Deaf Woman's Child Taken By CAS

Nicholas Keung
STAFF REPORTER

A Toronto woman is outraged that Children's Aid Society workers
took away her 2-week-old boy after her landlord complained the woman, born deaf, couldn't hear and neglected her son's cries.

Michelle (not her real name) and her son were visiting a deaf
couple's house near Glen Shields Ave. and Dufferin St. when a team of four Toronto police officers and CAS workers showed up at 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday.

"I just finished breast-feeding my baby and was rocking him in a
car seat. They just picked him up and took him away," the distraught 27-year-old single mother said yesterday.

"There was no sign-language interpreter. We had no idea what they
were talking about. I didn't know why and where they were taking my baby."

The children's aid workers and police were at the house for about
30 minutes and left the mother a business card.

Through the help of social agencies for the deaf, Michelle was
allowed a one-hour visit with her son yesterday at a Scarborough
children's aid office and to breast-feed the infant for the first time in three days.

Nancy Andrews, acting service administration manager of CAS
Toronto, said privacy legislation prevented her from revealing the nature of the complaint against the young mother.

But Chris Kenopick, executive director of the Ontario Association
for the Deaf, said he was told by children's aid workers that Michelle's landlady laid the negligence complaint. The woman rented a room to Michelle in her Scarborough apartment last summer.

The landlord, Kenopick said, claimed Michelle did not respond to
her child's crying. The landlord, who did not return calls from The Star, also claimed a baby-monitoring device - designed especially for deaf parents - wasn't working.

Michelle, who denies the allegations, said: "Steven cries a lot at
night, just like other babies."

Kenopick said his association receives about 10 calls a year from
parents with hearing disabilities whose children are taken away by
children's aid, but it's the first time a newborn has been involved.

"There are a lot of misunderstandings and miscommunication out
there about deaf parents. Most people think if you are deaf, you are incompetent. They wonder how you can hear a baby cry when you are deaf," said Kenopick, who himself has impaired hearing.

"Can you imagine (having) someone come into your house, talk to
you in a foreign language and then just grab your child away?"

Andrews admitted the Children's Aid Society does not have a
specific policy to deal with deaf parents, but quickly added its workers only act on complaints when reasonable grounds are established after thorough investigations.

"In every situation, we would make every effort to secure an
interpreter for a family. However, sometimes in an emergency situation, when a child may be facing imminent danger or risk, it may not always be possible to have an interpreter on the spot," she said.

Beth McAdam, a counsellor with Silent Voices who has been offering
support to Michelle since August, said the young mother asked to
participate in various pre-natal and parenting courses, and actively sought help to ensure all her child's needs were met.

"She has shown me she is a responsible mother," McAdam said.

A family court judge is scheduled to hear the matter Tuesday and
decide if the mother should have her child back.