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Ombudsman’s Office - Children’s Section Update
For years, the Nova Scotia Ombudsman’s Office claimed they were overseeing the rights of the children who were apprehended by the provincial government. In fact, until recently, the Ombudsman’s Office boldly made this declaration on the front page of their Child and Youth Section website:
If you are a child or youth in the care or custody of the Province of Nova
Scotia or you have an interest in the programs and services provided to
children and youth in provincial facilities . . .
The Nova Scotia Office of the Ombudsman Children’s Section may be able to help you.
Printed from http://www.gov.ns.ca/ombu/Child_Ombud/default.asp
Claiming this service to other organizations and federal/ provincial departments, this assertion was reproduced on a number of other websites as well.
At the same time, they distributed numerous expensive glitzy colorful pamphlets declaring this fallacy. You can view one of these pamphlets at this website: http://www.gov.ns.ca/ombu/publications/ChildOmbudComServ.pdf
The Ombudsman’s Office is NOT an independent third party! It is a provincial office, overseen by a retired RCMP official, Dwight Bishop. This is not the person you want handling complaints against the government or government agents. RCMP personnel are rigorously trained and instilled with a mindset that is focused on defending and protecting the government - not entertaining complaints against the government.
Only 2 weeks ago, a mother who had 4 children apprehended by the Nova Scotia government phoned to request a meeting with the Child and Youth Section of this office for herself and her husband so that, together, they could discuss their appeals to this office. This request for a meeting was refused and the mother was informed that she could relay any information gleaned from the conversation to her husband.
The Ombudsman’s Office informed this mother that they would not contact her children to inform them of their rights, including their right to make complaint - One child was 12 years old who, under the Children and Family Services Act, has the right to an independent lawyer.
The only “assistance” they would extend was to mail out pamphlet’s to the mother for her to attempt to give to the children herself!
FOR SHAME ! ! ! ! ! !
We have no confidence in this Ombudsman’s Office to oversee the right and complaints of the children who have been apprehended by this province. This office is not independent and has shown no desire to defend and represent these children . For years, they were funded to do exactly this, yet they chose Not to take jurisdiction over any of these children.
A little know fact to most citizens of Nova Scotia is that many children apprehended by the Minister are being sent out of province, as well as out of country - One such place is Cinnamon Hills in UTAH, situated in a high plateau desert, in Southwestern United States. To send our children, who are used to the seasoned Northeast with the cool Atlantic breezes, to a desert, is a culture shock! See additional information on this website They're Shipping our Children to UTAH!
We are very concerned about the well-being and the whereabouts of these children - Once the government has taken children into permanent care and shipped them out of country, who is watching out for them?
What, we ask, is the Ombudsman’s Office doing to protect their rights? What avenues of complaint do these children have to complain against the out-of-province and out-of-country facilities that they find themselves in? They are not looking after the rights of the children in province - why should we expect them to look out for the rights of our children sent out of the province ?
See further information on the Ombudsman’s Office-Children’s Section see:
Ombudsman's Office : More Gripes Please &
The Checks and Balances Not Working