A northern Ontario children’s aid society says it has fired its lawyer and apologized over a statement he made in court documents arguing a 14-year-old girl is not a child but a “sexually mature young woman.”

As first reported online by the Star on Sunday, Toronto lawyer Gary McCallum made the statement in a July 2018 affidavit as part of an ongoing court case in which a woman is suing Kenora-Rainy River Districts Child and Family Services.

The woman alleges she was sexually abused as a child by her foster father while under the care of the agency’s predecessor organization. In responding to an affidavit from the woman’s lawyer, McCallum stated in his affidavit:

“A fourteen or fifteen girl (sic) is a sexually mature young woman. Not a ‘child,’ as the term is generally understood.”

Kenora CFS executive director Bill Leonard said in a Monday news release he had met with the agency’s board of directors earlier in the day and that McCallum had been fired.

“This statement is appalling and intolerable, and I agree with comments reported regarding the abhorrent nature of this statement,” Leonard said in the news release.

The language was stronger than Leonard’s original response to the Star last week, in which he said McCallum was “inaccurate.” The news release also highlighted that Ontario’s Child and Family Services Act, which governs children’s aid societies, makes clear that anyone under 18 years old is a child.

“Kenora-Rainy River Districts Child and Family Services takes the protection of all children very seriously. Mr. McCallum’s statement undermines this commitment and is in no way reflective of our practice, knowledge or belief. His services have been terminated effective today.”

McCallum declined to comment to the Star on Monday, other than to say “I will not be making any statements on matters that are currently being litigated and I will not be making any statements inconsistent with those of my former client.”

McCallum’s statement in his affidavit was described to the Star by other lawyers and a professor of social work as “offensive,” “shocking,” and “appalling” — doubly so because it was made by the lawyer for the very agency charged with protecting the most vulnerable children.

“This is outrageous,” said Melissa Redmond, assistant professor of social work at Carleton University. “You represent the organization that is responsible for protecting children in this community, protecting children from exactly the sorts of horrific circumstances that this child found herself in.”

Children, Community and Social Services Minister Lisa MacLeod said in a statement Monday she was “disgusted” by McCallum’s comment.

“I want to be clear that this is not my view, it is not the view of the Ontario PC Party, and our government certainly does not share the view expressed by the legal counsel for the Kenora-Rainy River Districts Child and Family Services,” she said.

“I instructed my deputy minister to communicate this to the Kenora (children’s aid society) two days ago to ensure our government’s values of respect for women and girls are upheld by Ontario’s child welfare system. As such it is my understanding this lawyer is no longer on the case.”

The statement by McCallum first appears in a July 2018 affidavit in which he responds to an affidavit of the plaintiff’s lawyer, Simona Jellinek, which McCallum said is “rife with errors, imprecisions, and misrepresentations.” (Jellinek declined to comment to the Star.)

“She states that the alleged assaults took place while the plaintiff was ‘in childhood,’” McCallum states in his affidavit before arguing a girl of 14 or 15 — the plaintiff’s age at the time of the alleged abuse — is “a sexually mature young woman” and not a child.

As other lawyers have pointed out, McCallum’s position — which has been in the public record for about eight months since the affidavit was sworn in July 2018 — was effectively the agency’s position, as he had been acting for it in court.

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“He’s speaking on behalf of a children’s aid society,” said lawyer Loretta Merritt, whose practice is almost exclusively focused on representing plaintiffs in civil cases involving sexual abuse. She added it is “deeply concerning” that a children’s aid society would ever take that view.

Reacting to McCallum’s firing, Merritt said she hopes the Kenora agency hires a lawyer with experience defending historical childhood sexual abuse claims.

“Of course the (children’s aid society) has a right to defend such lawsuits but hopefully they will hire a lawyer who will not engage in procedural tactics that are inconsistent with moving the case forward and will conduct themselves in a way that promotes a timely resolution of the case and does not re-victimize the plaintiff,” she said.

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Kenora CFS intially refused to say when it became aware of McCallum’s statement. On Monday, Leonard said the first time he saw the July 2018 affidavit was when the Star sent it to him last week for comment.

“Clearly I need to do some work back tracking to find out how that happened so I can’t comment further on it,” he said in an email.

It’s “disappointing” if Kenora CFS didn’t know back in July that their lawyer had made such a statement in court documents, said Allen Wynperle, president-elect of the Ontario Trial Lawyers Association, which represents lawyers acting for plaintiffs.

“I would have hoped that they would be aware of the comments that their lawyer is making, and certainly if they weren’t, that’s a problem and a concern,” he said.