Meet Frank, the Boston terrier from Calgary competing at prestigious Westminster dog show

Wed, June 1, 2022,

Frank the Boston terrier is heading to the Westminister Kennel Club Dog Show later in June.

 (Lisa Wysminity/Jumpstart Imagery - image credit)

A Calgary pup will strut his stuff on one of the world's biggest dog show stages later this month.

Frank the Boston terrier, 6, is looking to take home a ribbon for "best of breed" at the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show on June 21.

It's just the latest challenge for this well-decorated dog, says his handler, Courtney Penner. She bred Frank and has competed with him several times before.

"He's very excited. He goes crazy when he gets to the dog shows," she said.

"He loves to show. He thinks that the world is there to see him. He's just a very big character."

The event runs from June 20 to 22 at the Lyndhurst estate in Tarrytown, N.Y. Frank will compete against 29 other Boston terriers.

Cathy French/Cathy French Photography

Frank's owner, Dr. Tricia Knowler, is a veterinarian in Calgary. She describes him as a "fun, cuddly" dog who loves to play fetch.

As for whether he is nervous for competition day, probably not, she said.

"We don't have any expectations. We're just going to have fun.… He hasn't been in a show for a couple of years with COVID. So we'll see how he does," Knowler said in an interview on The Homestretch.

"It's kind of a once in a lifetime experience."

Frank the show pup

Penner — who lives in Chilliwack, B.C., but spent a couple years in Calgary — has been showing dogs since she was just four years old and fell in love with the Boston terrier breed.

She met Knowler after breeding her previous dog. Penner remembered Knowler loved red brindle Boston terriers, which have a certain type of colouring.

When Frank was born, she knew she had another match.

"He was super handsome, a very well put together puppy," Penner said.

"We got Frank out to her and ever since then they have been doing the shows with him all the time, bringing him for me to show, and he won the Canadian national and has placed quite highly very consistently over his life."

Tricia Knowler

Westminster will be Frank's biggest competition yet, Knowler said. She's been ensuring he gets lots of exercise and has taken care to keep his coat groomed.

Although Frank is quite good at tricks, this competition will look at his conformation, movements and attitude.

"It's fun to get out and do things with your dogs," Knowler said.

"It kind of gives us a reason to travel and go to different dog shows all over Canada and the United States, and keep your dog busy and into activities. It's fun."

Lisa Wysminity/Jumpstart Imagery

The atmosphere of the show is also exciting to Penner, who's looking forward to seeing thousands of top dogs from across the world competing.

She's been to the Westminster show before but never with a dog she bred.

"Hopefully, he just stays and looks handsome for us, but he always has. So I'm not too worried about him."

Opinion: Ontario’s Soviet-style cannabis monopoly

Special to Financial Post - Yesterday 7:21 a.m.

Ontario’s latest budget was pitched as a “Plan to Build.” Unfortunately, when it comes to the over $1.5-billion annual sales of cannabis in Ontario, what the Ford government has built is a monster monopoly that is eating up profits, stifling innovation, and slowly strangling the new cannabis industry, especially its small operators and independent retailers.

All the many cannabis stores that have popped up in the last few years, whose proliferation has itself become an election issue, are forced to buy their cannabis products from a single government wholesaler. For their part, cannabis producers can only sell to this big government monopoly. This all-powerful gatekeeper, to pick a term from the headlines, is a Crown corporation, the Ontario Cannabis Retail Corporation, which does business as the Ontario Cannabis Store (OCS). It has over 200 staff, 103 of whom made over $100k in 2021, according to the Government of Ontario salary disclosure list . It directly limits what retailers can buy and producers can sell and it takes a massive average markup of 42 per cent — just to be a middleman warehouse and also run a small online retail portal responsible for only 3.7 per cent of industry sales.

The criteria the OCS uses to decide whether or not to accept a producer’s product are neither clear nor well documented, according to the most recent Ontario Auditor General report on the issue. But if a producer is lucky enough to have a cannabis product accepted by the OCS and agrees on a price of $5, which has to cover all the costs of manufacturing, packaging and shipping to the OCS, then the OCS will sell it to a private retailer for at least $7.50, who will then have to price it even higher when selling it to the public. This huge markup, before HST or excise duty, is often more than the producers or retailers themselves make — though they do all the important work. Essentially, the OCS is the world’s most profitable publicly funded warehouse. The Ford government has built an entity that communist Russia would have been proud of.

Even if we accept that governments need to be involved in the cannabis value chain (and they are in Alberta, B.C. and Quebec), how does Ontario justify its massive margins? Quebec’s government is also a middleman in the cannabis industry, but manages to run all of the province’s cannabis retail stores for a margin of only 14.9 per cent on dried flower, compared to the 39.4 per cent margin OCS takes on dried flower sold online. Alberta’s government, like Ontario’s, only runs warehousing but it has an average margin of approximately 30 per cent on dried flower and employs no more than 40 staff in selling over $700-million worth of cannabis per year.

You might expect an operation that charges such a big markup to at least be world-class. But the OCS has been plagued by problems, including the loss of thousands of packets of cannabis according to CBC, bad customer service (with over 1,000 cases investigated by the Ontario Ombudsman), serious data leaks , performance pay and bonuses not being based on robust performance measurement and non-competitive sole-sourcing of procurements.

Bottom line? Producers and retailers are making less, consumers are paying more, and taxpayers are losing millions in revenues, just to feed the beast of the big government OCS monopoly. Letting a state-run monopoly keep its foot on the neck of small cannabis producers and retailers is anything but progressively conservative. Whichever Ontario party wins Thursday’s election needs to reform — and preferably disband — the OCS so that a competitive cannabis industry can replace a grotesque government cartel.

Shane Morris runs a global cannabis consulting company and Deepak Anand consults in the cannabis and pharmaceutical sect

Opinion: Half-baked cannabis regulations need fixing

David Clement: Three years on, we need to relax cannabis regulation

Opinion: Deregulate cannabis three more ways

Ottawa should make it easier to export and import marijuana so our cannabis companies can thrive

ANOTHER REACTIONARY NATIONALIST

Bouchard pitches sovereignty as statue of former Quebec premier Parizeau unveiled

QUEBEC — As a statue of former Parti Québécois premier Jacques Parizeau was unveiled Wednesday in Quebec City, his successor in the province's top job declared that separation remains the solution for the province.


© Provided by The Canadian PressBouchard pitches sovereignty as statue of former Quebec premier Parizeau unveiled

Lucien Bouchard spoke after the statue of Parizeau, wearing a trademark three-piece suit with his hand in the vest pocket, was revealed outside the national assembly in the presence of his widow, Lisette Lapointe, Premier François Legault and other dignitaries.

Quebec sovereignty remains a “necessity,” Bouchard told reporters. “It is still relevant because it is in the hearts of a large number of Quebecers, (but) not a majority. In mine too. I am convinced that this is the solution."

Lapointe, also a former PQ member of the legislature, told the crowd that her late husband always urged people not to be afraid of their dreams. "His was immense, the greatest of dreams, to make Quebec a country," she said, "and he very nearly realized it. Until the end of his life, he never gave up on his dream."

Parizeau was premier from September 1994 until he resigned after suffering a narrow defeat in the Oct. 30, 1995, sovereignty referendum. He was replaced by Bouchard, who stepped down in 2001.

A senior civil servant in the 1960s, Parizeau helped establish the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec, the province's pension fund manager, before entering politics and serving as finance minister in the government of René Lévesque from 1976 to 1984.

He left the party when the PQ took a chance on supporting federalism but made a comeback as PQ leader in 1988, winning the 1994 election with the aim of achieving sovereignty.


He announced his resignation the day after the 1995 referendum defeat, which he had blamed on money and ethnic votes in a referendum-night speech.

(HIS ANTI-SEMITIC ANTI-MIGRANT TROPE)

Parizeau remained a spiritual leader of the sovereigntist movement and a spoilsport for the Parti Québécois with his occasional interventions before his death on June 1, 2015.

For Bouchard, the need for a sovereign Quebec is clear when considering the endless debates with Ottawa.

“Everything becomes a problem in the management of the Quebec state because of its extremely difficult, probably impossible, relations with the federal government as it is designed," he said.

But Bouchard acknowledged his former party is in a difficult position ahead of the October provincial election.

"It's clear that things are not going well at the PQ, we agree with that, but things are not going well in other parties too,” he said, adding that political parties are “vehicles" in politics, “which can be replaced, which last as long as it is useful.”

The imposing bronze statue by Montreal sculptors Jules Lasalle and Annick Bourgeau faces Jacques-Parizeau Street in Quebec City and was created through a $120,000 fundraising campaign.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 1, 2022.

The Canadian Press

Union: Driver fights off attempted hijacking of Mississauga bus


MISSISSAUGA, Ont. — Peel Regional Police say they've arrested a man after he tried to hijack a Mississauga transit bus and stole another transit vehicle.


© Provided by The Canadian PressUnion: Driver fights off attempted hijacking of Mississauga bus

Police say they were called to the area of Burnhamthorpe Road West and Erindale Station Road early Tuesday morning after the suspect approached a driver and began damaging that vehicle.

The Amalgamated Transit Union and police say the suspect then boarded a bus and began to grapple with the driver, trying to take control of the transit vehicle. While wrestling with the assailant, the driver was able to bring the bus to a safe stop.

Officials say the attempted hijacker left the bus as a MiWay transit supervisor arrived on the scene. The suspect then stole the supervisor’s vehicle and fled.

A spokeswoman for the City of Mississauga says that MiWay's transit control supervisors used GPS to track the vehicle and a short time later police arrested the suspect.

Police say the suspect damaged several poles as he fled, but no other vehicles were hit and no one else was injured.


The force says he was charged with theft of a motor vehicle, dangerous operation, and mischief over $5,000.

John Di Nino, ATU Canada president, called for immediate action to provide greater protection for transit users and operators.

Late Wednesday, the city said MiWay is looking at ways to prevent such incidents, including installing barriers that offer protection for the drivers from violence and harassment.

The city said it was already working with manufacturers on what driver protection systems can be put in place and hopes to be able to move forward with a system in the near future.

"The safety of our staff, including bus operators, as well as our passengers, is our top priority," the city said in a release.

"We have been in contact with the MiWay operator who was impacted by this incident and will ensure they are supported during the investigation and beyond."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 1, 2022.

The Canadian Press

Toronto's $13M in hotel shelter overspending could have paid for 52,000 room nights for homeless people

CBC/Radio-Canada - Yesterday 



The City of Toronto overspent by $13.2 million over two years on emergency hotel shelters, according to a fiscal audit by the city's auditor general.

Money intended for housing support instead went to pay a host of hotel fees, the auditor general says. That's despite the fact the contracts preclude such fees.

In two years, $5.4 million was spent on hotel room vacancy fees, $5.3 million was spent on facility surcharges on meal invoices, and $2.4 million was attributed to "DMF" charges, although there was disagreement among those interviewed during the audit as to whether that was a tourism tax or some other unclear hotel fee. The audit notes hotels stopped including this charge in January 2022.

"Every dollar and every room matters," said Auditor General Beverley Romeo-Beehler in her report, which is expected to be discussed by the audit committee next week. It is expected to reach city council on June 15.

The misspent millions could have covered the cost of 52,000 room nights for homeless city residents, the audit found, as well as meals and support services "for an entire year."

Instead, hotels tacked the add-ons onto their invoices and city officials paid them out, the audit found. According to the audit, "some staff" handling the invoices didn't seem aware of the contracts or what charges were appropriate.
'My jaw dropped,' shelter hotel resident says

"You need to make sure you're being charged in accordance with the contract otherwise what's the point of having one," said City Coun. Stephen Holyday, who chairs the audit committee.

"Everyone understands that during COVID it was a time of duress for the city, but there is an old saying… haste makes waste," he said. "We need to understand how to best manage contracts across the city."

While the pandemic was certainly a complicating factor, the auditor general was careful to note that in some cases: "These incorrect amounts were being charged even before the pandemic."


"My jaw dropped," Gru, a shelter hotel resident whose legal name is Jesse Allan, told CBC News.

"Fifteen million dollars gets a lot of apartments for an entire year," he said — "actual apartments, which is what most people on the streets need."

Among her recommendations, Romeo-Beehler suggests the city develop a proper system for reviewing its invoices to make sure payments match contract terms. She also suggests that the city's Corporate Real Estate Management division take over the responsibility of contracting with hotels so that the Shelter, Support & Housing Administration division "can focus on core service delivery."

The audit notes its recommendations are focused on helping "make sure money goes toward providing more shelter spaces or creating permanent housing solutions for people experiencing homelessness."
'This is why we have an Auditor General': Tory

In a statement, Mayor John Tory said, "This is why we have an Auditor General" and that city staff "will be acting" on her recommendations.

"I will be making sure that … we are doing everything we can to recoup any costs that shouldn't have been charged to the City," he said.

While the auditor general does serve as an important accountability check, Cathy Crowe, a long time street nurse and housing advocate, says it's ultimately up to senior city officials "to do a better job."

Last year was one of the deadliest for people experiencing homelessness in Toronto since Toronto Public Health began tracking in 2017. In 2021, 216 people died — 132 of whom were residents of homeless shelters.

To cope with the physical distancing requirements of the pandemic, the city opened 42 temporary shelters, including in hotels.

But COVID-19 outbreaks, food quality concerns, and other issues rendered some shelters not "suitable" for living, led some homeless residents to seek shelter in municipal parks. Attempts to clear some of those encampments last summer turned violent.


© Evan Mitsui/CBC

Encampment supporters defend a group of tents while Toronto police enforce an eviction order in Trinity Bellwoods Park, in Toronto, on Jun. 22, 2021.

As of early March, the audit notes there were still nearly 4,000 people staying in under 3,000 rooms at 29 hotels.

"Someone has to pay for this," said Crowe. "We should be absolutely outraged by this."

Vancouver Public Library scraps overdue library fines permanently

Stephanie Ip - Yesterday 

© Arlen RedekopThe Vancouver Public Library will stop charging overdue fines on borrowed material forever, beginning June 1, 2022.


The Vancouver Public Library will stop charging overdue fines on borrowed material forever, beginning June 1.

Borrowers with existing overdue charges will see those automatically erased from their accounts, though it may take a few weeks to update accounts.

The new policy applies to all VPL material, including fast reads, quick views, musical instruments and interlibrary loans.


“Fines can impact anyone at any time, for many reasons. VPL is for everyone and we don’t want fines to be a barrier,” read a statement announcing the change. “Library fines disproportionately affect those who need the library the most. By eliminating overdue fines, VPL will ensure that critical library services are available to everyone regardless of their socio-economic status.”

Material that is overdue will prompt additional reminders by phone or email to the borrower to return the borrowed item. Anything not returned within 23 days of its due date will incur a lost item charge to the borrowers account, however once the item is returned, that charge will also be erased from the account.

Other charges remain.

Those who insist on paying their overdue fines are encouraged to donate to the VPL Foundation instead.

sip@postmedia.com

Strain of highly pathogenic avian influenza kills thousands of birds in Quebec


MONTREAL — The carcasses of thousands of white gannets have been covering the shores of Quebec's Îles-de-la-Madeleine for the last two weeks, victims of highly pathogenic avian influenza.



"Nobody had to tell me that this was happening; it's obvious — we're talking about thousands of dead birds," Îles-de-la-Madeleine Mayor Jonathan Lapierre said in a recent interview.

"We're not talking about waste or an ordinary situation. We're talking about an extraordinary event outside of our own control. Especially since we don't have an incinerator — we don't have a landfill. We're on an island!"

Quebec's Wildlife Department says that since May 24, it has confirmed several hundred cases of highly pathogenic H5N1 on Îles-de-la-Madeleine, an archipelago of islands in the Gulf of St. Lawrence.

Lapierre said the operation to dispose of all the dead animals has begun. The carcasses, he added, have to be moved out by boat.

"All this isn't easy considering our location … the boat also carries people and rare commodities," Lapierre said. "We had to manage all these elements together."

The highly contagious virus has been spreading across the country among wild and domestic birds such as turkeys, chickens and ducks. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency has estimated almost two million birds in commercial farming operations have been destroyed because of the virus. The agency has said bird flu is spreading globally and outbreaks have been confirmed in every province except Prince Edward Island.

"This year has been an unprecedented year for avian influenza, globally," the agency said in a statement.

"Birds in an infected barn will all die within days if they are not euthanized. It is also difficult to predict how long the (highly pathogenic H5N1) virus currently circulating will remain in North America. Research in Europe currently indicates … this particular strain does appear quite resilient and able to maintain itself in wild bird populations."

Stéphane Lair, a professor of veterinary medicine at Université de Montréal, says the first highly pathogenic bird flu cases likely arrived in North America at the end of winter, involving birds that migrated from Europe.

"It happened naturally," Lair said. "When a new virus arrives in a new population, animals have no immunity. There's no doubt that, at first, the infection rate is going to be high."

Serge Hubert, a resident of Îles-de-la-Madeleine, said in a recent interview he had never seen so many dead gannets floating in the water before this season.

"We've been seeing them floating for the past two or three weeks — dead. We fish 25 kilometres away from the shores and we see carcasses the entire way through."

The Canadian Wildlife Health Cooperative, which partners with the federal government to monitor wild bird populations, said that while they can't test every dead bird, they can link most cases on the island to H5N1. Marion Jalenques, a veterinarian with the group, said the H5N1 strain is not considered to be high-risk for humans but spreads rapidly among birds.

"We are testing a lot of cases right now, but we can't receive 300 dead birds at once," Jalenques said in a recent interview, adding that Quebec's Eastern Townships and the Mauricie and Montérigie regions have also reported cases.

"If we test 10 out of a few hundred from the same event, for sure it's related."

She said while culling commercial poultry helps to prevent viral spread, it's almost impossible to contain the virus in the wild.

"There's not a lot we can do (to prevent it)," Jalenques said. "We're talking about vast territories with large populations of birds. There's a lot of disease in the wild that we can't control."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published on June 1, 2022.

---

This story was produced with the financial assistance of the Meta and Canadian Press News Fellowship.

Virginie Ann, The Canadian Press

Order of nuns that staffed B.C.'s residential schools to pass records to B.C. museum

VICTORIA — The order of nuns that staffed numerous residential schools and 10 hospitals in British Columbia over more than 160 years is handing over ownership of its archives to the Royal B.C. Museum.




The museum and Sisters of Saint Ann announced in a joint statement Wednesday that the transfer will be expedited and allow for the records to be digitized.

Alicia Dubois, the museum’s CEO, says the transparent access to the comprehensive residential school records is essential to truth and reconciliation efforts.

Members of the nuns' order worked at the Kamloops Indian Residential School, where the local First Nation has asked for more documents in its quest to identify the remains of hundreds of children believed to be buried near the former school.

The statement says the sisters will fund an archivist to help in the management of the process, while the museum will be responsible for allowing access to residential school survivors, their families and Indigenous communities.


Sister Marie Zarowny, president of the Sisters of Saint Ann, says they recognize access to the archives is just a single step toward reconciliation with Indigenous Peoples.

“Our hope is that the archive transfer and digitization will contribute toward a greater understanding of what took place in the residential school system, and the harm and trauma students experienced.”

The Tk’emlups te Secwepemc announced a year ago that suspected unmarked graves of as many as 215 children were found near the site of the former Kamloops residential school, information the chief said then was known by generations of families whose children didn’t return home from school.

The statement says the Sisters of Saint Ann provided all records related to residential schools to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in 2012, and it has been working with the museum since last June to provide access to its archives.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 1, 2022.

The Canadian Press

How Global News/APTN exposed alarming conditions in Ontario’s child-welfare system

Andrew Russell - Yesterday 


Last summer, Global News and APTN journalists started looking into Ontario’s child welfare system with a basic mission: uncover what life is like for the roughly 12,000 kids in its care.


© (Global News)Jessica Fowler speaks with Global News and APTN about her time in Ontario's child welfare system.

This provincial system is one part of what’s been called Canada’s “modern-day residential school system.”

Census data shows Indigenous kids make up only 7.7 per cent of the country’s child population, but they account for more than one out of two children in foster care under the age of 14.

It shouldn’t have been such a challenge to investigate. Government inspection reports for daycare centres and long-term care homes can be viewed online, which helps families determine what kinds of conditions their loved ones would encounter in these regulated spaces.

Why wouldn’t the same go for child welfare?

We knew the system lacked transparency from interviews with child welfare experts and a government-funded review of the system done in 2016 that called on the provincial government to publicly disclose more data on quality of care and how kids in the system are faring.

But it quickly became apparent that Ontario keeps even the most basic information under wraps. When we started our investigation in June 2021, it didn’t even post a list of licensed group homes and foster care agencies online.

We had to ask for a list from the communications team at the Ministry of Children, Community and Social Services. As a backup, we also filed a freedom of information request.

The government has since created an online search tool that allows anyone to find the names and licensing conditions of the for-profit companies and not-for-profits delivering care to the province’s most vulnerable youth, but other vital information isn’t disclosed.

Video: Kids ‘may not be safe’ in Ontario’s child welfare system

Encountering a system shrouded in secrecy and full of obstacles almost every step of the way, Global News and APTN had to file over 30 freedom of information requests with the ministry about everything from inspection reports to budget data showing how the $1.8 billion provided to the child welfare system is spent.


We had to pay roughly $1,500 in processing fees for those requests and waited months for responses.

Through one request, we obtained data from over 10,000 serious occurrence reports, or SORs. Homes are legally obliged to send these reports to the ministry when a child in care dies, is seriously injured or ill, goes missing or is physically restrained by staff — among other incidents.

READ MORE: NDP, Green Party call for end to for-profit care in Ontario child-welfare system

Even this information was released with reluctance. The ministry wouldn’t disclose entire SORs. Instead, they disclosed most of the fields that the reports contain – from an incident’s category and subcategory, to the location and date it occurred, to whether or not emergency services were called.

But they wouldn’t give us the detailed descriptions of each incident. Disclosing those would be a possible breach of children’s privacy, the government argued. Even if their names were redacted, the information contained in those textboxes could be used to re-identify specific youth, we were told.

Separately, we eventually obtained the list of licensed service providers through another freedom of information request. The list showed which group homes and foster care agencies are run by for-profit companies.

By merging that dataset with the SOR data, we found that private for-profit service providers account for 55 per cent of all SORs in group and foster homes, despite having only a quarter of the child welfare system’s beds.

With service providers receiving a per-diem for each child in their care, child welfare experts told us some for-profit companies view kids as “commodities.”

Global News and APTN tried to get the daily rate each residence receives, but the ministry withheld that data under a section of Ontario’s freedom of information law that exempts them from having to disclose the government’s or other organizations’ “trade secrets.”

READ MORE: Inside Ontario’s ‘scary’ child-welfare system where kids are ‘commodities’

Ultimately, though, the government records can only offer so much. Instead, it was personal accounts from young adults of their time in care that were the most insightful and poignant — and harrowing.

Finding those young adults wasn’t an easy task.

Our partner at APTN, Kenneth Jackson, already had an extensive list of contacts from the years he’s spent investigating the child welfare system. We scoured social media for weeks, looking for any posts by youth who had aged out of the system about their experiences within it. Whenever we spoke to one youth, we’d ask if they could connect us with others they’d met while in care.

One Indigenous youth explained to us how a group home’s windows were nailed shut and teens’ shoes and jackets were locked up so they couldn’t run away. She recalled being physically restrained by two staff members for reading a book after being told to turn off her light and go to sleep.

Another youth told us she was pulled down a flight of stairs and physically restrained for trying to make some toast after being told to return to her room. She also talked about the “helpless feeling” she felt as she was moved around the system 15 times.

“There’s nothing I could do about my situation,” she said. “It’s really scary when you're in it because you don't know where you’re going.”

Inspection reports reveal disturbing conditions inside Ontario group homes

Andrew Russell - Yesterday 4:00 a.m.
\

A child sleeping on a soiled mattress, lack of access to basic dental care, and kids without proper clothes were among the major violations cited by ministry inspectors who visited Ontario children’s residences.


© (Global News)A Global News and APTN investigation obtained 35 reports conducted at Ontario group homes/foster homes by provincial inspectors between 2016-2021.

A Global News and APTN investigation obtained 35 reports conducted at Ontario group homes/foster homes by provincial inspectors between 2016 and 2021.

The inspections, carried out by the Ministry of Children, Community and Social Services, offer a snapshot of systemic problems facing homes for Ontario’s most vulnerable youth.

Other alarming instances include homes in states of disrepair, children lacking access to good nutrition, and children pleading for more outings.

Video: Kids ‘may not be safe’ in Ontario’s child welfare system

Inspection reports and other reviews for daycares or long-term care homes are posted publicly, but there is little transparency when it comes to Ontario’s child-welfare system.

Using freedom of information requests, the Global/APTN team sought to peel back the layer of secrecy. Part of the investigation was informed by an analysis of more than 10,000 serious occurrence reports, or SORs – filed to the province when a child dies, is injured, goes missing or is physically restrained, among other reasons.

The other key element was inspection reports, which highlight what inspectors are seeing when speaking to youth and staff in these group homes across the province.

Read more:
Inside Ontario’s ‘scary’ child-welfare system where kids are ‘commodities’

These reports also document several instances of youth missing medical appointments or not receiving proper medication.

“(Redacted) case file indicated a need for orthodontic care due to an impacted tooth, however there was no follow up noted in the file,” said a March 2020 inspection report for a Mary Homes residence.

“Staff advised … that the social worker asked to wait six months to address this because of (a) lack of insurance,” said the report, which noted a dental appointment was eventually made following the inspection and staff received training.

Mary Homes declined repeated requests to comment on the results of the inspection reports.

Kiaras Gharabaghi, dean of Toronto Metropolitan University’s faculty of community services, said group homes are “seen as the placement of last resort” with little concern for “quality of care.”

“Once you've run out of all other options, you've tried everything else repeatedly, then you get placed in a group home,” he said. “Young people know what that means. That means, ‘We don't know what to do with you. We can't really help you.’


“Let's hope nothing terrible happens.”

The process for inspections involves ministry staff visiting the home, interviewing staff and youth, and examining the home to see if it’s fulfilling its licensing requirements. The service provider of the home will then have the opportunity to respond to the findings.

Unlike inspections for long-term care homes, which are posted publicly, these files for group homes are not widely available.

Read more:
NDP, Green Party call for end to for-profit care in Ontario child-welfare system

At a children’s group home operated by Hatts Off Inc., just outside Hamilton, an inspection report from March 2020 found that ”menus were not found to be well balanced or nutritionally adequate.”

“My breakfast today was fruit loops, lunch was Mr. Noodles, staff do not make lunch, sometimes make dinner depending on food donation,” a youth said during an interview with an inspector.

One staff member told the same inspector the home often relies on the “church” to bring food, which is “inconsistent,” the report said.

Hatts Off also declined repeated requests to comment on the inspection reports.

The reports indicated that during a followup inspection by the province on July 10, 2020, staff who were interviewed confirmed they had participated in meetings to review balanced meal planning but “indicated concerns with the quality of food prepared.”

Hatts Off responded to the province the next month, saying it had provided confirmation it had met meal planning requirements.

The troubling reports are part of an ongoing investigation by Global News and APTN that found disturbing conditions inside Ontario’s group homes.

The investigation’s revelations were drawn from interviews with dozens of group home workers, youth and child-welfare experts.

The analysis of the SORs revealed an alarming number of injuries, physical restraints, and missing kids among private service providers, which both the NDP and Green Party have promised to abolish.

‘No amount of money will ever be the right amount’: Ottawa unveils $40B Indigenous child welfare settlement

While private operators make up only 25 per cent of beds across the province, they filed 55 per cent of all serious occurrence reports in residential settings, including 83 per cent of all physical restraints, 66 per cent of reports of missing youth, 62 per cent of medication errors and 31 per cent of serious injuries.

Merrilee Fullerton, minister of children, community and social services, declined a request to be interviewed for this series about the state of the child-welfare system.

In a statement, her office said the province has added 20 new positions “to support the inspection and oversight of children’s licensed residential care settings.”

“Currently a total of 43 ministry staff are conducting licensing inspections,” a spokesperson said in an email. “We are also reviewing the processes for inspections of licensed residential settings so that we can strengthen them where necessary and appropriate.”

Progressive Conservative Leader Doug Ford called the investigation’s findings “very disturbing” and said the province was going to step up inspections.

“I’m going to make sure we’re on this. I’m going to make sure we have more inspections going on – because as far as I’m concerned, it’s unacceptable,” Ford said.

In the worst circumstance where a home is repeatedly found to have broken its licensing requirements, the province can revoke a service provider’s licence or prevent the company from renewing its licence.

But an analysis by Global News and APTN found the province has only revoked or refused a licence eight times in the past decade.

“The province is actually very hands-off on what care looks like, how it unfolds, who provides care,” said Gharabaghi. “There is a licensing process of foster homes and care homes and group homes. But those are checklist kind of processes. Do you have a fire extinguisher?

“They have virtually nothing to do with the quality of life experienced by young people in care.”

In its strategy to modernize the child-welfare system, the Ontario government has promised to enhance licensing enforcement through forthcoming regulatory changes that will be rolled out over the next three to five years.

The province also quietly released a new website in April that allows the public to search for any licensing conditions placed on a home.

P3
Ottawa, N.W.T. in talks with U.S. charity about funding for Indigenous park guardians


Ottawa, the Northwest Territories and Indigenous governments are in discussions with a group of large American charities about permanent funding for a program that puts First Nations people in charge of looking after parks and other conservation areas on their traditional lands.



Representatives from all the groups have agreed to try to work out a way for the charities, led by The Pew Charitable Trusts, to help fund the Indigenous Guardians program in the N.W.T.

If successful, the project could expand to other such programs across the country.

"Our programs are rarely infinite in time," Environment and Climate Change Minister Steven Guilbeault said from Stockholm, Sweden, where he was attending meetings. "There's great interest in the federal government in continuing to support this program.

"If other actors like it as well and if they want to support it, that's wonderful."

Guardian programs depend on local Indigenous people to act as eyes and ears on the land. They manage protected areas, monitor animals and plants, test water quality and watch development. They also help create land-use and marine-use plans.

There are currently 80 guardian programs across Canada. They are funded by a $173-million commitment over five years in last year's budget.

Last week in Yellowknife, the governments and charities met to discuss ways to make that funding permanent, at least in the North. Pew, through its trusts, controls more than $8 billion.

"Indigenous and other local communities have centuries of knowledge and experience in managing their lands and waters," said an email from Tom Dillon, Pew's manager of conservation programs.


"It's important to us that they benefit directly from these initiatives and that we help to galvanize government support to make their conservation aspirations durable."

Indigenous people welcome Pew's interest in ensuring the program remains in place, said Dahti Tsetso, a member of the Indigenous Leadership Initiative, which convened the meeting.

"There is a lot of support across the board for exploring how this could support the guardians program," she said. First Nations across the North are interested, added Tsetso.

The Assembly of First Nations has been in support of guardian programs since 2015.

Tsetso said there are many more possibilities if a deal with Pew can be reached.

"It's like creating an investment strategy," she said. "We're looking at injecting a ton of resources into the N.W.T."

A consultant report done for the initiative concluded that every dollar spent on a guardians program generated $2.50.

Guilbeault said there's nothing new about private charitable dollars funding public environmental programs.

"Philanthropies have been involved in conservation projects in Canada for a very, very long time," he said. "We've worked collaboratively together with many of them and often we will invest in projects together."

Tsetso said there's no timeline yet for when the money could help to fund the program.

"We're very much at the start of discussions," she said.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 1, 2022.

— Follow Bob Weber on Twitter at @row1960

Bob Weber, The Canadian Press