Ombudsman in the News
Watchdog for children (Peterborough Examiner)
Wednesday January 21, 2009Page: A4
Section: Editorial/Opinion
Bill 93, if passed by the provincial government, will give the Ontario ombudsman the power to review and make decisions on complaints of the Children's Aid Society (CAS). This would be a very important amendment to the Ombudsman Act.
Right now in Ontario a judge can make a decision on a CAS complaint, but one has to get the issue to court. However an Ontario court judge is not someone who watches over CAS. In fact I could not find any information that anyone watches over CAS. There are organizations such as the Child and Family Review Board that will hear complaints about the CAS, but these organizations do not regulate CAS's power.
Over the years CAS has been under fire for many things, including a lot of accusations of abuse relating to CAS foster homes. This makes me wonder why our Ontario government does not want the ombudsman involved as an independent body that can deal with such complaints.
As of Dec. 13 our premier would not confirm that he is in favor of Bill 93, a private member's bill. When I had an issue with Deb Matthews, Minister of Child and Youth Services, over a CAS complaint, Premier McGuinty passed the complaint back to her to deal with.
We are powerless over CAS. Seemingly if we disagree with the CAS it really doesn't matter because they tend to have more power than our police force when it comes to children. The CAS is making drastic decisions about who stays in foster homes and who gets adopted and unless you have a lot of money for a lawyer it seems to be too bad about what you think.
We need the ombudsman to have control over the CAS in Ontario and we need to call our MPPs and ask if they support Bill 93. We also need to be signing the petitions for Bill 93 that are going around. I am asking our MPPs to keep Ontario democratic and allow the people of Ontario to have their complaints concerning CAS heard and dealt with. ROGER A. STEEVES Park Street
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