For immediate release:
September 28, 2006

Legislation for vulnerable children passes final debate
Barrett reiterates support for Kevin & Jared’s Law past due

Queen’s Park— Kevin & Jared’s Law will provide valuable insight into the shortcomings of a system that has allowed innocent children to die while on court ordered supervised or unsupervised access according to Haldimand-Norfolk-Brant MPP Toby Barrett.

Barrett commented after Bill 89 passed third and final reading debate at the Ontario Legislature Tuesday afternoon.

“I spoke to this bill during second reading debate in the Spring and noted then that it was a law past its due,” stated Barrett. “It’s high time that government answer this legislation’s call for an automatic coroner's inquest when a child dies in the care of a parent or a family member under court-ordered supervised or unsupervised access.”

In speaking to his bill, PC MPP Cam Jackson explained that the legislation’s name refers to the deaths of Jared Osidacz and Kevin Latimer.

“Jared Osidacz was only eight years old when he was brutally murdered by his father, and Kevin Latimer was a few days short of his second birthday when his innocent young life was snuffed out, under circumstances which I believe that we will determine at some point in the future could have been prevented,” Jackson said. “Tragically, we have seen four children die this year in Ontario under the circumstances set out in this bill.”

 “The law will not bring back people like Jared or Kevin, but it will tell us where the system goes wrong and why it went wrong and how we can better prevent these kinds of tragedies,” Barrett concluded. 
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For more information, please contact MPP Toby Barrett at: (519) 428-0446, (416) 325-8404, or 1-800-903-8629

Mr. Toby Barrett (Haldimand-Norfolk-Brant): I certainly would like to confirm my support for Bill 89, Kevin and Jared's Law. First and foremost, I extend my sincerest sympathies to the Craven, the Latimer and the Mailly families, and all families who have endured such tragic events.

As we know, in 2004, Mr. Jackson's bill, Bill 78 at the time, did receive unanimous support in the Legislature. It was a setback when Kevin's Law died on the order paper. Fortunately, my colleague from Burlington has reintroduced the legislation, Bill 89, Kevin and Jared's Law, An Act to amend the Child and Family Services Act and the Coroners Act.

Like its predecessor, this legislation calls for an automatic coroner's inquest when a child dies in the care of a parent or a family member who has been the subject of court-ordered supervised or unsupervised access. As we know, the Coroners Act already extends an automatic inquest when a worker dies in, for example, a mining accident or a construction accident, and we also know that this is also extended when a prisoner dies in custody. So by passing this law, we have the opportunity to give our most vulnerable children a right that we already give to criminals.

I have recently learned that John Craven, grandfather of Jared, is circulating a petition in the Brantford area. I'm pretty sad to see the necessity for that, and I look forward to the opportunity to help distribute that petition and continue to rally support for this initiative.

Really, what this law comes down to is accountability. How can we, as legislators, continue to accept the status quo that gives, in a sense, prisoners more rights than our most vulnerable children? In this case, making reference to one victim, a victim who was a hero and at eight years old, Jared died defending two other people. We know that he died at the hands of a violent man, and we know that he died at the hands of a criminal. We also know that he died while on an unsupervised parental visit, despite his father's parole violations and refusal to attend court-ordered anger management classes. Now, if this man had died in jail, there would have been an automatic inquest. Indeed, an automatic inquest would help us to better understand the shortcomings in the system, equipping us to make any revisions that would be necessary.

The law will not bring back people like Jared or Kevin, but it will tell us where the system goes wrong and why it went wrong and how we can better prevent these kinds of tragedies. I personally will be supporting this legislation, and I again look forward to unanimous consent among members present.