Paul and Zabeth Bayne – Part Three - the Alarming Case of BC Government’s Miscarriage of Justice.

It is difficult to define justice but reasonable people always know when justice is missing.

Justice is presently absent from the way in which the BC Ministry of Children and Family Development is handling the case of the Bayne family. Government becomes so large and predictably bureaucratic at times that even good-spirited people become mired within a complex system of protocols and legalities. Even our premier whose life is full of important decisions must courteously and vaguely promise to look into a specific case when in fact he has ministers and departments who will first filter and report and recommend and take action. I have seen him respond to this particular Bayne appeal.

Paul and Zabeth Bayne have not had their now two year old daughter living with them since she was two months old. She knows Zabeth as this loving and kind woman who visits often each week. Can you appreciate how this stabs into the heart of a mother?

Injustice is the lack of justice. At times injustice is opposition to justice. The more I learn about this case the more convinced I become that both senses are true in the Bayne case. A justice system is installed within a society like ours to insure justice is not misused, abused or neglected. Injustice simply put is manifest unfairness.

Here is the way either the already printed facts or undisclosed facts seem to me:
• MCFD seems to have contravened the Family and Community Services Act which stipulates that children under five years of age must not be kept from family for a period exceeding twelve months. It has now been two years.
• MCFD has not disclosed publicly or to the parents any conclusive evidence to warrant keeping these children from Zabeth and Paul.
• MCFD pursues an unsubstantiated allegation that Baynes have shaken their baby girl.
• MCFD certainly has no evidence that justifies holding the two boys from their parents.
• MCFD’s own legal counsel in June 2008 recommended to MCFD to send the boys home.
• MCFD’s medical professional's conclusion of baby shaking is challenged by ten prominent medical experts who have communicated with the Baynes.
• MCFD treatment of Paul and Zabeth appears to demonstrate an intention to permanently remove the Bayne children from their birth parents.
• The validity of SBS Shaken Baby Syndrome is being questioned in courts internationally.
• SBS is unproven among biomechanic specialists and pathologists as a valid scientific finding.
• Some courts are banning the use of SBS as a prosecutorial cause and are overturning previous convictions.
• It appears that without further disclosure by MCFD, there are no other grounds for MCFD to hold the Bayne children and disrupt this family any longer.
• MCFD has not publicly or to the parets acknowledged that Glutaric Aciduria may explain the child’s injury, though the suggestion was raised by a medical professonal of MCFD's choice.
• The Baynes have an avalanche of supporters speaking to their character and reliability.
• The Baynes know credible medical professionals that contradict the MCFD opinion.
• The Baynes believe that their children have been left in inappropriate care environments, exposed to television shows and movies of which Paul and Zabeth would not themselves approve, have been subjected to discipline, neglect and even abuse and while lodging concerns they have not received any responses form MCFD.
• The Baynes have been denied protocol hearings that are mandatory for such cases to listen to birth parent concerns.
• The Baynes have been afforded no opportunity in the past two years to present their case and their evidence.

Justice to be real must be more than a concept but even as a concept it speaks to that which is morally right in the realm of law, ethics, fairness.

Paul and Zabeth would hold day jobs but have now employed themselves as night janitors so they can be free in the day hours to visit their children which is the window allotted by the MCFD. They have in every way possible outside the actual daily physical care of their children demonstrated a genuine love and responsibility for their children whom they regard as gifts from God.

Our government whom we elected must be urged to do the right thing, now. Get ready to write. I will tell you how tomorrow.

April 3 2009 News Video
http://www.mediascrape.com/News/ViewNewsItem.aspx?newsItemId=46203

Photo credit: CBC