TORONTO — A controversial program that uses hair analysis to test for drug and alcohol use in thousands of child protection and criminal cases was deemed "inadequate and unreliable" in a government-commissioned report released Thursday.
The program — called the Motherisk Drug Testing Laboratory — was run by the Toronto Hospital for Sick Children, one of the country's major pediatric centres.
Its work came under scrutiny after Ontario's highest court set aside a criminal conviction in October 2014 on the basis of differing expert opinions about a particular hair-testing method previously used by Motherisk.
Just over a month later, the Ontario government ordered a retired appeal court justice to review the program.
"The Motherisk Laboratory's hair strand drug and alcohol analysis between 2005 and 2015 was inadequate and unreliable for use in child protection and in criminal proceedings," said Susan Lang, who led the review.
"The laboratory's flawed hair testing evidence had serious implications for the fairness of child protection and criminal cases. A further review is warranted."
The scope of Lang's review was expanded by the Ontario government while it was underway, and in April children's aid societies were told to immediately stop using the Motherisk program. That same month, the hospital shut down the Motherisk laboratory for all non-research purposes.
On Thursday, the hospital said it welcomed the release of Lang's review and promised to address its recommendations.
"We deeply regret that practices in, and oversight of this particular program did not meet SickKids standards of excellence. We extend our apologies to anyone who feels they may have been impacted," hospital president Dr. Michael Apkon said in a statement.
"We remain resolved in our efforts to ensure that we have effective oversight and highest standards of quality and safety in all of our programs."
Lang's review found that Motherisk did not meet internationally recognized forensic standards.
From 2005 to 2010, she found that the laboratory employed a preliminary screening test that specifically cautioned users about its limitations.
"Despite this caveat, the laboratory went on to represent that the test, the preliminary test, could both identify and quantify drugs in hair — it could not," Lang said. "The laboratory lacked expertise in interpretation of the purported test results, which it frequently misinterpreted or over-interpreted."
Between 2010 and 2015, even after the laboratory moved to what it called the "gold standard" of confirmation testing for certain drugs, Lang found that the program still fell short of international forensic standards.
"In those years, the laboratory's analytical procedures remained flawed and continued to misinterpret and over-interpret its results," she said.
"Despite extensive testing for child protection agencies, neither the laboratory nor the hospital appears to have appreciated that the testing was forensic in nature. Or that it was required to meet forensic standards. At no time did the hospital provide meaningful oversight over the work of the laboratory."
The implication of the flaws in the laboratory's work were highlighted by Lang, who noted that a further review was essential.
"It is imperative that evidence relied upon by child protection agencies in seeking the removal of children from parental care be both adequate and reliable," she said.
Lang noted that according to data provided by the hospital, more than 9,000 people tested positive through Motherisk work between 2005 and 2015.
In the majority of cases, the laboratory's results were only one portion of evidence available to assess protection concerns, but, Lang noted, there were cases where "flawed" test results may have had a much larger impact on a case's outcome.
The Ontario government said it was "deeply concerned" by the report's findings and vowed to take immediate action.
"We are committed to helping all those who may have been affected by these findings," said Tracy MacCharles, the provincial children and youth minister. "To that end, we are taking action to appoint an independent commissioner to assist individuals who may have been affected by Motherisk's flawed hair testing methodology."
