Welcome to the Social Services Reform Group website (SSRG.ca)

This site was begun in September, 2010 to allow those who have had experiences (good and bad) with Social Services in Alberta (SS) to tell their story.

I started this site because of the very bad experiences my family has had with SS bureaucrats who seem to have lost sight of their two major responsibilities:
1. To protect and look after the best interest of the child they are involved with.
2. To look after the best interests of the families that SS is dealing with.

After interviewing people I know who have had dealings with SS, it became clear to me that our experience was nothing new (in fact it appeared to be the norm). So, I decided to ask others what their experience has been as well, and, the best way to ask was to start a website where people could tell their stories.

I know that SS has many, many positive and family friendly staff BUT they are overuled day after day by a smaller number of SS bureaucrats who simply will NOT let those caring social workers do their job (they just want to "protect the department" at all costs ... in their myopic view of course).

My goal is to collect as much material as possible (from the users of the SS system) that I can take to the politicians to show them the serious failings in the current system (i.e. the way that it is being run "on the ground" compared with what SS says it does) and maybe embarass them into forcing the bureaucrats to do the job that they are being paid to do, i.e. to actually help and protect children and their families instead of abusing those children and families using the child and family unfriendly policies in place at SS.
SS bureaucrats emotionally abuse children (our experience) by telling them "fairy tales", giving them whatever they want, telling them they "have rights" (but not telling them that they have responsibilities first), purposely manipulating children into going against their own family, attacking parents with slander and worse, scheming against the child and the child's family (instead of being honest, helpful and frank), forcing families into court (costing families tens of thousands of dollars in legal fees to protect themselves against SS ... they know this tactic well and use it to financially burden the very families they are charged with helping), etc., etc., etc.. This flagrant abuse of power by SS cannot be allowed to continue ... they must be held accountable for their inappropriate actions.

And why do they behave that way ? So these bureaucrats can collect a fat pension when they retire, leaving in their career wake destroyed children's lives and destroyed families. This is diametrically opposed to the very things that they publicly proclaim SS stands for and has been charged with by our politicians (Orwellian would be an understatement).

I hope you will join with me in this war against the SS bureacrats (a war that these SS bureacrats started years ago against the very people they were charged with helping).
We need to take the SS system back and stop these bureaucrats from continuing with their implementation of "butt protecting" policies and from continuing with their destructive behaviour towards the children and families whom they are supposed to protect (by law).

Paul E. d'Haene
SSRG Site Coordinator