Woman sues CCAS, foster dad who got her pregnant

Howard Smith

TORONTO - It was 1978 and she was a vulnerable, 15-year-old foster child placed by the Catholic Children’s Aid in the Scarborough home of a TTC supervisor and his family.

Like a fawn placed in a lion’s den.

After being moved to 28 different foster homes in two years, the fragile teen thought she was safe at last. But when Howard Smith became housebound after being injured in a car accident, her nightmare began.

Smith, 26 at the time and a father of two, sexually assaulted her on three or four occasions while they were home alone, she says. Her virginity stolen, her shame so profound that she would scrub her skin raw with bleach, she begged her CCAS worker to get her away from him. Instead, she says she was called a liar and left her there until her pregnancy finally proved she’d been telling the truth all along.

She has never really recovered from their betrayal. And now 36 years later, she wants them all to pay. The woman, her name protected by a publication ban, has just launched a $4-million lawsuit against Smith and the CCAS, alleging they both violated their duty of care.  (more...)

Woman sues CCAS, foster dad who got her pregnant