In 2006 the Federal Conservatives appointed to Ontario's Superior Court, longtime Conservative Alexander Sosna, an Oshawa lawyer who ran unsuccessfully for the Conservatives in the 1984 federal election. Sosna is another political hack but then that is the nature of the game for appointments. It is not merit but who you know. He certainly doesn't subscribe to any notion of equality between parents. Conservatives are supposed to be the party of family values but when it comes to marriage breakdown they are as pro-feminist as any lefty liberal or dipper. Sosna was the defence lawyer in a case in Oshawa several years back ( circa 2004) involving 2 boys who were being caged and beaten by their foster parents. He got the foster parents off with a very light sentence of 9 months. The Crown was seeking 8 years. Who did the assessments on the abusive foster parents? Something else fell through the cracks.


They have been involved in other litigation as well including (Schmitz 1994). This is but one agency exploring affiliation as a member of the Ontario Association of Children's Aid Societies (OACAS) with the Violence Against Women Sector. Dads need to be aware of this potential alliance and its ramifications given VAW supports the theory of a Coercing Patriarchy in which all men are abusers and all women benign. Many organizations do not learn from history and it appears more extensive extreme bias against males may be in the offing.
Here is a recent unfolding case in the Victoria, BC area with another fraudster former Children's Aid Investigator, Jason Matthew Walker
MJM
By MICHELE MANDEL, QMI Agency |
An alleged victim of Greg Carter's - who cannot be identified - holds a business card identifying him as Dr. Carter. (Ernest Doroszuk/QMI Agency) |
WHITBY, Ont. -- A child custody battle is an ugly, twisted jungle at the best of times, but a Whitby father never stood a chance after family court accepted a disparaging assessment done by a man posing as a psychologist.
And ignored the one by the true PhD.
Now the terrified 48-year-old dad must share custody of his two young boys with a woman who the real psychologist has warned is mentally ill and poses a danger to their care.
Greg Carter, 63, has been charged with three counts of fraud, two counts of obstructing justice and two counts of perjury for allegedly impersonating a psychologist.
He is also facing a complaint of professional misconduct by Ontario's College of Psychologists.
"Nobody should go through what I went through," says "Mr. S", the angry father who can't be named because the case involves the Children's Aid. "If he had kept his unqualified opinion to himself, my children would be safe and we wouldn't have lost all our money to lawyers."
The dad had his suspicions after Carter presented an assessment to family court that said the father had a narcissistic personality disorder -- despite never meeting him -- while administering one test on his ex-wife to completely dismiss an exhaustive, 37-page evaluation by a highly respected psychologist who diagnosed her with a borderline personality disorder.
Rattled by his findings, Mr. S. contacted the College of Psychologists of Ontario and discovered that Carter was not a psychologist at all, but a psychological associate whose registration stipulated that he was not allowed to make an independent diagnosis without the supervision of a qualified psychologist.
He had also told the court that he had a PhD from Pacific Western University, the now-defunct school that awarded degrees based on "life experience" and was branded a "diploma mill" in a report by the U.S. Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs.
"I can't believe nobody checked his credentials until I came along," says Mr. S.
What's even more astounding is that Justice Alexander Sosna was then presented with a letter from the College outlining Carter's restrictions -- and the fact that he wasn't a psychologist as advertised -- but still chose to accept the bogus doc's assessment and set aside the damning one by the real psychologist.
The judge, who has a background in criminal, not family law, rejected the dad's bid for sole custody, threw him out of the matrimonial home and ordered him to pay his ex-wife's $13,000 in legal costs within 90 days or he wouldn't be able to see his kids at all.
He had to go to the bank to get a loan because the protracted custody battle had wiped out his $400,000 in savings. But the drain on his finances pales beside his constant fear of what will happen to his sons in their mother's care.
He doesn't understand why a former criminal lawyer is ruling in family court.
"Carter is just one piece of a whole broken puzzle," insists the beleaguered father.
But an integral piece. Mr. S. went on to launch a complaint of professional misconduct against him with the College as did the real psychologist.
"He has been masquerading as a psychologist for some time and had deceived myself and the public about his credentials," the doctor wrote Mr. S. "His conduct is simply unethical."
Carter did not respond to messages left at his home and his Whitby office.
He did offer a tepid mea culpa in a December 2008 letter. "While my concerns are not groundless, I now believe that expressing them in written form based on the information I had was wrong. I owe Mr. S. an apology for that mistake."
But his apology will not give Mr. S. sole custody of his children or undo the harm Carter has allegedly caused in at least two other child custody disputes, including one where his testimony led to a granddaughter being wrenched away from her grandparents after she'd spent most of her 10 years in their care.
"What's an apology if you don't fix the problem you created?" demands the heartbroken father. "He's got to have affected hundreds of people. He's been doing it for 18 years."
And that is why all of his cases need to be reviewed if he is found guilty.
In the meantime, what about all the poor children?
In Mr. S's case, the Children's Aid is now involved after the mom allegedly restrained the 9-year-old by throwing him to the ground and sitting on him. In a list of written expectations on a CAS contract, his ex-wife has been told that her discipline "at no time shall include sitting on either child."
The worried dad has pleaded with them to remove the boys from her care, especially now that Carter's assessment has been discredited, but they refuse.
They say there is nothing they can do but monitor the situation. After all, there's two conflicting psychological reports and the judge accepted the one by Carter
.
They don't seem unduly concerned that he's a man now facing charges for fraud.
READ MANDEL EVERY SUNDAY, THURSDAY AND FRIDAY. MICHELE.MANDEL@SUNMEDIA.CA OR 416-947-2231.