Zabeth and Paul Bayne – Part 25 – The Bayne Campaign for Justice

The Absurdity of Scolding the Whole Ministry

It’s senseless to tar an entire government Ministry with the same brush. I recognize that when one is sufficiently heated, a predictable response is to direct vitriolic diatribe against the whole organization. But this approach is futile if what is desired is an opportunity for authentic engagement and understanding and eventual positive outcomes.

The Ministry of Children and Family Development is comprised of individuals in roles of leadership and responsibility, the majority of whom fulfill their mandates with diligence and equity. It’s a vast operation. It has so many extended service arms reaching further away from the source of their authorization. I grant that it is a complex challenge to maintain the integrity of something as large as this government department.

The MCFD in recent years has not been without criticism and perhaps not without fault in several areas. Archived news stories called into question the judgement of some aspects of MCFD policy and practice during the past decade. Inquiries have been conducted and recommendations presented and some changes introduced.

Presently, my belief is that Premier Campbell and the Liberal government has in the past few years sought to address the weaknesses by changing personnel and restructuring.

What is required now is an immediate and conscientious retroactive glance at cases in which decisions have affected families where the evidence for those decisions in today’s light appears so questionable that if at all possible, the decision must be rescinded, cancelled, reversed. Time is of the essence when the decision involves small children, for whom the early years are so formative and life shaping, and for whom removal from parents is already an irreversible damage. This must be done for the Bayne family.

Kent, Baden and Bethany have grown two years older since they were first removed from their mommy and daddy, and while good people may have been doing their job at the hospital, in the RCMP detachment, in the local MCFD office, and among social workers, an appalling mistake was ultimately made when the children were seized and kept for insufficient reason. A diagnosis of Bethany’s condition that was never supported by anything but a personal medical opinion which may now have changed. No evidentiary presentation to justify seizure of the two boys when the MCFD’s own lawyer advised the return of the boys to their parents. A conspicuous paucity of meetings with the birth parents to apprise and disclose relevant facts. These management decisions were made in one of the local arms of this monolithic organization and of course ultimately, the outcome of this two year old disruption in one family becomes the responsibility of Mary Polak and her superior Gordon Campbell whom I am confident want to see justice done.

"Bayne Campaign for Justice Petition"
Join the growing number of people who are signing a petition to have the children returned to Paul and Zabeth. It's free and takes less than a minute of your time. Please sign your full name, even though the anonymous option is offered. The name counts.
http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/Baynekids?e

Photo: Gordon Campbell and Clerk George McMinn at Mary Polak's MLA swearing in.
Photo: Gordon Campbell and Mary Polak at the Opening of the new Abbotsford Hospital.