The Minister of Children, Community and Social Services is speaking out on comments made by a lawyer on behalf of the Kenora and Rainy River Districts Child and Family Services.
In a court affidavit last July, Gary McCallum suggested “a fourteen or fifteen (year-old) is a sexually mature young woman. Not a ‘child.'”
Lisa McLeod says she read about the comments in a news article on the weekend.
“As I read that article, I was embarrassed that somebody making that statement would represent a children’s aid society in Ontario,” says McLeod.
The agency says the lawyer no longer represents it.
“This is not the first time—when we see what’s happened in Kenora—that the standards that should be in place have not been met by our child welfare system. That is why we will bring in robust legislation to hold the children’s aid societies of this province to a higher standard,” says McLeod.
Provincial law identifies anyone under the age of 18 as a child.
