M1C5 Checkpoint 5 (Case 7)

Case: Angry father at a Children’s Aid Society interview

You are interpreting at an interview between a Children’s Aid Society (C.A.S.) caseworker and a newly-arrived male refugee who lives in a small apartment with his nine-year-old daughter. The father spends each day looking for work. The child is left alone during the summer and is hanging out with a group of older children. A neighbour felt that the child was being neglected and called the Children’s Aid Society. As the interview proceeds, the father becomes more and more agitated. He is insulted by the suggestion that, left unsupervised, his daughter might become involved in improper behaviour. Back home, his daughter looked after herself and a younger child too! In addition, how can he find work if he can’t leave her alone? The caseworker suggests some options but none of these are acceptable to the father. You can tell that he is getting very angry. You think that he is doing his best, and that the caseworker is not being very understanding. Finally, the father says to you, “Tell her that I don’t want to be told how to take care of my own child by some stupid woman and that I don’t want to talk to her anymore.”