Catholic Children’s Aid Society testimony in Jeffrey Baldwin case not off to an auspicious start

For the first time in the almost 11 years since Jeffrey Baldwin died in his grandparents’ custody, an employee from the child-welfare agency involved with the little boy’s family for decades is testifying in a public forum about the decisions the agency made.

Sal Salmena, a supervisor with the Catholic Children’s Aid Society of Toronto, is just one of a succession of workers who were one way or another bamboozled by Elva Bottineau, the aggressive, mentally diminished woman who was Jeffrey’s grandmother.

Despite her failings, Bottineau was deemed by Mr. Salmena and many others as a strong support for Jeffrey’s young parents — so much so that he referred to her at one point Tuesday as “the grandma option.”

As it turned out, the agency failed to check its own records and didn’t discover that “the grandma” was a convicted child abuser, as was her common-law husband Norman Kidman, until after they had also abused and starved Jeffrey to death.  (more...)

Catholic Children’s Aid Society testimony in Jeffrey Baldwin case not off to an auspicious start