Ontario's child death toll unacceptable: Advocate

Ontario's child death toll unacceptable: Advocate

By THE CANADIAN PRESS
Last Updated: 23rd February 2009, 8:12am
http://www.torontosun.com/news/torontoandgta/2009/02/23/8495461.html

Ontario’s advocate for youth and children says it’s unacceptable that 90 children known to child protection services died in 2007.

Irwin Elman, who was appointed to the post last July, says the 2008 Coroner’s report suggests most of these deaths were preventable.

Sixteen deaths were accidental, nine were suicides, four were homicides, eight were from natural causes and 22 causes were undetermined.

Another 17 deaths are still to be classified and 14 were not considered appropriate by the Coroner for investigation.

Where the manner of death is known, 45% of the children who died were under one year of age and 32% were between 12 and 18.

In his annual report, Elman says it could be argued that 90 deaths in a small number compared with the 26,260 cases at Children’s Aid Societies, but he rejects that, saying the figure is “too high by any standard.”

Elman says in his report that “blaming some individuals is not helpful” and that society needs to say that it “cannot accept this.”