Dr. Leo Levin

The Children's Aid Society sought an order for extended society care for a two-year-old child with global developmental delay, arguing the mother was incapable of parenting due to a severe non-verbal learning disability.

The society relied heavily on a parenting capacity assessment by Dr. McDermott.

Following a voir dire, the court ruled the assessment inadmissible, finding it lacked threshold reliability, relied on invalid psychological testing, and the assessor lacked independence.

While the court found the child in need of protection due to the mother's need for support and the child's special needs, it concluded the society had not made adequate efforts to assist the mother or give her a meaningful opportunity to parent.

The court ordered the child returned to the mother's care subject to society supervision, following a graduated transition period.

A motion to re-open an appeal in a child protection matter involving a nine-year-old boy who had been in care for over six years.

The biological parents sought to re-open the Court of Appeal's dismissal of their appeal from a Crown wardship order made by the trial judge.

The parents had previously appealed to the Superior Court of Justice, which dismissed their appeal, and then to the Court of Appeal, which also dismissed their appeal on its merits.

The motion was dismissed as frivolous, vexatious, and an abuse of process.

The parents were prohibited from bringing further motions without leave.

The parents appealed a trial judge's final order making their child a Crown Ward with no access under the Child and Family Services Act.

The appeal grounds included allegations of judicial bias, usurpation of the trier of fact's role by an expert, exclusion of evidence, and failure to consider the child's return to the mother.

The appellate court dismissed the appeal, finding no palpable and overriding error in the trial judge's conclusions.

The court upheld the reliance on expert evidence regarding long-term neglect and the mother's inability to cooperate with supervision, which rendered continued access detrimental to the child's best interests and permanency planning.