help
collapse
Press one of the expand buttons to see the full text of an article. Later press collapse to revert to the original form. The buttons below expand or collapse all articles.
expand
collapse
Rally at Queens Park
June 21, 2006 permalink
About 40 people attended a rally yesterday at Queens Park, Toronto, dealing with abuses committed by Children's Aid.
Some of the signs read:
- Laurie O'Kane, 1959-1992
- Survivors of Rape and Abuse in Thunder Bay
- Children do Count
- C.hildren
A.ssaulted
S.exually shhh - Onus on CAS NOW!
- When did kidnapping become legal?
Four leaders including John Dunn, Rob Ferguson and Dorian Baxter addressed the media.
Diane Ogima from Thunder bay spoke. Since she did not mention anyone currently under "protection", we feel safe in mentioning her by name. She was removed from her family at age 4 and raised in foster homes from hell. At age of 11 she was returned briefly to her dad, but following years of separation he failed to treat her as a daughter, instead raping her. Shortly after she was given electric shock by doctors, enough to cause her to forget her ABC's. She was tagged as mentally deficient and placed on birth-control. She suffered more rapes in foster care at age 13. At age 14 she ran away, and lived on the street until age 17.
Another Thunder Bay speaker described the life of Laurie O'Kane. She grew up in foster care. From the age of six years, her foster father accepted payment from men to commit sex acts with her. She killed herself in 1992.
John Caswell is the creator of of website nomoredeadchildren.ca.
Mr Nadir Siguencia distributed handouts similar to www.wayofourlives.com.
Others gathering outside that can be legally named were Karol Karolak and John and Faith Stuart
Some persons cannot be legally named.
A mother from Thunder Bay had four children taken by Children's Aid. The two younger children got into good homes and are doing well, the two older children got in to terrible homes and have had bad outcomes.
A mother came from Hamilton with her sister, who addressed the crowd on her behalf. The mother has four children, two crown wards, the other two in foster care. The sister described the CAS practice of creating dissension in the family. They only began to make progress when they set aside their differences and stuck together in the struggle against Children's Aid.
Toronto does not have one of the rogue Children's Aid Societies. Though it has a quarter of Ontario's population, only two aggrieved Torontonians were in the crowd. Everyone else had to travel from the far reaches of the province.
Addendum: Here are recordings of three of the speakers, provided by John Dunn (mp3):
The Toronto Sun has a report on the rally.
expand
collapse
Gov't urged to monitor CAS
Rev. Dorian Baxter -- better known as Elvis Priestley -- made a surprising and candid confession yesterday at a rally that demanded the government overhaul the children's aid societies.
The Newmarket pastor and Elvis impersonator said the Durham CAS took his two girls away from him based on allegations of sexual abuse that were later proven in court to be false. The allegations were made by his ex-wife and her boyfriend, a convicted rapist.
"I was so depressed I contemplated suicide," Baxter said yesterday at Queen's Park, where advocates called on the province to support a private member's bill that would give the ombudsman the power to investigate organizations.
"I couldn't even get the CAS to listen to me as a well-respected clergyman in Ontario," Baxter said.
Baxter sued the CAS but only got $70,000 after spending $387,000 in legal fees.
MOMS TOLD NOT TO SPEAK
"I purposely wore black today as a sign of mourning for those who've been pushed into suicide ... because of children's aid," said Baxter.
Moms April and Kalena also said the system ripped their children away from them amid allegations of abuse, then their respective children's aid societies warned them to keep silent.
"In particular, neither of you can speak at the June 20, 2006 rally about the situations relating to your children, or speak about your 'story' and the children," reads a letter from the Brant CAS, addressed to Kalena.
April said she received an anonymous phone call warning her not to speak about how her five children were taken based on allegations she said were never investigated.
"People working for CAS, the majority of them, are good people, but they're not held accountable," Baxter said.
Source: Toronto Sun
Addendum: Canada Court Watch has posted a video clip of Rev Dorian Baxter addressing the rally. Because of the length, 22 megabytes, we post only a link to Rev Dorian Baxter's speech.
