TORY MPP URGES BILL TO PROTECT KIDS FROM ILLEGAL DRUGS

Parents and caregivers who expose kids to drug manufacturing and
trafficking should be treated as child abusers, proposed legislation says.

Tory MPP Garfield Dunlop will introduce a private member's bill
Monday that would amend the Child and Family Services Act to add
"drug endangered" as a category of children in need of protection.

"If we truly care about our children, we should do everything
possible to prevent their exposure to the many dangers and health
risk associated with making illegal drugs," Dunlop said. "They also
deserve better than growing up in a grow op or having their meals
cooked in a crystal meth kitchen."

The Ontario Association of Chiefs of Police passed a motion last year
to seek this additional legal tool to respond to situations where
children are found living in marijuana grow operations, clandestine
labs and other illegal drug dens.

Over the past five years, York Regional Police officers have been
involved in 113 incidents where they've had to rescue children from
homes where drugs were being manufactured or trafficked, Supt. Wayne
Kalinski said.

"At the present time, the child may be removed from the home but when
the situation improves they're returned," Kalinski said. "And there's
no penalty or there's no reason for the parents not to do it again
because they're not held accountable."

Police say Dunlop's bill would give them an extra legal tool to hold
the parents accountable.

Toronto Police Services Superintendent Ron Taverner, chair of OACP's
Substance Abuse Committee, said some children are being denied the
right to a safe and normal childhood.

"These children are drug endangered because they are exposed to toxic
fumes which could lead to chronic respiratory disorder, neurological
damage and even cancer. They're exposed to the potential of fire
hazards - the likelihood of a fire in a grow up dwelling may be as
much as 40 times greater ... Some are exposed to violent crime and
even organized crime," Taverner said.

In some cases, families acting as "crop sitters" in grow ops use
children as a screen to disguise the true use of the home, he said.

"Right now, the act of drug endangering a child is not classified as
a form of child abuse," he said.

Paris Meilleur, a spokesperson for Children and Youth Services
Minister Laurel Broten, said the current CFSA legislation is
broad-based and permits a child protection worker to take appropriate
action if a child is found in the care of someone involved in drugs.

"That could certainly be reason for removal of that kid from that
family," she said.

However, the ministry is always willing to listen to advice from
workers at the ground level and looks forward to the bill's debate, she said.