Pubdate: Thu, 27 May 2010
Source: Toronto Sun (CN ON)
Copyright: 2010 Canoe Limited Partnership
Contact:  http://torontosun.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/457
Page: 10
Author: Antonella Artuso

TORY MPP URGES BILL TO PROTECT KIDS FROM ILLEGAL DRUGS

Parents and caregivers who expose kids to drug manufacturing and 
trafficking should be treated as child abusers, proposed legislation says.

Tory MPP Garfield Dunlop will introduce a private member's bill 
Monday that would amend the Child and Family Services Act to add 
"drug endangered" as a category of children in need of protection.

"If we truly care about our children, we should do everything 
possible to prevent their exposure to the many dangers and health 
risk associated with making illegal drugs," Dunlop said. "They also 
deserve better than growing up in a grow op or having their meals 
cooked in a crystal meth kitchen."

The Ontario Association of Chiefs of Police passed a motion last year 
to seek this additional legal tool to respond to situations where 
children are found living in marijuana grow operations, clandestine 
labs and other illegal drug dens.

Over the past five years, York Regional Police officers have been 
involved in 113 incidents where they've had to rescue children from 
homes where drugs were being manufactured or trafficked, Supt. Wayne 
Kalinski said.

"At the present time, the child may be removed from the home but when 
the situation improves they're returned," Kalinski said. "And there's 
no penalty or there's no reason for the parents not to do it again 
because they're not held accountable."

Police say Dunlop's bill would give them an extra legal tool to hold 
the parents accountable.

Toronto Police Services Superintendent Ron Taverner, chair of OACP's 
Substance Abuse Committee, said some children are being denied the 
right to a safe and normal childhood.

"These children are drug endangered because they are exposed to toxic 
fumes which could lead to chronic respiratory disorder, neurological 
damage and even cancer. They're exposed to the potential of fire 
hazards - the likelihood of a fire in a grow up dwelling may be as 
much as 40 times greater ... Some are exposed to violent crime and 
even organized crime," Taverner said.

In some cases, families acting as "crop sitters" in grow ops use 
children as a screen to disguise the true use of the home, he said.

"Right now, the act of drug endangering a child is not classified as 
a form of child abuse," he said.

Paris Meilleur, a spokesperson for Children and Youth Services 
Minister Laurel Broten, said the current CFSA legislation is 
broad-based and permits a child protection worker to take appropriate 
action if a child is found in the care of someone involved in drugs.

"That could certainly be reason for removal of that kid from that 
family," she said.

However, the ministry is always willing to listen to advice from 
workers at the ground level and looks forward to the bill's debate, she said.
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