‘No one listened’: How reports of sexual abuse in an Ontario foster home were allegedly dismissed for years

ntario’s Prince Edward County is an isolated place. Geographically speaking, the county is surrounded by water except for an isthmus at Carrying Place, Ont. The county is a spot for Torontonians to take a day trip, looking for wine or a sandy beach.

But for the most part, what happens in Prince Edward County tends to stay isolated among its 25,000 residents.

More >> ‘No one listened’: How reports of sexual abuse in an Ontario foster home were allegedly dismissed for years

Teen ‘sexual cult’ in Ontario foster home known to Children’s Aid Society, victim says

The 15-year-old girl was seeking refuge when she came to Janet and Joe Holm’s house in the mid-2000s. The couple lived in a big white farmhouse on a sprawling property just minutes outside Bloomfield, Ont., a village in Prince Edward County dotted with well-manicured homes from the 1800s.

More >> Teen ‘sexual cult’ in Ontario foster home known to Children’s Aid Society, victim says

• Children’s Aid Society in Canada turned a blind eye to sexual abuse: report

Foster child placed in home of registered sex offender in Thunder Bay: court documents

A foster child under the protection of an Indigenous child welfare agency was placed in the home of a registered sex offender with “pedophilic tendencies” according to court documents in Thunder Bay.

APTN News is unaware of the child’s age, gender or how long the child was placed in the sex offender’s home.


More >> Foster child placed in home of registered sex offender in Thunder Bay: court documents

Shocking conditions at now shuttered Thunder Bay foster homes detailed in child advocate’s final report

Three Thunder Bay foster homes — closed by the province in 2017 after the death of a First Nations youth — had feces- and blood-stained floors, no working stove or food in the fridge, and were staffed by workers ill-equipped to handle the complex needs of youth in their care.

The shocking conditions are included in an investigative report by the office of Ontario’s Advocate for Children and Youth, which closed Tuesday as part of the Ford government’s “restoring trust, transparency and accountability” law. The office’s investigative role moves to the provincial ombudsman’s office May 1.

More >> Shocking conditions at now shuttered Thunder Bay foster homes detailed in child advocate’s final report

‘They failed to protect Amy’: Child welfare agency, foster home sued for $5.5M over teen’s suicide

The family of Amy Jane Owen is suing the child welfare agency and the foster home where the 13-year-old died by suicide thousands of kilometres away from her community.

The statement of claim was filed Tuesday and alleges Tikinagan Child and Family Services and Mary Homes are responsible for Owen’s “wrongful death” April 17, 2017.

More >> ‘They failed to protect Amy’: Child welfare agency, foster home sued for $5.5M over teen’s suicide

Woman charged with sex assault of minors worked at male CAS group-home at time of alleged offences

The Belleville Ont., woman who was charged with several sex-related crimes involving minors worked at a Children’s Aid Society youth group home at the time of her alleged offences.

On Thursday, Belleville police charged 48-year-old Sandra Forcier of Belleville with two counts of sexual assault, two counts of sexual exploitation of a youth under the age of 18 and one count of sexual interference.

More >> Woman charged with sex assault of minors worked at male CAS group-home at time of alleged offences

Ontario’s child advocate has 27 on-going investigations into foster homes as province shuts him down

After first dealing with the shock of learning through the media that his office was being axed by the Ford government, Ontario’s child advocate’s focus shifted and it was not about his future.

Irwin Elman began thinking of the children his office is trying to help.

More >> Ontario’s child advocate has 27 on-going investigations into foster homes as province shuts him down

Foster homes investigated 7 times within a year but Ontario didn’t close them until Tammy Keeash died: court documents

There were at least seven investigations that verified child protection concerns into a company operating three foster homes in Thunder Bay before the Ontario government shut them down in the weeks following the death of Tammy Keeash in May 2017, Nation to Nation has uncovered.

The 17-year-old’s body was found in a Thunder Bay waterway two months after she was placed in one of the three homes owned at the time by Johnson Children’s Services.

More >> Foster homes investigated 7 times within a year but Ontario didn’t close them until Tammy Keeash died: court documents

Ontario couple forced to return daughter to Nigerian orphanage because Canada refused to help

Erin and John Nymann from Cambridge, Ont., love their six-year-old daughter, Favour.

But because of months of government inaction and a bureaucratic process immigration lawyers call “redundant,” the couple was forced to return their daughter to the Nigerian orphanage where they adopted her nearly four months ago. Now the Nymanns are back in Canada, without their daughter, desperately pleading for someone to help them bring their little girl home.

More >> Ontario couple forced to return daughter to Nigerian orphanage because Canada refused to help

Christian Parents in Canada See Foster Application Rejected Over Beliefs on Homosexuality, Spanking

A Canadian Christian couple says they've been barred from being foster parents because of their religious beliefs on raising children.

Ontario's Levi denBok explained in a series of Facebook posts, in which he also shared the rejection letter from Children's Aid Services, that they were asked what church they attend, and what they believe about the Bible.

More >> Christian Parents in Canada See Foster Application Rejected Over Beliefs on Homosexuality, Spanking

Sick Kids Hospital Toronto will euthanize children with or without parental consent.

A recent report from the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto states that they are not only ready to do euthanasia on children but their policy states that a child should be able to die by euthanasia without the consent or knowledge of the parents.

According to an article by Sharon Kirkey for Sun Media, the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto published their policy on euthanasia and assisted suicide as a report in the recent Journal of Medical Ethics. According to Kirkey:

The Sick Kids’ working group says the hospital has willing doctors who could “safely and effectively” perform euthanasia for terminally ill youth 18 and older who meet the criteria as set out in federal law, and that it wouldb e “antithetical” to its philosophy of care to have to transfer these patients to a strange and unfamiliar adult hospital. But it is a suggestion that euthanasia might one day take place without the involvement of parents that has provoked fresh controversy in the assisted-death debate.

More >> Sick Kids Hospital Toronto will euthanize children with or without parental consent.

Ontario lawyer accused of seducing vulnerable teenage clients

He impregnated a 17-year-old client, a homeless Crown ward, after acting as duty counsel during her appearance at an Owen Sound courthouse and obtaining the young woman’s release.

More >> Ontario lawyer accused of seducing vulnerable teenage clients

Family of suicide victim files suit against Tikanagan Child & Family Services

The family of a girl who died by suicide in Sioux Lookout in 2016 has filed a lawsuit against Tikanagan Child & Family Services, alleging negligence.

A statement of claim filed in Superior Court in Bracebridge, where the family's lawyer is based, seeks $5.9 million in damages on behalf of Kanina Sue Turtle's parents and five siblings.

More >> Family of suicide victim files suit against Tikanagan Child & Family Services

Love and death in child welfare: Kanina Sue Turtle’s last days

Just over a year after Kanina Sue Turtle died by suicide in a Sioux Lookout foster home, the regional coroner said in his final report on her death that it didn’t appear anything could have stopped it from happening.

“In this case, the final stress does appear to have been an interpersonal conflict. It is not clear what interventions would have made a difference,” wrote Dr. Michael Wilson Nov. 27, 2017.

More >> Love and death in child welfare: Kanina Sue Turtle’s last days

Ontario’s child protection system fails children, again

Children should, at the very least, survive the attempts of Ontario’s child protection system to help them.

What an incredibly low bar that is, Ontario’s child advocate noted. And how shocking that, yet again, Ontario has failed to meet it.

More >> Ontario’s child protection system fails children, again

Ontario coroner's report highlights need for changes to child welfare system

Ontario's child welfare system is letting youth down by ignoring their cultural and emotional needs and failing to allow them a direct say in their own care, the province's chief coroner said Tuesday.

Dr. Dirk Huyer said the need for change is starkly spelled out in a report commissioned by his office after 12 youth in the care of a children's aid society or Indigenous Child Wellbeing Society died over a three-and-a-half-year stretch from 2014 to mid 2017.

More >> Ontario coroner's report highlights need for changes to child welfare system

• They loved dancing, swimming, math and science: Portraits of young people who died in care

Report addresses over-representation of Black and Indigenous children in foster care

The Ontario Human Rights Commission is calling on the provincial government and Ontario Association of Children’s Aid Societies to address the over-representation of Black and Indigenous children in foster care in Ontario.

According to the OHRC’s report “Interrupted Childhoods: Over-representation of Indigenous and Black children in Ontario child welfare,” while Indigenous children make up 4.1 per cent of Ontario’s population under the age of 15, they account for 30 per cent of the province’s foster children. Overall, the rate of Black children in care was 2.2 times higher than their proportion in the population.

More >> Report addresses over-representation of Black and Indigenous children in foster care

• Crucial detail left out of Ontario’s new child welfare legislation

Negligence charges for former child welfare official after kids abused in foster care

Ontario Provincial Police have taken the unusual step of charging the head of a Children's Aid Society for overseeing an agency that placed 10 children with foster parents who ended up being convicted of sexual abuse.

Bill Sweet, 67, former executive director of the Prince Edward County CAS, was charged in May with 10 counts of negligence causing bodily harm and 10 counts of failing to provide the necessities of life — a charge usually reserved for guardians who neglect children.

More >> Negligence charges for former child welfare official after kids abused in foster care

A social worker from B.C. is calling for legislative change since discovering an Ontario children's aid society was allowed to disclose her identity after she'd reported a concern anonymously.

Despite giving individuals the option to report anonymously, there is nothing in provincial legislation that requires children's aid societies to protect the anonymity of people who report possible child abuse or neglect.

More >> Anonymous reporting not guaranteed: Ontario has no privacy protection for people who report child abuse

Note:  I believe that anonymous reporting is one of the problems.  You should be able to face your accuser.

Too many black, Indigenous kids in Ontario child-welfare system, report finds

Black and Indigenous children appear to be put into care in relatively far greater numbers than other racial groups in Ontario, according to a report released Thursday that makes an urgent call for action.

The review by the province’s human rights commission finds a “staggering” number of Indigenous children in care across Canada — more now than there were in residential schools at the height of their use — and Ontario is part of the dismal situation.

More >> Too many black, Indigenous kids in Ontario child-welfare system, report finds

• Indigenous, Black children over-represented in foster care and group homes, inquiry says