JUSTICE IS A GARMENT

JUSTICE IS A GARMENT

Justice is a garment prepared for residents of this planet. It is woven from billions of threads, knit together into a strong and integrated fabric. Love is the thread and it has produced a fabric of integrity. Three year old SS’s justice garment is in tatters.

Injustice occurs when countless numbers of these threads are pulled from the garment. The wearer of the garment is then uncovered and vulnerable.

The idea spark for that concept derived from THE JUSTICE CONFERENCE a couple of years ago. It used this image and theme. The Conference promotes dialogue around justice related concerns such as human trafficking, slavery, poverty, HIV/AIDS and human rights.

Another justice issue that is of concern to affected families in developed countries is government authorized child protection that has lost its way. It sometimes performs as predator rather than saviour, commencing with an adversarial approach, seizing children without due diligence investigation, disregarding parental rights, ignoring legislated timelines, delaying returns and court dates and parental visitations. That is happening frequently throughout British Columbia because of the Ministry of Children and Family Development.

The work of justice is to mend the rips and tears of injustice that have occurred in the fabric of a society and its governance. The repair consists of the replacement of frayed threads, so the work must begin with love.

The B.C. foster parents of 3-yr old SS believe in their hearts that the only requisite solution to the seeming 'human rights' issue (and I realize that may be an exaggeration), is the return of this child to them. This small girl's removal from her foster parents, with whom MCFD allowed her to live all of her life believing this was 'home' and with birth parents accessible nearby, has broken the hearts of this BC family and Metis community.

Exaggeration apology aside, this case may be much more than it seems because upon closer scrutiny of the policy, interpretation and practices that make it possible for a protection agency to manage a child's life like this, is beyond merely being questionable. When due consideration is given to the B.C. foster family qualifications, the family affection for SS, the Metis community support, the Metis custom adoption agreement which should be respected by MCFD, the formal application for formal adoption made by the BC family, the decision of the MCFD Director to move the child away, across the country to Non-Metis people is incredible and unjust. By that I mean SS's justice garment is in tatters.