Press Coverage in Windsor

April 27, 2004 permalink

Citizen's For Social Morality, CFSM, plans regular demonstrations. The next will take place on Friday May 7 from 1 to 3 pm in front of the office of Sandra Pupatello, Minister of Community and Social Services, at 1483 Ouellette Ave. A simultaneous demonstration will take place in Brantford. A Dufferin demonstration requires at least one more organizer. If you are willing to help organize, please call Dufferin VOCA at 519-942-0565 or 519-942-9341.

There is a new website for this activity, Family Rights, Operation Fight Back.

The Windsor Star published the following article in response to the last CSFM demonstration:

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CAS boss welcomes probe

CRAIG PEARSON, STAR STAFF REPORTER

Windsor-Essex Children's Aid Society executive director Bill Bevan confirmed Monday the province is investigating his agency but said he welcomes the review.

Bevan said he expects the Ministry of Youth and Children's Services, which began looking into the Windsor-Essex Children's Aid Society in February, will find the local institution has acted properly -- though he's ready to fine-tune operations if need be.

"We're open to any public scrutiny", said Bevan, noting all CAS's are already audited twice a year.

"We're accountable for what we do. But if there's something that we can learn about what we're doing, then we'll look at that".

"On the other hand, with the mandate we've been handed and with the legislation that's there -- and what the ministry staff set out to do -- we feel we stick pretty darn close to that".

The local number of kids in care per 1,000 is 9.83, marginally higher than the provincial average of 9.61.

Windsor cabinet ministers Dwight Duncan and Sandra Pupatello say they have in the last five years received a significant increase in complaints about CAS from parents who feel their children have been apprehended unjustly -- a trend they passed on to Children's Minister Marie Bountrogianni.

A recently-formed group called Citizens for Social Morality has picketed Pupatello's office twice in the last two weeks and plans to continue in order to push for a change in the Child and Family Services Act, which they say gives too much power to the CAS to intervene. Regulations tabled in 1998 and officially adopted in 2000 allow case workers to apprehend when they suspect neglect rather than needing proof of abuse.

"We have some individuals picketing the minister's office and that's certainly a concern", Bevan said, and we are happy to have a review. "We'd rather get to the bottom of how we're conducting our business and be able to say to the public, 'Yes, everything's fine'. Or if there are some areas we can work on better, then we'll adjust".

Bevan said he understands that the community might wonder about rising numbers of apprehensions, which can be traumatic for the child and the family. The number of kids in care in this area is a record 828.

CAS CALLS Referrals to Windsor-Essex Children's Aid Society: 1999 -- 1,871 2002 -- 3,441 Percentage change -- 84 Children served for every 1,000 children in the community (selected municipalities) Durham -- 7.67 Waterloo -- 7.72 Provincial average -- 9.61 Windsor -- 9.83 Niagara -- 10.07 London -- 11.49 Hamilton -- 12.63   Source: Windsor-Essex Children's Aid Society

Between the 1998-99 and 2002-2003 fiscal years, apprehensions climbed 40 percent across the province -- and 63 percent in Windsor -- though seven of the 52 CAS's in Ontario have seen even steeper increases.

"Windsor is increasing at a high rate, but not the highest rate", Bevan said. "Not close to the highest".

Bevan said that a judge, not the CAS, ultimately decides which children come into care. As well, he said, the community is facing more problems, such as the rising use of crack and other serious drugs, which mean children need more protection.

And since the legislation requires professionals to call when they suspect abuse, CAS fields a lot more calls these days, especially from community workers and police who together account for 65 per cent of referrals.

"Police are a big part of the increase in calls", said Bevan. "But it also reflects a better knowledge base on the part of professionals.

"A lot of lightbulbs went on in our community. People were saying, 'My God, we really weren't calling Children's Aid that much before'".

In response to Bevan: Government audits are limited to assuring that appropriated funds are expended for the intended purpose. They cannot deal with the question of whether children are seized unnecessarily. A judge does not decide which children go into care -- Children's Aid workers do that without judicial review. Parents who want their children returned are reduced to responding to a court application, at which point a judge may make a ruling returning the children, but that relief is limited to parents with the means to hire a lawyer. The use of crack rose two decades ago, not in the period since 1998. CAS bullies professionals into snitching. Every professional child care worker knows of cases in which a person has been criminally prosecuted for failure to report.