Irwin Elman
@irwinelman.bsky.social
President Defence For Children International- Canada, Ontario Child Advocate 2008-2019. Officer of the Order of Canada. Husband, Father www.the Elman.com
Pinned
Irwin Elman
@irwinelman.bsky.social
· Nov 20
This National Children’s Day What Can Only Be Called A Stark Tragedy Unfolding In Ontario – TheElman.com
theelman.com
We are in an unprecedented moment. I have journeyed with children of the Province for over 40 years. I have never witnessed anything like what we are facing.
theelman.com/index.php/20...
theelman.com/index.php/20...
As urgent as today’s headlines.
Please join me in conversation with author, family therapist , advocate Maude Champagne in what can be different systemically and families supporting “complex special need children”
Wednesday October 1 on line
RSVP here www.eventbrite.com/e/1664459115...
Please join me in conversation with author, family therapist , advocate Maude Champagne in what can be different systemically and families supporting “complex special need children”
Wednesday October 1 on line
RSVP here www.eventbrite.com/e/1664459115...
A Hopeful Conversation : Decoding Childhood Aggression Lessons for Change
A hopeful Conversation with therapist /trainer/author Maude Chanpagne - understanding childhood aggression and its meaning re system change
www.eventbrite.com
September 29, 2025 at 11:49 PM
As urgent as today’s headlines.
Please join me in conversation with author, family therapist , advocate Maude Champagne in what can be different systemically and families supporting “complex special need children”
Wednesday October 1 on line
RSVP here www.eventbrite.com/e/1664459115...
Please join me in conversation with author, family therapist , advocate Maude Champagne in what can be different systemically and families supporting “complex special need children”
Wednesday October 1 on line
RSVP here www.eventbrite.com/e/1664459115...
As urgent as today’s headlines.
Please join me in conversation with author, family therapist , advocate Maude Champagne in what can be different systemically and families supporting “complex special need children”
Wednesday October 1 on line
RSVP here www.eventbrite.com/e/1664459115...
Please join me in conversation with author, family therapist , advocate Maude Champagne in what can be different systemically and families supporting “complex special need children”
Wednesday October 1 on line
RSVP here www.eventbrite.com/e/1664459115...
September 26, 2025 at 11:42 PM
As urgent as today’s headlines.
Please join me in conversation with author, family therapist , advocate Maude Champagne in what can be different systemically and families supporting “complex special need children”
Wednesday October 1 on line
RSVP here www.eventbrite.com/e/1664459115...
Please join me in conversation with author, family therapist , advocate Maude Champagne in what can be different systemically and families supporting “complex special need children”
Wednesday October 1 on line
RSVP here www.eventbrite.com/e/1664459115...
A system built in liability and risk can not keep children safe.
The system must be abandoned.
From the ashes a new system built in other concepts of safety : community, social determinants of health can be created. www.thestar.com/news/canada/...
The system must be abandoned.
From the ashes a new system built in other concepts of safety : community, social determinants of health can be created. www.thestar.com/news/canada/...
‘Terrified’ teacher called Children’s Aid over family at centre of horrific Ontario murder trial. She was told ‘it’s too political’
Teacher says she called Children’s Aid after her Grade 2 student tried to strangle himself.
www.thestar.com
September 25, 2025 at 1:53 PM
A system built in liability and risk can not keep children safe.
The system must be abandoned.
From the ashes a new system built in other concepts of safety : community, social determinants of health can be created. www.thestar.com/news/canada/...
The system must be abandoned.
From the ashes a new system built in other concepts of safety : community, social determinants of health can be created. www.thestar.com/news/canada/...
The life and death of this little boy is a devastating indictment of every system meant to touch the life of a child including but not solely the child protection system.
www.thestar.com/news/ontario...
www.thestar.com/news/ontario...
Teacher describes prospective parents’ ‘bizarre’ rules for boy, 12, they allegedly ‘left to die’ in a basement
The prosecution at the ongoing trial in the Milton courthouse has argued that Hamber and Cooney “despised” their prospective son.
www.thestar.com
September 24, 2025 at 3:28 PM
The life and death of this little boy is a devastating indictment of every system meant to touch the life of a child including but not solely the child protection system.
www.thestar.com/news/ontario...
www.thestar.com/news/ontario...
This is yet another example of a system in complete decay unable to fulfill its mandate to protect children.
This is the product of “system redesign” instead of system replacement.
On so many levels simply horrifying
www.thestar.com/news/gta/chi...
This is the product of “system redesign” instead of system replacement.
On so many levels simply horrifying
www.thestar.com/news/gta/chi...
Children’s Aid hid kids’ serious behavioural problems, defence argues at horrific Ontario murder trial
The defence at an ongoing first-degree murder trial is arguing that Children’s Aid failed to warn Brandy Cooney and Becky Hamber about their prospective sons’ histories of serious behavioural and
www.thestar.com
September 17, 2025 at 10:49 PM
This is yet another example of a system in complete decay unable to fulfill its mandate to protect children.
This is the product of “system redesign” instead of system replacement.
On so many levels simply horrifying
www.thestar.com/news/gta/chi...
This is the product of “system redesign” instead of system replacement.
On so many levels simply horrifying
www.thestar.com/news/gta/chi...
Ugly and outrageous
Another symptom of a child protection system collapsing
In further chaos from govt attempts to tinker and “redesign” with no courage to create a fundamentally different way of understanding “safety” and a system to achieve it.
www.insidehalton.com/news/crime/l...
Another symptom of a child protection system collapsing
In further chaos from govt attempts to tinker and “redesign” with no courage to create a fundamentally different way of understanding “safety” and a system to achieve it.
www.insidehalton.com/news/crime/l...
‘Left to die’: 2 moms on trial for murder of would-be adoptive son in Burlington
Becky Hamber and Brandy Cooney are charged with first-degree murder in the case of their would-be adoptive son, aged 12. The Crown told a court of the horrific conditions he was allegedly living in pr...
www.insidehalton.com
September 17, 2025 at 2:56 PM
Ugly and outrageous
Another symptom of a child protection system collapsing
In further chaos from govt attempts to tinker and “redesign” with no courage to create a fundamentally different way of understanding “safety” and a system to achieve it.
www.insidehalton.com/news/crime/l...
Another symptom of a child protection system collapsing
In further chaos from govt attempts to tinker and “redesign” with no courage to create a fundamentally different way of understanding “safety” and a system to achieve it.
www.insidehalton.com/news/crime/l...
If you are in Ottawa join me in this discussion organized by International Social Services on the growing crisis facing children “on the move” in Canada and globally.
September 9, 2025 at 12:12 AM
If you are in Ottawa join me in this discussion organized by International Social Services on the growing crisis facing children “on the move” in Canada and globally.
Ken Dryden was always a champion for youth from care. He set up the Ken Dryden Scholarship with the National Youth In Care Network well before any part of the child welfare system thought to do so.
He refused any credit for this act of caring and empowerment.
He refused any credit for this act of caring and empowerment.
September 7, 2025 at 3:32 PM
Ken Dryden was always a champion for youth from care. He set up the Ken Dryden Scholarship with the National Youth In Care Network well before any part of the child welfare system thought to do so.
He refused any credit for this act of caring and empowerment.
He refused any credit for this act of caring and empowerment.
Ken Dryden cared abt children. He was Ontario’s “Children’s Commissioner” for a time decades ago. I met him then and from that meeting on he always was an amazing wise advisor to me.
He countered the adage and proved it actually can be good to meet your heroes.
He countered the adage and proved it actually can be good to meet your heroes.
September 6, 2025 at 11:33 AM
Ken Dryden cared abt children. He was Ontario’s “Children’s Commissioner” for a time decades ago. I met him then and from that meeting on he always was an amazing wise advisor to me.
He countered the adage and proved it actually can be good to meet your heroes.
He countered the adage and proved it actually can be good to meet your heroes.
I’m so proud to host this important conversation.
Please join us!
Hopeful Conversation
www.eventbrite.ca/e/1664459115...
Please join us!
Hopeful Conversation
www.eventbrite.ca/e/1664459115...
September 5, 2025 at 12:18 AM
I’m so proud to host this important conversation.
Please join us!
Hopeful Conversation
www.eventbrite.ca/e/1664459115...
Please join us!
Hopeful Conversation
www.eventbrite.ca/e/1664459115...
There is no system that promises more and delivers less to children than our education system. The govt answer is to add policing that will only widen the gap btwn promise and reality
August 30, 2025 at 3:32 PM
There is no system that promises more and delivers less to children than our education system. The govt answer is to add policing that will only widen the gap btwn promise and reality
Join us this morning at Queens Park in Toronto 11am
A crucial conversation about our children and the schools that serve them.
A crucial conversation about our children and the schools that serve them.
August 27, 2025 at 11:50 AM
Join us this morning at Queens Park in Toronto 11am
A crucial conversation about our children and the schools that serve them.
A crucial conversation about our children and the schools that serve them.
Join me and so many other speakers of much more note at Queen’s Park on Wednesday.
We must build our systems on love and belonging. Force, exclusion, fear will never create safety. Inclusion will.
We must build our systems on love and belonging. Force, exclusion, fear will never create safety. Inclusion will.
August 24, 2025 at 2:26 PM
Join me and so many other speakers of much more note at Queen’s Park on Wednesday.
We must build our systems on love and belonging. Force, exclusion, fear will never create safety. Inclusion will.
We must build our systems on love and belonging. Force, exclusion, fear will never create safety. Inclusion will.
ow many more times must Municipal and Provincial govts be told to take the McMurtry/Curling report “The Roots of Youth Violence” off the shelf and implemented.
www.thestar.com/news/gta/mou...
www.thestar.com/news/gta/mou...
Mourners gather for visitation for JahVai Roy, 8, as community searches for answers
JahVai Roy was struck by a stray bullet that entered through the window of the Roy’s apartment on Martha Eaton Way, near Trethewey Drive, on Aug. 16
www.thestar.com
August 20, 2025 at 2:45 AM
ow many more times must Municipal and Provincial govts be told to take the McMurtry/Curling report “The Roots of Youth Violence” off the shelf and implemented.
www.thestar.com/news/gta/mou...
www.thestar.com/news/gta/mou...
August 3, 2008 , 7 year old Katelynn Sampson was found brutally murdered . Beside her a note in her handwriting “I am A awful girl. That’s why no one wants me”
August 3, 2025 at 1:37 PM
August 3, 2008 , 7 year old Katelynn Sampson was found brutally murdered . Beside her a note in her handwriting “I am A awful girl. That’s why no one wants me”
Whatever the outcome of today’s Fed govt meeting with Indigenous leadership remember that the 10th anniversary of the TRC calls to action is on Dec 15.
A decade and not one call related to children is complete.
10 years.
It’s why “trust us” just doesn’t cut it.
A decade and not one call related to children is complete.
10 years.
It’s why “trust us” just doesn’t cut it.
July 17, 2025 at 4:31 PM
Whatever the outcome of today’s Fed govt meeting with Indigenous leadership remember that the 10th anniversary of the TRC calls to action is on Dec 15.
A decade and not one call related to children is complete.
10 years.
It’s why “trust us” just doesn’t cut it.
A decade and not one call related to children is complete.
10 years.
It’s why “trust us” just doesn’t cut it.
The calls have been growing for months and months.
The Minister @MichaelParsa and government held this child’s life and many others in their hands. They let those lives slip through their fingers.
The Minister @MichaelParsa and government held this child’s life and many others in their hands. They let those lives slip through their fingers.
July 7, 2025 at 4:15 PM
The calls have been growing for months and months.
The Minister @MichaelParsa and government held this child’s life and many others in their hands. They let those lives slip through their fingers.
The Minister @MichaelParsa and government held this child’s life and many others in their hands. They let those lives slip through their fingers.
“The Minister is the point person under the CYFSA. The Minister held Jade’s life in his hands. The Minister let it slip through his fingers”
theelman.com/index.php/20...
theelman.com/index.php/20...
Someone Must Stand Up – Jade’s Story – TheElman.com
theelman.com
June 29, 2025 at 4:27 PM
“The Minister is the point person under the CYFSA. The Minister held Jade’s life in his hands. The Minister let it slip through his fingers”
theelman.com/index.php/20...
theelman.com/index.php/20...
With the @fordnation govt feeling it can educate and support students better than School Boards how long until they decide they can protect children better than CASs?
Ontario is the only Prov where child protection system is not direct operated by govt.
Ontario is the only Prov where child protection system is not direct operated by govt.
June 27, 2025 at 11:28 PM
With the @fordnation govt feeling it can educate and support students better than School Boards how long until they decide they can protect children better than CASs?
Ontario is the only Prov where child protection system is not direct operated by govt.
Ontario is the only Prov where child protection system is not direct operated by govt.
I am grateful that more people are speaking out.
More funding is needed immediately to stop the bleeding but only fundamental systemic change can cure this crisis
windsorstar.com/news/local-n...
More funding is needed immediately to stop the bleeding but only fundamental systemic change can cure this crisis
windsorstar.com/news/local-n...
'Heartbreaking decision' — Windsor MPP says Ontario failing parents forced to give up kids
No parent should have to surrender custody of a child in hopes of accessing medical care, Windsor West's MPP said after Ombudsman's report.
windsorstar.com
June 27, 2025 at 10:18 PM
I am grateful that more people are speaking out.
More funding is needed immediately to stop the bleeding but only fundamental systemic change can cure this crisis
windsorstar.com/news/local-n...
More funding is needed immediately to stop the bleeding but only fundamental systemic change can cure this crisis
windsorstar.com/news/local-n...
Glad the Ombudman of Ontario finally forced to come out of hiding after 7 years to say something.
www.thestar.com/news/investi...
www.thestar.com/news/investi...
15 Ontario families were forced to surrender kids to CAS because they couldn’t get medical care, ombudsman reveals
The unsettling disclosure comes 20 years after the ombudsman first flagged forced abandonment as a concern — but systemic issues persist.
www.thestar.com
June 25, 2025 at 5:52 PM
Glad the Ombudman of Ontario finally forced to come out of hiding after 7 years to say something.
www.thestar.com/news/investi...
www.thestar.com/news/investi...
The symptom of the illness - unlicensed placements like hotels- lingers untreated by the Minister for years now, while the illness - the crisis size need for fundamental change is not even acknowledged let alone cured.
www.thestar.com/news/investi...
www.thestar.com/news/investi...
Since Jade’s death while under the care of Children’s Aid, the agency has housed another nine kids in hotels
The Children’s Aid Society of London & Middlesex said it still relies on hotels because it has no other options, the result of “chronic underfunding."
www.thestar.com
June 23, 2025 at 11:59 PM
The symptom of the illness - unlicensed placements like hotels- lingers untreated by the Minister for years now, while the illness - the crisis size need for fundamental change is not even acknowledged let alone cured.
www.thestar.com/news/investi...
www.thestar.com/news/investi...
A harrowing story to read and I imagine an unbearable life to have lived.
Jade’s death and suffering of those who cared for her, the moral injury of those who tried to serve her are the responsibility of Minister @MichaelParsa
Not hyperbole. Fact
www.thestar.com/news/investi...
Jade’s death and suffering of those who cared for her, the moral injury of those who tried to serve her are the responsibility of Minister @MichaelParsa
Not hyperbole. Fact
www.thestar.com/news/investi...
She spent a year living in hotels while in the care of Children’s Aid. It was the last of her young life. This is Jade’s story
Over four years, children’s aid societies have housed hundreds of kids with mental health conditions and high-risk behaviours in unlicensed settings.
www.thestar.com
June 19, 2025 at 3:08 PM
A harrowing story to read and I imagine an unbearable life to have lived.
Jade’s death and suffering of those who cared for her, the moral injury of those who tried to serve her are the responsibility of Minister @MichaelParsa
Not hyperbole. Fact
www.thestar.com/news/investi...
Jade’s death and suffering of those who cared for her, the moral injury of those who tried to serve her are the responsibility of Minister @MichaelParsa
Not hyperbole. Fact
www.thestar.com/news/investi...
We can move to create a fundamentally new system that meets the needs and desires of children and families looks like. You have something to add!
Refuse to despair
Join us in Toronto the Wednesday
RSVP here
www.eventbrite.ca/e/building-a...
Refuse to despair
Join us in Toronto the Wednesday
RSVP here
www.eventbrite.ca/e/building-a...
Building A NorthStar system for children and families
A bold, hopeful conversation about what a fundamentally different system that provides for the needs and desires of children and families
www.eventbrite.ca
June 8, 2025 at 3:14 PM
We can move to create a fundamentally new system that meets the needs and desires of children and families looks like. You have something to add!
Refuse to despair
Join us in Toronto the Wednesday
RSVP here
www.eventbrite.ca/e/building-a...
Refuse to despair
Join us in Toronto the Wednesday
RSVP here
www.eventbrite.ca/e/building-a...
These new powers proposed by the Ontario government will not educate one student. They will not protect one child.
Let’s not fool ourselves.
www.thestar.com/politics/pro...
Let’s not fool ourselves.
www.thestar.com/politics/pro...
Doug Ford accused of ‘Trump-style politics’ with legislation that allows sweeping new powers over the education sector
Critics are calling the Ford government's sweeping new legislation a "power grab."
www.thestar.com
May 30, 2025 at 1:57 AM
These new powers proposed by the Ontario government will not educate one student. They will not protect one child.
Let’s not fool ourselves.
www.thestar.com/politics/pro...
Let’s not fool ourselves.
www.thestar.com/politics/pro...