Parents have brought children into the world. Inherent in our society is the conviction that the primary responsibility for care of the children belongs to the parents. That conviction translates into actual parental rights with regard to their children. Parental rights are viewed as "natural rights." It’s an essential tenet of cultural and societal Canadian life that parents will care for and control their children.It is reasonably assumed within our society that parents are acting and will act in the child’s best interests. The protection of parental rights is founded on this fundamental postulation. The protection of such parental rights it follows will advance a child’s welfare.
The state (government) may become involved in a child’s life for well intentioned reasons yet it may not be favourable but rather detrimental. The resources of the state to care for a child and to control a child are limited. Dramatic change such as removal from family will have a disruptive effect on the child.
On p.10 of an article entitled, The Charter of Rights & Child Welfare Law, by Prof. Nicholas Bala of the Faculty of Law, Queen’s University, and published in 2004, he writes:
“…..the Supreme Court of Canada in New Brunswick v. G.(J.) that a fundamental aspect of parents’ “security of the person” is their relationship with their children. As Lamer C.J. wrote:42 I have little doubt that state removal of a child from parental custody pursuant to the state's parens patriae jurisdiction constitutes a serious interference with the psychological integrity of the parent. The parental interest in raising and caring for a child is.... "an individual interest of fundamental importance in our society". Besides the obvious distress arising from the loss of companionship of the child, direct state interference with the parent-child relationship, through a procedure in which the relationship is subject to state inspection and review, is a gross intrusion into a private and intimate sphere. Further, the parent is often stigmatized as "unfit" when relieved of custody. As an individual's status as a parent is often fundamental to personal identity, the stigma and distress resulting from a loss of parental status is a particularly serious consequence of the state's conduct....relieving a parent of custody of his or her child restricts a arent’s security of the person."This is merely a snatch today. Yet on this Canada Day as we celebrate all that is best about this wonderful country in which we live, it is important that the celebration be tempered by the realities that for some citizens, parents and children, some of these assumed rights are being compromised by government employees who do not understand them well enough to be creative in arriving at solutions. That’s why the Baynes are still without their four children and Derek Hoare is without his daughter. We are hopeful that the Bayne children will soon be permitted to come home but it has taken such a long time for an amicable arrangement to be made. Derek may be facing a lengthy interruption in his parental care of his girl. I love Canada. I don’t like this.
Hard to be proud of a country that permits such atrocities as we've seen in the case of the Bayne family, Derek Hoare, and so many others.
ReplyDeleteThank you for the quotes today Ron, they do indeed remind us of some fundamental principles.
ReplyDeleteTo anon above. I can well understand your disgust with a state that can tolerate the abuse of the Bayne children and their parents. You would have difficulty in finding an English speaking country, where there no similar abuses. All the English speaking countries, provinces and individual states in the USA report many such cases. The whole child protection system has run amok in these countries. The problem is that those who run the services are enmired in a slough from which they do not know how to free themselves. Politicians can merely stand by wring their hands and offer spin. They keep hoping in vain that their managers can fix the problems. Year in and year out more scandals erupt while the top bureaucrats go into denial and offer superficial cosmetic remedies.
The true measure of a state is not the it does not have any injustices, but that it has the will to make decisive corrections when the injustices become apparent. How long will it be before Canada acts? Will another state have the guts to show the way? Our judges should be in the vanguard in protecting against injustice. Will any of them have the guts to stand up and be counted? Can they do it in a timely manner? Emigrate if you will, but best learn Scandinavian languages first.
This country is becoming more and more of a Police State all the time with police routinely abusing civilians and getting away with it, and Children's services streamrolling over families and the courts generally siding with them and taking away their privacy, legal rights and freedoms.Who ELSE can storm into your house without a warrant and snatch your children away without just cause? Makes me embarrassed to be Canadian, with the gov't authorities banning, controlling and regulating all we do, thinking that they know what's "best" for us, even interfering and telling us how to raise our kids and snatching them away if they don't "approve."
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