Making Statements to Children’s Aid Society

This is a really interesting topic today which comes up with a lot of our clients and that is they’re charged with a criminal offence. Let’s say you’re charged with domestic violence involving more than their children. Whether it’s a woman or a man, domestic violence, we represent women to on domestic violence, or sexual assault involving one of your children, and the client maintains their innocent and they may be I mean, not everyone charged with a criminal offence is guilty. We have to bear that in mind. Everyone’s presumed to be innocent as well. So what happens in that situation is your charge the police lay the charge, you release from custody and there’s going to be an order that you not, you’re going to leave have to leave the home the typically you have to be able to see your children, etc. So that’s a non-communication not association or now the children’s aid societies almost invariably going to be get involved. They always do because the police have an obligation to notify them. They’re going to want to interview you and about the abuse, alleged abuse in the home situation. Now what advice we give clients in this situation? Well, if you maintain your innocent and you want to go to trial, our first advice is Look, you’re not getting your kids back right now. Anyway, you’re it’s alleged you sexually assaulted one of the children, the others are both the same age. There is no use giving a statement to children say the only effect of that I’ll tell you the effect, it could ruin your defence. Because let’s say you’re truly innocent. I don’t mean you just say you’re innocent. You’re actually truly innocent to the child’s fabricating for whatever reason, which does happen. So you go into children’s aid all nervous, they have professional examiner’s questioning you, you’re totally unprepared. You haven’t even read your criminal file yet. So you don’t even know what your child is alleging. You’re walking into a total trap. They’re going to examine you for three hours in a room. You’re going to tell your version of events you’re going to be nervous, you’re going to forget things even if you are telling the truth. a truthful person can almost never, I mean, never tell the same details. The same way every time there’s going to be an inconsistency between something you say this year and two years later at trial, it’s guaranteed that there’s very few people the world who can pull that off. The only people who can pull that off or if they’ve studied the criminal file extension, maybe they’ve been prepared, that you’ll all the questions are going to be asked and that’s going to take place two years down the road, you’re in trial. Even then it’s a rare person that can pull that off. It’s, I rarely see it happen in my entire career. Every person I’ve seen my career except for maybe one or two. And that’s a lot of clients who gave a statement to the police, regretted it because there’s always an inconsistency to that statement of what they’re going to testify to the trial. It might be a big inconsistency, which is a disaster. Medium still a disaster. Even small inconsistencies hurt. So first and foremost, you have to exercise your right to remain silent. I’m not talking Children’s Aid. You can deal with children’s aid if you win your case. Hopefully if you lose your case law you’re not getting kids back anyway. But dealing with Children’s Aid while child abuse cases going on involving a no go. It doesn’t help you. And it’s all almost certainly going to harm your case in some way that you totally regret. So, so that’s, it’s something that clients don’t want to hear because they want the kids back. Someone who says, I didn’t do what I want to go I want to clear my conscience with children’s aid. I want to tell them nothing happened.  I want to clear myself and I said you’re not going to quit yourself with children’s day you’re not getting your kids back. We have to win this trial first and you can deal with shown as a two years down the road. This is the , that’s the sad truth and the reality about how to defend the case properly the criminal justice system, by completely avoiding speaking  children’s aid if your case involves child abuse, involving either other kids or even your kids. So that’s my advice on that particular topic.