Zabeth and Paul Bayne – Part 71 – The Bayne Campaign for Justice

These five people deserve to be together. There is no question in my mind. I have to believe that the Judge who presides over the court case that opens on January 12th 2010 will be similarly convinced that three lovely children must be returned by the Ministry of Children and Family Development to their birth parents, Zabeth and Paul Bayne. It has now been two months beyond two years that this family has been ripped apart and hurt so deeply that words fail a description.

Not even a defense that this was a sincere attempt to protect children satisfies the magnitude of this wrongful insistence to keep the children away from parents about whom there is no evidence of parental dereliction, or abuse, or cruelty or instability, or character deficit.

In hanging on to this case, a local MCFD division has dug a mudhole so deep that the entire Ministry countenance is going to be covered with it. The media will have a field day. If MCFD has been seeking to follow through on Hughes recommendations, these efforts may be lost in the shadow of the mess this case will create.

When her parents brought her for examination reporting that one of the small boys fell on Bethany, only after multiple opinions were offered by medical professionals did one doctor diagnose her as a shaken baby. It was the most informed opinion this doctor could provide at the time. It is possible that this doctor is no longer willing to maintain this opinion as the only possible explanation for Bethany's condition twenty-six months ago. This doctor has been made aware of the dozen or so contradictory medical opinions that the Baynes have received.

The penalty of this long separation from their children which Paul and Zabeth Bayne have borne is an unusual cruelty now, rather than anything remedial for parents or anything helpful for the children. MCFD regionalized the Ministry placing Directors in various geographic sectors, and while this has some validity, in a case like this, the primary leadership, the Minister and the Deputy Minister and their aides may be so removed from the day to day decisions that have affected this family's life, that not until it is this grave, do they become aware of the debacle.

Paul and Zabeth are fit parents. They have demonstrated this valiantly under the most trying circumstances, with just a few hours of visitation privilege each week, and with understandable calls and letters regarding their children’s health and well being when they flag concerns that are missed within the foster parenting program or ignored by MCFD that do not want to fund further medical examination. All three children should be returned to Zabeth and Paul.