Comment
Still no answers
They were horrific crimes—vulnerable children victimized and abused by the people entrusted to care for them. Put in harm’s way by a government agency and its officials whose job it was to protect them—to look after them.
Two foster parents are already in jail; another has been sentenced to a lengthy prison sentence pending appeal. Others are charged awaiting trial. The leadership and governance of the Children’s Aid Society of Prince Edward County have departed the agency.
Now some of the victims are fighting back—suing the Children’s Aid Society and the foster families for $14 million. Five plaintiffs, now young women, are seeking $2.8 million each in damages for abuse suffered at the hands of foster parents, while under the care of the Prince Edward County CAS.
Three of the plaintiffs lived for a time with Joe and Janet Holm. Justice Geoff Griffins described the foster home as operating under a cult-like atmosphere in which foster children were manipulated to benefit Joe and Janet Holm. The couple received four and three-year prison sentences respectively for a series of sexual crimes against the girls, who were teens at the time the abuse took place.
“What took place here is so outrageous that it boggles the mind,” said Griffin during sentencing, according to a report in the Intelligencer in November 2011. “This is so troubling that it becomes difficult to put into words how horrendous it is.”
He pointed an accusing finger at the Children’s Aid Society of Prince Edward for allowing this to happen. He found it hard to comprehend how someone at CAS was unaware of what was going on in the home—with the children they were responsible to care for.
“I hope the public demand an inquiry into what happened in that home,” said Justice Griffin.
But the worst was yet to be uncovered.
Another Bloomfield couple had been bringing foster children into their home for about a decade. Early on there were signs of trouble in the home. In 2005 one foster child accused the foster father of sexual crimes. The CAS removed foster children from the home. The police investigated. The Crown concluded that a conviction was an unlikely prospect and feared further traumatizing the child by requiring her to testify. The Crown elected not to press charges.
Then a terrible thing happened—life went back to normal. “Normal” at least, in this appalling home. Foster children were once again sent to live with this family with this predatory and manipulative man. The CAS knew this was a bad man—they had heard the words from the tiny victim. Yet they decided to send kids back to him.
It would take another five years for one of the girls to summon the strength to break away from the grips of this man, who was by then 71 years old. She had spent her entire teen years as a sexual slave to this monster—under the watch of the local CAS
The man was sentenced to nine years in prison last summer—but has been out since then, awaiting an appeal.
The correctional system will deal with these folks—perhaps not as harshly as some would deem appropriate—but they will be punished for their actions.
The victims are now beginning what will likely be a long process to seek some form of redress for the wrongs that have been done to them.
But what of the CAS—of the folks whose job it was to care and protect these children?
Foster children are among the most vulnerable people in our society. They are dependent on strangers for everything—food, clothing, shelter. They arrive in the system already damaged. Alone. Frightened. Hard.
It is the CAS’s job to ensure life isn’t made worse for these children.
So what happened here? How did the agency entrusted with their welfare fail so badly? How did it do so repeatedly? How did the CAS allow vulnerable children to live in these poisonous homes?
After several years of asking these questions—we are sadly no closer to answers.
The administrator is gone, and the agency has been swallowed by a larger regional agency. New administrators have apologized for what happened in Prince Edward County and have taken steps to enact more rigorous procedures to protect the children in their care.
But we still don’t know what happened. Were these isolated cases? Are there other crimes yet to be uncovered? Was it a systemic breakdown? An administrative one?
Are foster kids safe in our community?
Until we learn the answers to these questions— we will never know for sure.
rick@wellingtontimes.ca
So I am now going to reach out to you all for some advice …
i never really let people in but I need help now more than ever !!
My son is 16 an lives in boys home family an childrens services took him at 12 yes 12 first home he was in the lady would lock my son out an he would have to spend his nights outside .
then worker told him this boys home would be beneficial to his future .. well my boy suffers from Autism an wants any way he can to make his career head in right direction so he accepted .
well they put him in a home with mentors who degrade him.. call him names .. never help him … an if he sleeps to long or goes to bed to early they cut his hydro off.. he has to live off 50 a week for food an he does all cooking an cleaning himself… also he isnt allowed in the house between 8 am an 5 pm whether there is school or not he just ends up walking around the city alone an yes hungry most times ..
now the other two boys in this home are older ones a addict the other in an out of jail .
my son has never been in any trouble .. fights with his all but gets good grades . he is a tutor in math an does great .
since this home they put him in
he has had his jamis bike an norco stolen .
his cell htc m8.
all his systems an ps3 games stolen
food taken from him an plenty more has gone missing ..
the mentors wont call police or help an the boys that live there oh ya no way they would do it .. lmao then i come to find that these mentors go through my sons room an they also wont allow him to even have video game or tv in his room .
can someone help me please tell me where to go
what to do this isnt right an its killing me inside to see my son suffer more than he already has .
does anyone know what to do … oh an when i call they ignore me as i am no longer a parent they say
Sue the living hell out them. Go after the board members, the workers, the Queen in her Right of Ontario, all of the them.
But in the meatime, Bill 42 “An Act to Amend the Ombudsman’s Act (Children’s Aid Societies)” passed the 2nd reading at the Ontario Legislative Assembly/Queen’s Park today by a vote of 55 to 34. All of the NDP and the PC MPPs who were present voted for the Bill.
One Liberal MPP from Etobicoke named Donna Cansfield voted against her party in favour of the Bill. Thank you Donna.
Here is a link to the Bill itself: http://www.ontla.on.ca/web/bills/bills_detail.do?locale=en&Intranet=&BillID=2760
The next step will be for people who are concerned with this issue to register with the Standing Committee on Government Agencies to do a presentation/deputation (usually 10 minutes with the presenter answering five minutes of questions/comments from the MPPs immediately afterwards).
Soon the Hansard transcript and the webcast of the debates will be up to read and view. I watched it on TV live on Thur. April 11/13 in the afternoon and it was quite impactful.
I believe that the Ombudsman, upon investigation, will uncover severe systemic CAS malfeasance in regards to such issues as the very severe abuse of apprehension powers, cover ups of abuse of children in CAS “care”, gratuitous and injurious drugging of children, etc…
I honestly can’t see the province of Ontario’s current CAS Governance model/the volunteer board of directors surviving the Ombudsman’s investigations…the government of Ontario will be forced, as it is in every other province, to take over the operation of front-line child protection work.
On other news: we have freedom of information requests filed with the Ministry of Children and Youth Services pursuing records in regards to the Peel CA$’s “keep cases open to retain funding” internal memo which was leaked to the Toronto Star newspaper a few weeks ago mid-March 2013:
https://www.facebook.com/#!/groups/CCW.Group/10151306075577271/
Here is a link to the MCYS 2012 Operation Review re: the sexual abuse of children in the “care” of the (now defunct) Prince Edward County CA$ which we obtained using the freedom of information request process a few months ago:
http://www.fixcas.com/social/PECAS.pdf
http://www.fixcas.com/cgi-bin/go.py?2013a.PECAS
I’ve appealed the redactions and the case is currently being adjudicated by the Information and Privacy Commissioner.
This case is now a 14 million dollar lawsuit (as you’ve reported here):
http://fixcas.com/cgi-bin/go.py?2013b.PECAS
Need still more reasons to support the permanent disbanding of the CA$s? (and please don’t confuse the pursuit of the shutting down of the CA$s as being a position against organized child protection…support of province of ON organized child protection is a no brainer and a given). Here is a listing of almost 50 lawsuits which were filed against the CA$s and other child protection entities here in ON during the 1999-summer of 2012:
http://www.fixcas.com/cgi-bin/go.py?2012d.Parker
Here is the God awful genesis of the post 1999 Mike Harris Bill 6 changes to the CFSA which so severely and even more unjustifiably (based on their history) empowered the CA$s. It is a 77 page March 1998 report called “Protecting Vulnerable Children” by a self-anointed, self-appointed “expert panel on child protection.”
It should be noted that none of the opposition (at that time) Liberal or NDP MPPs fought against this 1999 Bill 6 Child and Family Services Amendment Act at all…it was a total sell out of the children and families all the way across the political, bureaucratic, legal, etc…establishments.
This was one of the most prejudiced and wickedly biased processes ever imposed by a gov’t (including the opposition) on people ever. Check out page 76 to read the brief biographies of the “expert panel” members.
All but one of them (the school principal Mr. R F) are openly aligned with the CA$s and profit financially from the CA$-court child protection litigationfraud.
Again, using foi we are the first ones in the province of ON to obtain it and disseminate it (I learned about the document from reading “child protection system” papers written by the Queen’s University law professor Mr. Nick Bala):
http://www.fixcas.com/cgi-bin/go.py?2012f.vulnerable
I’ve appealed the redactions and the case is currently being adjudicated by the Information and Privacy Commissioner.
But the ugliness of the CA$s has been around for decades and decades (I worked hard to obtain the 1979 MCSS’s report identified in this 1981 Globe and Mail news report but wasn’t successful. The report is housed at the Archives of Ontario in Toronto. I’ll eventually be mounting another effort to get this report but anyone reading this who lives in Toronto would be greatly appreciated if they could donate some hours to spend at the AO to search through boxes to obtain the document. I’ll assist re: communicating with the AO and organizing the search):
http://afrafrontpagenews.blogspot.ca/2012/01/system-was-misguided-officials-admit.html
System was misguided, officials admit Thousands of children needlessly uprooted
Monday, November 23, 1981
By YVES LAVIGNE
The Globe and Mail