The rights and entitlements of Foster Parents are now represented in a document signed by the Minister of Children and Family Development and the B.C. Federation of Foster Parent Associations. The Rights recognize the commitment, skill and contribution of foster parents to vulnerable children and families in British Columbia. You can view the Foster Parent Rights document here.I know of no document that similarly lists the rights of birth parents in an orderly manner although these rights are recognized randomly in the ACT.
During my brief yet emotional brush with the impact of the MCFD's ability to interfere with a family of five, I am convinced biological parents are the least understood and the most stigmatized participants in the child protection process. There has to be a legislative and Ministry effort to safeguard the rights of the birth mom and the biological dad. There has to be greater protection for them written into the intervention process. More than that there must be a renewed emphasis on doing all that can be done to protect the family unit. The MCFD has not expended every effort to assist Paul and Zabeth to regain their children and keep this family together. All of that effort has come from the Baynes themselves against the concerted effort of the MCFD to thwart this outcome. There are five people without any choice in this matter. Five people who do not want to be dissolved as family but whose futures are being controlled by others. Three of these are children who presently are in the care of the Ministry. The Ministry is not the owners of the children, but it appears they may as well be called that. I do not think most people understand the desolate feeling of having a child taken away from you and to speculate, to envision having a child, three children taken away forever is a nightmare. Yet that horror is the outcome toward which the Ministry is moving this family of five. I have a problem with that.
(ART: "Return of the Forest" by Robert Genn)
Very well put - I agree completely.
ReplyDeleteIt's been fashionable for a long time now to talk about how the nuclear family is such a bad thing and so many children get abused by their parents. But I have seen where abuse was attributed, by the media, to a biological mother when the abuse was actually perpetrated by a foster "mother." How often this happens, we will probably never know.
And because the media either deliberately or accidentally paints biological parents as bad and abusive, the public tends to jump on the bandwagon and demand removal at the drop of a hat. Children are seen as things to be bought and sold, and ornaments to adorn celebrities with. Adoption is rife with corruption, and always has been. And as long as there is adoption, at least the way it exists now, there will be children stolen from their families.