Frankly I don't know what it costs to
fight the MCFD to regain custody of your children once they have
been apprehended by the Ministry. I know that it has cost the Baynes
very much. They had a home and property. Zabeth had a grand piano.
That all became tinder in the inferno of conflict for which the
Ministry has unlimited monetary ammo.
A number of you will be able to tell me
how much it has cost you. And the horrible truth is that in most
cases the apprehension is for temporary care. Yet in order to
establish your ability and stability as a parent it will cost you
money, which is so frequently that of which the parents have the
least.
The entailed costs are customarily
legal fees paid to a lawyer who knows the protocol and the legalese
to converse in court and advise you about next steps. The truth is
that the parents usually cannot afford the battle. (Look at the terms
I am forced to use to describe this, “fight' and “battle”. )
Then there are other complications for
these parents. The BC provincial shelter allowance policy is flawed
because some parents require this to care for their family but when
the children are removed even for temporary care, part of these
monies is held back. The Ministry of Housing and Social Development
(MHSD) cuts it off immediately, or at the end of three months,
depending on the discretion of social workers assigned to the case.
The dispiriting result is that parents are sometimes unable to retain
their present housing and then the home to which they move is
substandard and is not fit for children. Well guess what, the the
Ministry of Children and Family Development (MCFD) is charged with
helping parents safely receive their children back from temporary
care, so when SWs advise the dropping of the shelter allowance, there
is a significant contradiction happening here as in so many other
areas of MCFD practice.
And then what? Well, the MCFD objective
no longer is the return of the children to parents in that case.
Even in the cases where parents of
children in care are granted a three month extension of the shelter
allowance, that amount of time is inadequate for resolving the issues
that MCFD has with the parents. Delays in process within child
welfare and the courts are so common that before one knows it, six
months, a year, eighteen months have gone by. Only the deprived
parents and their children care. If it is a single parent, a mom on
income assistance, just think how difficult it is for her to find
housing. She cannot have her children back without good housing. It
typically takes two to three years to locate adequate housing. It's
around 35% of children taken into care that come from families
receiving income assistance and get this, the majority are Aboriginal
or single mother families.
With regard to MCFD, Family reunification should be this
government’s number one priority. The Liberal Party over the past
number of years has not prioritized this, has not funded it and
therefore MCFD has diminished staff and resources and increased
caseloads and a backed up court schedule has guaranteed that children
will stay emotionally and psychologically disoriented within a foster
care system for much longer than is either necessary or humane. I guarantee that unless some of you put this to Liberal and NDP party candidates they will not even be thinking about child welfare and protection and family unity.
This Blog has been advocating the return of three children to their biological parents, Paul and Zabeth Bayne, for which a ruling is expected from Judge Crabtree no later than January 19th. Stay posted.
