CORNWALL PUBLIC INQUIRY "Please read the comments"

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Suspension not considered: O'Brien
CORNWALL PUBLIC INQUIRY
Posted By TREVOR PRITCHARD, STANDARD-FREEHOLDER
Posted 18 hours ago


The former executive director of the Children's Aid Society never considered suspending an employee accused of physically and sexually abusing children at a group home in the 1970s, the Cornwall Public Inquiry heard Wednesday.

Thomas O'Brien testified that he let Bryan Keough continue to oversee foster homes while Cornwall police investigated the allegations of former CAS ward Jeannette Antoine because he didn't feel there was a chance that other children were at risk.

"He would have no way of disciplining those children. That would have been the responsibility of the foster parents, not Mr. Keough," said O'Brien, who ran the local CAS branch from 1966 until 1990.

The inquiry is exploring how institutions like the CAS handled allegations of historical sexual abuse.

In 1976, staff at the agency's Second Street group home all resigned after some of the children staying there brought forward allegations of demeaning physical abuse to the CAS.

Keough was not a permanent employee at the home. However, O'Brien told the inquiry Wednesday he would often help out there because he was friends with Derry Tenger, the home's director.

"Mr. Keough and Mr. Tenger had the same attitude about physical punishment," said O'Brien. "They were much more rigid than I was (about) how you could properly discipline a child."

Thirteen years later, in August 1989, the group home allegations again ended up on the CAS's radar.

That summer, Antoine told agency caseworkers about the widespread physical and sexual abuse she saw while she was at the home. When she testified at the inquiry in 2006, Antoine singled out Keough as one of the main perpetrators of the abuse, which included forcing teenage girls to scrub floors wearing only their underwear.

O'Brien spoke once with Antoine about her accusations in August 1989.

According to his notes, Antoine was "specific about her dislike for Bryan Keough" during the phone call, and wondered why the CAS would still be employing Keough "after the way he had treated the children."

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O'Brien told commission counsel Pierre Dumais that he wanted to speak again with Antoine, to get more information, but never succeeded in reaching her.

While he informed both Cornwall police and the Crown attorney's office of the allegations, O'Brien said he never suspended or disciplined Keough.

"I know that I was in a quandary as to what the law would say," said O'Brien. "And that's why I involved myself with the Crown attorney and the deputy chief of police."

When pressed, O'Brien admitted that had the allegations been made against a non-CAS employee, the agency "probably" would have probed deeper.

Inquiry commissioner Normand Glaude wanted to know why that didn't happen.

"There was a lot of uncertainty," said O'Brien. "I'm not excusing my actions.

"I wasn't sure what to do."

Police investigated Antoine's allegations twice, but never laid any charges.

Keough denied assaulting children at the group home when he took the stand earlier this month.

Under cross-examination, O'Brien told Citizens for Community Renewal lawyer Helen Daley that although he did not agree with the use of corporal punishment in foster homes or by CAS workers, the agency had no written policy forbidding it.

O'Brien told Daley while it was possible Antoine's allegations of physical punishment at Keough's hands were true, he had trouble believing the alleged sexual abuse.

Prior to yesterday's hearing, there had been concerns from lawyers that O'Brien - who testified Wednesday while hooked up to an oxygen machine - would be too ill to complete his cross-examination.

Those fears seemed to abate yesterday after O'Brien, in his mid-70s, spent almost the entire day on the stand, appearing eager to wrap up his testimony as quickly as possible.

O'Brien is scheduled to continue testifying when the inquiry resumes this morning.

Article ID# 1260409




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I guarantee you if it had been reported that I or any other member of the public had been reported to have been abusing children that they would have investigated us but no not this guy because he is a member of the staff of the group home so essentially an employee of the CAS. These people have way too much power and no one watches them to see if they are doing what is right for the children.
Reply | Report | Page Top Post #1 By dodger, 18 hours ago | -1 Votes | Vote: Dodger

I beleive that at the time most of this abuse took place nobbody would have been investigated to any great extent.

Reply | Report | Page Top Post #2 By itinerant, 17 hours ago | 0 Votes | Vote: People, there is a great difference between being 'accused/alleged' to have physically and/or sexually abusing - then being 'found guilty of'. I agree that the whole issue was treated differently back in the 70's & 80's > my goodness, parents were still using corporal punishment, schools were still strapping children on the hand if they misbehaved.... but
society as a whole has come a long way from that - no longer are we adhering to the use of physical punishment with children because we have learned as a culture that it can cause permanent damage to a child's self esteem, identity, and ability to grow into strong and independent adults....
Dodger, get a grip in regards to CAS people having way to much power and no one watches them to see if they are doing what is right for the children. This statement is simply not based on the reality of the past many years - maybe, just maybe, in the earlier days workers were ill-eguipped to deal properly with the multitude of child protection concerns that they were faced with every day, and maybe, just maybe, some unqualified folk took their personal views of punishment over the edge towards harming a child (inexcuseable to me), but the CAS system simply DOES NOT allow for this to occur any more. Workers are heavily screened before employment, workers are educated in social work practice, workers are supervised, and supervisors are supervised.... child abuse of any nature is taken very seriously, and no matter who the 'alleged perp' is - all possible steps are taken to protect the child from harm.
Dodger, don't you think that it might be time for you to come forward and being the healing process - become part of the solution - rather than staying stuck in your anger and pain? Negative forces hinder the healing you know.

Reply | Report | Page Top Post #3 By looking at the larger picture, 17 hours ago | 1 Votes | Vote: Come forward for what to become a target of these people with the power. THey use their power and do abuse it I know from experience. Yes I am angry but i do realize that power without any boundaries leads to abuse of power. And my experience is from in the last 10 years not from the 1970's or 1980's. If a worker takes a dislike to a particular person they can make their life hell with or without proof. Simply by them keeping notes that they wrote does not make their accusations the truth. I can write false notes that doesn't make my notes the truth. Oh yes one thing I have learned is that it depends on who is accused if it is one of their friends not much action is taken. Do I want to expose myself to further abuse by coming forward no thank you very much.
Reply | Report | Page Top Post #4 By dodger, 16 hours ago | -1 Votes | Vote: I do know that there are some very professional people that work for the CAS and yes some very reasonable people also but the ones that abuse their power take so long to be removed that the damage is allready done they ruin families virtually tear them to pieces simply because of a conflict of personalities. If I say anything more i will expose myself if i am too specific me I don't have the strength to fight them again. Spent ten's of thousands of dollars doing it yes we were exonerated but it took so long and a judge made the decision thank god the judge was a level headed person.
Reply | Report | Page Top Post #5 By dodger, 15 hours ago | 0 Votes | Vote: well written "looking ta the big picture"

You are very right! It was done but now we have to get over it, sitting and holding ire is a bad way to live
Reply | Report | Page Top Post #6 By itinerant, 15 hours ago | 0 Votes | Vote: I will never ever trust any worker from the CAS what they say and what they do it two different things. I am over it just stating my point of view on this stuff. Oh yes one of the requirements of becoming a CAS worker should be that they have some child raising experience of their own not just text book reading about how children should be raised. Many of the workers have never raised a child of their own so how would they know how to handle a particular problem with a child.
Reply | Report | Page Top Post #7 By dodger, 14 hours ago | 0 Votes | Vote: oh Dodger,
CAS workers are hired to be Social Workers with an educational background in child development, and much more. It is not a requirement for employment that they have direct parenting experience. Further, while direct parenting experience can be a benefit - it does not give any worker an inner working knowledge of how others should parent - these are their personal views. All workers are required to follow the standards that are set forth by the Ministry of Child & Family Services Act. Therefore, what they would have to evaluate should they enter any ones home, has to be based on what the Ministry standards are - not their own personal views of parenting.
The CAS trains their workers in this practice. CAS also offers any one that feels that a 'personality conflict' is possibly causing an unjust or unrealistic view of the family's situation - the opportunity to a formal complaint procedure. Even an in formal complaint and a request for a supervisor to review the situation is afforded in every situation - if needed. think about this.....
Also Dodger, I am not suggesting that you 'expose' yourself; that is not needed in order for you to heal from past negative experiences. But I am asking you to consider how your negative, often point blank, opinions herein affect others in our community. If you look at that part, inside of yourself, you might realize that you are giving a lot of wasted energy to your anger and resentment - rather than trying to be at peace with your life and the lives of others that surround you. let go....
Reply | Report | Page Top Post #8 By looking at the larger picture, 13 hours ago | 1 Votes | Vote: Whoever you are you obviously have info on the inner workings of the CAS and I did complain but the worker was protected. And until you have been in my shoes you have no right to tell me to do with my life. I feel like you are a worker also because you just talked down to me like i was a child. I appreciate you want me to heal but I don't want healing I want my family back together that will heal me. Easy for someone else to sit and judge another person when they have not been through their lives nor experienced their pain. Have you ever lost a family member but that member is not dead. Not able to see that member unless someone else is watching your every move like a criminal yet no criminal charges have been laid. All across ontario this same stuff is happening to other families. Well I have to stop talking because it does no good. You go on and heal yourself I will deal with my own problems yes problems that were not caused by me.
Reply | Report | Page Top Post #9 By dodger, 5 hours ago | 0 Votes | Vote: look at this larger picture heal yourself not me
Reply | Report | Page Top Post #10 By dodger, 4 hours ago | 0 Votes | Vote:
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