If you are sympathetic to the grievous loss by parents of not only their children but of their inherent rights to parent their biological children, then you should browse the
Parental Rights website that I noted yesterday.
If you have compassion for children who have been removed from their parents when a conscientious effort could have been conducted to resolve the issues that interrupted the best interests of the child and the family, then spend some time digesting the information offered
on this website.
I am not discounting sincere and passionate efforts being made provincially to gather a momentum of concern in order to gain a hearing with legislators. For instance,
Protecting Canadian Children.
Protecting Canadian Children is Ontario based and Ontario focused and will soon be hosting a
CONFERENCE on Family Protection on Friday, November 5th, 2010 at the Renaissance Banquet Centre at 2289 Barton Street East, Hamilton, Ontario from 9:30 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. The cost is $40.00 (registration and lunch). If you live in Ontario you should attend. See
Alfradine Linda Plourde's Facebook pages and
PCC pages.
Another BC Society with a web presence is
PAPA People Assisting Parents Association. The mission of PAPA is simply stated as “We strive to protect the best interests of children by preserving their families and restoring healthy parenting ability. We safeguard the rights and dignity of parents in child protection activities.” The website is busy and bold, but when you take the time, you will find vast amounts of gathered data and stories. PAPA was formed by a group of citizens concerned about the "child protection" activities conducted by the Ministry of Children and Family Development. To that end its beliefs valiantly include these points. 1) Parents have the God-given right and responsibility to care for and bring up their children in a manner which is culturally and socially acceptable to their own values within the boundary of Canadian laws. 2) Family is the best environment to nourish children. Preservation of family is important to maintain a healthy social structure vital to child upbringing, national security and continuation of civilization. 3) Custodial right of one's natural offsprings is a fundamental human right and should be enshrined constitutionally. 4) Government must treat parents and children with respect and dignity in carrying out its child protection mandate. 5) State intervention in family affairs should be avoided except in extreme circumstances. Should interventions become necessary, they must be least intrusive and serve the best interests of both children and their parents.
In B.C. there is also a Chinese based organization with a broader social interest than just child welfare and it is called
Canadian Alliance for Social Justice and Family Values Association, also with a website which allows the browser upon arrival to ask for English or Chinese language access.
http://www.canadianalliance.org/ The website serves as a quarterly web-zine.
It's an intimidating acronym and one which I will never remember CASJFVA but it represents these objectives: 1) The advocating, fostering and safe-guarding of social rights and justice. 2) The advocating, fostering and protection of traditional family values. 3) The safe-guarding of parental rights with respect to education and up-bringing of their children. 4) The advocating, fostering and safe-guarding of constitutional, common law and civic rights and responsibilities of individuals both as citizens and as parents. 5) The advocating, fostering and establishment of traditional schools, social and educational institutions for the preservation of traditional values. 6) The advocating, fostering and safe-guarding of citizen’s right and entitlement to clean, just and upright government. CASJFVA has a decidedly Christian values foundation.
Perhaps you can inform us of other helpful organizations or websites.
Advocating for the return of Paul's and Zabeth's three children, in MCFD care since October 2007.
If you have compassion for children who have been removed from their parents when a conscientious effort could have been conducted to resolve the issues that interrupted the best interests of the child and the family, then spend some time digesting the information offered on this website.
Ron,
ReplyDeleteLike Ray, I must commend you for all the hard work and thought placed into your blog. I noted with interest your recent comment about not addressing individual posts, but rather addressing the issue as a whole. While I agree with the intent, in some cases, clarification through disagreement is a necessary evil. I must apologize to the reader requesting clarification about how best to advocate for change without being regarded as over the top. I still intend to address this issue, but I require time to make it right without going on unnecessarily. As for other resources that readers may find helpful -- http://www.canadacourtwatch.com/
It is Ontario based but still relevant in its overall content. Readers should take particular note of the reason for its formation. Rev. Dorian Baxter fought an incredible battle and continues to fight today through his efforts to make others aware.
I just tried to post my comment and got a message "error 503" on a white page. I'll try again.
ReplyDeleteTremendously useful information, superbly presented. Thank you, Ron Unruh!
ReplyDeleteWhile clicking on the various links provided in Ron's post above, I came upon the extremely compelling story of Sharon Shore, and her daughter, Lisa Shore. This website is a must read for anyone who has a child who may ever be in an accident and end up in hospital:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.lisashore.com/book_introduction.htm
Sharon Shore was so disturbed by the system that she entered law school and became a lawyer. Another example of how injustice can motivate people. Law school is of course a big grind, and Sharon faced even more difficulty than your average applicant, as certain people tried very hard to make sure she didn't get that far.
Anon 11:55 AM I hope you tried again.
ReplyDeleteAnon 12:09 PM
ReplyDeleteI have just taken your recommendation and looked up that link for Sharon Shore and I agree this is a most remarkable story born out of great heartache, and it reveals tenacity on the one hand, and despicable conduct at many levels on the other.
Ron;I usually prefer not to post on weekends, but this one I want to share right away.
ReplyDeleteWe had relatives visiting this weekend and one of them told us about a neigbour. She is a grandmother who is a restricted foster home for two grandchildren, who are in temporary care of the MCFD. They were recently scheduled to have a meeting with the children's social worker and others. They were looking forward to it with great trepidation, because they had constantly found the social workers to be adversarial and fault-finding and they were always worried about losing them suddenly, just as the Bayne grandparents were suddenly bereft of the beloved grandchildren.
To their surprise, when they got to the meeting the social workers were polite and co-operative and very pleasant. What caused this sudden change of heart? Well Ron, I must say that I have to give you and your web page credit for this. A lot of people are reading this page and a lot of them are ministry employees. Maybe you are providing a very valuable educational experience for staff members as much as for the general public. "Oh that some god the gift would gi'e us; To see ourselves as others see us." (Robert Burns.)
Don't forget more mainstream websites that address generally, human and civil rights violations.
ReplyDeletePreviously mentioned on this blog, BC Civil Liberties http://www.bccla.org/
(Each Province has such an association. BC will actively assist certain cases with lawyers if they represent ground-breaking decisions. The BC CLA appears to be rather well funded.)
http://www.lss.bc.ca/
I had no success with obtaining help from this group, however the material online is encouraging. I note they were actively involved in having MCFD's penile testing process stopped.
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On a different note, Google "surveillance child protection"
The first link is a 21-page PDF that contains an academic examination of child protection, a rather remarkable read for me that solidly validates what I have merely guessed about the true underpinnings and motivations of governments for removing children.
An excerpt from page 3 for example:
"The traces of awareness have been growing over an expanse of literature, that in nascent form, documents the perceptions that shape the Trojan Horse theory of Child Protection. This view of Child Protection argues that the discourse of Child Protection is being mis-used for purposes that have little or nothing to do with enhancing the lives of children. The misuse of social welfare in all its forms, to take away rights, is now a well-known phenomenon (Garland 1981). This paper is addressed to the manner in which Child Protection is expanding surveillance and dismantling basic Human and Civil Rights. As Kociumbas 1997: 234) explained, “No matter what the justifying rhetoric- Dickensian fragility, biological ‘fitness’, or Freudian ‘liberation’, child rescue has never been without an economic or political agenda, rendering the objects of so much concern in danger of being considered less than human”. Davidson (in Wexler 2006) similarly lamented that, “there is a certain element within the child welfare industry that tends to look upon kids in the way that, say, Colonel Sanders looks upon chickens.”
I have little doubt Ray Ferris would agree with the various characterizations of social workers and their demise in this one document.
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The links in this day's blog above, what would be relevant to this blog is identifying stories contained within those sites that directly relate to the Baynes case, rather than going off on tangents, and thus becoming overwhelmed and distracted with other tragic cases. There is enough to be concerned about in just this one case to keep all readers busy for years to come.
During my case, I of course read extensively the various websites, cases, and asked questions that I simply did not get the answers I needed eactly pertaining to my case, and those answers I did get were late.
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There are some disturbing parallels from the Sharon and Lisa Shore story and the Baynes case. Mistakes in the medical system that are covered up at unimaginable levels. No one is willing to say that any part of the medical system involvment was faulty, except the U.S. doctor reports who observed unexplainable anomolies without saying outright, there was a coordinated campaign of maligning the Baynes in order to protect medical incompetance.
If the Baynes ever get to the stage of having a Jury trial look at their ordeal even though no one died, we would then start to see a shake up of hospital practices, and what MCFD has become accustomed to getting away with.
I noted the 35 jury recommendations made in the Shore case by the jury to be interesting reading.
Also, the extensive postings to news stories, decisions and whatnot are very helpful in seeing the process, and of course, the extraordinary level of work and dedication to the memory of her child in order to pull this off.
The authors of the various websites mentioned above would be well versed in this aspect of work involved.
"Writing here will not change anything inherent to the system and the issues! I noticed that is what you said actually I belive that if enough parents Go Public against the MCFD that the government will take notice, and mabye it won't change anything but it gives parents the opourtunity to vent and to have some support. I am on PAPA check out the cases on their site and under Lisa Arlin there has been some mention of a gathering of parents against the MCFD and mabye that won't change anything but again this gives parents support they other wise dont have and eventually the system is got to change mabye not by a protest mabye not by objections on the net but if parents get to gether and pursue a class action Law suit against the MCFD it will change and then the Government has to take notice the wheels of justice turn very slowly lol
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