Dealing with Family and Children’s Services
Family and Children’s Services (FACS) are a complete nightmare to deal with, for multiple reasons:
They are a private company, their goal is profit. Not help, not your family, not your kids’ happiness and well-being. Once they open a file (which they can do for whatever reason, including an anonymous phone call), they will do their best to keep the file open as long as possible. The longer it is open, the more funds from the government they can get.
They have almost no accountability and a lot of power, which proves to be a bad combination.
Most of the workers don’t have appropriate education (they are not social workers, but “child protection workers”), hence they don’t have the skills/knowledge and understanding you would expect of a social worker. They are also not registered with the College of Social workers and are not accountable to them.
The workers and supervisors have no problem lying, including in sworn affidavits, which is directly caused by their almost zero accountability. In our case, a worker lied in a sworn affidavit, no consequence. Another worker breached the CYFSA, no consequence. Another supervisor breached my kid’s information privacy, no consequence.
Get educated on what FCAS is capable of in this documentary - Powerful as God. Don’t be naïve and do not trust them. They do what they do for profit, not to help you or your children. They will do their very best to have your file open as long as possible. They will try to force you into various “services” that they “provide” to your family.
How to deal with FACS
Get a great lawyer. Not just good, great. You are in for a legal fight that will take months or years in which you can potentially lose your child for good. You need the best lawyer you can get. If you reside in Ontario, consult Pat Niagara’s blog casontario.blogspot.com, find the Good Lawyer/Bad Lawyer list and call a lawyer from the Good Lawyer list asap. It makes a world of difference whether you have a good or bad lawyer on your side. Trust me, we had learned the hard way, a bad lawyer is worse than no lawyer at all. Get yourself a lawyer from the Good lawyer list. Also, find the CYFSA online and study it. FACS need to abide by this law.
You can contact Beth Alison Maloney, J.D. for steps to take and initial mistakes to avoid in your fight.
In case FACS falsely accused you of child abuse, you need your child’s medical records and a copy of FACS file and police records against your family as soon as possible. FACS will likely refuse to give you these documents or will take forever to produce them. Ask your lawyer to get a court order for on-going disclosure from all sources. Without the records, you won’t be able to move on in your fight against the CAS and/or criminal charges.
Always, under any circumstances, record what’s happening. It is completely legal in Ontario. Put an app on your phone to automatically records all your phone calls.
You need a paper trail of any communication - NEVER sign any agreements for FACS to speak with anyone. You want all communication with all doctors, teachers, anybody really, to be trackable. Remember, FACS do and will lie.
In fact, do NOT sign any documents unless you consult a lawyer first. You would be amazed what FACS tries to sneak in into their (often times pre-filled) forms that they try to make you sign. If you feel pushed into signing anything, add that it is done under duress. CAS workers lie about what has to be signed and why. They use arguments like “this is common practice” and “this is what our agency does”. Do not fall for that. Ask what exact part of the Child, Youth and Family Services Act (CYFSA) you can find that request supported in and then consult your lawyer first.
Get organized. Make a file of all written communication. Transcribe (fiverr has some cheap options) and make a file with all recorded conversations. You might need everything later for family court and in case you get criminally charged, which can happen months after apprehension. You will need evidence in case you want to file a complaint with Child and Family Services Review Board (CFSRB), which is the only organization FACS can be held accountable by.
Do not share information. Just like with the police, do not share information without first discussing it with a lawyer. CAS workers are not your friend or therapist or family counsellor. Contrary to what they might want you to think, they are not there to help you. They are there for business, business that your situation can provide. Answer their questions if you have to, keep it to the point, secretly record every single communication. FACS is not on your side, they don’t care, they don’t want to understand your point of view, they just want to have work by having your file open. Whatever you say will be twisted however they need used against you.
Ask for a Signs of Safety meeting. FCAS has to arrange one if you ask for it, but they do not like having them, because it is a way to hold them accountable. This meeting is between you (and your supports) and FCAS, with a mediator present. Bring a lawyer and support people. The result of the meeting are concrete steps that need to be taken for your case to either close or move on significantly. You are eligible to have a Signs of Safety meeting if our case is in court or is on on a voluntary basis. The results of the meeting can be filed and used in court too.
Never meet with FACS alone. Always bring a lawyer or a support person with you. You need a witness, you need some support. When falsely accused of child abuse, you might get very emotional when meeting them and FACS will try to use it against you. Bring a person or more people that you trust. If you are not a native speaker, request an interpreter.
Never sign any statement of agreed facts. Sometimes you think that you are signing the fact that you took part in a court proceeding, when in fact you just happened to sign that you agree with whatever FACS had said.
FACS workers will try to separate you and your partner and push you against each other. Do not let them.
Falsely accused parents often feel ashamed. Please, don’t be silent. Tell your story.
FB: Helping Innocent Families Fight Back Against Ontario’s Childrens Aid Society
This learning group is “promoting accountability, transparency, fairness and justice within Ontario’s justice and child protection systems”.
This is a very useful group where you will get advice from admins (careful, not to be considered legal advice!) as well as other members who might have gone through something very similar with Ontario’s CAS. Very educational and very helpful. I highly recommend getting some advice here if you are dealing with CAS Ontario.
You can also post anonymously.
2015 Auditor’s general report
casontario.blogspot.com
In this blog created by Pat Niagara, you’ll find a plethora on essential information when fighting CAS in Ontario.
Information include: The Good and Bad Lawyer List, The Criminal Code of Ontario, Tips to Protecting Yourself and Your Family from CAS, Information on Child and Family Services Review Board (CFSRB), information on where to complain about CAS etc.