Durham CAS Invited to Ensure Accuracy of Posts

The following e-mail was sent to Wanda Secord (Executive Director Durham CAS) Susan Mcneil, Lana Pryce (Durham CAS Counsel), Theresa Ducey (Durham CAS Supervisor), and the Durham News.


Durham Children's Aid Society
Oshawa Ontario

Date: Thurs. January 16, 2009

Attention: Society Board members, staff, and counsel,

Invitation for Detailed Corrective Submission
In the interests of ensuring that all parties have an opportunity to have their voices heard and to ensure the information as posted on our News blog is accurate according to all parties, I would like to extend an invitation to the Society, their staff, and counsel to make any detailed corrective submission they wish to see added to our News blog.

Relevance of Society Submissions
In a similar fashion to the way an appeal court works, we will not post unrelated information. Otherwise, in the interests of fairness, we will accept and post any unrelated submission the Society makes and will make a determination as to its appropriateness for public consumption in relation to this matter.

Please be aware that similar to the way Societies allow their clients to make additional rather than destructive amendments to their own records all information submitted by the Society will be posted publicly to our News blog by way of additional as opposed to destructive amendment.

Reminder: Nothing in the Child and Family Services Act(the Act) prevents the Society from talking to the public about their operations or cases. The Act only prevents people from making public information which has the effect of identifying a child who is the subject of a proceeding under the Act, the child's parent, or foster parent. All Societies are also exempt from any other Privacy Legislation in Canada therefore they can not claim to be restricted by such when referring to their operations and cases. Our News blog does not contravene section 45 (8) of the Act since none of the information made public on it has the effect of identifying a child who is the subject of a child-welfare proceeding, the child's parent or foster parent.

Corrective Submission Deadline Date
The Society is required to send a corrective submission to johndunn@afterfostercare.ca by 4:30 pm, Friday, January 23, 2009 for publication to our News blog.

Confirmation of the Accuracy of Information Posted
In the alternative, if the Society believes the information posted to our News blog to be accurate as posted, there is no requirement for the Society to respond by the stated deadline date and the Society understands, agrees, and permits me to understand and truly believe that the information posted to our News blog is accurate as posted if they do not make a corrective submission to me as instructed.

Simple Denial not Acceptable
The Society is also to understand that a simple statement asserting the information posted on our News blog is not accurate -- without giving a corrective submission -- will not convince me to believe so.

Defining Corrective Submission
A "Corrective Submission" is to be understood in the context of this communication as having three distinct parts.

Part I - Assertion of Innacuracies
An assertion that a particular word, sentence, or paragraph contains inaccuracies

Part II - Reason for Belief of Inaccuracies
Reason(s) the Society believes the word, sentence or paragraph contains inaccuracies

Part III - Corrective Information
Corrective information which expresses the Society's version of the information which is to be clarified.

Having said this, the Society is encouraged to carefully review the information as posted to our News blog to ensure its accuracy and to enable it to appropriately respond by the stated deadline date if so required.

The News blog is located on the Internet at http://www.fostercarenews.blogspot.com

I am looking forward to hearing from the Society in relation to this matter.

Sincerely
John Dunn
Executive Director
The Foster Care Council of Canada
http://www.afterfostercare.ca