During this Christmas week, I am taking a break. I won't write another post unless something irresistable comes up or an update needs to be posted. However, I want to invite you to take a few moments to express a seasonal greeting to Zabeth and Paul or any other parent whom you know personally and who will experience Christmas this year without their children in the home.
Thanks, it's the least we can do.And may I offer my best wishes to you as well for a happy Christmas.
Ron Unruh
First Exception on Tues 7:22 PM: Remember Paul and Zabeth and the meeting tomorrow at 2 PM with Judge Crabtree when they ask for unsupervised Christmas visitation. MCFD lawyer has filed the Director's opposing affidavit.
To Ron:
ReplyDeleteEmmanuel. May God give you good health and wisdom to continue your noble fight against this oppression effectively.
To those who have children held captive, may God shrine His face upon you and give you peace.
To those transgressors who refuse to repent, may God rebuke you and take your name off the book of life.
Good for you Ron. You deserve a break after all the work you have put in for the last year or so.
ReplyDeleteThis Christmas I shall be spending with my family in Surrey. My three children, spouses and my four grandchildren will all be together at one time or another. When my children were small, I started cooking Christmas dinner so that my wife could have a day off just to enjoy the children. In those days we followed the English tradition of having the meal at noon. This way we could eat before the children got tired and fractious. Well apparently nobody got poisoned, because here I am nearly fifty years later, still cooking every Christmas dinner. I think it is my chestnut stuffing that does it.
Now I will tell you what I hope will make this Christmas very special. This week Paul and Zabeth Bayne will go to court to ask Judge Crabtree to order unsupervised visits for them. Most of us with children take it for granted that we will enjoy this special time of year for children with our families. The Baynes have not seen their children at Christmas for three years. Hard to find supervisors on Christmas Day you see. Well they will be able to see their children this Christmas, but only under scrutiny by the eagle-eyed overseer.
The Baynes have asked for unupervised visits twice before. On each occasion the judge increased their access, but procedural considerations prevented a decision. However, the judge did invite them to come back to court and state the facts to support their request. (Fact is your honour that we actually love our kids and want to see more of them!!) So everybody keep your fingers crossed and hope and pray that the judge will grant their request. Now here is what would really make my Christmas. I shall be staying just a short drive down the road from the Baynes. If they get unsupervised visiting, I intend to take that drive and actually see the children for the first time. After working so hard since April 2009 to try to help them get the children back, that would be the only Christmas gift that I ask. It would also be a good omen for the long-awaited ruling.
Watch This blog on Wednesday or Thursday for the result.
In case anyone is interested, here is a note that we included at the bottom of our family Christmas letter this year:
ReplyDelete"...And if you are willing, please consider taking the time to read further at the bottom about a small thing you could do to affect a cause close to our hearts...
Micah 6:8 tells us "He has shown you, o man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?" (NKJV). Here is one quick way you can do this. First, you might visit and join http://ronunruhgps.blogspot.com/ and http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Bayne-Campaign-for-Justice/196905937639 in order to help this family let the Ministry know that their story has not been forgotten, nor the injustice of having wrongly had their children removed. Second, you could pray. Third, you could contact your BC provincial political candidate and MLA’s to request their attention to this particular case as well as towards making changes within this Ministry a campaign issue in the upcoming election. Fourth, you could forward this request onto your friends and family to further increase awareness. Lastly, you could send funds to support their legal expenses with cheques made out to Lau, Chiu, Hunt in trust for Bayne, 9406 Pauleshin Cres, Richmond, BC V7E 6P2. Following an accidental tripping by an older sibling one Ministry doctor assessed that this couple had instead shaken their baby. The Ministry has chosen to stand by his opinion despite multiple specialist medical opinions to prove otherwise and have since removed all of their remaining children without cause and are looking at the threat of having even their 4th unborn child removed, perhaps permanently. Given the facts and the snowball effect of this case, we consider that this truly could happen to any family! Thank you for your consideration."
Best wishes for the season, may all your wishes come true this Christmas.
ReplyDelete"Christmas is not a time or a season but a state of mind. To cherish peace and good will, to be plenteous in mercy, is to have the real spirit of Christmas." ~Calvin Coolidge, 1927
To the Baynes, hang in there, you and your children will prevail.
The Baynes are most fortunate to get the chance to speak again before judge Crabtree. Most senior judges would take the month off because of the season.
ReplyDeleteThe judge is running out of time. He has made his decision, whether or not he has completed the actual written reasons, he will be put on the spot for indicating how close he is to finishing this task. Because of the holidays the children should be put first, and I would submit that he needs to get off the pot, state the Ministry has not proven their case and give a "short" version of his decision if the complete version is not yet done.
Perhaps the "change of circumstance" argument would be a good one to try.
The Ministry first allowed community visits, then home visits. This is a significant change of circumstance from facility-only visits. Remember, the two social workers approved the family home with flying colors.
Since then, there have been no problems with the visits, and clearly, the children benefit.
Read the supervision reports. Are there any safety issues?
Needless supervision is robbing another family of Christmas visits.
The remaining facility visit should be dropped at the very least.
Allow the Baynes to pickup their children from the foster home.
Failing dropping professional supervision, unpaid volunteer supervisors should be named.
List any attempts to put forward names but have been rebuffed by the Ministry without reason.
The Baynes have plenty of evidence and witnesses that they are good parents, the Ministry has none. The SBS medical report does not include parenting information, and Finn asks the judge to imagine the worst without evidence to support his fear mongering.
Lastly, show pictures. LOTS of pictures. In color. Happy, healthy kids with a strong attachment to their parents.
This will convey that the kids are being needlessly punished by people misusing the system, and are essentially being deprived of one of the most important holiday memories imaginable -- and for three years in a row.
Ask the kids questions and print the answer for the court. Do they want to stay at their parents home for Christmas? Do the children have any concerns? Get what they say on the record.
Force the director to submit their safety and parenting concerns and EXACTLY what services they have been offering the Baynes that, in MCFD's eyes would restore confidence in this family.
Remind the judge again that the Director personally has taken an interest trying to impose their presence because of the unborn but refuses to provide a reason why -- include his letter as part of an affidavit submission.
I hope you are reunited with your children, soon.
ReplyDeleteDear Paul and Zabeth
ReplyDeleteWe sincerely hope that you will soon be reunited permanently with your children - that would be the merriest of all Christmases.
This year will be the eighth Christmas without my children and my heart goes out to all the parents and children in Canada who will have to spend Christmas apart. I pray every one of them have a little peace on Christmas.
ReplyDelete