A Legacy of Caring
A HISTORY OF THE CHILDREN’S AID SOCIETY OF TORONTO
A Legacy of Caring
A HISTORY OF THE CHILDREN’S AID SOCIETY OF TORONTO
JOHN MCCULLAGH
Copyright © John McCullagh, 2002
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National Library of Canada Cataloguing in Publication Data
McCullagh, John
A legacy of caring : the Children’s Aid Society of Toronto / John McCullagh.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 1-55002-335-7
1. Children’s Aid Society of Toronto–History. I. Title.
HV746.T6M33 2002
362.7'06'0713541
C2002-901066-7
1 2 3 4 5 06 05 04 03 02
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Dedicated to the present and former board members,
staff, foster parents and volunteers of the
Children’s Aid Society of Toronto and the
Infants’ Home and Infirmary.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Acknowledgments
Foreword
Chapter 1: The Infants’ Home, 1875–1890
The development of social services in nineteenth-century Toronto
Baby farms
The founding of the Infants’ Home
Staffing
Medical care
Admissions and discharges
Breast-feeding
Life at the Infants’ Home
Advocacy and community development
Funding
Chapter 2: A Society to Protect Children, 1891–1919
John Joseph Kelso
Kelso’s campaign against child labour
The Humane Society of Toronto is established
Children’s Protection Act, 1888
The origins of the children’s aid movement
The founding of the Children’s Aid Society of Toronto
John Kidson MacDonald
The Children’s Charter
Kelso as superintendent of neglected and dependent children
The children’s shelter
Life at the shelter
“It is less expensive to save children than to punish criminals”
Summer camp
Substitute family care
Managing the work
Funding the work
Conflict and concern
Chapter 3: The Growth of Professionalism, 1920–1939
Life in early-twentieth-century Toronto
Vera Moberly
Institutional care to boarding home care
The closing of the Infants’ Home shelter
Stable funding for the Infants’ Home
Reform at the CAS
John Kidson MacDonald resigns
Bob Mills
“From a jail to a home”
Administrative restructuring
The move to Charles and Isabella streets
Protection work
The development of boarding home care at the CAS
Financial stability
The Infants’ Home’s work with unmarried mothers
Adoption Act, 1921
The end of the Kelso era
Chapter 4: War and its Aftermath, 1940–1949
Canada at war
British “war guests”
“Our boys in the King’s Forces”
Services to soldiers’ families
Post-war staffing challenges
Foster home shortage and a new Receiving Centre
Retirements of Vera Moberly and Bob Mills
Belle Carver and Stewart Sutton
Chapter 5: Amalgamation and Growth, 1950–1964
Toronto at mid-century
Amalgamation of CAS and Infants’ Homes
The challenges posed by amalgamation
A new Child Welfare Centre
Expansion to the suburbs
Stewart Sutton resigns
Lloyd Richardson
Child Welfare Act, 1954
“Changing the course of human life”
Protection work
Work with unmarried parents
Adoption
Foster family and group home care
Institutional care
The Receiving Centre
Moberly House
The society’s busiest year
Chapter 6: The Golden Years, 1965–1977
Toronto in the 1960s and 1970s
The role of children’s aid societies
Child Welfare Act, 1965
The agency reorganizes
Prevention and early intervention
Family services
Community development
Homemaker service
Alternate care
Services to youth
Child abuse and neglect
Services to children in care
Homefinding
Foster family care
Foster Parent Association
Residences
Adoption
Medical services
Volunteers
Lloyd Richardson retires and is succeeded by Ed Watson
Pressures for accountability, productivity and efficiency
The society’s response to provincial expectations
Union certification
A birthday celebration
Ed Watson resigns
Chapter 7: Improving the System, 1978–1988
Toronto in the 1980s
The death of Vicky Ellis
The difficulties of protecting children
Making it easier to protect children
Child Welfare Act, 1978
Doug Barr
Child and Family Services Act, 1984
A CAS Foundation to prevent child abuse
The High Risk Infant Program
Sexual abuse
Adoption
The changing role of foster parents
Advocacy
Multiculturalism
Accountability
Cost cutting
Doug Barr resigns
Mel Finlay
The unionized staff go on strike
Mel Finlay resigns
Foster parent slowdown
Pape Adolescent Resource Centre
Innovation and leadership
Chapter 8: Recession and Reform, 1989–1998
Toronto in the 1990s
Metro CAS in the Nineties
Funding and service challenges of the early 1990s
Early intervention and prevention
Primary prevention through community development
Community partnerships
Young people at risk: homeless and runaway youth
Young people at risk: lesbian, gay and bisexual youth
Child welfare practice in a diverse community
Growing up in care
Continuity of Care
Fostering for Metro CAS
Adoption in the 1990s
Volunteering at Metro CAS
Looking back to the past and forward to the future
A new direction for the CAS Foundation
Child Mortality Task Force
The deaths of Shanay Johnson and Jennifer Koval’s’kyj-England
Child Welfare Reform
Epilogue
Appendix 1: Names by which the Agency Has Been Known
Appendix 2: Presidents and Chief Executive Officers
Appendix 3: Administrative Offices and Shelters
Appendix 4: Bibliography and a Note on Sources
Index
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This history of the Children’s Aid Society of Toronto is the product of the cooperative efforts of many people without whose support and input it could not have been written.
The society’s Staff Alumni Association — and, in particular, former president Paul Michaelis, current president Maureen Duffy and members Tony Diniz, Jean Fuerd, Terry MacFarlane, Mona Robinson, Jessie Watters and Dave Wright — conceived the idea of publishing a history of the agency and saw it through to completion.
A generous grant from the Children’s Aid Foundation supported the research, much of which was undertaken by Dr. Gail Aitken and Dr. Don Bellamy. Over the course of several years, they combed through agency and government archival materials, academic theses and books, journals and articles (both published and unpublished), many of which were located by George Wharton and his colleagues at the City of Toronto Archives. Doctors Aitken and Bellamy also conducted lengthy interviews with a large number of the society’s current and former board members, foster parents, staff and volunteers, analyzed their research and organized it into the first draft of this book.
An advisory committee consisting of Gail Aitken, Don Bellamy, Tony Diniz, Maureen Duffy, Sheilagh Johnson, Bruce Leslie, Melanie Persaud and Bruce Rivers provided me with invaluable support and direction as well as feedback on the style and content of the manuscript. Bev Lepischak gave useful advice from the perspective of a social work professional not directly connected to the society and its work.
Conversations with a large number of witnesses to the work of the society over the past fifty years form a significant part of the source material for this book, particularly from Chapter 4 onward. The names of a fair number of these witnesses appear in the text, while the information provided by others helped put the agency’s day-to-day work in the historical context of the times. All were unfailingly responsive to Gail Aitken’s, Don Bellamy’s or my inquiries. Their names are: Ethel Allen, Doug Barr, Joyce Barretto, Joan Berndt, Carolyn Buck, Mollie Christie, Joyce Cohen, Anne Coulter, Nancy Dale, Jack Darville, Tony Diniz, Kim Dorian, Sheila Dowdell, Kathy Duncan, Jill Evertman, Nancy Falconer, Mel Finlay, Jean Fuerd, Doug Gardner, Brian Greggains, Joyce Greggains, Leyland Gudge, Janet Haddock, Peter Hagerdoorn, Valerie Hartling, Farrell Haynes, Don Hepburn, Dorothy Herberg, Maggie Hunter, Carol Irwin, James Joyce, Sheliagh Johnson, Russell Joliffe, Betty Kashima, Linda Kiss, Margaret Leitenberger, Donna Leslie, Mary Lewis, John Liston, Joanne Maltby, Ruth Manke, Mardy Marlow, Sheila McDermott, Hanna McDonough, Marcellina Mian, Paul Michaelis, Lori Morina, Sandy Moshenko, Susan Oley, Jim Patterson, Shirley Pearse, Marilyn Pearson, Marjorie Perkins, Richard Phillips, Brenda Pickup, Joan Poole, Ron Poole, Steve Raiken, Kenn Richard, Sharron Richards, Bruce Rivers, Mona Robinson, Agnes Roy, Sandra Scarth, Ron Smith, Sybil Smith, Mary Speers, Paul Steinhauer, Debbie Stillemunkes, Betty Stubbins, Jim Thompson, Ed Watson, Jessie Watters, Lois Wicks, Bob Witterick, Valerie Witterick, Gordon Wolfe, Wilma Wrabko and Dave Wright. I extend my apologies to anyone who, through my own oversight, I may have omitted from this list.
I would like to thank all the people at Dundurn Press who helped produce this book, in particular the company’s president, Kirk Howard, copy editor Lloyd Davis and graphic designers Jennifer Scott and John Lee.
Finally, I owe a personal debt to my partner Arnold Brodkin for enduring my long hours at the computer.
JOHN McCULLAGH
Toronto,
October 2001
FOREWORD
It has often been said that the work of child welfare is a calling. It touches your heart, your spirit and your thoughts like few other experiences in life. Perhaps it is the immensity of the children’s suffering and their resilience in overcoming adversity that underlies this phenomenon. Perhaps it is the complexity of the human condition and the journey to understand child maltreatment or to help parents stop the hurt and find a better way to care for their children. It may be the impact of an investigation, a complex court proceeding or an adoption-matching process between a child and adoptive parents. Whatever it is, the result is profound.
Four years ago, a group of committed staff alumni, including the then president of the Alumni Association, Paul Michaelis, along with committee members Tony Diniz, Jean Fuerd, Terry MacFarlane, Mona Robinson, Jessie Watters and David Wright, conceived the idea of a book to chronicle the history and development of child welfare service in Toronto at the Children’s Aid Society of Toronto. With the generous funding support of the Children’s Aid Foundation, the thorough research of Dr. Gail Aitken and Dr. Don Bellamy and the analysis and expert writing skills provided by John McCullagh, the dream of a book about the Children’s Aid Society of Toronto and its exceptional history has finally been realized.
This book tells the story of child welfare in Toronto. Specifically, it recounts the history of two separate agencies concerned with the welfare of children: the Infants’ Home and Infirmary, established in 1875, and the Children’s Aid Society, incorporated in 1891. These agencies merged in 1951 to create one of the largest and most progressive child welfare organizations in Canada. This history extends to 1998 and ends with an analysis of what the future holds with the turn of the millennium. Through captions, pictures, excerpts and narrative, McCullagh weaves a powerful account of social policy development and the evolution of child welfare practice and legislation over the past 125 years.
Throughout the long history of the Children’s Aid Society of Toronto and that of the Infants’ Home, board members, staff, foster parents and volunteers have largely worked in obscurity. Theirs, however, is the legacy of more than 125 years of caring for Toronto’s children in need and it is to them that this book is dedicated.
BRUCE RIVERS
Executive Director, Children’s Aid Society of Toronto
Toronto, October 2001
CHAPTER 1
The Infants’ Home,
1875–1890
The development of social services in nineteenth-century Toronto
Since the earliest days of European settlement in the late eighteenth century, orphaned, abandoned and neglected children were features of life in Upper Canada, as Ontario was known before Confederation. Apprenticeship and indenture were the main legal provisions for dealing with these youngsters, embodied in the Orphans Act of 1779 and the Apprentices and Minors Act of 1851. (In 1827, a Guardianship Act had provided for court-appointed guardians for fatherless children, although it would be another twenty-eight years before custody of a child could be awarded to a mother.)
The reality, however, was that most of tho
se young people in need were simply taken in by neighbours without formality. Although this could be construed as an act of humanitarian kindness, such unregulated foster families undoubtedly believed that the young person’s help around the house or on the farm would eventually more than offset the cost of their care.
By the mid-nineteenth century, many communities had begun to experience rapid growth and urbanization, and none more so than Toronto. Having become the provincial capital at Confederation, by the 1870s the city was Ontario’s major commercial and manufacturing centre. Its population grew from about 60,000 in the 1850s to almost 200,000 in 1891, when the Children’s Aid Society (CAS) was founded. In that year, it is estimated that there were about 15,250 children under five years of age in Toronto.
During the Victorian era, the majority of people in Toronto were Protestant Christians of British and Irish background. Others could trace their ancestry back to the United Empire Loyalists — colonists who had remained loyal to the Crown after the American Revolution — and other migrants from the United States. Some newcomers arrived, but Canada lost more people to emigration in those days than it gained through immigration.
Life in Toronto in this era was a comfortable experience for the middle class but was not easy for working people, most of whom spent the majority of their waking hours on the job, six days a week. Poor lighting, overcrowding and unsanitary conditions characterized most workplaces. Factory machines were unguarded, and fire escapes and ventilation systems were nonexistent. Although these factories and businesses in the burgeoning city provided jobs for many, unemployment and poverty were widespread, with crime, panhandling, alcoholism and prostitution the outcome.
Working-class children under the age of eight were assigned domestic chores such as housecleaning, fetching fuel and water and babysitting. Schooling often took second place. Enforcement of Ontario’s compulsory education laws in the later years of the century was inadequate, while truancy and its accomplice, child labour, became commonplace.
Working-class children under the age of eight were assigned domestic chores such as housecleaning, fetching fuel and water and babysitting. Schooling often took second place. Enforcement of Ontario’s compulsory education laws in the later years of the century was inadequate, while truancy and its accomplice, child labour, became commonplace.