MCFD'S CALL IS BAD FOR SO MANY REASONS (part 4 of 4)

MCFD'S CALL IS BAD FOR SO MANY REASONS (part 4 of 4)

MCFD Erred Gravely In Métis Child's Case

A three-year-old Métis girl named SS was removed by MCFD from her Métis foster parents in B.C. with whom she has been since birth, in order to send her to live with non-Metis parents in Ontario, where her two Métis siblings live? This was ill-advised.

Using the Ministry's own legislated and customarily stated criteria for determining placements, I am showing you why the MCFD decision was unreasonable, and therefore not in the child's best interests. For the past three days, you have read explanations 1-3, 4-6, and 7-9. Today completes this series.

Tenth, is the matter of the siblings, and the possible value or merit of seeing all three placed together. Most jurisdictions recognize that when two or more bonded siblings are in need of placement, for whatever unfortunate circumstance, a humane consideration requires that their trauma not be increased by splitting them up into separate homes. This situation does not apply to SS.  The two “biological” sibling sisters in Ontario have been total strangers to SS, and the professional opinion is there is high probability/risk that there will be failure to bond and failure therefore of adoption. In this regard, LM and RB have been committed to helping SS meet her siblings as she would become stable in her present B.C. home and able to understand the nature of such a meeting.

Eleventh, is the matter of Territoriality/regionality.  LM and RB as well as the birth parents live in B.C. where the child named SS was born.  The B.C. Adoption Act requires placement of a child in B.C. Simply put, in order to affect the move to Ontario, MCFD found it necessary to manipulate existing legislation. For many months the only language used by the MCFD was “adoption”. When the Supreme Court ruled that the Adoption Act means what it says, and that adoption of a B.C. child cannot legally occur in another province, and by residents of another province, the MCFD abruptly changed their strategy to describe the move to Ontario as a “guardianship”, and later as a “foster parent agreement.”  Surprisingly, the B.C. Courts have accepted this deviation by the MCFD. While initially, SS has been sent to Ontario as a foster child with foster parents, the clear intention is that she will be adopted under Ontario Adoption legislation and with that comes loss of control by B.C. Further, the understanding is that B.C. must reimburse Ontario for a monthly supplementary grant to adoptive parents for this out of province sibling.

Twelfth, and this is merely offered for reason of comparison on the matter of Financials. It is not to suggest motive. In Ontario a monthly non-taxable stipend of $950 is paid for each sibling until the child reaches 19 years of age. It is expected that the Ontario family is entitled to this income for SS now that she is in the Ontario care program. There has been no financial incentive to the foster family in B.C. who support this child.

(this concludes the four part document)

(Thank you for reading. This SS Love campaign against MCFD case management has already cost the foster family several hundred thousand dollars. Would you please look at one of the websites, bringsshome.ca or bringsshome.com  and glance at the little girl's Facebook page ‘Bring Home Baby S’. )