GIST: "Four years ago, Yvonne Marchand lost custody of her daughter. Even though child services found no proof that she was a negligent parent, that didn't count for much against the overwhelmingly positive results from a hair test. The lab results said she was abusing alcohol on a regular basis and in enormous quantities. The test results had all the trappings of credible forensic science, and was presented by a technician from the Motherisk Drug Testing Laboratory at Toronto's Sick Kids Hospital, Canada's foremost children's hospital. "I told them they were wrong, but they didn't believe me. Nobody would listen," Marchand recalls. Motherisk hair test results indicated that Marchand had been downing 48 drinks a day, for 90 days. "If you do the math, I would have died drinking that much" Marchand says. "There's no way I could function." The court disagreed, and determined Marchand was unfit to have custody of her daughter. "It's just so sad" Marchand says, remembering that day. "I don't even know how to describe the feeling. I wouldn't wish it on anybody – it's a terrible thing to go through." As it turns out, Marchand wasn't alone. For over a decade, scores of Canadians received unsound hair test results from Motherisk. Their tests were used in some 16,000 child protection cases as well as six criminal cases that culminated in convictions, although it's unclear how many of those tests were faulty.......... Some parents, like Marchand, pursued additional hair tests from independent labs in a bid to fight their cases. Marchand's second test showed up as negative. But, because the lab technician couldn't testify as an expert witness, the second test was thrown out by the court. Marchand says the entire process was very frustrating. She says someone should have noticed a pattern when parents repeatedly presented hair test results from independent labs which completely contradicted Motherisk results. Alarm bells should have gone off sooner. Marchand's tests — the ones that showed her drinking a staggering amount of alcohol each day — came after a protracted child custody battle between Marchand and her former partner led to him filing numerous reports with Ontario's child protection agency, claiming she was an alcoholic and unfit to be a mother. He called the agency five times in total. The first four times, the agency found his allegations unsubstantiated. When he called a fifth time, the agency sent Marchand to Motherisk to have a hair tested......... Justice Lang's findings have thrown the foster care system and child protection services into total disarray. On Monday, the Ontario Association of Children's Aid Societies announced that up to 300 adoption cases were being put on hold while those cases are reviewed, leaving adoptive parents, foster families and adoptees in limbo. Lang found that the lab was regularly relying on enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) test results — those tests, however, are primarily for screening. It can tell you if a hair sample is negative, but it can't tell you if a hair sample is positive. To determine if a sample is positive, you have to carry out a second test using another method. According to the review, Motherisk communicated all 'maybe' results as 'positives' to their clients from child protection agencies, instead of carrying out a follow up test. "No forensic toxicology laboratory in the world uses ELISA testing the way MTDL [Motherisk] did," the report states..........Marchand feels like Motherisk's failings were shielded by the credibility of SickKids and finds it hard to believe they didn't know what was going on. She says that, when the quantity of alcohol cited in her test was so extreme, that should have been a red flag. "They just never believe us," Marchand says. "They tell the public to have confidence, and so they do. It's a big mess.""
https://news.vice.com/article/this-canadian-lab-spent-20-years-ruining-lives
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.
