“Motherisk, a once-respected lab inside [Canada’s premier] Hospital for Sick Children, performed tests for more than 100 child welfare providers in five provinces, an investigation reveals.” The lab performed hair-strand drug and alcohol tests “on at least 25,000 people across Canada. The tests were discredited, but not before they were used in at least eight criminal cases and thousands of child protection cases. Now, many of those cases are under review.” While many of the cases drew on evidence other than the hair tests, false positives for drug or alcohol abuse could be a factor in temporary or permanent removal of children from parents [Toronto Star]
In British Columbia, a mother is desperate to convince the children she lost years ago that she didn’t choose drugs over them.
In Nova Scotia, a 7-year-old girl prays for her brother, who was adopted into another family.
And in Ontario, a mother whose daughters were taken shortly after they were born is waiting for a reunion that may never come.
More on questionable crime labs: Radley Balko on a new Massachusetts scandal (not the big previous one); John Oliver.
One Comment
Very sad. I can well understand the “too bad” response of authorities. The children’s lives could be upset once again, and the adoptive parents are completely innocent. (There’s generally a maxim of equity–when the dispute is between two innocent parties, the courts will generally not act.) The problem is that the right to direct the upbringing of one’s children is a right that pre-dates civilization. And it cannot be undone by knowingly bogus testing.