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	CAS under Microscope at Cornwall Probe Agency Lacked In-Depth Checks for Foster Parents until 1985, Inquiry Hears Ottawa Sun [Canada] April 5, 2006 http://ottsun.canoe.ca/News/OttawaAndRegion/2006/04/05/1521034.html CORNWALL — It wasn't until the mid-1980s that the Children's Aid Society began to do in-depth checks on people applying to be foster parents, an inquiry into the response to allegations of child sex abuse here heard Tuesday. Prior to 1985, screening consisted of such things as a medical exam of each parent, a test for tuberculosis, three references from a priest, a friend, a neighbour or a family member, a home visit and an interview to complete a two-page home study. Beginning in the early 1960s, CAS workers would note the physical aspects of the home, ensure the couple had a valid marriage licence, put together a summary of the references and medical reports, and compile a brief description of the parents and their children. Ian MacLean, a special assistant to the local CAS executive director, told the inquiry the agency improved policies over time. The agency focused on things such as age and the lifestyle of the family home, MacLean said. "Our guidelines indicated foster parents should be between the ages of 21 and 60," MacLean said, referring to minutes of a CAS staff meeting held in 1957. "It also states the agency cannot accept as foster parents people who have no religion." MacLean said the agency relied heavily on the character references they received from people who knew the applicants personally. "We looked very carefully at the references," MacLean said. "We counted on them to tell us of their knowledge of the applicants and whether they were people who would be able to care for children." In 1985, the agency put into place Foster Care Licensing Standards which included training for all foster parent applicants. The training initially involved nine sessions of three hours each but eventually evolved into 12 sessions focusing on everything from an introduction to the CAS to how to handle children who have suffered sexual abuse. Foster homes were limited to the care of four children or two children under the age of two years, and the agency also embarked on an improved inspection of the home. In each home, workers ensured there were no locks on the doors of children's bedrooms, that there was proper storage of any firearms which might be kept in the home, that there were proper smoke detectors and fire extinguishers in the home, that no foster child over the age of six was to share a bedroom with another child of the opposite sex, and that no foster child shared a bed or sleeping room with an adult couple or adult of the opposite sex. A police check was also carried out on every applicant, a policy that eventually evolved to include every adult living in the foster home. The public inquiry is probing how public institutions responded to historical allegations of child sexual abuse in Cornwall. Police laid 114 charges against 15 men in the 1990s after a sweeping investigation known as Project Truth. Few of the cases ever made it to court, and police said they never found any evidence of a pedophile ring.
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