Jun. 19, 2002. 12:36 AM

Children's aid workers fired
Six lose their jobs over porn e-mail

By Philip Mascoll
Staff Reporter

Six staffers at the Catholic Children's Aid Society of Toronto — four of them women — have been fired and 32 others disciplined after the swapping of pornographic material on internal e-mail was discovered.

"I was disappointed. I was shocked, but I had a very quick other reaction," Mary McConville, executive director of the agency, said in a telephone interview yesterday.

"It is very distressing for a child welfare agency to be involved in activity of this nature."

McConville immediately ordered an investigation by the agency's human resources department when the situation was discovered in late April.

Both McConville and Caroline Di Giovanni, the agency's director of public relations, said no children were featured in the pornography and that none of the agency's young clients would have been able to access any of the material.

Giovanni said the 500-employee agency has five branches across Toronto and a head office.

Directives on the use of internal and external e-mail have been issued six times since 1999.