Zabeth and Paul Bayne – Part 63 – The Bayne Campaign for Justice

PARENTS CAN BE TREATED COURTEOUSLY


Zabeth is an accomplished musician, a concert pianist, a music teacher. That was her life before, our of necessity, the recovery of her family took over her life. She awakens to the daily pain of beginning another day without her babies, of returning to daily duties all of which revolve around gathering information to help her own cause and assist other parents with similar complaints with the BC Ministry of Children and Family Development. Weekly, she writes letters to the Premier, to Members of the Legislative Assembly, to media journalists and news organizations in hopes that someone will listen and someone will respond. She and Paul work are custodians at night. That permits them to be available for each of the two afternoons when they can visit their children every week. Customarily the three children who now live in the same foster home, are brought by a commissioned driver to a location to which Paul and Zabeth go to spend three hours from 1 pm to 4 pm.

MCFD is supposed to be a service and help agency. Nothing is gained when its employees manifest an adversarial posture. If protection of children and eventual restoration of the family is the Ministry objective, it is sufficient to withhold the children from living with the parents. It is pointless to treat the parents badly. Yet there is evidence that thoughtlessness, oversights and lack of common courtesies typify the way some workers in the regional sector of MCFD manage the Bayne case. Consideration of the Bayne parents appears to be a low Ministry priority. Disrespect is repeatedly reinforced. This was one of the most recent examples.

They were informed that all through December and to the end of the first week of January at least one of the three children will not be in attendance at the visitation day. No explanation accompanies this notification. No indication of a makeup visit is given so Zabeth is compelled to request one in writing from the social worker that oversees the daily care of the children. Most of these inquiries are never answered. Zabeth and Paul are not told which children they will see on a given day or who will be absent. This week’s Thursday visit has been entirely cancelled for all three children but again without explanation or suggestion of a follow-up. A phone call from the social worker could easily communicate the explanation.

A network of parents having similar problems with the BC MCFD confers casually and it becomes clear that this treatment is being experienced by others as well as the Baynes. In fact, some parents who were told that a visit was cancelled and therefore didn’t show up, have stated that their children later told them that the MCFD told the children that their parents didn't want to see them today. In other instances parents have been told that the children didn’t want to see them on a certain day which they later learned was untrue. This is one of the reasons why Zabeth and Paul show up for every scheduled visitation time even when one has been cancelled. The Baynes have driven from Surrey to Chilliwack for a visit and on occasion have done so in snowy weather and found no children were there. Zabeth says that “On those days the return trip has been filled with many tears.”

Reader, please hit this link and sign this petition to return the children to Paul and Zabeth.