COURT DELAYS ARE AGONY FOR CHILDREN / Part 310 / For Love and For Justice / Zabeth and Paul Bayne/

I hope to see Ray Ferris' letter to the editor in the Victoria Times Colonist. He wrote a followup to this well written article by Louise Dickson on September 12, 2010. Ms. Dickson tells the story of a couple whose names have not been divulged in hopes that this anonymity will prevent jeopardy to their attempt to retrieve their three children from the Ministry. In their case, unlike the Baynes, these children are ages 12,11,and 7 and they have been in provincial care for since June. Who can imagine what these children must be feeling and they must cope until perhaps next May 2011 because that is the nearest court date possibility. And that is the first time the information about the case comes to a judge. Yet all this time, the government has control of these children's lives within surroundings foreign to them. Dickson's report underscores the shortage of provincial judges in B.C. which is the cause for lengthy delays of cases whether small claims or criminal. Yet it is in cases having to do with children that the affects of delay are dramatic and harmful. Forget the Ministry's catchphrase “best interests of the children,” when the Ministry launches court action. Those of you who have already been involved with the Ministry and the courts know about this all too well because this published case is not isolated even as we have said all along the Baynes is not. Separation from loving parents does harm. The Ministry induces this harm and if it wants to argue that this is not true, then find ways of reuniting the families quickly. Do some creative, meaningful productive dialogue and mediation. Clearly as Dickson writes, not in all cases should children be returned to families because that is where their risk lies, and the long court delays simply compound the difficulties of resolving this child's future.

Dickson quotes Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond, Representative for Children and Youth who said, "Will children feel confident that someone cared about them as they grew up?"... "As they get older, many of the kids will say, 'Why was I taken away? I don't understand what happened to me. I don't understand why it took so long.' They will ask some very penetrating questions. But the answers will be inadequate."

• You can read the full Dickson article here.
• And you can read Ray Ferris' comment on this same subject at http://ronunruhgps.blogspot.com/2010/09/never-mind-second-hand-smoke-part-309.html?showComment=1284395988981#c9148758764863826958