CAS workers leak complaint

August 15, 2001 permalink

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The following communication, while anonymous, comes from a dependable source.

Friday, August 10, 2001

To the Minister of Social Services and Mike Harris.

Some of us want to see change. We don't like doing the dirty work of corrupt offices and politicians.

We are a group of insiders, forced to work under duress, not able to say and do the things that are fair and protect children who are truly at risk.

Though we pose as professionals who are supposed to help families and protect children, we are now criminals. Not because we want to, but because for too long, apathy has caused workers to not question the ethics of the very people who have the power of life and death over children's and family lives. We who work quietly within to try to make honesty out of our fellow workers, supervisors and politicians. All but the very dysfunctional families can be saved and helped.

Some of us became alarmed when we read the court papers in the case of a wrongfully accused priest many years ago. For years, he was the pet project of a vengeful, out of control worker. The lawsuit he won against the Durham Children's Aid Society was a tremendous moral victory, but why was the worker, who was found in court to have maliciously lied and falsified critical documents, not ever arrested? Why did she simply relocate to another Children's Aid region. We demand that the premier and his ministers immediately make public, the judge's words of condemnation to the worker, and then please explain why she was never arrested. Any other citizen would have been.

There are those of us in the field that are sick at heart to be remotely involved with criminal liars. It makes all workers look bad. But through the dedication of groups of people who know the truth, both inside the Children's Aid Society, and advocacy group members, this problem has remained in the public consciousness. In some cases, it has made no difference.

Two Leamington children, drowned by their insane father, would be alive today. But they are not. The Children's Aid Society had many reports and concerns raised by citizens, for almost a year. The police were even called out on an assault charge, but the children were ignored -- ignored to death. Our fellow agency told the press that the CAS had done all the right things, but that is untrue.

Some of us have left this branch of social work, to try and fix things by helping grassroots organizations help expose the unbelievable evil. There are others of use who remain behind the scenes, but our hands are tied. There have been many workers who have spoken out, or tried to do the right thing in the most corrupt of settings. Being held responsible for criminal and negligent actions, is the only way to stop children from dying, and families being unnecessarily torn apart.

This is the first of a planned schedule of dropping information, and publicity that would put some of our co-workers in jail and ensure that they never work with children and families again.

The public perception is that all CAS workers lie in court and falsify sworn testimony. At our professional peril, we have gotten the right things done in most cases we have dealt with, but children are still dying and innocent families are forced into years of harassment by an agency that has no policing and answer to no one.

If this is a revolution -- then let it begin now. Information of how children die in Canada, and how parents have become crazy from trying to please an agency that is never ever going to be pleased. We are given an agenda in social work, and the time is coming when that multifaceted and horrible agenda will be made public.

We recommend that court records be examined. They will find vendettas, powered by the personal anger they suffer from, to ensure a victory for the agency, you will find perjury on the stand, falsified documents, secret filing systems and much worse. Children in this country are merely a commodity, a make work and money game, where the best interests of children are rarely observed.

Chief Julian Fantino is a hero to honest people everywhere. He could have stuck his head in the sand and continued to allow corruption within the police force. He demanded, and got a police force that was held accountable. We are doing no less here.

The lies and the pain have stop. Therefore, as time goes on, more and more critical and embarrassing stories will be leaked to people we trust. And we won't stop until Premier Harris appoints an independent review committee to look at records about how we are forced to operate under a shroud of lies and CAS must win at any cost, even the cost of truth and lives.

It is time to clean house. Crimes of murder by CAS will come to light. Then and only then, will we be able to do our jobs. The found records are only the beginning, and we continue to seek out more honest Children's Aid workers, filter the information to the public. This is just the beginning.

The following article from the Toronto Star of Friday, August 10, 2001, places the foregoing disclosure in context:

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Secret CAS papers strewn along street

Documents about sex assault, fired foster parent

By Phinjo Gombu, Staff reporter

Confidential documents involving the Catholic Children's Aid Society of Toronto, former wards and foster parents were found littered on a quiet Etobicoke street yesterday by a man walking his dog.

The documents, from the minutes of a confidential meeting of the board of directors of the Catholic Children's Aid Society last October, include a request from a lawyer for psychiatric reports of a man who was allegedly sexually assaulted while being a ward of the society.

The man is named in the letter and attached is a handwritten letter by the man allowing the society to release his information to the lawyer.

The alleged assault took place while the man was a resident of a group home in rural Ontario, though the incident didn't take place at the group home.

The documents also include correspondence between the society and a woman who had been terminated from a position as a foster parent.

A letter from Mary A. McConville, the society's executive director, to the former foster parent -- who is also named -- requests her to sign a final form which releases the society from any liability for terminating her position.

"We are very distressed it was found on the street because it is absolutely confidential and private", said Caroline Di Giovanni, a spokesperson for the society after The Star handed her the documents.

"We will certainly be advising members of the board that confidential documents have to be treated very carefully".

But Di Giovanni refused to say whether the society would make any attempt to find out who was responsible for what she insisted was an "inadvertent" and accidental breach of privacy.

Di Giovanni said nobody in the organization could recognize the handwritten notes all over the front page of the confidential minutes of the board meeting.

"We have to act like detectives because we are going on very few clues", she said.

The man who found the documents on a quiet street in the Highway 427 and Burnhamthorpe Rd. area said he did not wish to be identified because there was a possibility the documents may have belonged to one of his neighbours.

"This is like having your medical records floating around", he said. "My feeling is that paperwork like this should be shredded, not put into recycling or garbage".

"If something says private it should be kept private and correspondence between a lawyer and Catholic Children's Aid Society should be also be kept very, very confidential", he said.

David Helson, the lawyer for the man who filed a civil lawsuit and criminal injuries compensation claim involving the alleged sexual assault, expressed concern confidential information naming his client was found lying on a street.

"There's not much I can say because I don't know any of the circumstances", Helson said, adding he would call his client about the disclosure.

Also attached are confidential minutes of a board meeting held last October which includes a report on the then-upcoming inquest into the death of baby Jordan Heikamp, who died of starvation. After a lengthy coroner's inquest, some practices of the society were severely criticized.

The report states that the policies and procedures of the Catholic Children's Aid Society were carried out by the worker assigned to Jordan and his 19-year-old mother Renee Heikamp.

There is a photograph of documents lying on the ground over the caption:

SENSITIVE INFORMATION: A man found these papers from a Catholic Children's Aid Society board meeting on a street near Burnamthorpe Rd. and Highway 427.

Note: Handing the papers to the Toronto Star wasted the opportunity. Dufferin VOCA has a far better record of disclosing documents to the maximum extent permitted by law.