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Tuesday, April 3, 2007

News Release - Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder is linked to the Justice System
 
    TORONTO, April 3 /CNW/ - For the first time in Ontario, a website has
been developed that helps lawyers, crown attorneys and judges deal with the
most perplexing and costly phenomena they face routinely in the courts - Fetal
Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD).

    FASD has been a medical diagnosis in Canada since the mid-70s but it is
only recently that Justice System personnel began to link repeat offenders and
victims to the potential of permanent, but invisible, brain damage.

    "FASD, affecting offenders, witnesses, and victims, is a major issue in
the criminal justice system," said Jonathan Rudin program director of
Aboriginal Legal Services of Toronto. "FASD is permanent brain damage from
before birth. People with FASD do not learn the same way as others and
reliance on punishment as a response to wrong-doing will usually make the
situation worse for everyone."

 . . . . . READ FULL NEWS RELEASE  

Contributor:  Peggy Seo Oba
at