METIS GIRL’S GOOD NEWS - FOR NOW

The good news is coming but first read the reprise of this situation. If you have been following the long running story of the two-year old Metis girl in her foster parents’ care since her birth and with her biological parents living nearby with cooperative access to their child. The foster parents want to adopt the child and the biological parents are okay with that. All of them have been opposed to the Ministry of Children’s plan to remove the child and transport her from Vancouver Island to Ontario and an adoptive family that already contains the girl’s two brothers. On one hand you can see some merit in connecting all three children. It vanishes quickly. The overwhelming verdict is that this was a bad decision because the girl has never met these boys. The proposed adoptive family in Ontario is non-Metis, non First-Nation with no association with Metis culture or events. After much publicity and after hearings, the foster parents have won an injunction permitting them to keep the toddler. You can read the full story in the CBC, and other news agency links below.
First however, here is a comment by my colleague, Ray Ferris and his response to this news.
    I worked in the child welfare and protection field for many years and to me this is a no-brainer. I can see no gamble in adoption by the foster parents and a big gamble in moving her to Ontario. Furthermore, the foster parents have a much stronger kinship tie argument than does the ministry director. The natural parents live close by and they are on good terms with the foster parents. They are fully supportive of the foster parents adopting and they will see her from time to time. She will grow up knowing them.

    Furthermore, the legal barriers to adoption can be quickly overcome with the cooperation of the director. He/she could apply to the family court for an order rescinding permanent care and custody to the director and awarding temporary custody to the foster parents. This would pave the way for an adoption application, to which the parents would consent.

B.C. foster parents win injunction to keep Métis toddler, for … 

Full appeal of lower court ruling is expected to be heard later this year. ... The Métis toddler lives on Vancouver Island with her foster parents. ... Court of Appeal judge has granted an injunction to the foster parents of a Métis toddler, preventing the child's removal by the MCFD …

Metis toddler can remain with foster parents during court …Social workers want to move the girl to live with a non-Metis family in Ontario that's raising her siblings.  

B.C. foster parents win injunction to keep Métis girl, for now … A Vancouver Island couple fighting to adopt a Métis girl they raised since birth has been granted an interim injunction to keep her for now.Foster parents win continued care of Metis toddler …  A two-year-old Metis girl at the heart of a court fight between her foster parents and the B.C. government walks with her foster father in Butchart Gardens, in an …