CAS Sued

March 16, 2006 permalink

Canada Court Watch has posted a copy of a lawsuit by Raymond Paquette against Lanark Children's Aid. The facts disclose it as the same case dealt with at length in a series of stories by Dave Brown in the Ottawa Citizen in April 1999. The story given here from the suit is one-sided, but Mr Brown's is not.

Since the oldest child is now over the age of 18, he can sue on his own behalf. He is Raymond Paquette, born on November 20, 1987 to mother Lorena Kerr and father Marc Paquette. In 1991 Children's Aid seized Raymond from his parents, placing them with Lorena's sister, Margo Hunter.

Hand written case notes signed by Ms. Denise Unhola an ex-employee of the defendant CAS disclose that Raymond was audio/video taped:

• November 20, 1991 at the Ottawa-Carleton Police Station
• April 13, 1992 at the home of Margo Hunter
• April 27, 1992 at the home of Margo Hunter
• December 2, 1992 at the home of Margo Hunter
• December 14, 1992 at the home of Margo Hunter

There are unidentified persons on these videotapes and others standing outside the camera view helping the interviewers. The content of the recordings is not described in the suit, but given standard practice in the field, social workers likely tried (and succeeded) to get four- and five-year-old Raymond to make incriminating statements about his parents. The suit calls it brainwashing.

In support of the protection application CAS manufactured the following facts, all later shown to be false. Raymond's father:

• sexually abused Raymond
• shot Raymond's brother in the face with a shotgun
• slit Raymond's throat leaving a six inch scar
• burned the hair off Raymond and his two siblings with a rainbow colored lighter

In 1992 CAS got $7000 from the Criminal Injuries Compensation Board on behalf of Raymond, but did not return the money to him on his eighteenth birthday, November 20, 2005.

On May 7, 1998 Ottawa CAS filed a protection application for twin half-brothers born to Lorena Kerr and her then-partner Jack Hepworth.

In November 1998 when it became apparent that the parents Hepworth and Kerr were winning in that child protection case, Ottawa CAS protection worker Mark Arnold advised CAS to adopt out Raymond Paquette and his sister and brother to Margo Hunter as quickly as possible. The permanency of adoption would place the children beyond the power of the courts to return the children to their parents. The adoptions were completed in December 1998 without notifying the parents. Hand-written case notes by Ottawa CAS social worker Brenda Williams confirm that the adoption was in bad faith.

On February 15 and 16, 1999 judge Robert Fournier found that the case was fabricated by CAS, a ruling not appealed by CAS. But since the three oldest children had already been adopted, they were not returned to the parents, only the baby twins were returned.

Here are the formalities:

ONTARIO SUPERIOR COURT OF JUSTICE
Court File Number CV/06/33958

Raymond Paquette (Plaintiff)
17 Cherly Road
Ottawa, Ontario K2G 0V5
Phone: (613) 228-0368

CHILDREN’S AID SOCIETY OF THE COUNTY OF LANARK AND THE TOWN OF SMITH FALLS
Defendant
8 Herriott Street
Perth, Ontario K7H 1S9
Phone: (613) 264-1500
Fax: (613) 264-0067
Lawyer for the Defendant:
Ms. Nicky Edmundson-Mosher