Surveillance Method
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Their Objectives
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Indicative Sign(s) of Presence
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monitoring target and/or their children by placing plainclothes secret agent in vehicle (stake out mission)
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• to find excuses (such as breach of unauthorized contact with children) to justify a removal or more intrusive measures
• to create fear to subjugate parents
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unmarked vehicle with person taking notes at times, parked for a long period of time near target’s residence and children’s school with a clear view of traffic and access of home
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foot stalking or tailing targets by public transportation
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stranger(s) roaming around target’s residence, taking notes at times, making diversion gestures (such as checking house number pretending to find someone) when observed
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vehicular stalking of target
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unmarked vehicle following target, making aggressive pursuit if target is about to be lost due to traffic conditions
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monitoring communications such as phone conversations, e-mails, video conferencing, interception of postal mail (whether MCFD uses this method regularly is unconfirmed, but we assume some social workers do in the worst case scenario)
Subsequently, we received reliable information from parents that confirm interception of e-mails (including attachments) and phone calls (including cell phone) when there is no on-going criminal investigation (added on March 15, 2009).
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• gather information to catch a breach of supervision terms and to justify their next action
• monitor the sentiment of parents
• gather intelligence of what parents plan to do
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social workers know information that has only been discussed over phone or e-mails
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use family members, including the target’s own children, to spy for information
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• gather information to destroy healthy parental relationship as child adhesion to parent is an obstacle to removal and adoption
• tarnish targets under scrutiny as bad parents
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• social workers know information that has only been discussed with family members and children
• target’s children are withdrawn, appear confused, nervous, doubtful, not open to parents
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use neighbors to monitor target
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• cheap methods with the added benefit of destroying parent’s reputation
• given the kangaroo practice of “child protection” court, social workers can misconstrue information from unsuspecting neighbors to their liking or using grudges of neighbors to their advantage
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• neighbors are overly observant and vigilant
• neighbors ask unusual questions, show abnormal interest in target’s affairs and have uneasy facial expression
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use compelled counseling to extract information (there is no privileged information and confidentiality protection as MCFD paid counselors are obliged to open the entire client file to social workers, after all, counselors seldom bite the hands that feed them)
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force or induce target to admit incriminating statement in this disguised form of interrogation and use information extracted during counseling in court to justify legal action (be mindful that most supervision orders contain a term of completing counseling to the satisfaction of counselor and social worker, many parents are forced to admit whatever wrongdoing imposed on them for the purpose of getting their children back after completion of counseling)
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• counselor pays undue attention to your past (like asking you to repeat what caused MCFD intervention again and again)
• counselor is more interested in extracting information than in offering professional help
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use supervised visit when seeing removed children to spy for information (be mindful supervised visit workers take notes during the entire visit, some parents are searched before and after the visit)
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fabricate or misconstrue information to incriminate parents or to attack their parenting skills (most common scheme is accusing parents to be the cause when children cry at separation, lack of parenting skill to deal with situation when children are traumatized)
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• social workers use information from supervised visits in court or when interacting with parents
• supervised visit workers (who are not always MCFD employees, they could be employees of organizations, such as family resource centers, closely related to MCFD) are making negative remarks on parents
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