Children´s aid society says it has fired Toronto lawyer who argued a 14-year-old girl is a `sexually mature young woman´
(The Star Toronto Raptors)

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 in 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 District 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:“A fourteen or fifteen (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 agency’s board of directors earlier in the day and 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.“Under Ontario’s Child, Youth and Family Services Act, anyone under the age of 18 is considered to be 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.�The Star could not immediately reach McCallum for comment. Read more: A 14-year-old girl is a ‘sexually mature young woman,’ not a child, children’s aid society lawyer argues in sex abuse suitMcCallum’s statement was described to the Star by other lawyers and a professor of social work as “offensive,� “shocking,� and “appalling� — doubly so because it ...