WORLDWIDE CONCERN/ Part 381 / For Love and For Justice / Zabeth and Paul Bayne

If you were in any doubt about the clamouring international interest there is in the concerns about families and children and parental rights and freedoms involved with child welfare and child protection and removal and deaths while in care, Google any of the above but let me also tell you who it is who is reading this GPS blog. Even recently, people log on from Darmstadt, Hessen, Germany; Reading, United Kingdom; Lincoln, New Hampshire, United States; Ottawa, Ontario, Canada; Huntsville, Missouri, United States; Oaxaca, Mexico; Brisbane, Queensland, Australia; Edison, New Jersey, United States; Forest Hills, New York, United States; Twickenham, Richmond Upon Thames, United Kingdom; Algiers, Alger, Algeria; Bonaventure, Quebec, Canada; Indonesia; Sherwood Park, Alberta, Canada; Strasbourg, Alsace, France; Mumbai, Maharashtra, India; Sidney, British Columbia; Puerto La Cruz, Vargas, Venezuela; and of course in cities and towns across Canada and throughout British Columbia. Over 143,000 hits have registered and this is not a busy blog. It is however, an intelligible, rational approach and it acquires readers who want to be informed and who appreciate an opportunity to respond with a supportive, informative or corrective viewpoint.

People want to understand how a ministry intended at the start for such selfless and humane purposes can become so wrong-headed no matter where in the world it is practiced.

There is no question in my mind that those who are commissioned and employed to protect a district's children when parents or guardians are failing, are faced with distressing situations that can make them sick and angry. I would respond similarly. There are parents and step parents and grandparents and live-in partners who are prisoners of addictions or behavioural issues that lead them to be negligent custodians of children. And there are parents and others who are cruel and malicious by nature and intent. All of these people forfeit temporarily or forever any right to have children in their care. It is the way it should be. Do you think I have stated this too strongly? These children need a chance to live and to be all for which they have potential. Yet, terrible things happen to children in care too. What must virtuous social workers think and do in such situations? If a child protection agency will remove children for their safety, their alternate living condition must be close to a guaranteed perfect life situation. Such guarantees are not universally pursued - not in every district or region. I am convinced of that when foster parents can actually refuse to be registered yet be given children. Protection agencies informed of a risk situation but which do not act in time to save a child or, having acted to protect a child when a risk was suspected, they refuse to return the child even when no evidence of risk exists and when other evidence points to a return being in the child's best interest.

There is only one word that befits the realities – INCOMPETENCE. It is a universal child protection malaise.

Zabeth and Paul Bayne – Part 57 – The Bayne Campaign for Justice

Fraser Regional Office Emails

The problem with private email these days is that there is no guarantee that it will remain private. As soon as personal notes become electronic a large measure of control is relinquished. Email can be discovered and made public. Some times that is unpleasant. The disclosure in this post illustrates the suspicions and the adversarial posture of a section of the Ministry of Children and Family Development toward Paul and Zabeth Bayne as they have sought for over two years to recover three children and have refused to acknowledge a crime of abuse to their baby. It underscores to me how a Ministry loses focus and instead of improving the dialogue that will bring a family together once again, withdraws and entrenches for the contest.

Here is March 2008 correspondence between Ministry of Children officials that I found on the website of Voices of Children Alliance (VOCA). I don’t know anything about VOCA. I wasn't looking for it. It was simply there. I googled something related to the Bayne name. Anyone can do it. The officials in this mail exchange are John Fitzimmons (Community Services Manager); Bruce McNeill (Director, Integrated Practice, Fraser Regional Office; Berhe Gulbot (Team Leader for Hope/Agassiz - CF & CS Office); Loren Humeny (Social Worker, Hope and Area). The subject of their brief interaction is an expressed concern about heightened publicity around the Bayne case attributed to the many Bayne supporters/protestors who were making regular and public demand for the return of the children. The emails appear to reveal that the aforementioned people construed the genuine moral support of these friends as mere publicity in preparation for a lawsuit by the Baynes against the MCFD.

On March 26, 2008 at 2:05 PM Loren Humeny wrote to Berhe Gulbot on the subject ‘Bayne File.’

“Hello John, I am writing this e-mail to bring you up to date of this case as it seems to be going in the direction of a possible law suite against the Ministry.”

On March 27, 2008 at 10:54 AM, Berhe Gulbot wrote to John Fitzsimmons and copied to Loren Humeny about the Bayne File.

“I would like to update you regarding the Bayne case. I asked Loren to write email regarding this case. Loren's email has more details for your reading. The purpose of this update is to inform you of the continued high profile nature of this case, the potential for parents complaining to higher management or Victoria, unconfirmed reports that parents are thinking of suing the Ministry and that they are asking people to support them by attending at the Chilliwack court in the next court hearing and may be invite media.
I strongly suggest that you review the file and respond to me if you have any suggestions that we need to take action.”

And on March 27, 2008 at 11:33 AM John Fitzsimmons wrote to Bruce McNeill and copied to Berhe Gulbot and Loren Humeny on the subject: Bayne file possible future media involvement.

“I'm forwarding this to you Bruce so you are aware of this file in case there is future media attention. Berhe and Loren have spoken with me about this file on a number of occasions and the case planning has been through. “
Unfortunately, this family has been challenging to work with, there has been little in the way of an explanation for the baby's injuries, and a lot of medical evidence which indicates Shaken Baby Syndrome.
There is little that I can suggest to Loren and Berhe that they might do which they are not already doing. If you would like to discuss this further or would like some detailed information in case of any possible media involvement please let me know....thanks”
John Fitzsimmons
Community Services Manager
Mission, Fraser Cascades
#201- 7364 Home Street
Mission, B.C. V2V 3Y7
PH: (604) 820-4300
Cell:(604) 217-4194
FAX: (604) 820-4311
John.Fitzsimmons@gov.bc.ca

I plead for the MCFD regional office and personnel to return to discussion with Paul and Zabeth for the purposes of putting this family back together again. That must still be seen as the most commendable future for these children.

Hit this link and sign the petition to return the children to mommy and daddy.

ALAN WYLIE AND JANICE ROBERTSON – artists of light

When I first saw his work, what impressed me was his understanding of light on any subject and his ability to express it on canvas and paper. I enjoyed his art so a few years ago I took a weekend workshop with him. Alan Wylie lives nearby in the quaint village of Fort Langley. Alan is an honoured artist, a graduate from the Glasgow School of Art in 1960 and beneficiary of a fine tradition of Scottish Realism. He immigrated to Canada in 1967, settling first in Nova Scotia and in 1973 moving to British Columbia. He is married to another renowned Canadian artist, Janice Robertson.

He is a remarkably versatile artist using various mediums and painting varied subjects, landscapes, figures, still life. If you watch his minute strokes on an 8X10 inch canvas you might not imagine his capacity for murals that measure 100 feet by 20 feet. Yet he is celebrated for his grand murals in public and private institutions around North America and Europe. A link on his website recites some of the many murals he has painted through his career. He has exhibited across Canada and the United States and he is represented in the collections of the Nova Scotia Museum of Fine Arts, the Lt. Governor of Nova Scotia, Prudential Assurance Company, Hiram Walker & Sons, Shell Oil Resources, the Lt. Governor of British Columbia and many other collections.

He is a Senior Signature Member of the Federation of Canadian Artists, the Canadian Institute of Portrait Artists, the Northwest Watercolor Society, the California Watercolor Association, the Louisiana Watercolor Society, and the first Canadian to be awarded the distinction of being a Dolphin Fellow of the American Watercolor Society.

Like her husband, Janice Robertson works in watercolor, acrylics and oil. Janice was born on Vancouver Island, into a family with a long history of female artists. Her professional artistic career has flourished rapidly since it began in 1989. She became a member of the Federation of Canadian Artists in 1987 and in 1993 she was awarded the FCA’s highest status- Senior Signature member [SFCA]. In 1999 she was elected as President of the Federation. In 1999, she was awarded signature status in the Northwest Watercolor Society. She has acquired many awards among which is the Bronze Medal in the Federation of Canadian Artists 2000 Signature Members show, the Margaret and William Foley Award at the 2001 Adirondacks National Exhibition of Watercolors in New York and the Foreign Award at the Houston Watercolor Society's exhibition in Texas in 2004.

Janice too cherishes the importance of light and is quoted here. "Quality of light is important to me", says Janice. "It gives me energy and inspiration and I hope something of that quality is what I give to people in my paintings."

Alan Wylie Personal website
*Birthplace of BC Gallery, Wylie Page
Janice Robertson Personal website
*Birthplace of BC Gallery, Robertson Page


Wylie Mural above "World in Motion" located in Chemainus on Vancouver Island.

Growing Older, Remembering More Keenly, Waiting for Eternity.

One week ago I injured myself and I am recovering with my leg up. Immobility makes me vulnerable to reflection. Then last night in the company of friends we discussed someone who was eighty years old. Christine unapologetically reminded me that in 13 years I would also be 80. Sweet! Furthermore some close friends have lost loved ones recently and the frivolous nature of so much of life becomes pale. Mortality dominates.

Among my considerations during this reflective disposition are the remembered joys of my boyhood days sixty years ago. It’s a long way back in time now that I am 67 years old. I am an old guy yet my spirit still owns some youthful ambitions among which is my art. Great art speaks to some superior life lessons.

Winslow Homer is a celebrated American painter and was a glorious watercolourist and master of oils who himself captured for us winsome moments in life, sometimes of childhood. In his ‘Boys in a Pasture’ painted when he was an older man, the artist nostalgically records an innocence of youth, a tranquility and pleasure of a time when a child’s day without farm duties could stretch to the horizon beyond the picture’s frame. From our viewpoint close to the ground we study with interest the gaze of the boys into the limitless distance. My boyhood enjoyed such buoyancy.

Rembrandt painted many self portraits over his lifetime and this featured portrait which I saw in the Musee Louvre this year depicts his frailty when as art historian Jeff Dugan informs me, Rembrandt had “suffered the loss of his fortune, his reputation, his family and his health. It is remarkable that Rembrandt had the psychological strength to create such a brutally and uncomplimentary self-portrait.” Dugan continues, “But in this portrait, there’s a hint of something that I think can be seen in most old men and women. In the eyes of this old man burns the same flame of genius, of optimism, and of freedom that we see in his self portraits as a young man. Inside the frail shell is a soul that in many respects is still as young and alive and energetic as it has ever been. Time has imprisoned this soul in responsibilities and infirmities, and Rembrandt has the courage to show us this without flinching. But if we look into his eyes, we can also see the man that he feels himself to be, despite all the external decay.”

GPS Application:

Rather than terminating, life is a continuum. Just as you might disagree with Dugan’s interpretation of Rembrandt’s self portrait you may dispute my opinion that God acquits us by virtue of our faith in Jesus Christ and that he has prepared a life and home for us beyond the death of these bodies. I find irresistible the enduring promise from Revelation …”and He shall wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there shall no longer be any death; there shall no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have passed away.” (Rev. 21:4)

Jeff Dugan's website is titled Art to Heart

Homer's painting 'Boys in a Pasture" is housed at Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
Rembrandt's 'Portrait of the Artist at the Easel' is displayed at the Louvre.