Child protection fixes slow, critics say
Key inquiry proposal to merge aid agencies not on agenda
The Ministry of Children and Youth Services is dragging its feet on making significant improvements to Ontario’s child protection system, critics argued on the day the ministry responded to recommendations from the Jeffrey Baldwin inquest.
Released almost a year to the day after the coroner’s inquest into the 5-year-old’s death concluded, the ministry’s response says its Child Information Pro- tection Network — a system to help the province’s children’s aid societies better share their information — won’t be fully operational until 2020.
That’s a full four years later than the deadline set by the inquest jury, which had designated getting the network up and running as its top recommendation.
“There is this sense of a lack of urgency from the government on making the changes that need to be made now,” said Irwin Elman, Ontario’s Provincial Advocate for Children and Youth, “and a reticence to look at the fundamental change that really needs to occur.”
Jeffrey died in 2002 after he was placed in the care of his maternal grandparents, Elva Bottineau and Norman Kidman, by the Catholic Children’s Aid Society of Toronto.
He was kept inside a cold, locked bedroom with an older sister. The two were beaten repeatedly, rarely fed and forced to drink out of the toilet.
He weighed just 21 pounds when he died, less than he did on his first birthday. His grandparents were convicted of second-degree murder in 2006 and sentenced to life in prison.
The CCAS admitted that it did not check its own files on Bottineau and Kidman before placing Jeffrey in their care. Had officials done so, they would have discovered the pair had separate convictions for assault on their own children.
“In this day and age, I don’t know how you can justify (the CPIN delay),” said Jim McDonell, the Progressive Conservative children and youth services critic.
“You look at this tragedy that happened more than a decade ago, and we’re still working on the solutions.”
The creation of CPIN was first announced in 2010. The Toronto CCAS and the Toronto Children’s Aid Society are expected to be online by March, which, along with the three children’s aid agencies already on the system, would represent close to 20 per cent of the child protection system in Ontario.
The ministry said in its response to the coroner that there is currently no mandate to have historical paper records entered into CPIN, even though the jury recommended that they be scanned in.
“While I’d like to move faster too, I do not want to be rushing ourselves to a deadline, because the safety and security of information is paramount,” Children and Youth Services Minister Tracy MacCharles told the Star on Monday.
“We need to ensure a smooth transition and we need to ensure that there is learning and adaption as each CAS goes on. The first CASs caused us to pause briefly to look at the data migration, and that’s extremely important to get it right.”
Elman said he was disappointed the ministry wouldn’t even entertain a discussion about another key recommendation: studying the feasibility of amalgamating Ontario’s 46 children’s aid societies into one co-ordinated agency.
The ministry is not contemplating amalgamation, said MacCharles, and is instead choosing to focus on a shared services approach.
“The weight of the 103 recommen- dations made at Jeffrey’s inquest certainly indicates to me the need for fundamental change,” said Elman, “and when the jury recommended that the ministry consider, just consider, the amalgamation of children’s aid societies, I thought they were speaking to that weight and the enormous amount of work that needed to be done.”
The inquest jury released 103 nonbinding recommendations targeted at various parties, including the ministry, the CCAS, the Toronto District School Board and Toronto police. Forty-eight of those recommendations directly targeted the ministry, which said that 21 have been implemented, while a further 21 are under consideration.
The CCAS is expected to submit its response to the coroner this week. Executive director Janice Robinson told the Star the agency is working with the Ontario Association of Children’s Aid Societies on a case study based on the life and death of Jeffrey Baldwin — a key recommendation the jury gave to CCAS.
The case study will be incorporated into training for new child-protection workers and in refresher train- ing, but it’s unclear when this will happen.
“I think that this children’s aid society has taken most seriously, and been affected very profoundly, by Jeffrey’s death, and has done in my estimation everything it can do to ensure that the gaps in the case are addressed and to go forward to provide the very best service to children and families to the Catholic community of Toronto,” said Robinson.
The government faced criticism throughout the inquest for its lack of participation. The ministry did not seek standing, and then-minister Teresa Piruzza never attended, telling the Star that she felt the parties who did have standing were capable of representing the issues and that ministry officials were in the audience each day.
A-document detailing how the ministry’s communications branch planned to handle the fallout from the Baldwin inquest, which was obtained by the Star last year, was heavily censored. The Star has appealed to the Information and Privacy Commissioner for the release of more information. With files from Laurie Monsebraaten
“You look at this tragedy that happened more than a decade ago, and we’re still working on the solutions.” JIM MCDONELL PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE CHILDREN AND YOUTH SERVICES CRITIC