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White-tailed Deer Big Buck Duffins Creek Pickering Village Ajax Ontario Canada

2009-11-13T16:28:00.000-05:00

White-tailed Deer Big Buck Duffins Creek Pickering Village Ajax Ontario Canada

Screw 1080p HD YouTube Support for Videos

2009-11-12T22:13:00.000-05:00

Screw 1080p HD YouTube Support for Videos

Canada's Remembrance Day OUR Canadian Families Sacrificed so that WE could make YouTube Videos

2009-11-11T19:10:00.001-05:00

Canada's Remembrance Day OUR Canadian Families Sacrificed so that WE could make YouTube Videos

Texas Massacre Fort Hood Psychiatrist Major Nidal Malik Hasan Killer Officer Kimberly Munley Hero

2009-11-08T20:33:00.001-05:00

Texas Massacre Fort Hood Psychiatrist Major Nidal Malik Hasan Killer Officer Kimberly Munley Hero

YouTube Video Replaces Television 2013 Friday the 13th Dark Screen September

2009-11-08T04:41:00.000-05:00

YouTube Video Replaces Television 2013 Friday the 13th Dark Screen September

souljaboy soulja twitter boy tell 'em hip hop sales dive youtube facebook myspace ustream jail bah!

2009-11-07T03:05:00.000-05:00

souljaboy soulja twitter boy tell 'em hip hop sales dive youtube facebook myspace ustream jail bah!

Google Shuts Down YouTube Partnership Program CLOSES

2009-10-26T17:38:00.000-05:00

Google Shuts Down YouTube Partnership Program CLOSES

I WATCHED U2 LIVE On YouTube Internet History MADE

2009-10-26T00:08:00.000-05:00

I WATCHED U2 LIVE On YouTube Internet History MADE

Internet Troll Wikipedia Exposed The Truth

2009-10-22T14:49:00.000-05:00

Internet Troll Wikipedia Exposed The Truth

STOP the CRTC TV Tax Canada's Networks Rip Off PROTEST

2009-10-16T23:59:00.000-05:00

STOP the CRTC TV Tax Canada's Networks Rip Off PROTEST

mileymandy Miley Cyrus Good-bye Deleting Twitter Rap Who Gives a Shit Quit Doing YouTube Videos TOO

2009-10-12T13:12:00.002-05:00

mileymandy Miley Cyrus Good-bye Deleting Twitter Rap Who Gives a Shit Quit Doing YouTube Videos TOO

Wear Pink Support Breast Cancer Awareness Month

2009-10-09T23:56:00.000-05:00

Wear Pink Support Breast Cancer Awareness Month

Charmaine's Breast Cancer Update Invasive Infiltrating Ductal Carcinoma IDC

2009-09-29T18:28:00.000-05:00

Charmaine's Breast Cancer Update Invasive Infiltrating Ductal Carcinoma IDC

Charmaine wishes her husband David a Happy Birthday

2009-09-22T02:58:00.000-05:00

Charmaine wishes her husband David a Happy Birthday

Universal UMG Copyright Case Veoh Wins how Professional are you?

2009-09-16T00:27:00.001-05:00

Universal UMG Copyright Case Veoh Wins how Professional are you?

YouTube Activity Sharing Facebook Social Networking Integration Internet Disintegration

2009-09-12T20:33:00.000-05:00

YouTube Activity Sharing Facebook Social Networking Integration Internet Disintegration

September 11 9/11 8th Year Anniversary 2009 Tribute YouTube Video

2009-09-11T03:26:00.001-05:00

September 11 9/11 8th Year Anniversary 2009 Tribute YouTube Video

Rednecks on YouTube Canada? REAL Canadian Lifestyle is not just Autos & Vehicles

2009-09-10T19:40:00.001-05:00

Rednecks on YouTube Canada? REAL Canadian Lifestyle is not just Autos & Vehicles

2010 Ride for Accountability of Children's Aid Societies

2009-09-05T18:24:00.002-05:00

Wednesday, August 19 2009

The Foster Care Council of Canada
12-1160 Meadowlands Drive East, Ottawa, ON, K2E 6J2
613-220-1039
www.afterfostercare.ca
racas@afterfostercare.ca

Dear Friends,

There are fifty-three Children’s Aid Societies which have the mandate of protecting children and youth from abuse and neglect. Although the Children’s Aid Societies are often successful at meeting their mandate, many professionals are familiar with the fact that there are flaws at times in the way Children’s Aid Societies and their staff conduct themselves which have had negative impacts on the children they serve.

For several decades, the office of Ontario’s Ombudsman has been fighting for jurisdiction over Children’s Aid Societies in an attempt to improve transparency and accountability within the Societies, however the Ministry of Children and Youth Services has actively, openly, and successfully, blocked the Ombudsman from having any effective oversight of Children’s Aid Societies in the Province.

Politicians, professionals, and media alike have expressed publicly that there is a lack of accountability and transparency of Children’s Aid Societies, as evidenced by the following quotes:

“Children’s Aid is out of control, there’s absolutely no accountability whatsoever” … “Let’s understand this is a private corporation”… “it’s not a part of the government, more accountability, I say it’s time to shut it down, the government should be directly delivering child protection services” … “Why would the government vote down oversight by the Ombudsman? What are they afraid of?”

MPP -- Peter Kormos

“Well, one of the problems we have of course is that this [child welfare hearing] is not an open court”… “the problem is we don’t know when the case is and the names are not disclosed”

Hamilton Family Law Lawyer – Gordon Morton

“A 2006 CBC investigation uncovered Ontario caseworkers drugging a seven-year-old Ontario boy into a stupor with massive doses of psychotropic medications, which a psychiatrist would later find had “no actual treatment value,” except making him more compliant in his group home. While in his drugged state, he was sexually abused by fellow residents.”

Kevin Libin – Reporter – National Post

The Foster Care Council of Canada, a non-profit organization made up of former foster children and their supporters, whose mission is to involve current and former child-welfare service clients and their supporters in the process of improving the quality and accountability of child-welfare services through a strong and united voice brings awareness of these and other related issues to the tax paying public, who, through their taxes, provincial fees, and Social Transfer Payments from the Federal Government, unwittingly fund such practices by Children’s Aid Societies.

We achieve our mission by utilizing Internet based information campaigns, our foster care newsletter “The Crown Ward”, the media, and in certain circumstances, case-based advocacy and legal actions.

In order to reach the broader public in the hope of facilitating increased transparency and accountability in Children’s Aid Societies, we are embarking upon a bike ride which will be known as “The Ride for Accountability of Children’s Aid Societies” or “RACAS” which will take place late in the summer or early fall of 2010.

The ride will take former foster child John Dunn, hopefully accompanied by a banner-clad vehicle, from Ottawa to Cornwall, along the north shore of Lake Ontario through to Durham Region, Toronto, Hamilton, and other locations in South Western Ontario, finally concluding in Windsor.

Our goal is to have John distribute information/resource kits, speak with the media, and to visit local MPP’s offices in order to gather support and momentum to pressure the Ontario government into enabling the Ombudsmen to obtain oversight of Children’s Aid Societies, including speaking with MPP’s who oppose Ombudsman oversight so we can learn of the reasons why anyone would oppose such a measure of accountability to better work toward resolving or working around those issues.

Along the way, John will be collecting signatures on a dual purpose petition which will seek Ombudsman oversight of Children’s Aid Societies and to request that the Legislative Assembly of Ontario’s Standing Committee on Social Policy initiate a study into the conduct of Children’s Aid Societies, their staff, and the Ministry of Children and Youth Services who are supposed to monitor them, as permitted under the Legislature’s Standing Orders 111 and 126.

John plans to ride 5 hours a day, for approximately 10 days. During the ride, we hope to raise funds from the public to assist the Foster Care Council of Canada in meeting its objectives which are as follows:

• conducting child-welfare related research and reporting our findings to government officials and the public

• providing information about child-welfare related legislation and on-line legal tools

• launching public awareness campaigns regarding important child-welfare issues

• assisting child-welfare clients in acquiring access to their own personal records held by the various child-welfare agencies

• publishing our periodic newsletter, The Crown Ward

• endorsing, intervening in, or initiating legal action where it is deemed necessary and appropriate to do so in the public interest

However, before this ride can become a reality, we need to raise funds to cover the costs of the ride which will include accommodation, food, materials, and so forth. Your support will make this possible.

Donations can be made anonymously, or, if requested your donation / logo will be published on our website as a supporter. Please make your donation by cheque or money order made payable to The Foster Care Council of Canada, 12-1160 Meadowlands Drive, Ottawa, Ontario, K2E 6J2 or call 613-220-1039.

In time, we will be creating a web site for the ride, but in the mean time, updates will be posted to the News Page of the Foster Care Council of Canada at www.afterfostercare.ca .

Once the pre-ride fundraising has been completed, we will “shift gears” and launch a website for the ride itself. We sincerely believe that the RACAS will help “pave” the way for positive change in Children’s Aid Societies across the province.

Sincerely,
The Foster Care Council of CanadaRead the entire post at http://www.fostercarenews.blogspot.com

kremlin Welcome Russia's President Dmitry Medvedev to YouTube his new Channel

2009-09-05T01:45:00.000-05:00

kremlin Welcome Russia's President Dmitry Medvedev to YouTube his new Channel

DogOfPanic Dog Of Panic Best YouTube Home Grown Rock Band Long Live America Video

2009-08-25T23:52:00.001-05:00

DogOfPanic Dog Of Panic Best YouTube Home Grown Rock Band Long Live America Video

medicaldud Special Needs Child becomes YouTube SuperStar Sensation

2009-08-09T00:18:00.001-05:00

medicaldud Special Needs Child becomes YouTube SuperStar Sensation

Breast Cancer Charmaine's MY LIFE there is No YouTube without Her

2009-08-05T22:27:00.001-05:00

Breast Cancer Charmaine's MY LIFE there is No YouTube without Her

Shona Holmes Hoax Health Care Activist For Hire YouTube Videos

2009-07-24T03:54:00.001-05:00

Shona Holmes Hoax Health Care Activist For Hire YouTube Videos

Toronto on strike: No daycare, camps or pools, but the homeless are happy

2009-07-14T01:03:00.004-05:00

Posted: July 13, 2009, 5:26 PM by Rob Roberts

Pools are shut, 52,000 children have had their swimming lessons and summer camps cancelled, and basketball courts have become temporary dumps. But at least one group is happy and well looked-after: the city’s homeless.

“We love it now,” said Chris Dunkan, 25, who is staying at Seaton House, a shelter for 600 men on George Street in downtown Toronto. “They don’t cook right now so they give us out food vouchers. Everything else is basically the same. We get clean towels and sheets. The laundry gets done.”

With the city’s 57 daycare centres locked and restaurant inspections, for example, suspended during a strike by unionized staff, the City of Toronto has redeployed dozens of managers from Public Health and Children’s Services to work in the nine homeless shelters that the city owns. But not, in most cases, to cook.

So every day since the strike began 23 days ago, Seaton House has handed out hundreds of vouchers, worth $7 or $10 each, for Pizza Pizza, Swiss Chalet, Harveys, Tim Hortons, Ho-Lee Chow and Metro, the grocery store. At Seaton House, the men eat a cold breakfast: cereal, toast, bagels and juice. After 9 a.m. they get the first food voucher, plus two TTC tokens. At 3 p.m. Seaton House hands out another voucher for dinner.

Today Nasser Obsieh, 33, emerged from the shelter, peeled his $7 gift card off its cardboard backing and walked the four blocks to Pizza Pizza, corner of Church and Dundas streets, where he ordered a slice of pepperoni pizza, a Coca-Cola and an iced tea.

“It’s a great idea,” Mr. Obsieh -- who survives on Ontario Disability Support Payments because he hears the voices of ghosts -- said of the food voucher program. “It helps me enjoy fresh food and these are some of my favourite restaurants anyway.”

John, another Seaton House resident spending his coupon at Pizza Pizza, said this beats the hostel food in every way.

“We get to choose what we eat and when we want to eat,” he said. “Lots of people have TB, you don’t have to be standing in line and deal with some of the unpleasant stuff.”

Clearly the homeless don’t deserve to suffer any more than anyone else does, during this walkout. They didn’t cause it. Still, it is an interesting reflection of our city’s priorities, that we cannot open even a single swimming pool during the strike, but we do everything we can for the homeless.

They seem quite comfortable. On Friday I watched a group of men toss around a football on George Street in front of Seaton House, while pickets watched. Today I watched one man smoke a crack pipe on the fence just outside the shelter.

Another man drank a beer.

A third man lit a cigarette in front of the main door. He then yelled to a police officer walking by, “Hey, buddy, tie your sneakers.” He threw his empty cigarette pack and butt on the ground. Ronaldo, the Seaton House supervisor, came out and swept the butts and the cigarette carton into a dustpan.

Rob Andrusevich, a city spokesman, today defended the city’s policy choices of locking daycares and redeploying staff to homeless shelters.

“The children have a roof over their heads,” he said. “In this case Seaton House is the roof over peoples’ heads.”

Seaton House has several sections. Shelter occupants get the coupons. Residents of The Annex, where the city runs a “harm reduction program,” are still getting hot meals, Garry Blowes, who lives there, told me. Mr. Blowes has been on both sides of the strike: he worked 25 years for Metro Toronto.

“I threw it all away for booze,” he said. “I’m not proud of it, but I’m so sick I can’t leave. I have cancer and emphysema.”

Even during the strike, he added, the city has continued its policy of giving him and other residents a glass of wine every 90 minutes. Mr. Blowes said he has bought food vouchers, at half price, from some of the other men.

“A lot of these punks are so ungrateful,” of what the city does for them, he said.

A striker talks to a man outside the Seaton House today. Photo by Brett Gundlock, National Post

Article Source: http://preview.tinyurl.com/lxdtb7