Vern Beck Speaks on CAS

February 5, 2010 permalink

Thursday Vern Beck addressed a group in Simcoe Ontario on the abuses committed by Ontario's children's aid societies. This is the meeting announced earlier.

expand

collapse

Against the CAS system

Posted By DANIEL PEARCE, SIMCOE REFORMER, Posted February 5, 2010

Judges altering court transcripts. Kids being beaten in foster homes. Children's aid workers lying on the witness stand.

Coercion, collusion, trickery -- it's all part of what Ontarians have experienced while dealing with Children's Aid Societies, a family advocacy group said here Thursday night.

"It's a real mess," said Vern Beck, a volunteer with Canada Court Watch. "The system is corrupt and you have to know how to fight back."

More than 40 people, most of them with their own stories of dealing with CAS, listened as the Oakville resident gave a power point presentation warning of what to do when child protection workers come calling.

His organization advocates on behalf of families, and its research has revealed a litany of problems with CAS agencies, he said.

"Corruption, cover ups, and abuse of children and families is a reality."

Beck explained how parents are disadvantaged from the start. They are asked to come to court to get their kids back with as little as one day's notice. They're not prepared, can't afford a lawyer and usually lose the first case, he said.

Investigations by his group, said Beck, suggest CAS workers "fabricate evidence -- that's how they build cases," while other professionals, including doctors, say what the CAS wants them to.

"Transcripts are being altered by judges and court reporters," he added.

The way to protect yourself, Beck said, is to secretly tape record all conversations with child protection workers.

"If you expect to deal with them, it is one of the most important tools you can get to defend yourself . . . I cannot emphasize enough the importance of electronic recording equipment."

Tape-recorded conversations have caught CAS workers in lies, he said, and allowed people to get children back.

Child agencies are out to apprehend kids because they get money from the government for every child they have in care, Beck explained.

"A CAS is a private company," he said.

Beck also warned against voluntarily getting involved with them.

"Once they have your consent, they'll put you through endless hoops: drug tests, parenting courses. It'll drag on for one or two years, sometimes longer."

In interviews with the Reformer, the people who gathered in the basement of the Polish Hall said they came to get more information on how to help themselves.

One woman said every time a worker visits, she is made to strip down her baby son, hold him up and "spin him around" so they can see if he has any bruises.

Another woman said she was in foster care her entire childhood and now as a mother has lost her two children to the CAS.

"I'm trying to figure out how to get them back," she said.

A man in his 20s said the meeting was too late for him: his four-year-old son is now a Crown Ward and he'll never get him back.

"They never gave me a chance (to raise him) on my own," he said. "They made me sign all my rights away."

Daniel Pearce

519-426-3528 ext. 132 dpearce@bowesnet.com

Source: Simcoe Reformer