A judge’s report released Thursday found Alberta Children’s Services cannot be blamed in the deaths of two young boys who were killed by their father in Edmonton in 2010.
Judge Raymond Bodnarek’s review says Jason Cardinal was the only person responsible for the murder of his sons: six-year-old Caleb and three-year-old Gabriel.
The boys were strangled by their father after he injected them with morphine during a court-authorized visit. Jason Cardinal then cut his own wrists but survived. He is currently serving a life sentence after he pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in his boys’ deaths in 2012.
Bodnarek’s report zeroed in on a legal battle between Cardinal and Andrea Badger, the boys’ mother, that began in 2009. Badger was worried Cardinal’s mental health posed a risk to Caleb, Gabriel and her older daughter with another father.
At the time, a judge had ordered Cardinal receive access to the boys but left it up to Alberta Children’s Services to decide whether those visits were supervised or unsupervised.
The Children’s Services caseworker assigned to the file later said doctors’ reports and information from support workers who spent a lot of time with Cardinal suggested the father was of little risk to the children and unsupervised visits followed.
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READ MORE: Caseworker says he could not have done more to protect 2 murdered children
Watch below: On Jan. 6, 2016, Fletcher Kent filed this report about the fatality inquiry looking into the murders of Jason Cardinal’s two sons in Edmonton in 2010.
However, two weeks after another court hearing in early December 2010 – in which Cardinal did not receive custody – the father murdered Caleb and Gabriel and then tried to kill himself.
In Thursday’s report, Bodnarek pointed out Cardinal admitted he planned the murders before the court hearing to decide who should get custody of the boys even got under way.
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“After carefully considering all of the evidence, I find that their deaths were not caused by flaws in the system,” Bodnarek said in his reports. “Similarly, I find that CS (Children’s Services) made reasonable professional judgement calls throughout their involvement with Caleb and Gabriel. These judgement calls were made with regard to a variety of sources of information – including opinions from mental health professionals.
“Sadly, as demonstrated by this case, even within a proper functioning child welfare system, terrible things can sometimes happen. In part, this relates to the challenges of predicating human behaviour with absolute certainty.”
The report also said “there was no indication that Mr. Cardinal had the propensity to seriously hurt or kill his boys” and that in fact, Children’s Services had seen evidence Cardinal and his boys were “well-bonded.”
READ MORE: Edmonton man who killed his kids cited with contempt
“He was assessed at moderately low risk of future violence with proper supports (which he was receiving).”
In his report, Bodnarek suggested Cardinal had “fooled” people working in the child welfare system as well as his own mother.
The judge said he had no recommendations to make as a result of the inquiry.
-With files from Fletcher Kent.
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