Justice For Families

The Office of the Chief Coroner for Ontario

By Fax: (519) 661-6617

Faxed: September 18, 2008

RE: Death of Laura Montag Dear Chief Coroner (Attention Dr. Mann)

Notice to Coroner - Section 10 - Duty to Give Information

I am writing to you today regarding the tragic death of Laura Montag (Dee) at the age of just 20 who is

currently under the jurisdiction of the Coroner's Office. I am herein notifying you in accordance with

section 10 of the Coroners Act, R.S.O. 1990, c. C-37, that I have reason to believe a deceased person

(Laura Montag) has died as a result of, at minimum, the following circumstances;

Section 10, subsections;

(a)(iii) negligence,

(a)(iv) misconduct,

(a)(v) malpractice,

(b) unfair means,

(c) during pregnancy or following pregnancy in circumstances that might reasonably be attributable

thereto

(d) suddenly and unexpectedly,

(f) from any cause other than disease,

(g) under such circumstances which require investigation,

Coroner's Investigation - Section 16 (2) Investigative Powers

I am requesting the Corner investigate the practices and procedures of Children’s Aid Societies in

Ontario, beginning with the Children's Aid Society of London and Middlesex and that the Coroner do

so using the Investigative Powers invested in him under subsections 16 (2) (b) and (c) of the Coroners

Act which enable the Coroner to inspect and extract information from any records or writings relating

to the deceased or his or her circumstances and reproduce such copies therefrom as the coroner

believes necessary; and to seize anything that the coroner has reasonable grounds to believe is

material to the purposes of the investigation into finding out what led to the death of at least one

deceased person in Ontario, Laura Montag.

And / or in the Alternative

And / or in the alternative, I would like to ask that you recommend the Hon. Deb Matthews, Minister of

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Children and Youth Services to initiate a Judicial Investigation under section 67 of the Child and

Family Services Act into the Administrative Procedures of Children's Aid Societies in Ontario to

prevent similar deaths.

Background

As I understand it currently there is no government or private agency that oversees the administration

of CAS. Their aggressive practices are not in the interest of the child, the family or society at large.

Most notably in need of reform is the funding formula, which financially rewards the societies when a

child is apprehended.

When I learned of Dee’s suicide following harassment from the London CAS I never cried, screamed

and cursed other human beings as much as I did after learning about this senseless death. Dee was an

intelligent, spirited and well-intentioned girl who had fought her way back off the streets of Canadian

cities after five traumatic years of this harsh existence.

Dee was severely abused as a child by her stepfather sexually, physically, psychologically and

emotionally. She found drugs to help her cope with the pain of this abuse and the harsh reality on the

street. In Dee's own words she was using drugs to help her deal with her pain. But she said after losing

two close friends to drug overdose one accidental and one suicide she realized that her method of

coping would eventually kill her if she didn’t find another way. She said she understood finally that she

was going to have to fight for what she needed to get off the street.

The problem was she said she had trouble finding something about herself worth fighting for. She did

find that reason when she learned that she was pregnant in the summer of 2006. Then she was able to

fight for herself with great spirit.

She got help from Sandy Hill Community Health Centre case management worker Jean François who

helped her with the application to subsidized housing where she got housing, he also counselled her for

drug addiction and supported her in her prenatal care. He worked with the rest of the team at Sandy Hill

to help address Dee’s practical and medical needs. This process worked. Dee successfully got off the

street and off drugs.

During the early part of her pregnancy Dee was assaulted by the babies father and this was reported to

Ottawa CAS. Myself, Karen Dawe and Jean François from Sandy Hill Community Health Centre

accompanied Dee to an interview with Ottawa CAS. This interview was conducted in an aggressive,

intrusive manner by the CAS worker. It was determined in this meeting with Ottawa CAS that Dee was

no longer with the father.

Ottawa CAS questioned Dee's mental health status and Jean François reported that Dee's mental issues

were resolved based on treatment from the Doctor on the health team, Dr. Moore at Sandy Hill. Ottawa

CAS said they were closing the file at the conclusion of this interview. Shortly afterwards Dee was

invited by her mother to return home and ended up moving back home where she received tremendous

support from her family now that the abuser was no longer there.

After the birth of her first child based on hospital red flagging from Ottawa, the London Children’s Aid

Society opened her file and began to aggressively pursue apprehension of her child. Dee and the baby

tested negative to all drugs. And her care for the baby was excellent. There were no protection issues.

Dee fought back bravely and effectively with the support of her family, myself, Sandy Hill and the

public health nurse in her area. London Children's Aid Society Manager Derek Druillard closed Dee’s

CAS file about 3 weeks after it was opened because there were no protection issues.

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Dee was a truly awesome mother. She was calm and responsive to the child, breast feed the child

easily, and was totally drug free. She and her family were very proud of her accomplishments. Even

London CAS manager Derek Druillard said that the hospital staff and public heath professionals and

even the CAS worker who initially made contact with Dee in the hospital reported how appropriately

she was caring for the baby. He even added that he could see what they meant because Dee had the

baby with her when we meet with Druillard. About one month after the CAS file was closed the baby

suddenly and without warning died of natural causes (SIDS) as determined by a full coroners

investigation. The death was tragic for Dee but she did eventually decide to have another child.

Harassment in Hospital - Post Birth

When the second child was born, based on a hospital client file "red flag" the London CAS opened her

CAS file because Dee tested positive to Pot. Even though baby tested negative to pot, the London CAS

worker Megan Knapek began to aggressively pursue apprehension of the child starting the day after the

child was born. This harassment occurred while Dee was weak and vulnerable after a Cesarean Section

birth to a child with Spina Bifida. To show her sincerity in dealing with her drug addiction Dee agreed

to a supervision order with the Strathroy CAS, her local agency. Dee consented to random drug testing,

supervision from the Melbourne CAS and public health and to remain in her mother's home for the first

six months. She agreed to counselling or drug treatment. This was not sufficient for the London CAS

worker Megan Knapek and supervisor Susan Schinedel to stop their relentless harassment in Dee’s

hospital room. The harassment continued throughout the month long hospital stay during which time

the baby was still receiving treatment.

Again her family support was awesome, the hospital staff as well were supportive of Dee as they could

see her tremendous mothering skills. But there was no stopping the London CAS. They went to court

with only one-days-notice to Dee while she was still in hospital and presented an affidavit to the court

with several fabrications of fact, for example, they stated that the baby tested positive for marijuana

(there is proof in hospital records that the baby tested negative) and implications that Dee killed her

first baby even though a full coroners investigation concluded that the baby died of SIDS.

Cover-up of Perjury and Laura's Eventual Collapse

Dee held up through all of this because of the support she had, her confidence in her mothering skills

and because she believed that Druillard would intervene again when he saw the evidence of perjury.

But Druillard did not intervene this time. Instead, he defended the actions of his staff. This created the

first part of Dee’s collapse. The second part was when she visited her lawyer for the first time and he

opted to defend the actions of the CAS and did not see their perjury as a problem. It was after this

meeting that Dee relapsed and became totally despondent. I spoke to her the night before she died and I

had never seen her like this before in all the years since 2004 that I knew her. Her spirit was broken.

It is apparent in her suicide poem to her child that she believed that her relapse would result in the loss

of her child to CAS. She thought she had failed to protect her child from apprehension by CAS. Dee

had already over come intense adversity including childhood abuse, trauma, and had made great strikes

with here drug addictions as well as post traumatic stress and anti social personality disorder. But she

could not endure the harassment by CAS.

Those of us who are left behind to deal with the loss of this precious soul are hard pressed to view her

death as a simple suicide because of our knowledge of the unreasonable adversity driving her to this

last and final desperate act to defend her child. Dee should never have to have been subject to this

inhumane, heartless and ultimately fatal treatment that was employed by the CAS to try and make a

case to apprehend her child. Dee’s impact on others at 20 years of age was monumental; her impact in

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the future is something that we will now never know. Her death seems to be more of a political

assassination than anything else. Few others could have resisted such terrible adversity as well as Dee

had.

A previous coroners inquiry made recommendations to Ontario government to provide services to

parents recovering from addiction. If CAS was there to address the needs of the child, they should have

been there to offer assistance to Dee in raising a disabled infant, not to remove the child from a caring

and truly loving young mother. These CAS social workers should not only be fired, but also brought up

on charges. These individuals are clearly supporting CAS policies that persecute and exploit the weak

with a powerful immunity to accountability. They took no regard for the needs and interests of the

infant or the mother that they have just driven to suicide all in the name of keeping their jobs. It is time

that we start acting like human beings and addressing inhuman behaviour as such.

This is not the first death like this I have witnessed. The first was that of Tracy Cain who relapsed on

drugs under the strain of losing access to her child at the hands of the Ottawa Children's Aid Society

after five years clean time. I have also seen many other cases of aggressive, abusive, administrative

practices where apprehension is pursued by all means available... legal or otherwise.

Sincerely,

Jane Scharf,

CC:

Foster Care Council of Canada, The

Ombudsman of Ontario, The

Provincial Advocate for Children and Youth

Hon. Deb Matthews,