RAY FERRIS, ADVOCATE AND FRIEND PASSED AWAY

RAY FERRIS – It is with personal sorrow that I inform you that Ray Ferris passed away on Wednesday December 4, 2019. Ray was in his 90^th year. He and his wife Jeanne lived in Victoria, B.C. News of his passing will be received with sadness by so many people in B.C. and beyond. 

Ray Ferris was my friend and fellow advocate.  Ray was an expert on child protection and specifically the work of the Ministry of Children and Families in British Columbia (MCFD). He was the author of  'The Art of Child Protection." I met Ray in 2008 when each of us became persuaded that injustice was done to Zabeth and Paul Bayne in the seizure of their children. We teamed to assist them recover custody of their four children from the Ministry of Children and Family Development. Zabeth was a champion in her own right. Whereas I was the daily online blogger’s voice, Ray was Zabeth’s resource of knowledge about the MCFD, and the legislated ACT that governed it. With Ray’s data, lawyer Doug Christie came alongside the Baynes, and was able to obtain a judge’s decision in favour of the Baynes. In the years that followed the joyful reunion of the Bayne family, Ray and I have continued to receive requests for advice from parents and caregivers whose lives are torn as children are removed. Ray Ferris’ commitment to helping people to navigate their heartbreaking troubles has been beneficial to so many. I miss him already. 

RAY receiving a Justice Award

Episode 7 of 7: SUGGESTED IMPROVEMENTS TO B.C.'S CHILD PROTECTION

Episode 7 of 7: SUGGESTED IMPROVEMENTS TO B.C.'S CHILD PROTECTION

Today, Solutions to the Problems … that's right, after four episodes reviewing current problems in the B.C. Child Protection programme, Ray Ferris is providing solutions. Remember, that the ten-page document from which all of this information has been taken has been given to some members of the B.C. Legislative Assembly.

The segments for this blog are prepared with Ray's permission. Ray has written many articles on this blog for the past decade.  Ray Ferris retired after a career that included significant years with the MCFD. He has written a book entitled 'The Art of Child Protection.' You can order Mr. Ferris' book entitled 'the Art of Child Protection' by contacting the author directly at rtferris@telus.net.

Written by Ray Ferris.

Some General Information. 

            After retirement I first started doing advocacy when one of my former foster parents asked me for help. This resulted in my becoming a voluntary consultant to the Victoria foster parents association. The Association reported that only 2% of foster home closure appeals were successful. I did not believe that the children's ministry got it right 98% of the time, nor did anyone else. I also became knowledgeable about the epidemic of false accusations from recovered memory counselling. This practice did a lot of damage before it was finally debunked. An offshoot was the counselling cult of satanic ritual abuse accusations. The FBI investigated 300 cases and found not a shred of evidence, and yet many social workers believed in it.  

            My advice on child protection issues really stepped up after I got involved in the Bayne case. A blog was opened to help raise funds for the defence and court costs. I often wrote on it and I had many people asking me for advice. There was a heavy readership from all over Canada and the USA and on the day the judgement came out there were over 12,000 hits. I still get people contacting me on line. I had 10 new cases in 2015. I have been writing much less frequently over the last few years and requests have tapered off.

            I soon began to discern definite patterns arising. To start with it seemed to me that in two cases out of three the director's evidence was usually quite weak and did not merit the adversarial treatment that was common. In the other cases there was certainly a need for protection in various degrees. However, my approach was very basic and the same as when I did protection work. I tried to guarantee due process in court. I thought that if the Act were to be followed and the rules of evidence were followed that there should be a just outcome. So what was the problem? I found that seldom was the Act being followed and even when there was legal representation there seemed to be great laxity in following due process. Some lawyers did not like to take instructions and got confused between giving advice and giving instructions. So I found that most of the time I was just giving legal advice. When asked how to pick a lawyer I suggested that they should ask them if the have read the Act and how recently and what are the salient points I need to know. Eventually I was giving them an advice letter telling them in detail how to instruct counsel to insist on notification and disclosure and how to keep reminding the court of the mandatory clauses of the Act.  I found that if we got on to the case early, we could usually get results, but if it had gone on too long there was too much ego entrenched. Defence counsels did not like being told that they had not done the job properly. The parents in most cases had no difficulty studying and understanding the sections of the Act I had them read.

If you are reading this post and have not seen previous posts, I encourage you to return to the start of this recent series.
Thank you for reading ... 

Episode 6 of 7: SUGGESTED IMPROVEMENTS TO B.C.'S CHILD PROTECTION

Episode 6 of 7: SUGGESTED IMPROVEMENTS TO B.C.'S CHILD PROTECTION

Today, Recommendation for Assessments … that's right, after four episodes reviewing current problems in the B.C. Child Protection programme, Ray Ferris is providing solutions. Remember, that the ten-page document from which all of this information has been taken has been given to some members of the B.C. Legislative Assembly.

The segments for this blog are prepared with Ray's permission. Ray has written many articles on this blog for the past decade.  Ray Ferris retired after a career that included significant years with the MCFD. He has written a book entitled 'The Art of Child Protection.' You can order Mr. Ferris' book entitled 'the Art of Child Protection' by contacting the author directly at rtferris@telus.net.

Written by Ray Ferris.

Assessments:  A great deal of protection work involves knowing how to do assessments. Such work needs experience and judgement. A worker may need to be called on to do various assessments such as risk assessments, foster home studies, parental capacity assessments, general social assessments and adoption home studies. Although these assessments have different purposes, they are far more alike than different. They all require the assembling of evidence-based information. 

This means having interview skills and listening skills and knowledge of normal and abnormal behaviour and social norms. Knowledge of child development is especially important. Interviews should always have structure. The format can be flexible as long as the necessary areas are covered. An assessor must start with an open mind and only make judgements after looking at all the facts. Human behaviour is usually consistent and it is important to understand this, particularly in assessing injury to children. Most injuries to children are accidental and one should never assume deliberate injury without good evidence, but unfortunately this happens quite regularly. This can simply be due to the social worker being anxious and afraid of being wrong.

Episode 5 of 7: SUGGESTED IMPROVEMENTS TO B.C.'S CHILD PROTECTION

Episode 5 of 7: SUGGESTED IMPROVEMENTS TO B.C.'S CHILD PROTECTION

Today, Suggestions 1,2,3,4 … that's right, after four episodes reviewing current problems in the B.C. Child Protection programme, Ray Ferris is providing solutions. Remember, that the ten-page document from which all of this information has been taken has been given to some members of the B.C. Legislative Assembly.

The segments for this blog are prepared with Ray's permission. Ray has written many articles on this blog for the past decade.  Ray Ferris retired after a career that included significant years with the MCFD. He has written a book entitled 'The Art of Child Protection.' You can order Mr. Ferris' book entitled 'the Art of Child Protection' by contacting the author directly at rtferris@telus.net.

Written by Ray Ferris.

RECOMMENDED SOLUTIONS TO CURRENT PROBLEMS WITH B.C. CHILD PROTECTION

Suggestion One: CONTRACT PUBLIC DEFENDERS - INSURE ACCESS TO EFFECTIVE LEGAL REPRESENTATION

            It is not easy to equalize the power in the court situation. The directors have deep pockets funded by the taxpayer, but the parent has to rely on patchy legal aid, on selling property or on the charity of an individual law firm. My proposal is that we follow a model that has been used with success in the criminal law arena. Public prosecutors and public defenders are both funded by the state. We used to use this model in the Victoria juvenile court. A duty defence council was always there to ensure fair process. 

             At present counsels are contracted to act for directors. I suggest we also contract public defenders.

            This model could greatly speed up cases and facilitate the settlement of cases by mutual consent. Defence counsels should know the Act inside out and be diligent in checking the wording. Prosecution and defence would in effect work together to review the evidence and this would help to avoid unnecessary extreme positions. Cases could be settled with fewer hearings and this should ease the court backlog and save parents from being beggared by legal costs. A pilot project could be initiated in a medium sized court to evaluate the concept. 

Episode 4 of 7: SUGGESTED IMPROVEMENTS TO B.C.'S CHILD PROTECTION

Episode 4 of 7: SUGGESTED IMPROVEMENTS TO B.C.'S CHILD PROTECTION

Today, Problem #4 of 4

The content derives from a ten-page document prepared by Ray Ferris for members of the B.C. legislative assembly. The segments for this blog are prepared with his permission. Ray has written many articles on this blog for the past decade.  Ray Ferris retired after a career that included significant years with the MCFD. He has written a book entitled 'The Art of Child Protection.' You can order Mr. Ferris' book entitled 'the Art of Child Protection' by contacting the author directly at rtferris@telus.net.

Written by Ray Ferris.

We've been dealing first the Current Problems With B.C. CHILD PROTECTION and then the suggested solutions. Illustrations have been included to define the problems clearly.

Today, Problem #4 of 4  Social Workers Ignorant of Their Duties

            Problem #4 of 4. A leading cause of a denial of parent and child rights is that social workers and their superiors are simply ignorant of the duties required by the Act. They rely entirely on advice from their contracted lawyers who can become very careless. Defence lawyers, especially on legal aid are often equally careless and do not take well to taking reasonable instructions. One outcome of the heavy reliance on lawyers is that the adversarial culture of the law and the courts has permeated the children's ministry and staff behaviour has become antagonistic to clients. As soon as a complaint is laid under the CF&CSA the social worker is in an adversarial situation. This spills over into attempts at mediation.  Many examples are in appendix 4. 

PROPOSED IMPROVEMENTS FOR CHILD PROTECTION.

Article by Ray Ferris. (Ray Ferris, my friend and fellow advocate is an expert on child protection and specifically the work of the Ministry of Children and Families in British Columbia (MCFD). He is the author of  'The Art of Child Protection."  Ray reissued this information now, sent to me September 27th, 2017-09-27. Ron Unruh).

PROPOSED IMPROVEMENTS FOR CHILD PROTECTION.

This is based on material I wrote at the request of some NDP members of the legislative assembly for the election of 2009. 

Introduction.

The British Seebohm Commission of the 1960s noted that there were many problems of a non-administrative nature in the British social services and they could not be solved by administrative changes. This is important to remember because there have been many serious problems in the child protection services of British Columbia, but the repeated attempts at solving them have only been through administrative and legal devices, which have always failed. Indeed it could be argued that they have sometimes made the situation worse. 

ANONYMOUS MOTHER WRITES - HER GIRLS HAVE BEEN TAKEN FROM HER

This happens frequently, that a parent or caregiver writes a comment on one of my posts that is years old. They have responded to a topic that has popped up in their online search. The likelihood is usually remote that the writer will know where to return to see whether I or someone else has responded to them.

Yesterday, Anonymous wrote on a 2010 post. Here is the communication.
 AnonymousSeptember 12, 2017 at 4:08 AM

my 2 girls were apprehended based on the falsifying of drug test results by my social worker or someone else who is obviously paid by mcfd to do so. funny how I was not using and yet, every single result came back positive for fentanyl and norfentanyl...
I am hoping and praying for the truth to come out at trial in October...has anyone else had the same experience? I am literally dying more every day that my girls are not with me. and the truth is they were stolen from me for NO REASON. which makes this even harder. I am a good mother and everyone, even the sw says I am. so then I ask, why are you doing this to us when you KNOW I would NEVER abuse or neglect my girls? while you are wasting resources and foster care placement on my girls there are other kids out there in ACTUAL need who are suffering. go save them and leave us be. please! 

Reply

Replies

1. 
   RonSeptember 12, 2017 at 11:40 AM

   Well Anonymous Sept 12, 2017 --- I hope you have returned to read. Since you wrote your comment on a blog piece done in 2010, I think you may not find this again, so what I am going to do, is to put your comment on a post for today, Sept 13, 2017 to see if someone responds.

If you are reading this Anonymous letter and you would like to provide her/the writer with some counsel or share your own story, please do.

The original post to which she was responding was entitled,

IMPOSSIBLE TO PLEASE US / Part 372 / For Love and For Justice / Zabeth and Paul Bayne

and it began this way. "Child Protection workers and administrators would like us all to understand what an almost impossible task they have. Well, impossible in the sense of making all citizens happy with the results of their work. They will tell us that a perfect balance is unachievable between not protecting children from abusive parents and not making unfounded accusations against innocent parents. Stated differently and more positively, it is difficult both to protect children and to correctly assess risk by parents. To which I and others will quickly declare, “Then become more proficient at the latter in a hurry.”

I was writing then, in the middle of the horrific 4 year MCFD custody of the 4 children that belonged to Zabeth and Paul Bayne. They were finally returned in August 2011. Rejoice.

MCFD TENDS TO LEAP TO LITIGATION

Ray Ferris, my writing colleague for GPS (Advocacy Blog) has written another article to the Times Colonist. He himself had a helpful and rewarding career in the Ministry of Children and Family Development dealing justly for children and parents and caregivers. Later as he saw bureaucratic missteps and bungling he became an outspoken critic as well as an advisor.

Look at his latest piece.

MCFD's DEFAULT LEAP TO LITIGATION

            The Clarke government always seems to be willing to spend more on battling its citizens than on helping them. They leap to litigation with no apparent heed for the cost. We know about the big ones like the years taken to lose a dispute with the teachers, the millions covering up the fired health researchers and the six million spent bailing out Basi and Verk. We will never be allowed to know the true cost of all those millions spent battling against families and innocent children in family court.

   

            Suffice it to say that if a family has its children removed under the CF&CSA, they will need at least $200,000 in legal fees to get them back, regardless of the merits f the case. Several cases have cost far more. Parents need deep pockets, a valuable house or a very generous lawyer. The late Doug Christie worked free for the B. case for two years. Hittrich law advanced well over a million. The director was willing to fight for a year in a losing cause and the case still goes on. A Victoria lawyer gave $700,000 worth of service in a case, where the judge had already returned the children under supervision. The director wasted a full week of Hittrichcourt time just quibbling about details of a continued order. What did that cost the taxpayer?

   

            Then there was the little Metis child SS. She was snatched from her Metis foster home over the pleadings of Ms. Turpel-Lafond and sent to strangers. The loving foster parents and extended family spent nearly a million dollars trying to keep her. How much did the taxpayer spend? Now their Metis adoption of her has been legally validated, the director spends more millions battling them and the child in the courts of the North-West-Territories. Sad.

From Ray Ferris. # 105-3900 Shelbourne St., Victoria V8P 4H8,   250 477 5723

I SAW THE TEARS OF THE OPPRESSED

Ecclesiastes 4:1 says, "I saw the tears of the oppressed -  and they have no comforter; power was on the side of their oppressors - and they have no comforter.”

Paul and Zabeth Bayne are friends of mine, Christians, at home with their three children, two small boys and a 7-week old daughter and that was when their odyssey of horror began. It was the autumn of 2007. Two small boys chasing one another in the house and the toddler fell on the infant girl who lay on a blanket on the living room floor as mom and dad did supper tasks. In the following hours the baby lost her appetite and slept a lot so the parents took her to the hospital. After a couple of days of examination, the clinical default diagnosis for her triad of symptoms was 'shaken baby.' The term itself has intimations. Authorities did not believe the parents story of a mishap. Reports between medical personnel, and police, and child protection agency workers resulted in all three children being removed from them even though there were no criminal charges against the parents. "I saw the tears of the oppressed." The Baynes' efforts to recover their family cost them the mom's grand piano (she a concert pianist), and cost them their home. They began working night shifts to be available for all the daytime visits and court appearances. One year, two years, three years passed. The Baynes had an army of supporters and advocates. A former child protection social worker critical of some Ministry mistakes advised the Baynes' lawyer Doug Christie, who donated his time and admirably argued their case. Nevertheless, during the fourth year, a fourth child was born to them and within hours that child was also removed from them. "I saw the tears of the oppressed." They waited and prayed and worked for four years before they heard a judge's order to return the four children to them (August 2011). That was an astounding and unforgettable day. Today they are a happy family living far from the trauma of those years. And the children are thriving and growing taller and older and smarter and loving. 

I wrote this today, because I remember. For those years, Zabeth and I were in almost daily contact as I wrote blogs in our concerted campaign to make the public aware.  News networks and newspapers and finally CBC the Fifth Estate picked up their ongoing story.

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.

MCFD'S DELIBERATE EVASION OF APPROPRIATE PROCEDURE

MCFD'S DELIBERATE EVASION OF APPROPRIATE PROCEDURE

SS is the 3-year old Metis girl who lived with upstanding Metis foster parents in BC since she was 3 days old. These parents wanted to adopt her. MCFD had other plans and waited 3 years to enact them. In order to accomplish the removal of SS from her B.C. foster parents' home and send her to another foster home in Ontario, the Ministry of Children and Family Development purposely, one might say deliberately, took numerous questionable actions. You will read about them here. An unnamed friend has written the following points that I deem to be worth considering.

MCFD purposely disregarded every criterion for assessing a child’s best interests as specified in B.C. legislation and in the B.C. College of Social Workers Standards of Practice;

MCFD purposely disregarded the rights of the birth parents and their written preferences to which attention should be given as specified in B.C. legislation and in the B.C. College of Social Workers Standards of Practice;

MCFD purposely disregarded the written position of the B.C. Metis Federation that opposed the move;

MCFD purposely disregarded specialized opinions of medical and psychological professionals who advised against the move;

MCFD purposely disregarded the excellent record of care by the BC foster family, and the child’s superior development during her first three years with her foster family;

The MCFD fabricated charges against the foster parents, and created sham procedures by which to justify intolerable delays in finalizing a permanent placement for the child, by moving her from her psychological family in B.C. to another foster home with strangers in Ontario.

The MCFD procedure began as an adoption to the Ontario family until faced with the law forbidding this, and ultimately called placement with new foster parents;

MCFD in spite of the move being a fostering relationship have insisted that the child refer to the new foster parents as “mommy and daddy,” while insisting that her de facto psychological parents in B.C. be referred to only by their first names.

MCFD's confused bureaucratic manoeuvrings validated by B.C. Courts, gives the appearance that the Courts are complicit in this flawed and insulting treatment of a vulnerable child.