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County CAS to amalgamate with Highland Shores

The Prince Edward County Children’s Aid Society will merge with Highland Shores Children’s Aid. The boards of the two societies announced their agreement today.
To expedite the amalgamation process, the County board of has requested replacement of board members with members from the HSCA board. The re-established board will have representation from the current Prince Edward board.
PECAS Board Chair Elaine Philip. “Our vision for joining the two societies is to build on the strengths acquired over the long history of PECAS, while at the same time ensuring that children, youth and families receive similar levels of service no matter where they reside in our geography,” said Elaine Philip, County board chairman.

“This amalgamation will build on the good work and planning that had already taken place between the two Societies, but will continue to bear in mind the unique needs and circumstances of each area and will be marked with respect, inclusion and integrity,” said Darcey French, HSCA board chairman.

The Highland Shores Children’s Aid Society is an amalgamation of the societies in Northumberland and Hastings. They announced a merger plan in January 2011. The Prince Edward society opted out of amalgamtion at that time stating the “County’s interests would be best served by the preservation of an independent agency”.

The County society announced Nov. 2 it would explore opportunities to join services with another agency.

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  1. Frank Keely says:

    There appear to be many unanswered questions pertaining to the role of the workers, supervisors and managers at PCAS regarding children in care being abused. It is interesting to note that no CAS worker has been charged with criminal negligence or any onther sanctions such as being relieved from their position at the Agency if there was indeed a disclosure from a child that they had been or were being abused. At least there has been no public discourse on the outcome of any review.
    I wonder if the Police, as part of their investigations, completed an investigation as to the role of the workers, supervisors, managers on their alleged failure to act on the disclosure information to protect the children from further maltreatment.
    Questions should also be asked of the Ministry as they complete file reviews on children who are Crown Wards and how this process actually provides oversight into to the care of children.
    Further, why would PCAS being part of a new Agency ,Highland Shores, be any better? All foster parents go through the same process of vulnerable sector criminal record checks; interviews; and training process. Also, what does the general public know regarding children being maltreated in the former Hastings and Northumberland CAS system.
    It appears to me that there are fundamental flaws in the structure and operations of CAS’s in Ontario particularly in relation to oversight, monitoring, accountabiltiy and transparency. There is truly no one watching the watchers and there does not appear to be any mechanism for those working in an Agency to report anonymously which may facilitate reviews that would lead to earlier interventions in situations like this.

  2. tweety says:

    Ann you are very right, there are some amazing people that have done lots for the children and families. There are some there that only do what they absolutely have to just to cover their butts, and yes the corruption is only starting to come out, in the end when all is said and done the people of Prince Edward County will see for themselves how bad things really were at the CAS, because what happens behind closed doors stays there right? Well guess what people know more than others want them to!

  3. Ann Hunter says:

    Also innocent until proven guilty therefore innocent people are charged everyday! Keep your eyes and minds open people because the extent of the corruption is just beginning to be known.

  4. Ann Hunter says:

    Not every complaint that goes to the CAS is reported to the OPP. CAS investigates first and then decides if and when to involve the police. Which can be a very biased decision. When the complaint is against foster parents then it is only seen by certain people and those files are kept separate from the general files. Director’s eyes only.There are, of course, some staff that do amazing work for children and families. However, there is a very big problem at the top. And PECAS is definitely broken. So you also need to stop and think before you comment.

  5. Paul says:

    If thats the way the system works why are so many historical reports being investigated now after so many years with charges resulting and convictions.PECCAS was and is broken…

  6. Teila says:

    Alexis you’re so right. I wish the best of luck to the new leaders of our local CAS as they have one hell of a position to fill considering the outgoing members had only the best of intentions for our county children, as exemplified through their efforts to steer away from amalgamating with our neighbours.

  7. Susan says:

    Thank You Alexis…you are right all the way around!!

  8. Alexis says:

    All of you need to STOP AND THINK before commenting.

    First of all do you really think the CAS has nothing better to do than accuse innocent people of a crime?? No – they receive a complaint then they are legally obligated to report it to the police and then the police investigate. If they are innocent the charges will be dismissed and if not they will be convicted. That is how our system works and has nothing to do with the CAS. They are simply doing their jobs!

    As for the amalgamation it is purely political. Our lovely gov’t has made a royal mess and our now trying to cut funding and save money in variou areas (i.e. :teaching/CAS’s from here to Cobourg)it is the children and families of PEC who will suffer in the long run.

  9. Paul Cole says:

    In November 2011 Joe and Janet Holm were convicted, PECCAS also in November 2011 declined amalgation Also in November 2011 an Internal review of policies begin in cooperation with the Ministry of Children and Youth Services.I think any charges after November 2011 were the results of the Ministry of Children and Youth Services review and I believe the Ministry also delayed the amalgamation so they could complete their investigations(Review of PECCAS Policies).Do a search thats the timeline and succession of events.

  10. I may seam as though I bash the Picton CAS allot and that may be true but what you have to understand is that yes I agree that they may do allot of good for children but they also do allot of awful and immoral things. Like in one of the recent cases where you know at least one of the victims, where a foster parent that I cannot name because of a publication ban raped at least three innocent children repeatedly in his care, the three victims complained to the CAS on a regular basis almost every time they met with their workers over the course of 6 years where instead of doing anything about it, the workers decided to force these victims to stay in the care of the foster parent and let the abuse continue because they did not want to look bad and they tried to hide that it was even happening and then they even tampered with evidence after the foster parent was charged to try and make sure he was not convicted but he later was anyway.

    And in this particular case it was not only the children that complained but it has came out that over the course of six years the CAS even had multiple complaints from other foster parents that thought that something may have been happening and some of them where even threatened to keep their mouths shut!

    Im sorry but I think that anyone directly involved in trying to cover this up should be held accountable.

    The only reason I know about that case is because I was involved as an advocate for a while but I have heard about problems just like this with every other case so far so im sorry but their is a problem with the Picton CAS and it is innocent children at risk.

    I am not against Child Protection and the idea of the CAS in general but when over 80% of all children in the areas foster care have been in the care of potential sexual predators, there is more going on then just honest mistakes! This simple statistic in my opinion is disgusting and makes them the worst CAS in the province.

    The CAS needs oversight and accountability for when people do things wrong they can get in trouble and that is all I am asking for.

  11. I do have a feeling that with this new amalgamation, all of the horrors that the Prince Edward County CAS are directly responsible for may very well be covered up and lost forever and this is unacceptable!

    So far, the Prince Edward County CAS has had 5 foster parents charged and three are already convicted with sexual offences against children in just the past two years and the Prince Edward County CAS still has absolutely no legitimate response as to why this has happened. What allot of people don’t understand is that the Prince Edward County CAS only looks after a population of 25,258 residents.

    A pro-rata allocation of Ontario’s foster children to Prince Edward County’s 25,258 residents would give them 33. At four kids per home, 80% of Prince Edward’s foster kids could have been in the care of sexual abusers.

    This is absolutely insane and the Prince Edward County CAS needs to be held accountable for their absolute failure and complete disregard to the protection of children.

    People in this organization do not only need to admit their mistakes but they need JAIL TIME for at best their failures and neglect but in my opinion their complacency in the sex crimes against innocent children!

    At least in one case and possibly others, the CAS purposely ignored multiple complaints from the victims for years simply because they did not want to look bad!

    And then after this foster abuser was charged the CAS made sure to get a publication ban on him not to protect the children but rather to protect themselves and the abuser!

    This is not just a simple breakdown of protocol and mistakes, the Prince Edward County CAS is just as responsible and at fault as the abusers themselves and the only word that I can use to explain it is that they are evil and all need jail time or much worse for all of the severe damage and trauma that they have caused to innocent children and families!

  12. tweety says:

    The amalgamation of the CAS was not held up by anything but themselves as they had the chance to amalgamate before and declined to do so for what ever reason, now i don’t think they really had much of a choice with all the garbage that has gone on there, there have been some pretty shady things going on there for a long time and at some point soon i am sure it will all come to light and the people of the county will see who was really behind all the garbage that should have been removed from their office a long time ago then maybe things would not be the way they are

  13. Paul Cole says:

    And the amalgamation of The Prince Edward County Children’s Aid Society and The Highland Shores Children’s Aid was delayed by the Ministry of Childrens and Youth Services until they completed their review of the whole mess…Thats a guess on my part but the timeline and the way things played out seems to add up..

  14. Paul Cole says:

    To be honest I don t think pec cas had anything to do with any charges being laid I think the Ministry of Childrens and Youth Services forced the issue once they started the Internal Review atleast thats what I understood from the responses I recieved from Minister Hoskins regarding ongoing investigations and its about time.New leadership at that organization is greatly needed.

  15. tweety says:

    you are right Pam as if this family has not been through enough already, maybe some things should have been changed a long time ago because a person starts to speak up about things that were not being done or looked into correctly should not give anyone the right to destroy their lives

  16. Pam Reynolds says:

    Sounds to me like the PE CAS are desperate to look good. Ron is so totally innocent of any and all charges. This is just the last dig because he dared to speak up about issues that CAS didn’t want brought to life. We love you Ron. And also to bring Sherilee into this is so vendictive.

  17. Susan says:

    Appears to be the same folks

  18. Paul Cole says:

    3 more charges laid relating to a foster home in Bloomfield..Un believable obviously a change is needed..

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