Christie Blatchford: Jeffrey Baldwin’s grandmother seen as ‘part of a team’ in his care, before her role in his murder
Christie Blatchford | 22/10/13 9:03 PM ET
Former Catholic Children's Aid Society supervisor Marina Sweet after testifying at the Jeffrey Baldwin judicial inquiry in Toronto, Oct. 22, 2013.
A former supervisor with the Catholic Children’s Aid Society of Toronto has admitted that Jeffrey Baldwin’s grandmother “was part of a team” that was deciding the little boy’s future and ultimately sent him to the hands of his killers.
Marina Sweet, long retired from the agency, was testifying Tuesday at the Ontario coroner’s inquest into Jeffrey’s death.
Ms. Sweet left the CCAS 12 years ago, so her memory for details has suffered, but she was a frank, no-nonsense witness.
In part because of how the grandmother, Elva Bottineau, had inveigled herself into favour with CCAS staff, she was never subjected to internal agency or criminal records checks.
Yet at the same time, as Ms. Sweet later told lawyer Philip Abbink, who represents Jeffrey’s surviving siblings, even people just inquiring about becoming foster parents, for instance, or who were volunteering with the agency, had to go through internal and/or police checks.
“Because we knew this family,” Ms. Sweet said at one point, “it coloured what we did, I think.”
In the result, Bottineau’s criminal conviction in the 1969 death of her own first baby and her husband Norman Kidman’s convictions for assaulting two of her other youngsters in 1978 went undiscovered.
All this information — and more sobering details, in particular about Bottineau’s potential dangerousness to children — was in CCAS files.
Yet because Bottineau had come to be seen as an ally and, ironically, “as a strength,” the agency instead supported or facilitated the transfer of Jeffrey and three of his siblings — all the children of Bottineau and Kidman’s daughter Yvonne and her boyfriend Richard Baldwin — to the grandparents’ care.
“Elva was part of a team looking after this young family,” Ms. Sweet told coroner’s counsel Jill Witkin.
“Part of your team?” Ms. Witkin asked.
“Yes,” said Ms. Sweet.
“And her opinion would carry weight?” Ms. Witkin said.
“I think so,” Ms. Sweet agreed.