Pubdate: Tue, 02 Feb 2016
Source: Record, The (Kitchener, CN ON)
Copyright: 2016 Metroland Media Group Ltd.
Contact:  http://www.therecord.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/225
Author: Paola Loriggio
Page: A5

HUNDREDS OF ONTARIO ADOPTIONS ON HOLD

TORONTO - Hundreds of adoptions have been put on hold in Ontario as a
provincially appointed commission reviews child protection cases
involving flawed drug tests.

The Ontario Association of Children's Aid Societies said Monday
between 200 and 300 cases have been flagged for review because they
involved a now discredited program that used hair analysis to test for
drug and alcohol use.

Mary Ballantyne, the organization's CEO, said that includes cases
where a child has been placed in an adoptive home but the adoption has
not yet been finalized, as well as those where a child was eventually
to be placed in an adoptive home.

The process has been paused while an independent commission led by
provincial court judge Judith Beaman examines cases affected by
inaccurate testing by the Motherisk Drug Laboratory run by the Toronto
Hospital for Sick Children, she said.

It's unclear how long families will have to wait to find out whether
the adoptions can go ahead.

The commission knows "the importance of trying to move forward as
quickly as possible with these decisions, knowing that there are
families and children who are waiting for the results," Ballantyne
said.

"Families are concerned and wanting to know what impact this might
have on their plans as a family, and certainly wanting to be able to
move forward with their plans as quickly as possible," she said.

"It's very upsetting for families, depending on the family situation,"
she said.

Tracy MacCharles, Ontario's minister of children and youth services,
said Monday in a statement that it's important that these cases
affected by Motherisk be expedited and they will be given priority for
review.

"We recognize that under regular circumstances the adoption process
can be difficult for families and that the flawed testing methodology
used by Motherisk has further complicated it for some," said
MacCharles, adding that short-term counselling services are available
for anyone in need.

Some of the prospective adoptive families affected by the review have
been caring for a child for a long time, said Julie Despaties, founder
and executive director of Adopt4Life, a support and advocacy group for
adoptive families. She's heard from roughly a dozen families in the
last few days.

"They are struggling with finding out that there's reviews and not
knowing where that will put their family situation."

Children's aid societies were directed last April to stop using the
Motherisk hair-testing program, which had already been used in
thousands of child protection and criminal cases, and Sick Kids
Hospital shut down the program after apologizing for the problems.

The program came under scrutiny after Ontario's highest court set
aside a criminal conviction in October 2014 on the basis of differing
expert opinions about a particular hair-testing method previously used
by Motherisk.

Just over a month later, the Ontario government ordered a retired
Appeal Court justice to review the program.

Commissioner Susan Lang found Motherisk fell short of international
forensic standards for use in child protection and criminal
proceedings, and said the lab "frequently misinterpreted" the test
results.

Lang's report found more than 9,000 people tested positive through
Motherisk between 2005 and 2015, but Beaman's review will look back 25
years, to 1990.

The review is set to begin later this month and expected to span two
years.
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MAP posted-by: Matt