BREAKING NEWS: Motherisk lab at the Hospital for Sick Children, hair drug and
alcohol tests have been used as evidence in child protection and
criminal cases in at least four provinces and one territory outside
Ontario, a Star investigation has found.........Ontario’s review of the controversial Motherisk Drug Testing Laboratory at the Hospital for Sick Children could have profound implications for child welfare agencies and courts across Canada. Motherisk’s hair drug and alcohol tests have
been used as evidence in child protection and criminal cases in at least
four provinces and one territory outside Ontario, a Star investigation
has found. In Nova Scotia, for instance, there are 49
cases “that are currently open before the courts that have used the
services of the Motherisk testing program,” according to Lori Errington,
spokeswoman for the province’s community services department. With the exception of the Halifax region,
which uses a different lab, Errington said, “all regions in the
provincial system use Motherisk services.” “The province will use a different forensic testing lab and will monitor the outcome of the review in Ontario,” she said.......... Sick Kids suspended all non-research
operations of Motherisk last week after questions about the lab’s
policies and procedures were raised by an internal audit and an
independent provincial review, which was launched last year following a
Star probe. The Ontario government has continued to defend
the other work done by Motherisk, which includes counseling pregnant
women on which medications are safe to take. Shelley Hounsell-Gray, a managing family
lawyer with Nova Scotia Legal Aid in Dartmouth, said the province’s past
reliance on Motherisk is “a big concern.” “If you can’t rely in the evidence that’s
being presented against your client then you are concerned that the
outcome is unjust,” she said, adding that “there is no easy fix” in
cases where children were removed from a parent.........
Children’s aid societies in Ontario relied
heavily on Motherisk’s hair drug and alcohol tests as proof of parental
substance abuse until late last year, when a Court of Appeal decision
cast doubt on evidence the lab presented in the 2009 criminal trial of
Toronto mom Tamara Broomfield, and prompted the Star investigation. In November, the province appointed a retired
judge to assess the reliability and adequacy of five years worth of hair
drug tests performed by Motherisk from 2005 to 2010. Toronto lawyer Daniel Brown,
who tried in 2010 to get the trial judge to reopen Broomfield’s case to
re-examine the medical evidence, said Sick Kids has a duty to make
public “the scope of the problem and the issues uncovered” as soon as
possible. “There may be other people like Tamara
Broomfield across this country, who were convicted on this type of
science, that may not be reliable,” Brown said. Broomfield was sentenced to seven years in
jail after Motherisk director Gideon Koren testified that hair tests of
her toddler’s hair showed he had regularly ingested large doses of
cocaine for more than a year leading up to a 2005 cocaine overdose that
left him brain-damaged. Her cocaine convictions were tossed in October
after evidence from an expert witness for the defence criticized
Motherisk’s preparation and analysis of the hair sample. Broomfield
dropped her appeals of other child-abuse convictions related to the boy."
PUBLISHER'S NOTE:
Dear Readers. Due to a 'writing' assignment, I will not be filing fresh posts for several weeks. (With the exception of breaking news;) When I am back in action I will make up for lost time with a vengeance. In the meantime, please keep me up to date with developments and don't hesitate to bring new matters of interest to this Blog to my attention at hlevy15@gmail.com.
Best wishes,
Harold Levy; Publisher; The Charles Smith Blog.
PS: For latest coverage of the Mark Lundy retrial go to: http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/mark-lundy-murder-retrial
PUBLISHER'S NOTE:
Dear Reader. Keep your eye on the Charles Smith Blog. We are following this case.
I have added a search box for content in this blog which now encompasses several thousand posts. The search box is located near the bottom of the screen just above the list of links. I am confident that this powerful search tool provided by "Blogger" will help our readers and myself get more out of the site.
The Toronto Star, my previous employer for more than twenty incredible years, has put considerable effort into exposing the harm caused by Dr. Charles Smith and his protectors - and into pushing for reform of Ontario's forensic pediatric pathology system. The Star has a "topic" section which focuses on recent stories related to Dr. Charles Smith. It can be found at:
http://www.thestar.com/topic/
Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at:
http://smithforensic.blogspot.ca/2013/12/the-charles-smith-award-presented-to_28.html
I look forward to hearing from readers at:
hlevy15@gmail.com.
