I began writing about Paul and Zabeth
Bayne's effort to recover their children in 2009, when their case was already
two years old. They were suspected of having harmed their youngest of three
children. Shaken Baby Syndrome was the Ministry's concern at the time. I was in
daily contact with the Baynes, commiserating and gathering information. In
order to be reasonably objective as a blogger advocate, I educated myself about
the history, the policies, the failures, and the reviews of child welfare in
B.C. It became apparent to me that the
Ministry's burdensome responsibilities were not consistently managed
judiciously, compassionately, economically or in timely fashion. I became
quickly aware that there were many parents and families helplessly mired in
bureaucratic gorilla tape, and that the Ministry was decidedly adversarial with
parents in many of these cases.
It was only when the Baynes received the
gratis legal assistance of remarkable courtroom lawyer, the late Doug Christie,
assisted by the advice and counsel of child protection expert Ray Ferris,
coupled with Zabeth's unwavering will to their defend their integrity as well
as to regain her children, that the case was resolved in the parents' favour.
The Ministry deserves absolutely no credit for that final outcome, and warrants
all of the fault for squandering four years of a family's life, and most of
their monetary resources.
This recent judgement by Justice Walker
that has exposed to all B.C. residents, the culpability in the management of a
case in which children were wrongfully removed from their mother and given into
the care of an abusive father, appears to be catalyst for the changes thousands
of people have been wishing for years. This time the Ministry's failure is too
obvious to conceal or deny and the court will award appropriate penalties.
Moreover, it has been sufficiently humiliating, that the Minister and the
Premier, and the Representative of Children and Youth, and the Public want an objective
review.
Bob Plecas, the man charged with the review
I wonder how much Mr. Plecas is getting paid to do this?
ReplyDeleteWhy would he be the one to make recommendations rather than RCY's Mary-Ellen Turpel Lafond?
Why set a release date before the Court of Appeal Factum due to be released to the public?
The letter Mr. Hittrich wrote to Bob asks him to resign, allow the appeal to progress, then let RCY to do their job afterwards. Bob's services are simply not needed. His appointment is political in nature and subversive to the court system.
http://bit.ly/MCFD-appealBrawl