Tattered, bloody and almost naked, 15-year-old David Roman made a brief petition before he died after being bitten by an Ontario foster parent. “Help me”.

David died on February 19, 2019 at Barry’s house, about 110 kilometers north of Toronto. Another resident of the house, 14 years old, was charged with one murder.

Defendant and David are one of four foster parents, two of whom have a history of violence and have hired a 24-year-old foster parent who has no parenting experience at Expanding Holdings Family Services Inc. Was under the control of. There is no related education other than high school.

When foster parent Jordan Calver sought help due to intensified violence at home and then took away his 14-year-old child, the company told him to hire his staff and use Google to find the answer. .. Culver. His claim has not been verified in court.

“They make money for their children,” said Roman mother Elena Dvoskina. Fifth Estate.. “If they know how to deal with those children, they take them without any consideration. [Had I known], David would never have agreed to be placed there. “

Private companies are allowed to take care of as many as 2,291 foster parents in Ontario. According to recently posted government figures, it’s about the same as the total number of foster parents trained by Toronto, Ottawa, and London-Middlesex orphanages. , Windsor-Durham and Peel regions of Essex and Toronto.

CBC estimates that more than 60 companies are licensed and are eligible to pay between $ 125 million and $ 167 million annually when they are fully operational.

The money comes from Ontario taxpayers, the government remits funds to the Children’s Support Association, which typically pays $ 150 to $ 200 per child per day.

These companies also run group homes run by staff who provide about 1,504 spots, funded by the Children’s Support Association, with higher daily salaries and potential total annual income of $ 200 million. Exceed.

But the responsibility is immeasurable, Fifth Estate The level of public surveillance turned out to be minimal.

See | David Roman’s death plagues teens who witness it.

A foster parent who witnessed the deadly assault of David Roman describes what he saw. 0:31

The Ontario Department of Child and Community Services allows foster parents who have not been convicted of certain crimes of violence or abuse without relevant education or experience.

Private companies that run foster parents claim their expertise in applying for licenses by selecting checkboxes that the ministry has not scrutinized. These companies then use licenses to market themselves as having expertise. Cooperation between child support groups is encouraged, but not required.

Since the company started its business nearly 10 years ago, at least 16 child aid organizations have signed contracts with Expanding Horizons to entrust their children to one of their groups or foster parents.

Holizons website extension removed last fall Fifth Estate He asked for an interview with the principal and asserted his expertise among staff and consultants backed by a wide range of skilled professionals, including psychiatrists and retired educators.

The claim was clarified

However, the company’s website claims were unraveled during a CBC investigation. Fifth Estate..

The consulting psychiatrist retired after relinquishing his license in 2016.

A woman posted on the website as secretary-general said she had never played that role and asked company officials to remove her name.

The company’s lawyer relinquished its legal license to the Ontario Legal Society in 2018 after admitting to court that it had misappropriated nearly $ 500,000 from clients.

The president of Expanding Holidays at the time of David’s death was Carmine Perelli, deputy mayor of Richmond Hill in northern Toronto and an ally of Premier of Ontario Doug Ford and his brother Rob Ford, the former mayor of Toronto. was.

Perelli rejected multiple requests from the CBC to answer the question.

David still bleeds with a knife stuck in his throat and dies, forensic pathologist Fifth Estate.. His last minutes were witnessed by another foster parent in the house who later spoke to the CBC.

“The only word I remember [David] That night [him] “Please help,” the teen told CBC.

The CBC could be a witness if a single murder charge charged after David’s death was brought to justice, so that night his name and the name of another teenager at home Cannot be revealed.

Support questions

Interviews with those witnesses and David’s parents, Fifth Estate And the two proceedings question how Expanding Horizons helped Calver manage foster parents.

Two other teenagers at home at the time told CBC that the indicted youth was violent and was arrested twice by Barry police weeks before the killing.

The second arrest occurred two days before the killing. A 14-year-old then kicked Calver’s locked bedroom door, claiming he had been trained for two days to become a foster parent and promised no obligation to take care of him. Children who are violent or emotionally confused.

After the 14-year-old boy was arrested for the second time, Calver urged Expanding Horizons and Children’s Assistance Association officials to move the youth to another location, both of which pressured the youth to be brought back. His lawsuit alleges.

See | David Roman shares his teenage hopes and fears:

A few weeks before he was killed, David Roman made a Tik-Tok video. This is his last recorded outlook on life. 0:14

Three child aid groups that have placed young people in Barry’s home expressed regret over what happened and wrote that changes were needed to better protect foster children.

“Serious system problems, from the quality of care provided by housing services, the need for stronger staff training, to the need for improved systems for licensing and surveillance, are housing service providers, governments, and children. We know that we have to be dealt with by welfare, “cooperate together,” said the York Regional Child Service Association, which placed David at Barry’s home, with a 14-year-old child charged with murder. The Hamilton Children’s Assistance Association, and the Simcomb Skoca Family Connections, which has two people, wrote. A young man who witnessed David’s death.

This is not the first time a survey has identified systematic problems with privately owned foster parents or group homes.

Revised report

Advocates of children and adolescents in Ontario have been waiting for a reply in the ministry on the day David was killed after his death in Thunder Bay under the control of another commercial foster parent company. Wrote.

“license [may] It provides the placement agency with false guarantees about the quality of care that can be expected for a particular home placement. “

“The kids in Thunder Bay were having a hard time [with] Depression, acute suicidal ideation, trauma from sexual assault, substance abuse … parents and staff of many caregivers [were] Not equipped to meet the needs of these children. Most of them were very new in this area. ”

David’s death triggered an investigation by the Ministry of Child and Community Services and child aid organizations in the York and Durham areas.

When the CBC requested those reports from the ministry, it shared them, but only after they had been completely edited.

The ministry does not reveal what it has discovered, but after David’s death, ordered Expanding Horizons not to open new homes or accept new children to take care of, and the number of young people who could take care of them. We reduced it to 18 and imposed dozens of conditions on the license.

Expanding Horizons develops safety plans to prevent behaviors that endanger children, trains foster parents to safely escalate conflicts, and catches serious events before accepting children for care. You need to report to the ministry. You must also disclose to the placement agency how long the foster parents have been approved to provide care, the number of foster parents who are already there, and the schedule of support staff.

After the child is allowed to be cared for, Expanding Horizons should check weekly for serious incidents to see if foster parents have concerns about managing youth. In that case, the company’s response should be documented and concerns should be reported to the placement agency or personnel.

“We have to do better”

Jill Dunlop, Deputy Minister of Child and Women Affairs in Ontario, told the CBC that he could do more to scrutinize foster parents.

“We were considering promoting the system so that we could be educated,” she said. “We are working on a law that will come into force within the next few years … we know we can do better and do better for the children we care for. Must be. “

Eight months after David was killed, the ministry renewed the license for Expanding Horizons. The annual license will be renewed again, triggering an ongoing inspection process, during which the company retains the license.

“We are important [understand] It is the inspection manager who makes these decisions based on the license. “

Alex Vann Claringen, a lawyer representing David’s parents Elena Dvoskina and Antonio Roman, said the decision didn’t make sense.

“I don’t understand why this company continues to be licensed to accommodate children.”



A foster parent was killed at his home in Ontario, run by a commercial company