WARNING: This story references allegations of child abuse.
As the trial for two women accused of killing a 12-year-old boy they were trying to adopt enters its final weeks, the public deserves to know if and how the Children’s Aid Society (CAS) has been held accountable, says Ontario’s former child advocate.
But full transparency from the CAS is very unlikely, said Irwin Elman, who was in the independent watchdog role from 2008 until the Ford government closed his office in 2019.
“The child protection system is a closed system,” said Elman, who’s not involved in the trial but has been closely following it.
“Secrecy is the number one rule — don’t talk, don’t tell.”
Brandy Cooney and Becky Hamber have pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder of the boy, as well as not guilty to confinement, assault with a weapon — zip ties — and failing to provide the necessaries of life to his younger brother.
Their trial, which began in mid-September in Milton Superior Court, continues today after Cooney wrapped up her testimony in mid-December before the holiday break. Hamber is expected to be called as the defence’s last witness.
The Indigenous brothers were moved from Ottawa to live with Cooney and Hamber in Burlington in 2017 but remained wards of the Ottawa CAS.
Halton CAS was in charge of supervising the family on a daily basis, and did so until the older brother died and the younger brother was removed from the couple’s care in December 2022.
First responders found the 12-year-old unresponsive, on his bedroom floor, the court has heard. He was so emaciated and small that paramedics initially thought he was about six years old. He died in hospital that night.
CBC is not naming the boys to protect their identities as ordered in a publication ban.
In statements to CBC Hamilton, both Halton and Ottawa children’s aid societies said they’ve completed an internal child death review, which they submitted to the Office of the Chief Coroner, as well as underwent several external reviews and made recommended changes.
Neither CAS provided the results of the reviews or said what the specific changes were.
“We remain committed to learning everything we can about what happened in this case and implementing any changes that advance the safety and well-being of the children, youth and families we support,” said Halton CAS’s statement.
Both agencies said they’ve co-operated fully with police, the Crown and the province’s coroner.
Hamber’s and Cooney’s judge-alone is before Justice Clayton Conlan.
The CAS is not on trial, but testimony from many witnesses has raised serious concerns about why it selected the women to adopt the boys, how it handled supervising them and why it didn’t intervene even when there were red flags.
None of the caseworkers or managers directly involved in the case have testified. Instead, the Crown has relied on notes taken by caseworkers, as well as two child protection workers who investigated what happened after the boy’s death.
The Halton CAS had received many reports from people concerned about how Hamber and Cooney were treating the boys. An attachment therapist testified that in 2017, the younger boy told her the women locked the his brother in his room all day as punishment, which she reported to CAS.
The boys’ doctors wrote a letter to the CAS in 2019, saying they were concerned about the women adopting the boys as some of their parenting techniques seemed “more abusive than therapeutic.”
Teachers said they reported their concerns about what the women were feeding the boys and whether they got enough to eat at home in 2019 and 2020.
Still, Halton CAS workers never did unannounced home visits or interview the boys without Cooney or Hamber present, as is required, child protection worker Lisa Potts told the court.
The Ottawa CAS did have concerns about the women adopting the boys, a therapist who was privy to their conversations in 2021 told the court. These concerns included that the women wouldn’t accept that the boys were Indigenous and treated them as “psychologically unhealthy” when they may not have been, among other factors.
But the CAS appeared to be moving forward with the adoption process in the fall of 2022.
“It’s so outrageous and unbelievable,” said Elman. “There are some really bad decisions made about how the children’s aid did things.”
There were policies and procedures not followed, and judgment errors made by workers and managers, said Elman, based on what’s been heard at trial.
He said that for the public to have trust in the CAS that it’s made meaningful changes, it needs to be more transparent about how decisions were made. But there are few, if any, ways that could happen.
The boy’s death does not meet the criteria for a mandatory coroner’s inquest, said Stephanie Rea, spokesperson for the Office of the Chief Coroner.
Those are reserved mainly for people who die in provincial custody such as jails or psychiatric facilities, or were killed by police, and are to find out the circumstances of their deaths and prevent future deaths, but not to hold institutions accountable.
The family of the two boys at the centre of this case could request an inquest and the coroner would decide, but it would still take years to happen — after all investigations and legal proceedings, including civil lawsuits and appeals, are completed, Rea said.
The province said it recently conducted an audit of all CAS agencies. It began in 2024 after an infant died of neglect in a Kingston apartment even after multiple people had reported concerns to children’s aid.
The Ministry of Children, Community and Social Services said in an email last week that the audit was completed and is being reviewed. Once that’s done, it will make the findings public, the ministry said.
But Elman said the audit focused on how CAS agencies were handling their finances, rather than systemic changes that need to be made.
The Ottawa CAS said it acknowledges the need for “better collaboration” and “co-ordination” between service providers, including other CAS agencies that are supervising adoption processes, schools and hospitals.
“As this matter is before the courts and governed by the Child, Youth and Family Services Act, we are unable to share specific details about our involvement,” said the Ottawa CAS.
“However, we want to assure the public that our priority is always the safety and well-being of children and youth, and we are committed to learning from this tragedy and implementing meaningful changes.”
If you’re affected by this report, you can look for mental health support through resources in your province or territory.
