An Archive of Child Removal Cases / 531

This entire post today is courtesy of the PAPA website. There are fifteen cases cited here. Many of these are illustrations of some aspect of the disagreeable outcomes of child protection when it lacks the accountability that we expect and should demand or at least the transparency that explains the perception of interference. In a couple of instances I question the inclusion of a case in such a list as this because the mitigating circumstances may not serve the PAPA purpose. At least those instances would not serve my purpose. Some of these cases are outside British Columbia but each title is an archived link to its details. PAPA has done us an information service, but could have done more research with a few cases. There is available information elsewhere with regard to those few. By publishing this citation I am providing the resource, so that readers can form their own opinions about these cases and do the research.  

ACCOUNTABILITY TO THE PUBLIC / Part 303 / For Love and For Justice / Zabeth and Paul Bayne/

Any time that a death of a child occurs while in care of the Ministry of Children, there is a need for close scrutiny of the custodial care and the circumstances in which it happened. The death of a child in care is alarming. It is assumed that a child is in care because that life was vulnerable or endangered by risk of some kind in the existing home care. It is therefore a shock when in the supposed foster place of safety, a child dies. It is assumed that a death should not occur while in foster care unless there were mitigating medical issues. When a child dies while in the system, we can be assured that front line child protection workers are not heartless but that they rather feel the emotional impact. That empathy becomes questionable to us if the system does not openly and publicly probe into the death and learn from it so that there will be improvements to policy and practice for the sake of other future children receiving services.

Loved ones of the deceased child do not want the child's death to be invisible. Chris Martell in Saskatchewan is an example of a father insistent upon the government learning from the tragic death of his two year old son while in a foster care home. He is presently completing a five day walk to Regina today where he will present a petition to the government to take necessary steps to prevent such tragedy. In his son's case, a foster mother has already been charged with a criminal act. The Ministry demonstrates real compassion only when it honestly investigates and assesses cause and takes steps to insure that if there was fault, it is not only punished but corrected, made preventable. In such situations, the government has responsibility to account to the public how things went wrong and what is being done to correct it.

A child does not need to die to warrant a review of process in handling the care of a child. I believe that this type of accountability ought similarly to apply to care situations, notwithstanding the confidentiality concerns written into the child protection protocol. So, when a child is returned to its parents by a court ruling, that must be an occasion for disclosure of Ministry decisions which shaped the entire experience of parents and children during the time they were involved with the Ministry. Don't regard that as sensational but educational. Good social work aims to excel. Clearly, when the court ruling declares that the Ministry has not proven its case that the child should be in or remain in care, yet the child has been removed from the family home for an extended time, then important lessons should be learned and policy and procedure shaped in response. When timelines for custody and care orders that are carefully prescribed in the Act are ignored or stretched, then the attending judge and MCF supervisors and the Ministry in Victoria should disregard excuses and act to correct the practice.  As 2010 closes out on the Bayne case and when Judge Crabtree returns all three children into the care of their own parents, a public accounting will be very informative and hopefully will assist Victoria to fine tune its expectations for outcomes and accountability within its decentralized structure.

CHRIS MARTELL-DEATH OF A SON / Part 261 / For Love and For Justice / Zabeth and Paul Bayne/

Perhaps you will feel compelled to help Chris Martell and his family.
Chris Martell is committed to the discovery of the facts concerning his son's tragic death. Evander Lee Daniels died in a horrific way on Tuesday June 8^th 2010, so Chris' sorrow and loss is very fresh and raw. My first reference to this horror was in a bulletin post on June 29 entitled Chris Martell. The facts came from CBC and Star Phoenix accounts in Saskatoon. Today's information concentrates on some of Chris' own recent comments to my blog post. It is a complex story. Another CBC story. Jeanette Stewart of The StarPhoenix also wrote articles on June 24th and June 25th.

Chris doesn't want his son's death to be quickly forgotten like a closed file in the Ministry's office. It is not sufficient to simply accept the coroner's verdict of “death by drowning.” Technically that may be appropriate but there is more to this story. This is the way Chris tells his story.

The coroner released this little boy's body to Chris on Friday of that week with a media release that there was extensive type burns which may have contributed to the death. Disturbed by what they saw, the operators of the funeral home summoned Chris to look at the infant's body because there was evidence of third degree burns over the entire body from face and head to toe with the exception of the diapered torso. As Chris himself describes it, because of the condition of the body and the way it had to be wrapped, a white screen was stretched over the casket for viewing that would not reveal all details of the child's fatal injuries.

Chris is unmarried. The mother of his child Evander experienced a not uncommon post birth depression and was unable immediately to care for the child. Since Chris was an enlisted soldier with the U.S. Army, the infant was kindly cared for by a cousin and her husband. When Evander was one year old, Chris returned on leave and during this time he and the boy's mother had a domestic dispute that resulted in a charge issued against him which prevented him from leaving Canada to return to U.S. military duty. Chris explains that because he did not have $5000 for a lawyer to fight what he says was a false charge, he chose to plead guilty and was sentenced to eight months of anger management. He was unaware that the caregiver gave the boy to Social Services because the plan was for the mother who had recovered from her depression and dependencies, to apply for custody of her own son. Chris was alarmed to learn that Evander was in A foster home in Aberdeen, SK which he discovered already had four foster children under the age of three and five children in total. Social Services appeared to make a decision that warrants criticism because it stated that a Native family with three children is overcrowded whereas the non native home mentioned above with five was not considered overcrowded. Social services assured Chris that the boy's safety was not a concern in what SS considered a safe home. Both Chris' extended family and the mother's extended family were considering how to care for Evander. Chris was in favour of letting the boy's mother have a chance to raise the child. The plan was for the birth mother's sister to take the boy until the mother received approval. Meanwhile Chris appealed for a court order for visits to his son.

On the day Evander died, Chris and the birth mother were meeting to discuss with officials why the process was taking so long to arrange. It was already too late.
Chris wants a lawyer to do an inquiry to ascertain the extent of what he perceives as obvious negligence that caused death, both from the aspect of the foster care facility and the Social Services' assessment of the home. To raise money to finance that inquiry he publicized a 150 kilometre walk from Saskatoon to Prince Albert SK. That's what caught the attention of news media earlier. He is scheduling another 125 km walk from Saskatoon to North Battleford on August 5^th concluding on the 6^th, Evander's birthday. In spite of the news coverage and Facebook publicity people have not responded generously and he has raised only $2500 but Chris is grateful to the donors.

I am asking you to consider giving to a Trust Fund.

Chris has informed me that Donations to this cause for an inquiry will be administered by the highly respected lawyer Donald E. Worme, Q.C., I.P.C. He serves as the Trust Fund Trustee. I have learned that Mr. Worme is a member of the Kawacatoose First Nation and practices extensively in criminal law and Aboriginal rights litigation. Donald is a founding member and member in good standing with the Indigenous Bar Association in Canada, a national association of Aboriginal lawyers, where he served as President between 1989 and 1991. He received his Queen’s Counsel appointment in December of 2002 and the Indigenous Peoples Counsel (IPC) appointment in October 2006. Don has been an active Member of the Saskatchewan Human Rights Tribunal since 2001 and is mandated to review decisions and human rights complaints. Don has been selected as one of the top 100 alumni of influence as part of a celebration of achievement at the 100th anniversary of the University of Saskatchewan.

Donations may be sent to the AFFINITY CREDIT UNION, 3315c Fairlight Dr., Saskatoon Saskatchewan, S7M 3Y5, Phone: 934-4000 Fax: 934-5496, for the Evander Daniels or Chris Martell Account - Account #1082122. 

Chris Martell will welcome your email communication if you wish to encourage him or to ask him questions to which he can reply. Write him at chrismartell686@hotmail.com. He also appeals to you to join one or both Facebook pages, one that is Chris' and the other dedicated to his son Evander Lee Daniels Group.

YouTube, a pictorial tribute to Evander Lee Daniels using 'Amazing Grace' music as background. 
Chris speaks to us about his need to raise funds.
The Aboriginal Multi Media Society,staff writer Isha Thompson has written Chris's story in SAGE, Saskatcehwan's Aboriginal News Publication.

Chris Martell

Please note that an Anon writer has referred us to a story of Chris Martell whose 22 month old son died in a temporary foster care home two weeks ago. The boy died from drowning in a bathtub and suffered extensive scald type burns. Chris is walking 150 kms in two days to raise money to help him seek answers.

The story was quoted from this June 24, 2010 Saskatoon's StarPhoenix  website as well as two CBC columns
http://www.thestarphoenix.com/Father+child+died+foster+care+plans+awareness+walk/3197423/story.html
A Promise:  The Saskatchewan Child Advocate promises transparency in June 15, 2010 in StarPhoenix

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/saskatchewan/story/2010/06/12/sk-child-death-foster-care-10612.html

CBC News   Sask. foster care blasted after child's death,  Last Updated: Saturday, June 12, 2010 | 2:25 PM CST 

CBC News  Son died in bathtub, father says , Last Updated: Thursday, June 10, 2010 | 5:56 PM CST