Social worker tells inquiry grandmother who starved Jeffrey Baldwin to death seemed ‘very caring’

Margarita Quintana, the critical children's aid worker in the
Jeffrey Baldwin case, walks out of court after testifying

It seems akin to never opening the fridge unless you already know what’s in it, or never reading a book unless you know the ending, but never mind.

That, in essence, is Margarita Quintana’s explanation for never having run record checks on Jeffrey Baldwin’s grandparents, Elva Bottineau and Norman Kidman.

In other words, she didn’t know what she didn’t know and she made damned sure it stayed that way.

Ms. Quintana was the key social worker on Jeffrey’s case for the Catholic Children’s Aid Society of Toronto.

Now retired, she began testifying Wednesday at the Ontario coroner’s inquest examining the little boy’s death on Nov. 30, 2002.

It is the first time in the almost 11 years since that her handling of the case — and the agency’s — has been examined in a public forum.  (more...)

Social worker tells inquiry grandmother who starved Jeffrey Baldwin to death seemed ‘very caring’