“As with all aspects of medicine, there are always financial considerations. First and foremost, like a hammer in need of nails, child abuse pediatricians need to find abuse in order to remain employed.”

(Maloney, Beth Alison, J.D.: Protecting Your Child from the Child Protection System, p.70)

Child advocacy pediatricians (CAPSs) in Ontario are just that, pediatricians. They are not qualified to make conclusions on radiology findings, neurology findings, ophthalmology findings or any other findings other than general pediatrics. They have no specialized education and in some cases are not deemed to be experts in Child abuse qualified to testify in court on the topic of child abuse (e.g. Burke Baird from McMaster).

Child abuse pediatricians will be called to asses your child in case they have injuries that you cannot explain or even didn’t know your child had. CAPs will often fabricate an “opinion”, - as they officially don’t diagnose - “the most plausible explanation for your child’s” - fill the blank - bruises, fractures, head injury, whatever else - is abusive behavior. If you insist that you were the only caretaker, abusive behavior from you. They come to this conclusion before they evens start any comprehensive testing, such as extensive bloodwork panels for blood clotting, genetic testing, bone density testing, angiograms etc.

From then on, any appointment you go to - within the hospital or outside - your child will come with a prefabricated diagnosis of child abuse, which may reflect upon the testing that they will be provided with actual experts in radiology, neurology, orthopedics etc. they will be sent to. Even a suspicion for abuse will tilt how the actual experts see the child’s presentation.

In our case, for example, the neurologist at the accusing hospital, failed to give our child a test for strokes (angiogram), based on the fact that our child also - apart for brain bleed- presented with healing fractures that we could not explain (as there had been no injury and no fall) and the CAP Kathleen Nolan had therefore diagnosed him with child abuse. She claimed that there is no medical condition that would explain both a brain bleed and fractures, ignoring the fact that a child could be having two medical conditions at the same time - one ongoing, one acute. While our child’s fractures were a result of a disease called infantile rickets (metabolic bone disease of infancy) , with evidence seen in the imaging right from the beginning, unfortunately he also developed sepsis and a complication of that - strokes. He received no treatment for strokes and unfortunately suffered an additional one while being hospitalized at the accusing hospital -McMaster in Hamilton.

Just like with the police, when you are being interviewed by the “child abuse” doctor and CAS, you are providing them with information that will be used against you. It is advisable that you do not provide them with any information before contacting a lawyer. Child abuse doctors are not there to help you or your child - they are medical prosecutors who will be testifying in court against you. Do not trust them. And most importantly, from the very beginning, record any and all communication with any medical staff, especially the CAP. In case you are part of the communication, recording is legal in Ontario.

Family and Children’s Services (FACS) are a complete nightmare to deal with, for multiple reasons:

1.They are a privately owned, for-profit company. Their ultimate goal is profit, not help, not your family, not your kids’ well-being. Once they open a file (which they can do for whatever reason, including an anonymous phone call), they will do their best to keep the file open as long as possible. The longer it is open, the more funds from the government they can get.

2. They have almost no accountability and a lot of power, which proves to be a bad combination. FACS are overseen by the Ministry, but the Ministry does not hold them accountable for their actions. The are supposedly held accountable to the public by the Boards of volunteers each FACS has, but it is just on paper. There is no real accountability happening.

3. Most of the workers don’t have appropriate education (they are not social workers, but use the title “child protection workers”), hence they don’t have the skills/knowledge and understanding you would expect of a social worker. They are also not registered with the College of Social workers and are not accountable to them.

4. The workers and supervisors have no problem lying, including in sworn affidavits, which is directly connected to the problem of almost zero accountability. In our case, a worker lied in a sworn affidavit, without any consequence. Another worker breached the CYFSA, no consequence. Another supervisor breached my kid’s information privacy, no consequences.

5. Get educated on what FCAS is capable of in this documentary - “Powerful as God” so that you know what you are up against. Don’t be naïve and do not trust them. They do what they do for profit, not to help you or your children. They will do their very best to have your file open as long as possible. They will try to force you into various “services” that they “provide” to your family., only to be involved and get grants.

How to deal with FACS:

1. Get a great lawyer. Not just good, great. You are in for a legal fight that will take months or years in which you can potentially lose your child for good. You need the best lawyer you can get. If you reside in Ontario, consult Pat Niagara’s blog casontario.blogspot.com, find the Good Lawyer/Bad Lawyer list and call a lawyer from the Good Lawyer list asap. It makes a world of difference whether you have a good or bad lawyer on your side. Trust me, we had learned the hard way, a bad lawyer is worse than no lawyer at all. Find the CYFSA online and study it. FACS need to abide by that law and the Ministry guidelines.

2. In case FACS falsely accused you of child abuse, you need your child’s medical records and a copy of FACS file and police records against your family as soon as possible. FACS will likely refuse to give you these documents or will take forever to produce them. Ask your lawyer to get a court order for on-going disclosure from all sources asap. Without the records, you won’t be able to move on in your fight against the CAS and/or potential criminal charges.

   3. Always, under any circumstances, secretly record what’s happening. It is completely legal in Ontario. Put an app on your phone to automatically records all your phone calls as well. FACS workers lie, you want to catch them lying and use it against them.

   4. You need a paper trail of any communication - NEVER sign any agreements for FACS to speak with anyone. You want all communication with all doctors, teachers, anybody really, to be trackable. Remember, FACS do and will lie about the case and about you.

   5. Do NOT sign any documents unless you consult a lawyer first. You would be amazed what FACS tries to sneak in into their pre-filled forms. If you feel pushed into signing anything, add that it is done under duress. CAS workers lie about what has to be signed and why. They use arguments like “this is common practice” and “this is what our agency does”. Do not fall for that. Ask what exact part of the Child, Youth and Family Services Act (CYFSA) or what Ministry guidelines support that request, take the copy and then consult your lawyer first.

   6. Get organized. Make a file of all written communication. Transcribe (fiverr has some cheap options) and make a file with all recorded and transcribed conversation. You might need everything later for family court and in case you get criminally charged, which can happen months after apprehension. You will need evidence in case you want to file a complaint with Child and Family Services Review Board (CFSRB), which is the only organization FACS can be - partly - held accountable by.

   6. Do not volunteer any information. Just like with the police, do not share information without first discussing it with a lawyer. CAS workers are not your friend or therapist or family counsellor. Contrary to what they might want you to think, they are not there to help you. They are there for business - business that your situation can provide them with. Answer their questions if you have to, keep it to the point, secretly record every single communication. FACS is not on your side, they don’t care, they don’t want to understand your point of view, they just want to have work by having your file open. Whatever you say will be twisted however they need used against you.

   7. Request a “Signs of Safety” meeting. FCAS has to arrange one if you ask for it, but they do not like having them, because it is a way to hold them accountable. This meeting is between you (and your supports) and FACS, with a mediator present. Bring a lawyer and support people. The result of the meeting are concrete steps that need to be taken for your case to either close or move on significantly. You are eligible to have a Signs of Safety meeting if our case is in court or is on on a voluntary basis. The results of the meeting can be filed and used in court too.

   8. Never meet with FACS alone. Always bring a lawyer or a support person with you. You need a witness, you need some support. When falsely accused of child abuse, you might get very emotional when meeting them and FACS will try to use it against you. Also, they lie and will lie in your face. Bring a person or more people that you trust. If you are not a native speaker, request an interpreter. 9. Never sign any statement of agreed facts or any other document you don’t fully understand. Sometimes you think that you are signing the fact that you took part in a court proceeding, when in fact you just happened to sign that you agree with whatever FACS had said (yes, own experience).

   10. Beware, in false child abuse accusation cases, FACS workers will try to separate you and your partner and push you against each other. Do not let them. Have each other’s back.

On top of facing dealing with Family and Children’s services in Family court, you might find yourself being criminally charged over the same issue by the police.

When the police contacts you, do NOT speak to them. You think that because you did nothing wrong, if you have a chance to explain it, they will understand. Police are not there to find the truth, they are there to point fingers and have a case. Request to speak with a lawyer and do NOT say a word more.

Check interrogating techniques the police use to get a confession.

Millar’s Law

I highly recommend Phillip Millar and his team in case you are facing criminal charges connected to false child abuse accusations.

Mr.Millar and his team won our case in 2021 and has now an extensive knowledge in the literature and arguments of the shaken baby (aka head trauma/acceleration-deceleration injuries) community argumentation as well as literature regarding medical conditions that mimic child abuse. He is knowledgeable regarding the Gauge Inquiry, and has argued against witnesses who directly worked with (dr.) Charles Smith from Sick Kids. He’s also worked with a pathologist who had direct experience of having been forced into diagnosing child abuse in cases of medical/natural reasons of death at McMaster hospital, Ontario.

On top of being great professionals, Philip and his team are kind and thoughtful human beings. The whole Millar team is very knowledgeable, extremely helpful and somehow fierce and kind at the same time. If you are facing false child abuse accusations, you’ll be in great hands with Millar’s Law.