PUBLISHER'S NOTE: The Motherisk Commission assumed the important responsibility of sorting out the damage caused to children, families and institutions by the flawed hair tests conducted at the Hospital for Sick Children Motherisk laboratory which led to innocent parents being brought under suspicion for drugs, shattered families, shattered futures and shattered reputations. The Commission was handicapped from the start as it was set up by the Ontario government to work behind without a public hearing component. Worse, objections were made at the outset that the Commissioner appointed by the government - retired judge Judith Beaman - had previously done legal work for the hospital's controversial Suspected Child abuse and Neglect Unit, and therefore could be perceived to have a conflict of interest. Now, the Commission has committed an act of such ineptitude that the Government of Ontario has been forced to intervene. How can the children, parents and families whose lives have been ripped apart by the Hospital For Sick Children's now defunct lab have any confidence in the process that was supposedly - as much as possible in circumstances where some children have been permanently lost to their families through adoption - to set things straight? Ontario should go back to the drawing boards, and create a true public inquiry which will hold public hearings, which will be transparent, which will be unblemished by perceptions of conflict of interest - and which can be trusted to avoid distress among children - those whom it should be protecting - such as its own flyers has created.
Harold Levy; Publisher; The Charles Smith Blog.
“Were you taken from your parent by the Children’s Aid Society?” “Children’s Aid Societies used hair strand tests to see if parents were using drugs or alcohol. We know these tests were unreliable,” the flyer said. “Do you want to know if this testing was relied on in your case? If yes, we may be able to help and it’s completely confidential.”
Flyer produced by the Motherisk Commission, which the province established to probe thousands of child protection cases that relied on flawed hair drug tests from the Hospital for Sick Children’s Motherisk laboratory. It was distributed by deputy minister of education Bruce Rodrigues, with a letter to directors of education instructing them to share the flyer “through bulletin boards, newsletters, or other methods that are most likely to be seen by staff, parents and students.”
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SECOND QUOTE OF THE DAY:
"We just don’t throw that information out there,” he told the Star. “On 100 levels, it’s potentially damaging.”
Ontario’s Provincial Advocate for Children and Youth Irwin Elman
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STORY: "Education Ministry pulls controversial Motherisk flyers from schools, websites," by reporter Rachel Mendleson, published by The Toronto Star on March 30, 2017.
SUB-HEADING: "A
flyer posted at the request of the Ministry of Education on elementary
and high school bulletin boards and Facebook pages appealed directly to
children: “Were you taken from your parent by the Children’s Aid
Society?”
GIST: "A provincially mandated outreach campaign that was trying to use schools to find children affected by the Motherisk scandal triggered such outrage among students, teachers and advocates that the Ministry of Education pulled the plug on the effort. A
flyer posted this week at the request of the Ministry of Education on
elementary and high school bulletin boards and Facebook pages appealed
directly to children, with the question: “Were you taken from your
parent by the Children’s Aid Society?” “Children’s Aid Societies used hair strand tests to see if parents were using drugs or alcohol.
We know these tests were unreliable,” the flyer said. “Do you want to
know if this testing was relied on in your case? If yes, we may be able
to help and it’s completely confidential.” The flyer was produced by the Motherisk Commission, which the province established to probe thousands of child protection cases
that relied on flawed hair drug tests from the Hospital for Sick
Children’s Motherisk laboratory. It was distributed by deputy minister
of education Bruce Rodrigues, with a letter to directors of education
instructing them to share the flyer “through bulletin boards,
newsletters, or other methods that are most likely to be seen by staff,
parents and students.” The commission was
established on the recommendation of Justice Susan Lang, whose review of
Motherisk, which followed a Star investigation, found the lab’s tests
from 2005 to 2015 were “inadequate” and “unreliable” for use in child
custody and court proceedings. The Hospital for Sick Children closed the Motherisk lab in April 2015.........Shortly after schools began to circulate the flyer this week, word
travelled to Ontario’s Provincial Advocate for Children and Youth Irwin
Elman, who tweeted on Tuesday evening that he was “stunned.” Concerned
the flyer would incite fear among vulnerable children, who “don’t know
their histories,” he said he immediately contacted the Motherisk
Commission and the Ministry of Education, urging them to remove the
poster. “We just don’t throw that information out there,” he told the Star. “On 100 levels, it’s potentially damaging.” Julie
Despaties, executive director of the Toronto-based adoption support
network Adopt4Life, said her organization was flooded with frantic
messages from adoptive parents, prompting the group to send a letter to
the Ministry of Education on Wednesday demanding action to remove the
poster and warning of “emotional and psychological harm.” Despaties
said parents feared their children could be bullied by schoolmates who
knew they had been adopted, and were struggling with how to provide
reassurance and answer the sensitive questions that may arise. One
mother, who has three adopted children, was grocery shopping on Tuesday
when she saw the flyer on the Facebook page of her child’s school in
the Upper Canada District School Board. “It
was like a punch in the stomach,” she said. “It was just this immediate
thought of, ‘My kids are going to see this.’ Not only are my kids going
to see this, but this was actually directed at my children. That’s the
part of this that’s so disturbing. “The
intent to go directly to kids who have had a really tough start, and
have tried to find healing and permanency . . . all of this just exposes
them in a way that’s completely unacceptable,” she said. Although
she said she knows Motherisk testing was not done in her children’s
cases, she still spent much of Tuesday evening having difficult
conversations with her kids, who are aware that drugs and alcohol played
a role in their histories and needed reassurance that Motherisk wasn’t
involved......... Amid mounting
pressure on Wednesday, Rodrigues reversed course, issuing a directive
for the poster and Motherisk Commission materials to be “removed from
all schools and social media immediately.” “We
understand that some of our students may have been negatively affected
by these posters,” the letter states, noting that the concerns had been
raised by “students, parents and advocates” and that those concerns
“have merit.” He also asked schools to make
mental health and support staff aware that “some students may require
additional support on this matter.”......... Before
the ministry’s reversal on Wednesday, Bianchi said the commission had
not intended the poster to be disseminated in elementary schools, but
stood by its placement in high schools. She did not respond to requests
for comment following the ministry’s decision. The
commission is more than halfway through its two-year mandate to review
cases and determine the weight given to Motherisk tests, which were used
as evidence of parental substance abuse in decisions to remove children
from their families. It has relied on Children's Aid Societies, Sick
Kids, the electronic court filing system and affected individuals to
find cases. In cases where the commission
concludes the tests played a significant role — a finding it has reached
in 33 of the more than 650 cases reviewed so far — it offers legal
support to help families reconnect. It also offers counseling services."
The entire story can be found at:
PUBLISHER'S NOTE: I am monitoring this case/issue. Keep your eye on the Charles Smith Blog for reports on developments. 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/
