Pubdate: Tue, 02 Feb 2016
Source: Toronto Star (CN ON)
Copyright: 2016 The Toronto Star
Contact:  http://www.thestar.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/456
Authors: Alex Ballingall & Laurie Monsebraaten
Page: A1

HUNDREDS OF ADOPTIONS ON HOLD AS MOTHERISK CASES REVIEWED

Province trying to determine role flawed drug tests played in kids'
removal from birth families

Up to 300 children are stuck in Ontario's adoption process as the
province reviews custody cases that involved evidence from the
discontinued Motherisk drug testing program.

The Ontario Association of Children's Aid Societies has halted 200 to
300 adoption cases where children left their birth families at least
partly because of drug tests from the disgraced Motherisk lab at
Toronto's Hospital for Sick Children, said OACAS executive director
Mary Ballantyne.

Roughly 800 to 900 children are adopted in Ontario every year, though
Ballantyne couldn't say how many cases are currently going through the
process.

Some of the affected children are already on trial stays with their
adopting families - called "adoption probation" - while others are
living in foster care or with next-of-kin while they wait to be taken
into new homes, Ballantyne said. Any changes to their current adoption
paths, such as whether they should be given back to their birth
families, need to happen as soon as possible, with the children's best
interest at the centre of all decisions, she added.

"These children have already been through a lot. That's why they're in
the system in the first place," Ballantyne said. "We really need to
weigh out what's going to be the best for them. And hopefully that
will be what prevails."

The Motherisk lab shut down last spring, after a review that sprang
from a Star investigation that found the lab had conducted hair drug
tests for years using a methodology described by experts as falling
short of the "gold-standard test."

In December, a damning report by retired appeal court justice Susan
Lang concluded that Motherisk drug tests used in child custody and
criminal proceedings were "inadequate and unreliable."

The report prompted the creation of a provincial commission that will
review potentially thousands of individual cases from the lab over the
next two years.

In an emailed statement to the Star, Tracy MacCharles, minister of
Children and Youth Services, said all adoption cases where a Motherisk
test played a role will be put on hold until reviewed by the
commission. MacCharles said the government issued an order for the CAS
to stop using Motherisk results once their reliability came into question.

"As a mother myself and as someone who once explored adoption, I feel
for all of those affected, but we want to be sure that the outcome of
each case is in the best interest of the children involved," she said.

"We recognize that this additional wait can be very difficult for
prospective parents and to anyone affected by the Motherisk tests in
general."

Adopt4Life, an Ontario support and advocacy organization for adoptive
parents, has received calls from more than a dozen parents whose
adoptions have been put on hold because of the scandal.

"This is going to be very difficult for everyone - the children, the
birth families and the adoptive parents," said executive director
Julie Despaties.

Her organization, formed in 2014 to provide parent-to-parent support
to families at various stages of the adoption process, has about 500
members, including about 250 adoptive parents and those on adoption
probation. Despaties worries that many parents "don't even know this
is happening."

Many are on adoption probation, a situation that is already tense,
said Despaties, who finalized her own adoption in Toronto a year ago.

"The longer it takes, the more angst children have because they are
afraid of being transferred to other families.

"Right now our hope is that the (ministry) will be able to give us a
timeline so that we can help our kids and our families," she said.

A GTA parent whose adoption has been caught up in the hold said the
situation is troubling.

"Our hearts were in our stomachs when we heard about the hold about 10
days ago," said the parent, who didn't want her name published for
fear of causing even more delay.

"You just want to feel like a real family," she said of the two
sisters she and her husband have been parenting in their home since
last spring.

The girls, ages 3 and 4, are aware of the process and are very excited
about being officially adopted, she said.

"The older one says it means Mommy and Daddy get to apply for a
passport so she can go on an airplane. It's something she has been
dreaming about," the woman said. "But now we have no idea what's going
on."

Rob Gain, a Toronto class-action lawyer spearheading a lawsuit on
behalf of people affected by flawed Motherisk tests, said the paused
adoption cases are another example of the far-reaching consequences of
the now-shuttered lab program.

"It's another one of the ways that these faulty tests have destroyed
families," he said.

Ballantyne said she hopes the adoption disruption will clear up as the
commission begins to work through individual cases.

"This, for some families, can be a very difficult time, where they're
waiting to find out what the outcome will be," she said.

"It's hard. It's very hard. I can absolutely acknowledge that. And
it's very unfortunate."