A Case for Ombudsman Jurisdiction over Children's Aid Societies

DRAFTING NOTES

Lack of Accountability:
Jeffrey Baldwin - Judge ordered CCAS to disclose information - Frustrated with CCAS - was worker who supposedly supervised child held accountable?

CFSRB - quotes from decisions on Canlii - CAS's always fight jurisdiction

Board meeting of CASOTT discussing too many levels of accountability

OACAS Letter to me by Merv Bernstein (now child advocate in alberta) - discussing too many levels of accountability

Social Workers sworn to secrecy under oath not to discuss anything to do with the Societies during or after they leave / fired / quit

Introduction
This document has been written to impress upon Ontario's Legislators the extreme importance of voting in favour of providing Ontario's Ombudsman the ability to oversee Children's Aid Societies.

Regardless of which political party introduces such legislation, voting in favour of it is ultimately in the best interests of Ontario's children and youth who deserve your vote for the protection of their rights and well-being.

Keeping this in mind, it is more important than ever to put partisanship aside when considering such legislation because of the fact that approximately 30,000 children and youth under the authority of the province's Children's Aid Societies are legally -- and without choice -- the Government of the day's children.

Having said that, depending on which party you are a member of -- these children and youth may be your children today, or they will become your children tomorrow.


BACKGROUND

Internal Oversight Mechanisms of Children's Aid Societies
In Ontario, there are 53 non-profit corporations which have been granted licences under the Child and Family Services Act and approved as "Children's Aid Societies" by the Ministry of Children and Youth Services -- a subdelegate of the Ontario Government -- to provide child-welfare services to Ontario's children and youth and their families.

The governing By-Laws of Ontario's 53 Children's Aid Societies have been drafted by the founding Directors of each of the Societies between 75 and 130 years ago. The By-Laws allow members of the local community to apply for and become "Regular Members" of the Societies so that they can provide oversight of the Board of Directors of each Society, vote on the decisions which have been made by the Directors during the Annual General Meeting of the Regular Members each year, and generally hold the Directors accountable for their actions and decisions or lack thereof.

The By-Laws of a Society afford the Regular Members certain rights and priviliges that non-members are not privy to such as the ability to review certain books of the corporation, meeting minutes, and financial records, and according to the By-Laws of the Socities if any of the Regular Members have a concern about an issue connected with the Corporation they can request from their Society a list of their fellow members so that they can contact them by mail and explain the issue of concern to the general membership in the hope of drumming up enough support among them -- usually 1/10th of the Regular Members -- to call a meeting of the members for the purpose of dealing with the matter by discussing and voting on a By-Law change or some other resolution to the satisfaction of the membership.

In order for the Regular Members to call a meeting of the members, 1/10th (10%) of the members are required to file with the Society at their head office a requisition letter stating thier desire to call a meeting regarding the issue of concern to them. Once 10% of the Regular Members have submitted such a requisition, the Board of Directors are required by law to call a meeting of the Regular Members so that they may deal with the matter however the Regular Members see fit.

External Oversight

Modernization of the By-Laws

In keeping with the spirit and intent of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, John Dunn, a former foster child who now advocates for increased quality and accountability of child-welfare services attempted on February 05, 2007 to advocate for children and youth in foster care to have

a) stronger voices concerning; and
b) oversight of;

the services they receive from their respective Children's Aid Societies across Ontario.



The By-Laws and the Corporations Act require
the Board of Directors of each Children's Aid Society could add a section to the "Membership" articles of its By-Laws creating a special class of "members" defining all Society Wards or Crown Wards

Beginning with the Children's Aid Society of Ottawa, Dunn filed a request for a list of people who vote for changes in a Children's Aid Society called "Regular Members".