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Fathers Battling Injustice
TO Sun: On behalf of little Adam
Posted By: Susan
Date: Friday, 24 March 2000, at 9:00 a.m.
Friday, March 24, 2000
On behalf of little Adam
By HEATHER BIRD
BARRIE -- Most journalists don't care much for writing stories
which involve children's aid societies. Not because they're not
important but because, more often than not, it's impossible to get to
the truth on any given case. Unless, of course, an inquest has been
called. Once something terrible has happened, it's all too easy to figure
out what went wrong.
But if things are only in the process of going wrong, you find that the
people who are closest to the situation aren't thinking clearly and often
have wildly differing views of the facts. And you can't go to the
independent third party, the CAS, which is supposed to be advocating
on behalf of the child because privacy laws preclude them from telling
you anything. For the same reason, there is also no way you can
question the CAS on any of their decisions. You are told to take it on
faith that they are correct in all matters pertaining to any given child.
Which is a long-winded way of introducing a five-year-old from
Barrie, who we'll call Adam for the sake of this column. (We can't tell
you his identity despite the fact that both his parents and grandparents
have given permission.)
Adam's distraught grandmother believes the boy is suffering too many
injuries during his court-mandated visits with his mother. Due to
previous CAS intervention, he lives with his paternal grandmother
during the week and spends weekends with his mom and her new
boyfriend.
On seven different occasions since last September, the severely
handicapped boy has come home sporting injuries which on two
occasions have included black eyes. As well, her diary shows he has
suffered scratches on his neck and leg, a bruise on his cheek, a
scrape on his face and soft tissue damage to his foot which forced
him to crawl for almost a month. The latest came on the weekend of
March 4 and 5, when Adam returned home with a black eye which,
his mother explained, was acquired by walking into a cupboard.
On March 7, the grandmother called Barrie police and asked them to
investigate. On March 9, she contacted Susan Carmichael, the
director of services for the Simcoe County Children's Aid Society.
Carmichael promised to look into her file and call her back. As of
yesterday, she hadn't. Carmichael also didn't return my call inquiring
about the case.
Adam's grandmother has good reason to be concerned. A previous
affidavit, signed by a Simcoe county social worker, stated that the
CAS was worried about "household sanitation, childproofing/safety
concerns, children's hygiene, children's nutrition, appropriate children
management skills, proper administration of medication for (Adam's)
epilepsy, supervision of children, marital violence and improper
financial management." There was a further recommendation in
another document that the mother not be allowed custody over the
hours when he needs to be given his drugs.
There is also a good reason for this. Although the boy had been
already diagnosed with epilepsy, a video from Christmas '97 shows
him walking and talking. In June 1998, he was given an overdose of
drugs and since that point in time, the child has been mute, extremely
unsteady on his feet and appears to have the demeanour of a
18-month-old toddler.
His mother readily admits to giving him the overdose.
"Why deny it? I screwed up ... I cracked and I gave him his
medication out of the bottle." And without measuring the amount
ahead of time, even though pediatric doses are usually carefully doled
out in small syringes.
Yet the mother, who just had another son six weeks ago, is adamant
that all of Adam's recent accidents are just that -- accidents. Both she
and her new boyfriend say his injuries are caused by tumbles he takes
due to his unsteady gait. He often sports the same bruises, they claim,
from grandma's.
It is clear there is no love lost between the two households. There are
accusations of negligence on one side and harassment on the other.
There appears to be grounds for the latter. At one point, the
grandmother circulated flyers with pictures of her grandsons around
their neighbourhood, urging residents to call the CAS if they saw
signs of neglect.
And both parties want the CAS back in their lives. For her part,
Adam's grandmother wants full custody with supervised visits. The
other family wants the watchful eyes of a social worker to prove that
they're doing nothing wrong.
Grandma's voice is not alone in this. Adam's older brother was once
apprehended by B.C. child protection officials; the staff at one of
Barrie's women's shelters also voiced concerns over Adam's
treatment and his family doctor wrote the Simcoe CAS as recently as
Feb. 10, asking them to investigate the boy's frequent falls.
It may well be that the CAS is simply fed up with the fighting in this
family. Or they may feel that, regardless of what has already
happened, grandma's fears are now unfounded.
When asked why the grandmother's call from two weeks ago had not
been returned, CAS spokesman Judy Shields replied that the woman
had some recourse.
"We do have a complaint procedure," she said yesterday. "This person
should be going through that process."
Adam, unfortunately, doesn't have that privilege. He can't talk and,
due to privacy laws, nobody else can do it for him.
Copyright © 2000, Canoe Limited Partnership.
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