McMaster Children's Hospital should have done more to find a "less intrusive" solution to an aboriginal child refusing life-saving chemotherapy treatment before calling Brant Family and Children's Services to intervene, says the head of the children's agency.

"Removal of a child into care or placement under society supervision over a disagreement on a treatment plan at this stage is premature," said Andrew Koster, executive director of the CAS, in a statement to The Spectator.

McMaster has taken the CAS to court over its refusal to remove the child, who has acute lymphoblastic leukemia. The case, which started Monday in family court in Brantford, has a publication ban on the proceedings as well as identifying the child or her family.

On Friday, the courtroom was nearly full and during a break, several poster signs had been placed on chairs outside in support of the family saying: "We will decide what's best for OUR children. Let us be who we are!"; "You can't take our kids anymore"; and "Leave our children alone. Our community will take care of our own."

Hamilton Health Sciences said in a statement its staff "turned to the Children's Aid Society because this is a child protection issue, not a capacity issue."

But the CAS disagrees, saying the heart of the matter is whether the child has the capacity to refuse treatment.

"We believe that there are still less intrusive options available to the hospital under the Health Care Consent Act that would provide clear direction to the family and would produce less of an impact to the legal rights of the both the child and the family."

He doesn't say what actions the hospital should take, but the province does have a consent and capacity board, which is an independent tribunal that adjudicates issues over a patient's ability to consent or refuse medical treatment under the act.

"Both the hospital and ourselves care equally about the safety of children," said Koster in the statement. "We both would want to do everything we can to save lives where we can."

The family could not be reached for comment, but the mother said in a letter published in the Two Row Times that the girl has "turned back to holistic healing and therapies" because "chemo ravaged her body and spirit."

She stopped the treatment after 12 days despite having an 80 per cent chance of survival when diagnosed Aug. 13. Without chemotherapy, she was given about six months to live.

The family held a benefit concert to pay for a health institute in the United States, where the letter said they planned to be from Sept. 11 to Oct. 6.

Members of the aboriginal community said outside of court Friday they will appeal if Judge Gethin Edward rules in favour of the hospital.

"Traditional methods do work and that's what McMaster and non-natives have to understand," said Penny Martin, supervisor with the Six Nations Band representatives.

"Western culture needs to respect we have our own traditions. We will appeal if it (the court case) doesn't go our way."

Martin also said she heard the girl is doing really well.

The lawyer for an 11-year-old New Credit girl who also refused chemotherapy attended Friday's proceedings. Brant CAS didn't intervene in Makayla Sault's case either when she stopped chemotherapy in favour of traditional healing.

Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading...

Katherine Hensel, Sault's lawyer, said: "For a hospital to purport to override an individual's and family's, and a community's decision-making with respect to the medical care of their children is a big problem."

First Nations have their own medical systems in place and "they have sovereignty rights and aboriginal and treaty rights," Hensel said.

- Hamilton hospital takes CAS to court to force chemotherapy