PUBLISHER'S NOTE: Excellent commentary by Michele Mandel Toronto Sun which recognizes the failure of Toronto's once-renowned Hospital for Sick Children to learn from the Charles Smith debacle, which also wreaked havoc on families, divided them, and led to miscarriages of justice. Yes. Same hospital. Same desperation to protect its undeserved public image. Another very black chapter in Ontario's history where the Ontario government failed to protect vulnerable parents. (I am unable to reduce this commentary as it is so tightly written.)
Harold Levy: Publisher; The Charles Smith Blog.
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PASSAGE OF THE DAY: "How is it that after the Charles Smith debacle, Sick Kids seems to have learned nothing at all?"
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QUOTE OF THE DAY: "Many can’t imagine how we feel or what we go through everyday. To grieve the loss of a loved one who has not passed. The endless sadness and missing pieces of hearts. We no longer feel whole but lost. The sleepless nights with flashbacks and nightmares. The loss of trust in humanity and the anxiety that it accompanies. The constant fear of, well … everything. It has broken our lives and relationships that go beyond just the parent and child(ren). We have been violated, and we can’t forget a moment of it. “I lay in my bed behind a closed door and shed my tears everyday/night. On the outside one may think I’m fine, but inside I scream and relive moments of horror. They’ve taken even the simplest task from parents. To love and protect them. What these people have done is irreparable. One day I only hope I can forgive, but I will never forget.”
From a statement signed as “an extremely broken mother.”
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GIST: "Return their children. That’s what they want — the parents who saw their kids ripped away based on flawed alcohol and drug hair tests from the now shuttered Motherisk lab at the famous Sick Children’s hospital. A report tabled this week examined 1,270 cases handled by the lab going back more than two decades and found 56 clear cases where Motherisk’s flawed test results had a “substantial impact” on the decision to remove children — though critics argue there are far more. Of those 56 cases, only four have resulted in the kids being reunited with their families. The rest are likely lost forever to their adoptive parents. “Help get our kids back that were taken in the first place,” wrote one mother on a Facebook support group. “These were babies, now they are six and four. You can’t give us back the time and memories we have lost. I am so bitter, and angry and this ALL over money and BS.” From 2005 to 2015, the Motherisk Laboratory at Sick Kids tested more than 24,000 hair samples for drugs and alcohol from over 16,000 different people, a side business that reportedly generated $1.3 million a year. It was the gold standard used in court by child welfare agencies to justify their apprehension orders. Like the once respected pathologist Charles Smith, also from Sick Kids, the evidence entered by the venerable hospital’s lab was treated as sacrosanct. The case of Tamara Bloomfield blew the lid off that erroneous assumption. She was labelled Toronto’s “crack mom” for supposedly feeding cocaine to her son. But in 2014, the Ontario Court of Appeal overturned her conviction after new evidence cast serious doubt on the faulty science behind the Motherisk hair testing results. Following an investigative series by the Toronto Star, retired Justice Susan E. Lang was tasked by the Ontario government to review Motherisk’s lab procedures. Her damning report in 2015 found its hair strand drug and alcohol testing was “inadequate and unreliable” for use in child protection, determining it lacked oversight and wasn’t even accredited as a forensic laboratory to carry out testing for legal purposes. The province ordered children’s aid agencies to stop relying on hair testing and told Sick Kids to shut down the Motherisk lab. For many families, it all came far too late. “This means that even where the discredited Motherisk hair testing substantially
affected the outcome of a case, the family will likely have difficulty
bringing about a change in the children’s living arrangements,” warned
commissioner Judith Beaman in her report released Monday.
“The decisions we make in child protection are often devastating and irrevocable,” she wrote. “That is why it is critical that only reliable evidence and a fair process be used in the service of making those decisions.” Many parents have filed lawsuits against the lab; an effort to file a class-action suit was dismissed last fall. One mother took to her support group to decry what this scandal has done to families like hers. Her words cut to the heart. “What no one reads, no one knows, or no one understands, is the extent of the trauma it has caused. Many can’t imagine how we feel or what we go through everyday. To grieve the loss of a loved one who has not passed,” she wrote. “The endless sadness and missing pieces of hearts. We no longer feel whole but lost. The sleepless nights with flashbacks and nightmares. The loss of trust in humanity and the anxiety that it accompanies. The constant fear of, well … everything. It has broken our lives and relationships that go beyond just the parent and child(ren). We have been violated, and we can’t forget a moment of it. “I lay in my bed behind a closed door and shed my tears everyday/night. On the outside one may think I’m fine, but inside I scream and relive moments of horror. They’ve taken even the simplest task from parents. To love and protect them. What these people have done is irreparable. One day I only hope I can forgive, but I will never forget.” She signed herself “an extremely broken mother.” Why does this all sound so familiar? How is it that after the Charles Smith debacle, Sick Kids seems to have learned nothing at all?"
The entire commentary can be read at:
“The decisions we make in child protection are often devastating and irrevocable,” she wrote. “That is why it is critical that only reliable evidence and a fair process be used in the service of making those decisions.” Many parents have filed lawsuits against the lab; an effort to file a class-action suit was dismissed last fall. One mother took to her support group to decry what this scandal has done to families like hers. Her words cut to the heart. “What no one reads, no one knows, or no one understands, is the extent of the trauma it has caused. Many can’t imagine how we feel or what we go through everyday. To grieve the loss of a loved one who has not passed,” she wrote. “The endless sadness and missing pieces of hearts. We no longer feel whole but lost. The sleepless nights with flashbacks and nightmares. The loss of trust in humanity and the anxiety that it accompanies. The constant fear of, well … everything. It has broken our lives and relationships that go beyond just the parent and child(ren). We have been violated, and we can’t forget a moment of it. “I lay in my bed behind a closed door and shed my tears everyday/night. On the outside one may think I’m fine, but inside I scream and relive moments of horror. They’ve taken even the simplest task from parents. To love and protect them. What these people have done is irreparable. One day I only hope I can forgive, but I will never forget.” She signed herself “an extremely broken mother.” Why does this all sound so familiar? How is it that after the Charles Smith debacle, Sick Kids seems to have learned nothing at all?"
The entire commentary can be read 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/c
