CIVIL RIGHT & AYN VAN DYK

Civil or human or political rights are rights which rest upon the premise of birthright into a polity or state or society. Conceptually, one’s birth must ensure that a person is a citizen who can fully participate in the civil and political life of that state without experiencing discrimination or repression. Neither government or organizations or individuals must be permitted to infringe upon those basic human rights.

THE BALANCE OF PROBABILITY / 533

Let me clear up a legal factor that seems to be cloudy to some readers who in their frustration with child protection agencies in Canada, spout “I thought we were innocent until proven to be guilty.”  That axiom continues to be true in criminal proceedings. Child protection proceedings however, are not criminal in nature. Rather they are civil proceedings and that means that the standard of proof is a balance of probability. You may still dislike that.

That balance of probability proviso when harnessed to child protection’s remarkable degree of legal authority over children disturbs and even angers many parents beset by CP case workers. In every Canadian jurisdiction there is now comprehensive child protection legislation. If that were not enough, the common law has given courts inherent jurisdiction over children who are in danger, and this jurisdiction is called parens patriae. The summary truth is that in Canada the natural parental custody and even court ordered guardianship is superceded by child protection or child welfare orders.

Random Selection from Your Comments / Part 296 / For Love and For Justice / Zabeth and Paul Bayne/

Random Selection from Your Comments: Scores of people have added personal comments to blog posts over the past weeks. Here are a few from recent days.

1. "This was not just about a protection hearing, Doug Christie put the ministry on trial and exposed its shoddy tactics and blundering incompetence for the world to see in an open court.

2. September 21st, 2010 has been set for Finn Jensen to sum up the case for the MCFD. All day.

3. Doug Christie made a succinct, articulate and convincing summation in one hour. Finn Jensen's insistence of having a full day for his summation shows his or MCFD's desperation.

4. The similarities between the Bayne case and ours in Ontario is amazing and on Sept 21, 2009 ours concluded with the return of our children.

5. Fighting for parental rights must become fashionable because of mismanagement of child protective services.

6. My experience is that "services" provided by MCFD are used to acquire more evidence that can be used against the parents to deprive them of parental rights.

7. It is crucial that we recognize child protection corruption to put a stop to more children and families being victims of an awful tyranny.

8. We must return to very simple laws dedicated to helping children truly in need or travesties of Justice will continue in the name of Child Protection.

9. I have seen children removed because parents rent a flea infested condo, or children went to school appearing sad or have a rash, or parents disagree with positions of a SW.

10. As long as a group of people are given such enormous God-like power - that is, the power to take a child from his parents with virtually no accountability, then there will be wrongful removals.

11. Help children who need help, i.e. if there are actual signs of abuse, do an investigation, then charge the perpetrator criminally.

12. Don't permit social workers to yank kids away from their family on the basis of some bogus subjective "neglect" accusation.

13. To revoke sweeping child removal authority does not compromise child protection but rather directs such a measure to truly vulnerable children.

14. Many Canadians, children included, have good reasons not to trust government, largely because of the government's damaging role in their lives.

15. Integral to the job of investigative social workers is use of surveillance and inquiry.

16. Some MCFD employees who read the blog must be dismayed by the Bayne case and we would benefit to hear from them, even if anonymously."

SOCIETY BENEFITS FROM A STABLE FAMILY / Part 289 / For Love and For Justice / Zabeth and Paul Bayne/

Any Family

Life begins at home and wisdom should begin there too. Home and family is where so much time is spent and so much personal interaction occurs. The home is the primary and most vital factor in a child's development into a mature and stable member of society. The family is the basic building block or unit of society, thus the stability of the community depends on the stability of the families that comprise it. In most families the nurturing is genuine and healthy. Sadly in other families, parents have few parental resources or have personal troubles that disable them for parental responsibility.

The parents have been what the child has not yet been – both young and old. Parents should have accrued wisdom from situations that the child has not yet experienced. So it is the parents' responsibility to create an environment in which they can pass wisdom on for the child to readily learn life lessons. It is the parents' responsibility to treat the child with dignity and respect. It is the child's responsibility to honour parents and to listen and to obey and to learn. A child who learns these home life lessons becomes enrichingly wise for a life that can be genuine, wholesome, prosperous. This is the foundation of good family and community relationships.

Given my faith background you will understand why I consider it to be significant that the fifth of ten fundamental commandments given by God to a society of people is this one. Exodus 20:12 "Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the LORD your God is giving you."
Parents are also given direction in Ephesians 6:4 “Fathers, do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord.”

Society benefits from a stable family unit. A person's response to government derives from the parent-child relationship. The lessons and principles learned from honoring, respecting, and obeying parents will result in a society stable enough to promote development of the whole person. That's why forced removal of a child should be employed by social services as the last resort for child neglect or even child abuse, and seldom or never used to enforce any other parental compliance to regulations.