very) wrong and should be held accountable, that I wasn't just going to forget what happened to this child. Their response was 'we advise the 53 agencies.' So, basically, they have no power to do anything about anything... so why is yet another useless (private) government agency getting millions a year care of you and I, Joe and Jane Taxpayer??

A clip from their website:
OACAS is a membership organization that represents 53 children's aid societies in Ontario. We have served our members, the community, the public and the government in a variety of ways since 1912. These services have included the promotion of child welfare issues, member services, government liaison and policy development, research and special projects, quality assurance in child welfare practice and training for all protection workers throughout the province. The Association is funded through membership fees, government grants and other revenue producing activities. OACAS provides system support to its member societies to assist and enhance their role in the community. Some of the services offered to member societies are accreditation, consultation services, French language services support, information and database services, the Ontario Child Protection Training Program, training and support to foster parents as well as our Youth in Care Network Support Program .

Did you notice that they have an 'accreditation service'?? Here is the BEST quote from the whole site:

Children's aid societies (CASs) in Ontario have expressed their determination to hold themselves accountable for providing high quality services to children and families across the province. Using a peer review model, the Ontario Association of Children's Aid Societies Accreditation Program evaluates all aspects of CAS service, governance and administrative responsibilities against common standards developed by the child welfare field. The standards for the OACAS Accreditation Program are designed to reflect the needs and expectations of the community, the requirements of provincial child welfare legislation, current best practices and emerging trends in the field of child welfare.

What a load of crap!

So, I agree with anonymous who said in a comment:

'Ms. Lewis now proposes a solution with more authority, money, and absolute power for her little business. Instead, I would say that the Legislative Assembly needs to review the entire process and revamp the entire structure. Bill C210 needs to be taken back to the Ministry for revision as it is seriously flawed. Ms. Lewis needs to give her head a shake and to get her facts straight as to who were the perpertrators and who were the victims. '

Here is Jeanette's letter to the Globe:

By JEANETTE LEWIS
Friday, December 23, 2005 Page A21

Jeffrey Baldwin should not have died. It is always a tragedy when any child is hurt or dies, and it is particularly heart-rending in this case because members of Jeffrey's own family have been charged in his death. It is also clear there were some terrible errors made in the child-welfare system.
It is the role of others -- the courts in particular -- to assign responsibility for Jeffrey's death. I hope they act swiftly and with the full weight of the law. But for those in the child-welfare field, and for concerned citizens in general, the priority must be to look closely at what each of us can do to prevent future tragedies.
The Ontario Association of Children's Aid Societies believes that Jeffrey's tragic story provides the impetus for the child-welfare field to examine its practices and make changes to the system in collaboration with the Ontario government.
Much has changed since Jeffrey's death in 2002, and more changes are required. Here are some of the critical areas:
Mandatory training in forensic investigations for children's aid workers, in collaboration with police. One of the best ways to protect children is to have qualified, highly trained staff who are experts in conducting child-protection investigations. There are hundreds of such people in Ontario who have had the opportunity to receive state-of-the art training, including training in forensic investigation.
While forensic investigative training is now used widely, it is neither mandatory nor included in the training for new workers. We believe changes that would make such training mandatory at or near the beginning of a worker's tenure would greatly enhance the system's capacity to protect children.
Some say the job of conducting investigations should belong to the police, given their experience in dealing with criminals; others defend the role of the Children's Aid Society worker, who is trained to understand children's needs. Both views are valid: Investigations must be a shared responsibility. The pooled knowledge and different skill sets of a police officer and a child- protection worker investigating jointly provides the best protection for children.
Across the province, Children's Aid Societies and police services have protocols in place to govern joint investigations by defining the roles and responsibilities of each organization. Even more joint training of CAS workers and police in child-protection investigations would be the best way to fill a serious gap in our system.
Enhancing the coroner's role in reviewing and reporting on child deaths. When a child is harmed or dies under questionable circumstances, or as the result of maltreatment, there are extensive reporting procedures, including a review by the Office of the Chief Coroner and its multidisciplinary pediatric death review committee.
Unfortunately, the information from child death reviews is not regularly available. No analysis or interpretation of the reviews is provided except to individual CASs that are involved. If the coroner's office were to receive sufficient resources to publish this information on an annual basis, the system could learn valuable lessons that would enhance its capacity to protect children.
Passing kinship care legislation. The unfortunate reality is that the high standards that have been applied for years to foster care have not applied to kinship care -- that is, when a vulnerable child is placed in the custody of a relative. We believe the same rigorous standards that apply to foster care should apply to kinship care, too.
The government is listening. Ontario has recently introduced a wide array of initiatives designed to build the capacity of the child-welfare system. They include amendments to the Child and Family Services Act, policies around kinship care, new assessment and planning tools and a new funding model.
Workload relief for CAS staff. Children's Aid workers in Ontario conduct more than 82,000 investigations a year and provide in-care services for more than 30,000 children. Children's Aid Societies operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Child welfare is a highly regulated sector -- as it should be. CASs are subject to 16 different review mechanisms within the Child and Family Services Act. Each CAS is accountable to the Ministry of Children and Youth Services, which reviews its performance. CASs are also accountable to the courts and overseen by boards of directors that represent the communities in which they serve.
In this complex environment and with this huge workload, the demands on workers can be overwhelming. It is critical that sufficient resources be put in place to enable them to fulfill their vital mission. Ontario's most vulnerable children deserve no less.
The responsibility to report: raising public awareness. Even with all these changes, our biggest ally in the fight to protect children is the public. Each and every one of us has a responsibility to report any circumstances in which we suspect a child is -- or may be -- at risk of harm.
Children's Aid workers are dedicated to child welfare. They are equipped to respond around the clock, and when they get a call, they respond very quickly. They have been protecting Ontario's most vulnerable citizens, its children, for more than 100 years.
But there are limits to what these workers can do. In a society that still has serious social challenges and too much violence directed at children, CAS workers need help. That is why a child's family, friends, neighbours and the general public must be the eyes and ears of the child-welfare community.
Even as society brings those responsible for Jeffrey's death to account, there is a broader challenge -- and there are larger lessons we must all learn. By making the right changes today, we can prevent countless tragedies tomorrow.
Jeanette Lewis is executive director of the Ontario Association of Children's Aid Societies.

and here's the link to the OACAS website: (don't laugh too hard at how ridiculous the whole thing is and drop them a line if you have a minute asking what exactly they do!!)
http://www.oacas.org

Crisis Nursery

2005-12-21T11:03:00.000-06:00

Saskatchewan and Alberta both have one of these places, I believe it would be extremely beneficial to have one open in Ontario. Another proposal I will be following up with.

I think if it was run by people who are not involved with the CAS's, it would help keep children being taken from their families needlesly. It shouldn't be a crime to be poor, children shouldn't be taken from their homes because houses are messy (who has time to have a spotless house when you're busy playing with your kids??) or two parents don't live togather, not to mention any other weak excuse the agency gives for taking children. A crisis nursery also provides help to parents- financial, social, counselling, etc. If it becomes apparent that the child's mother or father don't want the child or are abusive, then the CAS be called by the nursery staff.

Everyone needs help sometime, everyone needs a break and unfortunately, instead of helping families, CAS's are ripping them apart.

Please see the following link for information on the Saskatoon crisis nursery. I have no idea why Ontario doesn't have one, but then as we recently found out from Andre Marin the ombudsman, Ontario is far, far behind the rest of Canada with regards to our child welfare system!

http://www.sbcc.ca/cn.htm

2005-12-20T16:15:00.000-06:00

I received a fantastic letter today from Waterloo-Wellington MPP Ted Arnott. He also attached a letter he sent to Ms. Chambers requesting her consideration of the ombudsman's proposal as well as a letter he sent to the Social Policy's clerk, asking her to forward my letter to all members of the SP Committee! (which I have already done, but it was a nice gesture!)

Hopefully the feedback from members will continue to be positive!

Please send letters...

2005-12-19T18:44:00.000-06:00

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/ArticleNews/TPStory/LAC/20051219/BALDWIN19/TPNational/
the above is the link to Christie Blatchford's article in today's Globe. Please send letters to the editor of the Globe at:
www.theglobeandmail.com/feedback/LettersToTheEditor

Please make reference to Christie's article or they may not print it.

and / or to Christie directly thanking her for her amazing work at:
cblatchford@globeandmail.ca

Thanks,
Amanda

Social Policy Committee Member's Reply:

2005-12-19T14:51:00.000-06:00

Ms. Reed:

Thank you for your letter regarding the Children's Aid.I believe the Children's Aid should be held accountable for its actions.
Sincerely,
Ted ChudleighMPP Halton

After Foster Care Petition

2005-12-19T10:34:00.000-06:00

Please visit the following site to download a petition stating the Ombudsman should have the authority to investigate CAS's. Return address and further information is all on the site.

Thanks!

www.afterfostercare.ca

Globe and Mail December 19!!

2005-12-19T06:21:00.000-06:00

Christie Blatchford is AMAZING! There are some pictures in the paper today as well, so I suggest you buy one, it's too long to post... three full pages!

Thanks Christie!!

2005-12-19T04:50:00.000-06:00

Why is the public letting the CAS's away with murder? Since when did a publicly funded organization just be allowed to be private and unaccountable? Why are the authorities and ministers allowed to do what ever they want without talking to people affected by the CAS's? These people are making decisions without any basis or thought to what happens to us, the public. Bill 210 is a joke of a law that is AGAIN, costing us thousands, if not millions, to put through. Is the government a sepereate entity from the public now? Are we in Orson Wells' 1984... has the government become Big Brother??

NO! So put pressure on your local politicians about how we are not being listened to and we are supposed to be consulted about where our money goes!

If we refuse to pay taxes, we go to jail. Yet our tax money goes to people and organizations who are criminals that are for some reason, above the law!

Something has to give and I'm mad as hell! I hope you are too.

Some info...

2005-12-16T22:09:00.000-06:00

I sent off the gifts for the children today. To arrive on Monday, delivered Tuesday. The woman at CCAS (yes, it's THEM who have to deliver the presents!!) said she would let me know what the kids thought of the gifts and when they were delivered.

Will hopefully meeting with the Ombudsman in January. If you haven't sent a letter of thanks yet, please do!

Keep writing letters!! They are making an impact!!

Letter to Ms. Chambers...

2005-12-14T23:29:00.000-06:00

Dear Ms. Chambers,
I am very disappointed at your lack of support for ombudman Andre Marin's plea for
the authority to investigate Ontario
Children's Aid Societies.
The CAS's of Ontario have absolutely no accountability to the public; we who pay
their salaries through taxes. I have
been informed that they answer only to their Board of Directors who are not
impartial.
What consequences befall employee's who do not carry out their jobs effectively?
None.
It is the role of the ombudsman to act as the 'go between' the Provincial government
and the public, and as such, he
should have the authority to investigate any misuse of power or financing; of which
the child welfare system is a
perfect example.
You know my opinion of the child welafre system through our previous conversation;
they are no longer beneficial to
society on a whole in protecting our children. The CAS and CCAS's of Ontario instill
fear, contempt and loathing in the
public view. They have a jaded history of destroying families and more importantly,
of devastating the children they are
entrusted to protect and provide for.
I ask you, who protects the protected from their protectors? Who provides the checks
and balances?
It is my opinion that Mr. Andre Marin, if given the right, will be a beneficial,
independent official that will ensure
that the child welfare system is functioning properly. The Children's Aid Society's
of Ontario, (all of them) MUST be
accountable to the public, as well as to the children they supposedly serve.
Does the government not realize that the cost to society in caring for children
properly now is much less than the
burden of youths going through the judidial system or relying on social assistance
later?
We pay the CAS's to perform a duty that is not being carried out, and as a result,
the system needs a complete overhaul
and SHOULD be changed. Giving the Ontario ombudsman the authority to investigate
complaints against the child welfare
system is a very positive first step in rectifying the current situation.
I beg you to please re-think your stance on Mr. Marin's plan and support him
regarding his proposal to the Social Policy
Committee.
I know you are upset as a result of the Jeffrey Baldwin case; you must realize that
the CCAS holds a great majority of
the responsibility for his torture and death.
We, the public, are demanding that this organization be held liable for this child.
(and many other children who have
died as a result of their negligence)
I look forward to hearing from you in the near future.
Sincerely,
Amanda Reed

Ms.Chambers' reaction to Ombudsman... not good!

2005-12-14T12:12:00.000-06:00

Ottawa Citizen Newspaper

Minister unenthusiastic about ombudsman overseeing CASs: Chambers lukewarm to Marin's proposal, but says she shares his concern for young
The Ottawa Citizen
Wed 14 Dec 2005 Page: C9 Section: City Byline: Jeff Esau Source: The Ottawa Citizen
Ontario Children and Youth Services Minister Mary Anne Chambers may share the provincial ombudsman's concerns about protecting children, but she's lukewarm to his ideas on how to do so.
"The ombudsman can say whatever he wants to say, but I, as the minister, cannot put myself in a position that could be defined as being in contempt of the legislative process," Ms. Chambers said earlier this week in response to ombudsman Andre Marin's proposal to place the province's Children's Aid Society under his office's oversight. She characterized the idea as only one of "a variety of options" for protecting children.
Last week, Mr. Marin told members of the legislature's social policy committee that if legislation to amend the Child and Family Services Act passes as is, Ontario would gain the "dubious distinction" of being "at the back of the oversight pack in Canada."
Mr. Marin noted that Ontario is the only province where child protection services are run by private agencies funded by the government -- in Ontario's case, to the tune of $1.2 billion each year. In other provinces, he said, child protection is a public function or is shared between government and private agencies. He also noted that all provinces, except Ontario and Quebec, have ombudsmen overseeing child protection services. The ombudsman then recommended this situation be rectified by granting his office oversight over Ontario's 53 Children's Aid Societies.
The minister, however, suggested Mr. Marin's recommendation regarding Bill 210 was too narrow. "The recommendation that the ombudsman is making is focusing on one particular solution.
Ms. Chambers said she and the ombudsman "share concerns about accountability on behalf of kids and families," but she questioned his assertion that Ontario affords convicted criminals housed in privatized provincial jails protection by the ombudsman, but fails to extend the same protection to children. "I don't think that's fair at all. We actually do have a number of opportunities for protection of children and youth. There are some provinces where the ombudsman has oversight, but there are some provinces where the ombudsman does not."
Ms. Chambers pointed out there is already a plan to make the ministry's child advocate -- currently an official reporting to the minister -- an independent officer of the legislature, similar to the ombudsman.
Mr. Marin dismissed the use of a child advocate for oversight as "not helpful in investigating complaints about the CASs." The child advocate, he said this week, is "like a town crier for children," which is a "world of a difference" from his own role as provincial watchdog. Unlike the ombudsman, "the advocate does not possess any investigative powers, is not impartial and is not neutral."
"We should be moving heaven and Earth to provide an investigative ability," said Mr. Marin. A child advocate "will not solve the problem of the CAS being without any oversight."
Not everyone agreed with Mr. Marin's view. Jeanette Lewis, executive director of the Ontario Association of Children's Aid Societies, thinks the necessary oversight is already in place. Mr. Marin "has not very well articulated to the public the number of accountability mechanisms that exist for Children's Aid Societies," she said, pointing out such oversight functions as death reviews, Crown ward reviews, financial audits and ministry monitoring. As well, all decisions by child welfare workers to remove a child from a home are reviewed by the courts within five days.
"I'm not sure how the ombudsman's authority would then also deal with the court-related decisions," said Ms. Lewis.
The minister, meanwhile, noted the legislative process precludes her from responding in detail on what she expects regarding Bill 210. "If I am going to declare firmly and unequivocally what the outcome of a bill that we have introduced is going to be, why then do we have the legislative process?"
Ms. Chambers emphasized that with Bill 210 still at the committee stage, "there will be an opportunity for us right now to strengthen accountability and complaint mechanisms for Children's Aid Societies, and we're working on that."
Illustration:• Colour Photo: CNW Group Photo / Children and Youth Services Minister Mary Anne Chambers called the ombudsman's assessment unfair.

My letter to the Committee

2005-12-12T20:27:00.000-06:00

December 12, 2005
Dear Honourable Members of the Ontario Social Policy Committee,

On December 6th, 2005, Ontario Ombudsman Andre Marin presented the your Honours with his proposal to amend Bill 210 regarding the Ombudsman's authority to investigate Children's Aid Societies. I believe it is about time that these organizations must be held accountable to the public as opposed to their Board of Directors.

It is the Provincial taxpayers that finance their salaries and it has become quite apparent that the Ontario child welfare system is corrupt, outdated and inefficient. They have unchecked power and authority to do as they please and suffer absolutely no consequences for any actions, regardless of the outcomes.

I use Jeffrey Baldwin as an example. (one of many, many children) Mr. Marin discussed the details of this case that is currently before the courts and I am sure you have read some of what happened to this child. The Catholic Children's Aid Society placed him and his three siblings with two KNOWN and CONVICTED child abusers. The CCAS did not even have to go outside of their own building to research this information; the history of Jeffrey's grandparents was in their OWN files in their OWN filing cabinet.

They never checked on these children following placement although three separate requests for the children were made. These children were taken out of the fire and put into the flame by their so called protectors.

So I pose this question to all of you; Who protects the protected from their protectors?

We are angry that we PAID for Jeffrey to be tortured and killed. The CCAS has to date not been held accountable for any of their actions. (or lack thereof) Jeffrey Baldwin's case worker is not facing criminal charges; in fact she is still actively employed! The Executive Director of the CCAS, Mary McConville should also be held responsible for the negligence of her employee's because she should have been more diligent in ensuring reports were properly filled out and children properly cared for.

Complaining about more funding is a poor excuse when the Ontario child welfare system receives a billion dollars a year.

I am asking you to please seriously consider Mr. Marin's request for the authority to investigate Children's Aid Societies. I think that should the committee deny his proposal, the public will react. I encourage all of you to visit the following blog site to read what is being said about this case, it may shed some light on just how outraged people are.
http://jeffreyslawnow.blogspot.com

We demand a voice, we demand accountability from the people who are supposed to be protecting our future generation.

I wish you wonderful holidays with your children and family.

Sincerely,
Amanda Reed

Letter Template

2005-12-12T17:18:00.000-06:00

Your name

Your mailing address

Your e-mail address

Date

Person's name

Mailing address

Fax number

RE: Ontario Ombudsman regarding Bill 210

Dear Ms. ____________ (or Mr.)

On December 6th, 2005, Ontario Ombudsman Andre Marin went before the Social Policy Committee requesting permission for his office to investigate Children's Aid Societies. As an Ontario tax payer of government employees' salaries, I believe granting this request would ensure that these organizations are held accountable for their actions when placing children. We are paying them to perform a service; to do a job, and it has become very apparent that they are not properly fulfilling their role as society's protectors of children.

If the office of the Ontario Ombudsman is authorized to investigate claims against CAS, Ontario will be taking a big step in becoming equal with the rest of Canada regarding child welfare. The Ombudsman of every other province in this country except Quebec already has this authority and are all currently moving forward to increase the Ombudsman's position to investigate the child welfare system.

As it stands currently in Ontario, CAS organizations are funded publicly but are only accountable to their Board of Directors. We, as taxpayers pay their salaries, however they do not have to answer to the public for wrong doing or gross misconduct! I personally do not know of any government run organization that has quite the same ultimate power and ability to do just about anything they please with no questions asked. Mr. Marin stated in his presentation to the committee that: 'The Province of Ontario provides over 1 billion dollars to fund child protection services through 53 independent Children’s Aid Societies yet fails to provide the checks and balances that would ensure that administrative decisions taken by these Societies, which have life and death impact on children in need, be exposed to independent investigation.'

The public is questioning the child welfare organizations and the government now and we are demanding answers.

I encourage you to show your support to Mr. Marin by assisting him with his request to the Social Policy Committee in any way possible.

Please feel free to contact me anytime.

Sincerely,

______________________ (your signature)

Your name

cc: (anyone else you send this letter to)

Addresses to Write to:

2005-12-12T17:10:00.000-06:00

Letters to the Editor of the major newspapers are good too...

Contact information for individual members of the Social Policy Committee:
Chair: Mario Racco, Liberal www.marioracco.onmpp.ca
Vice Chair: Khalil Ramal, Liberal www.khalilramal.onmpp.ca
Members: Ted Arnott, Conservative www.tedarnottmpp.com
Ted Chudleigh, Conservative www.tedchudleigh.com
Kim Craitor, Liberal www.kimcraitor.com
Peter Fonseca, Liberal www.peterfonseca.onmpp.ca
Jeff Leal, Liberal www.jeffleal.onmpp.ca
Rosario Marchese, New Democrat www.rosariomarchese.ca
Kathleen Wynne, Liberal www.kathleenwynne.ca

The committee's address is:
Room 1405, Whitney Block
Queen's Park Toronto, Ontario M7A 1A2

General emails may be addressed to its clerk:
anne_stokes@ontla.ola.org

Dalton McGuinty
Premier of Ontario
Legislative Building
Queen's Park Toronto ON M7A 1A1
Fax: (416) 325-3745

Mary Anne Chambers
Minister of Children and Youth Services
56 Wellesley Street West, 14th Floor
Toronto, M4S 2S3
Fax: (416) 212-7431

Mr. John Tory
Leader- Official Opposition Conservative Party
Rm. 381 Legislative Building
Queen’s Park Toronto ON M7A 1A8

Ms. Marilyn Churley
MPP Toronto – Danforth
Rm. 116Legislative Building
Queen’s Park Toronto ON M7A 1A5

Jack Layton
1506 Danforth Ave.
Toronto, ON M4J 1N4
Fax: (416) 405-8918
laytoj1@parl.gc.ca

Stephen Harper
Conservative Party of Canada
#1720 - 130 Albert Street
Ottawa, Ontario K1P 5G4
Toll free: (866) 808-8407
Phone: (613) 755-2000
Fax at: (613) 755-2001

Ombudsman Needs Our Help

2005-12-12T15:46:00.000-06:00

Hi everyone,

I have been speaking with the office of the Ombudsman and it has been suggested that I and all of you and any other concerned citizens write letters to Mary Anne Chambers, our MPP's as well as newspapers voicing our support for Mr. Marin's efforts and request that his office be allowed to investigate CAS or CCAS complaints. As it stands right now, as you are all aware, these organizations answer to their Board of Director's ONLY and are therefore, not accountable to anyone, least of all the public who pay their salaries. I ask you all to please continue to write letters and keep the pressure in the right places. The Ombudsman has asked for the right to investigate because of all of the letters he has received regarding the Jeffrey case that I and a lot of you wrote, so it DOES make an impact when you take the time to send off an e-mail or letter.
Thanks and keep in touch!
Amanda

Ombudsman's Presentation

2005-12-12T15:45:00.000-06:00

Under Our Watch
Submissions of the OMBUDSMAN of ONTARIO to the Standing Committee on Social Policy, respecting Bill 210, the Child and Family Services Statute Law Amendment Act

Introduction
I thank the Committee for making some room for me to present on Bill 210. I understand that I have 30 minutes this evening. I intend to make a short presentation then answer your questions.
As this committee knows full well, Bill 210 is not without its fair share of controversy. However, the objection that I bring for your consideration is one that has not been heard publicly and one which I believe I am duty bound to raise. In a nutshell, whereas other provinces have seen fit to provide independent oversight over their respective child protection agencies, the Ombudsman’s office has, in Ontario, an extremely narrow opening to investigate complaints about the services sought or received by the Children’s Aid Societies. That small window will close once this bill passes unless this committee makes its voice heard. If that small window closes, Ontario will have the dubious distinction of having solidified its position as being at the back of the oversight pack in Canada in ensuring that the most vulnerable of our children have an independent avenue of redress.

The Stakes

We all know who our most vulnerable citizens are – children at risk – children whose parents are unable or unwilling to care for them. The importance of ensuring that we succeed in rescuing and protecting these children and in helping their families cannot be overestimated. After all, our children are our future. Today’s children are tomorrow’s citizens – tomorrow’s parents, tomorrow’s workers, tomorrow’s governors. When today’s children are protected and given a sense of self-worth, they can take care of tomorrow. But when things go wrong, today’s children can become tomorrow’s burden. Worse, when things go wrong, today’s children can be today’s tragedies. When they are not given the effective support and protection that is their simple birthright as human beings, they are neglected, even abused. They are left unfed or unsupervised. At times they are beaten or sexually violated, or as in the horrifying case of Jeffrey Baldwin and his young sister, they can be denied their humanity entirely. And as that case also shows, these tragedies can happen under our watch.

The Reality

Fortunately Ontario is blessed with good citizens who are prepared to make the protection of children their life’s calling. There are 53 independent non-profit organizations in this Province, Children’s Aid Societies, staffed by dedicated people who try to pick up the pieces when our children are being failed. Their work could not be more important. The effectiveness of what they do could not be more urgent. But as is true of all humans, these societies sometimes fail, and the systems we have put in place to help them sometimes fail. When this happens families can be broken apart needlessly, or children can be deprived of stable foster-care, or adoptions can fail, or at times, children can suffer continued abuse, or even die as Jeffrey Baldwin did.

Jeffrey slowly starved to death in 2002 at almost 6 years old. He was only 21 pounds and stood only at 37 inches. Evidence now being called at the trial of his grandparents charged with 1st degree murder is that he was living in his own feces in his bedroom while his lungs were filled with pneumonia. He was “treated like a dog” and forced to eat in a corner and urinate and defecate on the floor. Sadly, according to media reports, the Catholic Children’s Aid Society of Toronto not only did not prevent this horrifying situation from happening, but facilitated it. This CAS gave custody of Jeffrey and three of his siblings to these two accused-murderers. One of the co-accused had been convicted years before with assault causing bodily harm in the death of her baby who suffered broken bones.

If honourable members wonder how in God’s name the CAS, our child protection agency in Ontario, could ever facilitate providing custody to someone in these circumstances, you are not alone. We received a complaint in the last month about this case and asked to investigate. We had to turn it down. We have no jurisdiction over the CAS. If Jeffrey had had the good fortune of being born in any other province in Canada, lingering questions about the role or complicity of the CAS in the death of Jeffrey could be probed. Alas, in Ontario, we are forced to simply turn a blind eye and move on.

Jeffrey’s case may be an extreme case but it is not a unique one. Children can die as 25-day-old baby Jordan did in 2001, when he starved to death while his 19-year-old mother was supposedly being supervised, because CAS workers assumed staff at a Community woman’s shelter would take care of things.

It is never time to stop trying to improve things. It is never time to stop making the system and the people who administer it as good as they can be.

The Goal

Like any thinking citizen of this Province, I am therefore pleased to see many of the improvements to our child care practices being taken in the Child and Family Services Statute Law Amendment Act, things like increasing the flexibility of dispositions to meet the needs of each child, making the system friendlier for adopting parents, and the attempts to reduce the expense and acrimony of litigation by encouraging mediation. But I did not come here simply to applaud the Act. I am here because the legislation will fail in reaching another of its underlying objectives – namely, strengthening the complaint procedure to provide higher standards of accountability for Children’s Aid Societies. Not only will Bill 210 fail to achieve this, it will make it worse.

The Problem

Currently, my office cannot accept complaints directly about Children’s Aid Societies, even though we receive hundreds of complaints annually. Last year we received 305. In the first six months of this fiscal year we received 94. Because of limits on our mandate we cannot address them. We have to tell affected individuals caught up in what are likely to be the most important events in their lives – struggles relating to the welfare of children – that we cannot help.

Other provincial Ombudsmen are not so limited. In 1991-92 in her Annual Report my predecessor lamented that “All provincial Ombudsman except for Ontario and Quebec have jurisdiction over Children’s Aid Societies or their equivalent.” Meanwhile, last year Nova Scotia passed amendments to increase the relevant jurisdiction of its Ombudsman.

Quite evidently, there is no policy reason why my Office should not be dealing with CAS complaints. Other provincial Ombudsmen do. Indeed, as long ago as 1986 a Canadian Ombudsman’s conference in Ottawa passed a resolution to give priority to the investigation of complaints made by or involving children.

Our inability to consider CAS complaints is not because of any concrete policy choice, or because of concern that it would be unsuitable to have an Ombudsman help achieve inexpensive and expeditious solutions to the litany of problems that arise. Our inability is an accident of history. It is because Ontario is the only province in Canada where Children’s Aid Societies, although publicly funded and provincially monitored, developed as private institutions, and, like other provincial Ombudsman my Office generally oversees only government agents. At present this gives me only a sliver of responsibility to oversee what I will call “Directors’ reviews” that are undertaken under s.68(3) of the Child and Family Services Act. Directors’ reviews occur rarely, where the Ministry chooses to exercise its discretion to assign a Director to review a CAS decision. Since the Director is appointed by government I can examine the way he conducts the review, but not the underlying issue.

The Failure of Bill 210

So what does Bill 210 do in an attempt to improve the handling of complaints? Not only is the Office of the Ombudsman of Ontario not taken advantage of, Bill 210 removes the jurisdiction of the Ombudsman of Ontario over Directors’ decisions by abolishing Directors’ reviews under s.68(3). While other provinces are moving forward in lock step to give their citizens the benefits of an expeditious, inexpensive, informal complaints procedure relating to some of the most important matters those citizens will face, we in Ontario are moving backwards.

How then, can the Government present Bill 210 as legislation that will increase CAS accountability by improving the complaint procedures? We do not yet know the details because they will be housed in regulations. What we do know is that the Ombudsman of Ontario’s Office, provides the ingredients necessary for effective oversight, “expedition and informality” and “effectiveness.”

Expedition and informality

As Bill 210 recognizes with its call for increased mediation, not every problem requires formal adjudication. Most of the complaints we receive can be solved quickly and inexpensively through timely intercession. Sometimes it happens because our impartiality enables us to see obvious solutions that the parties are too invested to see. At other times we serve as honest brokers.

Effectiveness

For deeper and more intransigent problems, particularly when those problems are systemic, there must be investigation, and there must be credibility in reporting. The Ombudsman Act provides our Office with the tools needed to find the facts, including the statutory power to demand production and if necessary, compel testimony and conduct hearings, and we have the track record to employ reason and exercise moral suasion to secure results.

The Solution

An elaborate statute has been crafted to make this Office effective at external oversight. That statute is called the Ombudsman Act. This Office, which administers that statute, is not only in place, it is well-established. Giving the Ombudsman of Ontario jurisdiction to oversee the work of Children’s Aid Societies will provide the most expert, expeditious, informal and effective form of oversight possible. This is why my predecessors have been calling for this power for more than twenty years. This can be achieved easily, without having to amend the Ombudsman Act and without setting any precedent as I already have some authority relating to private contractors operating under the Ministry of Correctional Services Act. The solution can be achieved by adding a single provision to the Child and Family Services Statute Law Amendment Act to give the Ontario Ombudsman authority over Children’s Aid Societies. I would propose that Bill 210 be amended by adding the following provision:

Approved agencies designated as children’s aid societies under s.15(2) shall be deemed to be governmental organizations for the purposes of the Ombudsman Act.

In the end, this should be done for the most compelling of reasons – for the children and their families. If this power had been given when my predecessors called for it in an effort to correct a technical accident of history, much of the grief experienced by the parents of disabled children told about in my Report, Between a Rock and a Hard Place may have been avoided. Those parents were forced to give their children up to Children’s Aid Societies in order to secure residential care they could not afford, and while the Societies were supportive in most cases, some of the bureaucrats they dealt with were insensitive to the realities of the situation, and subjected these families to humiliation and degradation, without apparent appreciation that they were dealing with loving, capable parents. And I wonder what kind of contribution we can make to improving the protection for the Jeffrey Baldwins and Baby Jordans of the world.

The Province of Ontario provides over 1 billion dollars to fund child protection services through 53 independent Children’s Aid Societies yet fails to provide the checks and balances that would ensure that administrative decisions taken by these Societies, which have life and death impact on children in need, be exposed to independent investigation.

If we as a Province want to discharge our deep moral and legal responsibility by using private Children’s Aid Agencies to perform one of the most important functions of government, that is fine – for the most part those societies have acquitted themselves well and we are in their debt. We must, however, do what we can to make sure that they operate as effectively and as fairly as possible. They do the ground work, but in the end, the children of this province are our responsibility. Their wellbeing is under our watch. Tragically at times, we know that their very lives can be lost under our watch. We can never let that happen because we have not been watching effectively, nor can we permit families and adopting parents to suffer needlessly because we have developed an incomplete or ineffective oversight system. This Office was devised to improve the quality of decisions affecting the lives of Ontario’s citizens. This is my plea to make use of it where it is most required.

AMAZING!!

2005-12-07T13:11:00.000-06:00

By CHRISTIE BLATCHFORD
Wednesday, December 7, 2005 Page A20

Ontario Ombudsman André Marin wants the power to investigate complaints against the province's 53 children's aid societies.
Appearing last night before the government's social policy committee, which is examining a bill that would amend the laws governing the societies, Mr. Marin cited the notorious Jeffrey Baldwin case as an example of his office's powerlessness.
"We received a complaint in the last month about this case," he told the committee, "and were asked to investigate.
"We had to turn it down. We have no jurisdiction over the CAS."

The complaint seeking a probe into Jeffrey's death of starvation-induced pneumonia and septic shock, Mr. Marin said, is one of 94 his office received in the first six months of this year.
"Last year, we received 305. . . . Because of limits in our mandate, we cannot address them."
His counterparts in other provinces, he said, have the ability to investigate such complaints.
The little boy died while in the custody of his maternal grandparents, approved by the Catholic Children's Aid Society of Toronto as acceptable caregivers for him and his three siblings.
Only after Jeffrey died, weighing at almost the age of six less than he did when he was a year old, did the CCAS find in its files evidence that the grandparents, Elva Bottineau and Norman Kidman, were each convicted child abusers.
Ms. Bottineau, 54, was convicted as a teenage mother of assault causing bodily harm in the death of her infant daughter.
Mr. Kidman, 53, was convicted eight years later of two counts of assault causing bodily harm upon two of Ms. Bottineau's children by a previous relationship.
The two are on trial for first-degree murder in the death of Jeffrey on Nov. 30, 2002.
Mr. Justice David Watt of the Ontario Superior Court has heard evidence that Jeffrey and a sister were confined for such long periods of time to a dank and fetid room that they lived amid their own waste.
The information about the grandparents' criminal past was contained in the CCAS records, the agency has acknowledged, but went undiscovered, prompting Mr. Marin to characterize the agency as having, in effect, "facilitated" the harsh and degrading conditions in which Jeffrey was kept.
"I think the committee was stunned to realize that the CASs, despite receiving a billion dollars in taxpayers' money, run themselves without any independent oversight," Mr. Marin told The Globe and Mail last night in a telephone interview.
He said he received a sympathetic audience, but no firm commitment that the legislation would be amended.
He says it would require only the addition of a "10-word line" to the law.

2005-12-04T05:33:00.000-06:00

The UN post is getting quite full with comments, so here's a blank one to leave your thoughts...

CCAS Board of Directors

2005-11-30T06:08:00.000-06:00

HRS@ccas.toronto.on.ca - this seems to be HR's e-mail, so maybe better to fax or write to them with the specific person's name on the envelope
The fax # is (416) 395-0583.
26 Maitland Street,
Toronto, Ontario,
M4Y 1C6
Tel: 416-395-1500
(main) Fax: 416-395-1581

Board of Directors
Aloysius Cardinal Ambrozic, Honorary President 2005/2006 CCAS Board of Directors President: John Cressatti1st
Vice-President: Stephen Grant2nd
Vice-President: Michele Fordyce
Treasurer: Joseph Fanutti
Secretary: Eleanor Shannon
Past President: Tom Donovan
Angelo Cristofaro
Steve De Quintal
Mary DiFrancesco
Michael Fullan
The Honourable Joseph James
Carolyn Lockett
Dorothy McGuigan
Hugh O'Reilly
John Spekkens
Larry Talbot
Dr. Joanne Turner

Letter to United Nations:

2005-11-28T14:15:00.000-06:00

To Whom it May Concern;

I am a self proclaimed child advocate. Everything I do is on my own time; I am not paid by anyone. I research child death cases and then write to all levels of government asking why the death occurred, why no consequences were sufferedby the perpetrator, etc.
There is currently a case in trial about a little boy named Jeffrey Baldwin. He was betrayed by the Catholic Children's Aid Society and as a result endured torture and severe malnutrition and starvation. One medical professional said his case is one of the worst he has ever seen and he does extensive volunteer work with children in under developed and third world countries.
The Canadian government is turning it's back both financially and lawfully on these children and the people and agencies who have caused their deaths.
I would like to make a formal complaint to the United Nations against my country and various specific agencies withinCanada.I would like to know how to do this. Please take me seriously; Canada is a criminal when it comes to children.
Sincerely,
Amanda Reed Canada

Response from UN:
Thank you for the work you are doing on children's rights. We're very sorry to hear about Jeffrey and the sufferings he injured.

In the website, https://webmail.cogeco.ca/webmail.cgi?cmd=url&url=http!3A!2F!2Fwww.ohchr.org!2Fenglish!2Fcontact!2Findex.htm, you will find a model complaint form which you can fill out and send to the

Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights
either through their fax hotline, + 41 22 917 9022,
or their e-mail address, tb-petitions@ohchr.org.

You can also contact non-governmental organizations in Canada engaged in activities concerning children. You will find a directory of NGOs associated with the UN on-line at https://webmail.cogeco.ca/webmail.cgi?cmd=url&url=http!3A!2F!2Fwww.un.org!2Fdpi!2Fngosection!2Fasp!2Fform.asp
Once again, thank you for sharing your concerns and taking the time to write to the United Nations. Public Inquiries UnitPublic Relations SectionDepartment of Public InformationUnited Nationshttps://webmail.cogeco.ca/webmail.cgi?cmd=msg_new&h_from=inquiries2@un.org&utoken=jeffreyslaw!40cogeco.ca!40pop.cogeco.ca!3A110_!7E2-ef9f0df6ab332c2409e200_0

Informative website...

2005-11-27T06:50:00.000-06:00

www.fixcas.com

Quilt 3 is finished!

2005-11-24T16:21:00.000-06:00

This is for Jeffrey's oldest sister. If you remember that she once sat outside his door describing the July 1st fireworks she had seen. It was a good memory she had of her and her brother, so I found fireworks material just for her quilt.

Quilt Two is finished!

2005-11-23T17:40:00.000-06:00

Jeffrey's brother's quilt is finished!

Ombudsman

2005-11-23T13:53:00.000-06:00

This is going to make you all fall off your chairs...
I just spoke to the office of the Ontario Ombudsman. I had written him a letter asking for his help to ensure a public inquiry is called after the trial and to help us in general.
Here's a shock: The CCAS is NOT a public agency! They are NOT public servants so the Ombudsman CAN NOT investigate or question them about anything. They are publicly funded, but are a private organization!
Who are they responsible to?? ONLY their Board of Directors... that's IT! They CAN NOT be held accountable, sued or 'made' to do anything except by their Board. I will post the letters I write to my pal Mary McConville and her Board tonight!!
I am SO mad! They don't answer to ANYONE!!
Write to Mary, write to the Board of Directors, the e-mail address is below as is Mary's address...
What a JOKE!

Believe it or not!

2005-11-18T08:23:00.000-06:00

... the CCAS got back to me on where we should send our letters to their Board of Directors!

HRS@ccas.toronto.on.ca
The fax # is (416) 395-0583.

I actually think it's the Human Resource Service (?) but in any case, tons of letters would be good!

One quilt is finished!

2005-11-18T06:29:00.000-06:00

front_______________ back

This is the quilt for the sister locked in the room with Jeffrey. It's not a great pic, but all the fabric on the back is velvet, flannel, etc. That's a pic of Jeffrey in the middle. The flowers on the front are shiny and I embroidered a little bee. Hope you all like it. I've started his brothers now and should have it finished by Monday. Will post pictures when they're finished.

Letters to Mary McConville

2005-11-15T14:21:00.000-06:00

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

Memorial Pics

2005-11-11T08:53:00.000-06:00

I wonder what this child is thinking... I hope he never fully understands why he was there

Toronto City Councillor Paula Fletcher... an incredible woman!
Memorial plaque

My son Reed and I laying a rose...
The EMS workers, some were at the dreadful scene November 30th, 2002...
Giving my speech in front of the tree, bench and plaque...

beautiful day, glorious colours on the tree!

The crowd...

-all pictures courtesy of Kris Harper

More pictures

2005-11-10T07:05:00.000-06:00

Jeffrey and his younger brother, again notice the difference in size!

2005-11-09T19:10:00.000-06:00

Jeffrey, his siblings and 'loving' mother. As if she didn't know what was going on! Look at his eyes! He can't seem to open them!

2005-11-09T18:45:00.000-06:00

Jeffrey and his siblings. My guess is Christmes 2001. His younger brother is to the right of him and is obviously taller and more robust. The distress on Jeffrey's sister's face (the one locked up with him, to his immediate left) is heartbreaking!

'Letters To' Information

2005-11-07T10:29:00.000-06:00

Betsworth, Linda
Phone: 416-325-0661 Fax: 416-325-5735
Program Supervisor - CHILDREN'S SERVICES
3rd Flr477 Mount Pleasant Rd
Toronto, ON M7A 1G1

Prime Minister Paul Martin
You can send your comments by e-mail to pm@pm.gc.ca
Office of the Prime Minister
80 Wellington Street
Ottawa K1A 0A2
Fax: 613-941-6900

Don Guy
Chief of Staff
Office of the Premier
Queen's Park
Toronto ON M7A 1A1

Hon Irwin Cotler
MINISTER OF JUSTICE AND ATTORNEY GENERAL OF CANADA
312 West Block House of Commons
Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0A6
Fax: (613) 990-7255

Dalton McGuinty
Premier of Ontario
Legislative BuildingQueen's Park
Toronto ON M7A 1A1
Fax: (416) 325-3745

Mary Anne Chambers
Minister of Children and Youth Services
56 Wellesley Street West, 14th Floor
Toronto, M4S 2S3
Fax: (416) 212-7431

Ontario Association of Children's Aid Societies
75 Front Street East, 2nd floor
Toronto, Ontario M5E 1V9
fax (416) 366-8317

Catholic Children's Aid Society of Toronto
Mary McConville, Executive Director
Toronto Catholic Children's Aid Society
26 Maitland St,
Toronto ON M4Y 1C6
Fax: (416) 395-1581
Please write to this woman for sure

Michael Bryant
Ministry of the Attorney General
720 Bay Street, 11th Floor
Toronto, ON M5G 2K1
http://www.attorneygeneral.jus.gov.on.ca/english/comments.asp

Andre Marin
Ombudsman Ontario
125 Queen's Park
Toronto ON M5G 2C7

Dr. Barry A. McLellan
Chief Coroner
Coroners Building
26 Grenville St., 2nd Floor
Toronto ON M7A 2G9

Mr. John Tory
Leader- Official Opposition
Conservative Party
Rm. 381
Legislative Building
Queen’s Park
Toronto ON M7A 1A8

Ms. Marilyn Churley, MPP
Toronto – Danforth
Rm. 116
Legislative Building
Queen’s Park
Toronto ON M7A 1A5

Jack Layton
1506 Danforth Ave.
Toronto, ON M4J 1N4
Fax: (416) 405-8918
laytoj1@parl.gc.ca

The Hon. James K. Bartleman
Lieutenant Governor of Ontario
Queen's Park Toronto, Ontario M7A 1A1
Fax: 416-325-7787
E-mail: ltgov@gov.on.ca

Jeffrey Baldwin Memorial Site

Bill 93

Plaque

Jeffrey's Memorial Site

I'm back, sorry for the delay!!

Will this FINALLY rouse the public??

Public Rally May 17, 2006

Public Rally

Some hate mail... WHO is this guy??

2nd Degree Murder and a Public Inquest Called!

1:15pm...

A CAS story...

CCAS in the hot seat... AGAIN

Things the CCAS wants you to do for free...

My 'parallel' crusade

Sites to Visit...

Open comments

Uh Oh...

Letter Templates

Stop Bill 210!

Verdict April 7

Public Rally Court House

Public Rally

I hope the Dufferin VOCA won't mind:

The objective of this blog; my motto if you will...

Jeffrey's Birthday

Public Rally

Inquiry and some articles from 2003...

Ordering a court transcript

The Trial Continues...

OACAS; or JOKE for short

Crisis Nursery

Please send letters...

Social Policy Committee Member's Reply:

After Foster Care Petition

Globe and Mail December 19!!

Some info...

Letter to Ms. Chambers...

Ms.Chambers' reaction to Ombudsman... not good!

My letter to the Committee

Letter Template

Addresses to Write to:

Ombudsman Needs Our Help

Ombudsman's Presentation

AMAZING!!

CCAS Board of Directors

Letter to United Nations:

Informative website...

Quilt 3 is finished!

Quilt Two is finished!

Ombudsman

Archives

Believe it or not!

One quilt is finished!

Letters to Mary McConville

Memorial Pics

More pictures

'Letters To' Information