CASJAFVA Dinner Speech / Part 348 / For Love and For Justice / Zabeth and Paul Bayne

This past Sunday evening my wife and I were invited guests at a fund-raising dinner held by CASJAFVA, that is an acronym for Canadian Alliance for Social Justice and Family Values Association. It was held in Vancouver's Chinatown at the Floata Restaurant. Six hundred people were in attendance, including some media people and some politicians and candidates for office. It is primarily Chinese based and operated having been founded and nurtured by lawyer K-John Cheung in 1997.

Brad Trost in the House

The guest speaker was the Honourable MP Mr. Brad Trost, Member of Parliament for Saskatoon-Humboldt. Brad currently serves as a member of the House of Commons Standing Committee on International Trade. He formerly served as a member of the Natural Resources Committee and before that, the Industry Committee. He is the founder of the Conservative Party's Energy Caucus and is a member of the cross-party Pro-Life Caucus. He has also served as an elected vice-chair of the Canada-U.S. Parliamentary Association since 2006. At the dinner he touched on a number of points that struck responsive chords with his audience and he focused upon Immigrations issues to inform us about federal government interest, initiatives and proposals. Mr. Trost has a reputation for conservative values quite in keeping with similar convictions held by CASJAFVA.

I too was invited to provide an update about Paul and Zabeth Bayne who were also in attendance. This organization has been a principal supporter within the network of encouragement that has been offered to this couple over the past three years. The Baynes were presented to this large crowd last year. Their tears flowed as people stood to applaud them. I am providing the text of my speech here today and tomorrow.

First Part

“These have been three of the longest and most painful years that any parent could possibly live and survive. Three children, with two of whom, the sons Kent and Baden, Paul and Zabeth had already begun a loving parent-child relationship with ideals for their lives, with goals and hoped-for plans of a nurturing family in which their faith in God would play an important role. With the third child, a girl, Bethany, came the exciting prospect of a tiny child in dresses and with long hair and a sweet smile but she was only weeks old and any possibility of relationship had not yet had time to develop. And then with the incident/accident and the hospital diagnosis, and the response by police and the Ministry of Children, any relationship with her was put into jeopardy. Furthermore the two boys were children, for whom no explanation could possibly be adequate to mitigate the sheer terror of being snatched away from their parents. All of that happened three years ago. This past Friday was the third anniversary of their removal.”