By Greg Holden
The CKReview has come into possession of a letter from one of the mothers of the Lev Tahor. The author was originally subject to apprehension herself by Chatham-Kent Children’s Services (CAS), however the lawyer for CAS pulled that application in court when it was resolved that it did not apply to her because of her age. This leaves 13 Lev Tahor children subject to apprehension by CAS.
The letter speaks to the public in such a way as to hope for a public outcry. With my experience with CAS cases I can be confident in saying this will never happen. Many people simply trust the CAS and their decisions, never realizing the many contested hearings that CAS lose in court. Also, a public outcry is unlikely to affect the CAS or this hearing. The hearing has already been heard and the case is now waiting for judgement. I say these things as a matter of reflecting the reality of the circumstance, not to deter those who would join in a public outcry. If you feel moved emotionally by this young woman’s plight, as I do, then perhaps you can contact the local CAS, the lawyers in the case or protest outside the courts. The CKReview would be happy to give coverage to any protests.
I met this young woman briefly outside the courtroom where her child’s fate is being determined. She is young, smart, well spoken and not shy. She is also, in my opinion, a victim of systemic abuse by CAS. This letter was provided in both typewritten and handwritten form. It is clear from her message that she is depressed about her situation and this letter is a cry for help. It is painful to read, especially having met her myself and seeing her take care of her child. What should be an outrage in our community cannot be be decided based on unfounded fears of the Lev Tahor that is based solely on that they are different. Are there concerns about the Lev Tahor? Yes no doubt. However those concerns seem misplaced when it comes to the care of their children. If there is something I could tell this young woman myself, it would be to stay strong and don’t let them get to you. You are very unlikely to lose your child for long even if they apprehend the baby. Your lawyer was good, there is no reason to keep your baby and the CAS are simply acting as a cold-blooded institution without care for the children. It is payback by the Ontario CAS for the move from Quebec, driven by the Quebec CAS.
Here is the letter:
My name is (name removed due to a publication ban) and I am one of the 14 children of the Lev Tahor community involved in the case of the C.A.S. where they want to remove the children from their parents and send them to foster homes in Quebec. The court was held January 10 and it’s adjourned until February 3, 2014.
Did you ever hear about someone being accused and doesn’t even know why?
I married legally to my husband; God blessed us with a wonderful, healthy baby four months ago. The youth protection in Quebec visited my home several times in Quebec, and never found any concerns. Neither was I ever called to court. I don’t live with my parents, I had my own apartment. Would there be any concerns, the Youth Protection would take my baby in Quebec already. So why does the child protection request to take my baby now? The crime is that I moved to Ontario!
What does the C.A.S. want now? On me they give up, because I’m already 17 years old. But they want to take away my baby, from her beloved mother arms! Why? I really don’t know.
On the first week that I arrived to Ontario, I presented myself with my little baby to the C.A.S., together with my parents and siblings, and kindly explained that we did not run away from any kind of voluntary measures of child protection; We just had problems with the education regulation of the Quebec Law, which is not in agreement with our religion. We clearly explained that we are open to the investigation of the C.A.S. if they feel it necessary.
We spent there the whole day and we expressed our full cooperation to work along with the C.A.S. should any concerns be found. The C.A.S. visited my home and my parents’ home several times and found no concerns! And now they want to put my baby in foster care! Meaning If I want to be together with my baby, I too have to be under foster care until my baby will become 18 years old, in other words, until I will become 36 years old! And what about my husband? Does he also have to come with me to be under foster? Or maybe I have to divorce from him? Our darling baby has a warm home, a mother and father living in beautiful harmony. And what? The C.A.S. wants to destroy it for her? What rudeness is this, child protection or child abuse??? How can you do this for a wife to her husband? And how can you this for a mother to her child? And above all, there is no reason and no explanation. It is because I moved to Ontario.
Now, regarding my siblings; my sisters and brothers grew up in their warm loving home. And now the C.A.S. is requesting to remove them from their parents. There were never found any concerns in my parents’ home, except of fungus on some of their toe nails. Unbelievable! My parents took them to a dermatologist, Dr. Rubinstein from Montreal, and she made it very clear to all, on the letter she wrote: “I found the children to be clean, well-cared for and behaving appropriately, I was impressed by the warmth of the community and concern of the parents for the well-being of their children… these are typical clinical problems I routinely encounter in my dermatologic practice; these are relatively benign conditions, many of which spontaneously resolve in early adulthood. It is important that I emphasize, unequivocally, that these problems do not reflect parental neglect or abuse. As such, there is absolutely no indication for intervention by child welfare authorities regarding this minor skin conditions.”
Our religion simply does not comply with the Quebec education regulation. All the Ultra-Orthodox schools have the same problem and are fighting about it in court. We simply chose to live where the education laws fit our religious needs.
When children are removed from parents, it is because they are in danger. But my daughter and siblings are in no danger at all! How will the damage ever be able to be corrected should this ever happen?
My heart’s cry must be heard, I am ready for interviews; this is a disaster! This is not a private issue. This is a matter of religious rights regarding education. That’s why I feel it is important to inform the public and so can the public express their opinion and help bring justice to the innocent people.
Here is the letter from Dr. Rubinstein.
I also met with this group and this young mother, her husband and her child, along with all of the others. there are no concerns within this group….NONE!!! I AM DISGUSTED WITH THIS WHOLE SHOW OF POWER AND DICTATORSHIP!!!! WE NEED OMBUDSMAN OVERSIGHT OF THE CHILDREN’S AID SOCIETIES, , ACCOUNTABILITY AND TRANSPARENCY NOW!!!!!!!!
The time has come for ALL of the VOTERS out there to contact their MPP’s and Educate them as to the public’s need to protect children and families from the various CAS Corporations in Ontario.
The Lev Tahor community is not the first, nor will be the last victims of an agency that has more power than the police, and in effect is more powerful than GOD in this province.
Many people have been advocating for Ombudsman over site of these PRIVATE CORPORATIONS who answer only to themselves, for 10 years! For 10 years each bill asking for ombudsman over site has been turned down. The current bill 42 has made it to second reading, ONLY the LIBERALS voted against it.
Those of us that love children and wish to protect them and believe that the best place for children is with their loving families, not put into the homes of strangers. MUST see to it that these Child “Protection” Agencies CAN be investigated, can be charged and prosecuted with criminal actions and are able to be held ACCOUNTABLE to the tax payers who are financially supporting them. Accountable to the families they rip apart for no valid reason.
The Public disgust at a corporation that deals in “child protection” but profits from taking children from parents who love, protect and do NOT abuse them MUST start with each and every one of us holding our local MPP to voting FOR bill 42.
IF the CAS’s of Ontario have nothing to hide, WHY are they not asking the MPPs themselves for this over site?
If every family who’s children have been taken away from them and put into foster care are guilty of the types of abuse and or neglect that would force CAS to remove the children from their homes WHY are these people not being charged and doing jail time???? The answer to that is that they DO take children from loving homes, alienate them from their parents. put them into foster care, where they have been subject to abuses that the CAS turns a blind eye to. Why? just take a look at their own reports. There is over 1.5 Billion ( yes I said Billion) of our tax dollars involved.
Each child is a dollar sign, the more children, the more families they have on their book the more money they get.
This alone should be enough information for every person who cares about children to demand that bill 42 is put into law.
Child protection is an unfortunate necessity, but one that should be under the highest scrutiny, because the ability to abuse that power by the unscrupulous is rampant and will be rampant in a system where the only way that they can be investigated is by the coroner when a child’s life is OVER, when they are DEAD!
Call, write your MPP, ask them to vote for bill 42 and to protect the children! You can do this online at Ontario Coalition for Accountability. (google it)
I do not know enough about this community to comment on their ability to care for children and how that care is influenced by their beliefs. That is upto the courts. I would however be interested to know what the publication ban was lifted and these sensitive matters are being made a media circus. No other family dealing with CAS and the Family Courts have the details of their lives shared in the media for open comment or scrutiny. I would like to know the opinions of those who are against the CAS when details of extreme child and neglect are shared about other families ? It seems that if a child was found seriously injured or died they would be the same people who would blame CAS for not protecting these kids. The same people who disrespect police, courts and other such authorities. Being a court judge, police officer or CAS worker is a job not many people have the heart or stomach for….they are the ones who truly serve and protect children. I thank them for their efforts….and hope others will learn to respect all people regardless of their profession, education, beliefs, race or other differences. Let these people have peace and privacy to deal with matters of the family and heart. If you feel you could do a better job yourself, step up and work for a system to serve the community instead of sitting and criticizing.
If the family wishes to have their case under public scrutiny then why should there be a media ban?
The Mother wrote the letter and is asking for publicity.
A mother is crying out for justice to be done for her child. A mother who is at a loss as to what the protection concerns are.
Many other parents have tried to get media outlets to carry their stories and have been refused. Many parents would welcome the scrutiny of the press, to get their stories out, to make the public aware, as this young mother has done.
What the general population has to understand is that people do not have the right to file complaints in general about the CAS, it’s a self policing situation. With rules about who can complain and under what situation they can complain.
If CAS says they did nothing wrong, how is the average person able to prove that they did? There is a precedence of CAS withholding their own clients files from them and taking up to and over a year to release them and redacting important information or loosing parts of files, misinforming their clients as to their lawful right to their file. How can the average person fight that?
When only the coroner’s office is able to investigate them (if it’s not about money).
The Provincial Advocate for Children and Youth, Irwin Elman complained that getting information from CAS even in cases that resulted in deaths of children in care was near impossible, in his 2007/2008 Report entitled 90 deaths, ninety voices silent. I would recommend anyone interested in the care of our children by the designated providers read that report and his subsequent report and how closely CAS’s have worked to fulfill his recommendations in the years following the 207/2008 report, to minimize deaths of children in care. So if the Provincial Advocate has problems getting information from CAS about a child’s death, how easy do you think it is for a parent, grandparent, relative, neighbor, friend to get transparency? All of these people can have a vested interest into the well being of a child, their questions as to the well being of a child in care should not have to wait for a coroner’s report to be investigated.
Alberta is up in arms right now about how many children die in care there and how their CAS had hidden the actual figures. And how the government fought in court for years to keep the silence. Apparently Albertans are more informed and care more about their children that the people of Ontario.
People who advocate change in a broken system are not prone to disrespecting police or courts or other authorities when they are acting within the law and doing their duty.
However people that advocate change in a broken system will stand up and speak the truth when those in powerful positions work against the law, abuse their authority and power or are negligent in doing their duty. They will work as best they can within the system to change laws to fix what is broken.
I am working for a better system, one that protects children and families, exactly why I wrote my statement here, and am taking the time to write this.
The System needs changing, at present the first step must be over site.
The only way to get that is to pressure the politicians to do the right thing. a step in that direction is getting every member of Provincial Parliament to vote for Bill 42.
I am doing my part by becoming informed and advocating change.
Other than criticizing the posters here who want change to protect the most vulnerable in our society, what are you doing?
You must be joking! Unless u have entered the corruption of the system then you have no place to speak about who is doing what. The cops are corrupt and don’t do what they are paid to do which is investigate. Cops just lead you to the gallows and try their hardest to get convictions even if you are not guilty. Cops are bias against people who fight back. I had a cop come to my home about a complaint while at my home the cop asks me why is she pissed off and I tell him that she’s a crackhead and her friend got kicked out because of me and she hates me she has no place to smoke her crack anymore. The cops response was “what is your problem, its not illegal to smoke crack in your own home (Victoria Police Department) I was confused and reported him to the watch commander but there is no record of this. MCFD goes to court without doing any investigation whatsoever and then lie in affidavits to screw over innocent families and children knowingly and intentionally and then apologize when it’s too late to do anything about it. Social workers are the scum of the earth and cops and courts are perpetuating abuse of families by lying, saying shit like they do and taking a bias against innocent people. these people have to have a certain type of sickness to want to be part of the current system. Like the brokerages they know where the money is. Makes me sick when I see people making comments about things they know F/All about.
They silence us so you continue thinking that everything is going well at the cop shop and in the courts and with the CPS/MCFD. If you knew the truth and families were allowed to talk about their kids being killed and families destroyed you would not make such ignorant comments. These stories need to be told or you may be next and you don’t have any clue what you are up against. These families were abused and now they aren’t allowed to talk about it how fucking despicable and this is Canada