CFS under scope in beating horror

The province is launching an external investigation to help determine how a six-year-old south Winnipeg boy was allowed to suffer prolonged physical abuse without authorities intervening.

Family Services Minister Gord Mackintosh said Friday "serious questions have to be answered" about the case of a little boy who went to neighbours for help four times before his pleas were taken seriously.

Police have described his injuries as "horrific."

When he showed up at a neighbour's door Sept. 8 with a broken arm and a cut on his chin -- leading to the subsequent arrest of his 23-year-old mother and her 32-year-old common-law husband -- he had already suffered several other injuries, including fractures to his ribs, foot and skull, the police service's child-abuse unit later found.

Mackintosh said the external review of the case will begin in the next several weeks.

The review will determine whether staff followed established child-protection standards and whether those standards are strong enough, he said.

Mackintosh cautioned that, at this point, it would be "premature to point fingers" at any social worker, police officer or medical practitioner who may have dealt with the child, who cannot be named along with his parents because of the boy's involvement with Child and Family Services (CFS).

"The reports of what happened to this child are heartbreaking," Mackintosh said. "It's so horribly dismaying to hear allegations of what adults can do to children."

The boy's mother, who apparently regained custody of her son from the boy's grandmother in December 2009, has been charged with assault causing bodily harm, assault with a weapon, aggravated assault, uttering threats and failing to provide the necessities of life. Among the charges facing the 32-year-old man are aggravated assault, uttering threats and breach of probation. Both are being held in the Winnipeg Remand Centre.

The six-year-old and his 18-month-old half-sister are in the care of CFS. The girl is said to be unharmed.

At the south Winnipeg housing development where the family lives, neighbours were in tears as the news emerged Friday.

Witnesses said the young victim's mother and her partner often drank and argued loudly around the area. They say police and what appeared to them to be CFS workers were sometimes seen near the home.

Of the boy, many residents knew little. One neighbour said she only learned the couple had a son in mid-August, when police came to her door with the child in tow, asking if she knew him. The child had apparently been found wandering alone at a nearby apartment building.

The neighbour watched as police and the boy sat in the parking lot for almost an hour, waiting for the child's mother and then talking with her.

"I'm wondering why they didn't take care of it sooner. It's so sad that this is happening, and you don't even know it," said a neighbour.

The case had Progressive Conservative Family Services critic Bonnie Mitchelson wondering whether the provincial child-welfare system had learned any lessons from the terrible deaths of Phoenix Sinclair and Gage Guimond.

She said it's inconceivable a little boy had to beg four times before CFS finally listened and removed him and his sister from an abusive home. "His story could have ended in tragedy if not for his own persistence," she said in a letter to Mackintosh.

Police said the boy showed up at three different neighbours' homes telling them he was lost and had nowhere to go. Each time police and CFS were alerted and facial bruising on the boy was noted. Authorities received an explanation for the bruising each time and he was returned home.

Claudia Ash-Ponce, executive director of the province's child protection branch, said an internal review of the case has begun.

Ash-Ponce said children don't always disclose abuse to police and social workers the first time they're interviewed. "It has to be the right time for that child, and the child has to feel safe and that it's the appropriate person to make a disclosure to," she said.

She said if a child is reported to be bruised, investigation is "quite technical and it's extensive." She said case workers will consider whether the explanations they are given are appropriate and consult their superiors for advice. Social workers will also examine a child's medical history.

Ash-Ponce said she did not want to comment extensively about the case for fear of jeopardizing the police investigation. But she expressed gratitude to the boy's neighbours for contacting authorities about their fears for his safety.

Meanwhile, Mackintosh said Friday there are "early indications" an Ontario social agency may have been involved in transferring the child from his grandmother's care to that of his mother. He said his department would be seeking co-operation from the agency, which he did not name.

-- With files from Melissa Martin

larry.kusch@freepress.mb.ca

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition September 18, 2010 A3