Zabeth and Paul Bayne – Part 27 – The Bayne Campaign for Justice

This is Remembrance Day in Canada. Each November 11th, my countrymen mark the day with a moment of silence to remember the men and women who have served and continue to serve Canada during times of war, conflict and peace. More than 100,000 have died in order to preserve our peace. By remembering everyone who has served we honour them for enduring hardships, fears, losses so that we may enjoy our freedoms.

We too often take for granted our freedom, values and opportunities and the right to elect the government of our choice. I remember the Queen’s father King George VI who in 1939 said, "Without freedom there can be no enduring peace and without peace no enduring freedom."

From the Vets website I quote this paragraph. “By remembering their service and their sacrifice, we recognize the tradition of freedom these men and women fought to preserve. They believed that their actions in the present would make a significant difference for the future, but it is up to us to ensure that their dream of peace is realized.”

It is because of my father, and perhaps yours and others and our brothers, sisters and mothers that I have the freedom to ask on a different day, that the Ministry of Children and Family Development reconsider the information that led to their decisions regarding Kent, Baden and Bethany Bayne – decisions that have kept them from their mom and dad ostensibly to protect them. In an effort to responsibly shield these children, MCFD employees in a lengthy and complex series of actions and choices have deprived these children and their parents of a freedom they have a right to enjoy in Canada. In a land of freedom, this family deserves the freedom to live as a family.

I also have freedom to ask you to sign the petition you will read on this linked page.

Please Don't Hesitate to Sign this Petition. Click the Link below..

"Bayne Campaign for Justice Petition"
Join the growing number of people who are signing a petition to have the children returned to Paul and Zabeth. It's free and takes less than a minute of your time. Please sign your full name, even though the anonymous option is offered. The name counts.
http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/Baynekids?e

Zabeth and Paul Bayne – Part 26 – The Bayne Campaign for Justice

Christine reminded me yesterday that Christmas is only seven weeks away. Yikes! That is close and there are a few things to do. Do you feel the same calendar squeeze?

The B.C. Ministry of Children and Family Development has something they can do for Christmas. Let me convey it this way.

What is the best Christmas you can remember? What was your most memorable Christmas experience? From the pen of Marjory Tallcott comes this story.

It is set in the depression years of the late 1920's. Their son was six years old. The bare essential, food, was all that they could afford that Christmas and they were grateful for that. They didn’t have money with which to buy gifts. A week before Christmas they told their son there would be no store-bought presents this year. But father said, “I’ll tell you what we can do. We can make pictures of the presents we would give each other if we could. For several days each of them worked secretly with giggles and smirks. They had a tiny tree with a few ornaments on it and on Christmas morning that little tree was surrounded with gifts. Oh they were only pictures, cut out or drawn, painted and pasted, sewn and hammered but they were luxurious gifts beyond their wildest dreams.

Dad received a sleek black four door car and a speedboat. Mom received a diamond ring and a fur coat. The very best thing she got was a water colour painting of her dream home. Their 6 year old son received some very expensive toys cut from catalogues. He got a tent to camp in and a swimming pool. Neither parents had expected a present from their son but with delight he presented them with a crayon drawing of a family of three with arms around each other and under the drawing was printed “Us”.

The MCFD can be the scriptwriter for one of the most fantastic gift giving stories in British Columbia this Christmas. A document that permits Paul, Zabeth, Kent, Baden and Bethany to once again and permanently be “Us.”

Please Sign this Petition.

"Bayne Campaign for Justice Petition"
Join the growing number of people who are signing a petition to have the children returned to Paul and Zabeth. It's free and takes less than a minute of your time. Please sign your full name, even though the anonymous option is offered. The name counts.
http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/Baynekids?e

Zabeth and Paul Bayne – Part 25 – The Bayne Campaign for Justice

The Absurdity of Scolding the Whole Ministry

It’s senseless to tar an entire government Ministry with the same brush. I recognize that when one is sufficiently heated, a predictable response is to direct vitriolic diatribe against the whole organization. But this approach is futile if what is desired is an opportunity for authentic engagement and understanding and eventual positive outcomes.

The Ministry of Children and Family Development is comprised of individuals in roles of leadership and responsibility, the majority of whom fulfill their mandates with diligence and equity. It’s a vast operation. It has so many extended service arms reaching further away from the source of their authorization. I grant that it is a complex challenge to maintain the integrity of something as large as this government department.

The MCFD in recent years has not been without criticism and perhaps not without fault in several areas. Archived news stories called into question the judgement of some aspects of MCFD policy and practice during the past decade. Inquiries have been conducted and recommendations presented and some changes introduced.

Presently, my belief is that Premier Campbell and the Liberal government has in the past few years sought to address the weaknesses by changing personnel and restructuring.

What is required now is an immediate and conscientious retroactive glance at cases in which decisions have affected families where the evidence for those decisions in today’s light appears so questionable that if at all possible, the decision must be rescinded, cancelled, reversed. Time is of the essence when the decision involves small children, for whom the early years are so formative and life shaping, and for whom removal from parents is already an irreversible damage. This must be done for the Bayne family.

Kent, Baden and Bethany have grown two years older since they were first removed from their mommy and daddy, and while good people may have been doing their job at the hospital, in the RCMP detachment, in the local MCFD office, and among social workers, an appalling mistake was ultimately made when the children were seized and kept for insufficient reason. A diagnosis of Bethany’s condition that was never supported by anything but a personal medical opinion which may now have changed. No evidentiary presentation to justify seizure of the two boys when the MCFD’s own lawyer advised the return of the boys to their parents. A conspicuous paucity of meetings with the birth parents to apprise and disclose relevant facts. These management decisions were made in one of the local arms of this monolithic organization and of course ultimately, the outcome of this two year old disruption in one family becomes the responsibility of Mary Polak and her superior Gordon Campbell whom I am confident want to see justice done.

"Bayne Campaign for Justice Petition"
Join the growing number of people who are signing a petition to have the children returned to Paul and Zabeth. It's free and takes less than a minute of your time. Please sign your full name, even though the anonymous option is offered. The name counts.
http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/Baynekids?e

Photo: Gordon Campbell and Clerk George McMinn at Mary Polak's MLA swearing in.
Photo: Gordon Campbell and Mary Polak at the Opening of the new Abbotsford Hospital.

Zabeth and Paul Bayne – Part 24 – The Bayne Campaign for Justice

Zabeth Bayne – Concert Pianist
Piano has been sold to pay legal fees. House is gone to pay legal fees. Children are gone. She needs them. They need her. She wants to have them returned to her. She is planning to play at some fund raising concerts if they can be arranged. She can play… I have heard her.

Zabeth trained with the Royal Conservatory of Music program and completed her ARCT with them. Zabeth has studied with many teachers including:
Dietmar Schmeuker, who is a pianist who has travelled and performed internationally. He is to be her partner at the dual piano concerts;
Alice Enns, who is a professor at UBC;
Walter Bresch who is a pianist, performer and composer.

ZABETH has been a member of the British Columbia Registered Music Teachers Association and has taught piano for over eighteen years. Her music instruction includes music history, harmony, counterpoint, analysis and rudiments of music and she teaches styles that include classical, improvisation, popular, religious and jazz.

ZABETH has taught private and class lesson at Carillon Music, Regent Academy, White Rock School of Music and also started her own studio, The Kristensen Music Studio and also The Hope Art and Music School. The latter School was terminated when this family tragedy erupted in the autumn of 2007.

ZABETH has adjudicated at international and regional competitions at the request of Regent Academy and provided piano accompaniment for solo instrumentalists and vocalists and choirs. Zabeth has worked with a number of churches as pianist and has assisted with many productions for local churches and schools.

ZABETH has performed with chamber groups including members from the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, UBC Orchestra and other classical artists. Zabeth has also performed duets and solo piano on many occasions.

Zabeth is seeking to raise some funds through piano concerts to finance this legal action. She has a friend who is also an accomplished pianist and together they will perform an extraordinary evening of dual piano. Of course she requires a venue or two. It helps when the venue has a grand piano and the musicians are required only to bring one other grand in for such an occasion. The idea is that attendance will be by donation.

One venue is scheduled but one concert is not enough. Time will soon run out in 2009 because Christmas events will prioritize so many venues. It would be a marvelous provision if there are other churches or organizations that will offer to host and publicize a fund raising event for the Baynes. If you have an interest in this please contact Zabeth and Paul Bayne at pzandkids@gmail.com .

"Bayne Campaign for Justice Petition"
Join the growing number of people who are signing a petition to have the children returned to Paul and Zabeth. It's free and takes less than a minute of your time. Please sign your full name, even though the anonymous option is offered. The name counts.
http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/Baynekids?e

Zabeth and Paul Bayne – Part 23 – The Bayne Campaign for Justice

Paul and Zabeth Bayne have been petitioning to have their children returned to them for the past two years. Sadly they cannot expect grace from the Ministry of Children and Family Development and they will be compelled to go to a court of law to reclaim the custody of children. They have yet to have that day.

Nevertheless their efforts have cost the Baynes so much. They once owned a new home in Hope, B.C. but they have lost that. Liens were put against the house by two lawyers working for them previously. They are now renting in Surrey. They have not been able to sustain day jobs and instead are working as night custodians so they can be free in day hours to visit their children during brief windows of time. Zabeth, a concert pianist, was compelled to sell her grand piano in order to generate funds to assist them with legal debts incurred by their struggle with a government agency which is lacking in the very commodity it espouses to us as tax payers – compassion.

This case will go to court in the new year - 2010. It appears to be the only course of action by which justice will be realized for them.

Zabeth is seeking to raise some funds through piano concerts to finance this legal action. She has a friend who is also an accomplished pianist and together they will perform an extraordinary evening of dual piano. Of course she requires a venue or two. It helps when the venue has a grand piano and the musicians are required only to bring one other grand in for such an occasion. At the present time, a contemporary church called Tapestry Church in Richmond has offered to host one concert in November. The idea is that attendance will be by donation.

One concert is not enough. Time will soon run out in 2009 because Christmas events will prioritize so many venues. It would be a marvelous provision if there are other churches or organizations that will offer to host and publicize a fund raising event for the Baynes. If you have an interest in this please contact Zabeth and Paul Bayne at pzandkids@gmail.com .

"Bayne Campaign for Justice"
Join the growing number of people who are signing a petition to have the children returned to Paul and Zabeth. It's free and takes less than a minute of your time. Please sign your full name, even though the anonymous option is offered. The name counts.
http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/Baynekids?e

Zabeth and Paul Bayne – Part 22 – The Bayne Campaign for Justice

The Abbreviated Version - Reason Enough to sign the petition

Over two years ago Zabeth, mother of Bethany who was two months old at the time, saw her second son Baden, fall on top of Bethany. Zabeth was coming from her bedroom which opened directly to the living room. Baden was running around a corner at the other end of the room when he stumbled and fell over her baby. Bethany had been resting on a blanket on the floor to the side of the room. That location had seemed to Zabeth to be a safe placed for Bethany to lie as the boys played in their own bedroom. Her husband Paul was assisting with the dinner Zabeth had begun in the kitchen and periodically he came in and out of the living room to check on Bethany. Zabeth had left the kitchen to go to her bedroom for a few minutes to express milk following a normal feeding of Bethany. While the accidental fall and collision alarmed the parents, it was gradually dismissed because in the minutes that followed Bethany showed no indication of health issues.

Certain symptoms occurred later. Zabeth and Paul repeatedly reported this accident to the hospital nurses and doctors. This incident was the only time in the girl’s brief life that something injurious like this had occurred that might cause the symptoms they were witnessing. The recounting of the accident was repeatedly dismissed by the immediate medical service providers and Bethany was consequently misdiagnosed with shaken baby syndrome. Of course I am making this categorical statement based on Zabeth’s and Paul’s testimonies. A court of law has yet to confirm that legally. But here is that allegation status to date, even as Bethany is still in the custody of the BC Ministry of Children, and worse, so are her two brothers.

Only one doctor made that initial diagnosis. It is not confirmed that this doctor will now be willing to testify in a court of law. Upteen other medical opinions dispute that initial diagnosis, have written reports and would testify if asked. An appropriate investigation took place. The RCMP did their analysis and dismissed any liability by the Baynes. Bethany should have been returned at least three months after being taken from Zabeth and Paul. She was not returned. She has not been in her parents’ custody for two years. Two Years! Compounding the Ministry’s culpability in injustice with respect to the Baynes, is their seizure of the boys. All three children were taken initially in October 2007, but the boys were returned albeit in a supervised arrangement whereby Paul and Zabeth had to live with their sons in Zabeth’s parents’ home rather than their own house. Then without cause, the boys were taken on June 2008. No cause has ever been stated or presented. Documentation shows that the Ministry lawyer advised the Ministry to return the boys. They are still held. And here is the appalling coincidence. Because Paul and Zabeth were still trying to get their daughter back, Global TV negotiated an interview with the Baynes, and shortly after that aired, the Ministry accompanied by the customarily assigned RCMP officers showed up to take two crying boys from grandparents and parents. It smacks of vindictive game playing with the lives of children to which the Minister of Children and the Ministry is committed. This Ministry should consider cleaning house quickly before the ceilings come down on many heads in a very public debacle. I believe that very soon newspapers, magazines, television networks will be blasting this story of injustice.

Join the growing number of people who are signing a petition to have the children returned to Paul and Zabeth. It's free and takes less than a minute of your time. Sign your full name. That’s what counts.
"Bayne Campaign for Justice"
http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/Baynekids?e

Zabeth and Paul Bayne – Part 21 – The Bayne Campaign for Justice

Sign a Petition please!

Some supporters of the Bayne Campaign for Justice have left notes for the rest of us to read on the Signatures Page of the Petition Site.

Here is one.

"The Baynes are past clients of mine and they are the finest type of people, the ministry needs to give them their children back asap and investigate themselves."

Another.

"Given the unqualified commendation of mutual friends, and the results of the RCMP investigation, I strongly advocate that the Ministry reverse their decision in this case."

The previous blog posts have been intended to inform readers to garner support for Paul and Zabeth Bayne to recover their children from the Ministry of Children and Family Development. You can do that by writing authorities. Presently I am inviting your signatures to a petition site called Bayne Campaign for Justice. When you go to the site, you can press the signatures tab to see who has signed before you. You have the option of leaving your full name, a first name or even remaining anonymous. Please at least go to the site and read the petition statement. Perhaps our gathered advocate voice can influence the media and the Ministry personnel to change a very bad course of action. Thank you.

Here is the petition page called Bayne Campaign for Justice.

If you are a praying person, pray for Paul and Zabeth and Kent, Baden and Bethany.

Would you consider sending this url to your friends? http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/Baynekids?e

Zabeth and Paul Bayne – Part 20 – The Bayne Campaign for Justice

Sign a Petition please!

Yesterday I launched a petition site called Bayne Campaign for Justice and scores of people have already signed and have even left notes for others to read. When you go to the site, you can press the signatures tab to see who has signed before you. You have the option of leaving your full name, a first name or even remaining anonymous. Please at least go to the site and read the petition statement. Perhaps our gathered advocate voice can influence the media and the Ministry personnel to change a very bad course of action. Thank you.

Here is the petition page called Bayne Campaign for Justice.

One of the signatories is #15 Karen Chan, who has commented to me...

"The first 5 years are the most important years in a child's life. So please release the Bayne children to their parents & family where they belong. Paul & Zabeth have only one simple desire which is to raise their own children, to nurture them and to teach them the values they hold dear to their hearts. As their first born Kent celebrated his 5th birthday, he verbalized his wish - "to be able to go home". Please help make this child's birthday wish come true."

If you are a praying person, pray for Paul and Zabeth and Kent, Baden and Bethany.

I would appreciate you sending this url to your network. http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/Baynekids?e

Zabeth and Paul Bayne – Part 19 – The Bayne Campaign for Justice

Sign a Petition please!
If you have been informing yourself about the plight of Paul and Zabeth Bayne, or when you do inform yourself by reading some of the posts on this blog site, and if now you feel that you want to assist and support them, a further way to do that besides writing to my recommended names of key influencers and decision makers, is to sign the petition referenced here by this address. It will take you to the petition page.

Thanking you for coming to this site and for looking at the next page. Have a good day. If you are a praying person, pray for Paul and Zabeth and Kent, Baden and Bethany.

Zabeth and Paul Bayne – Part 18 – The Bayne Campaign for Justice

The Shaken Baby Syndrome - A Pretense of Justice in the Bayne Case

It is decidedly wrong to harm a child. Our medical and justice communities have been shaping themselves to interrupt, to correct, to prevent and to punish offenders. When someone questions a Shaken Baby Syndrome diagnosis, this is not to be considered equivalent to condoning shameful abuse of a child. Such a question is objective and necessary. The SBS diagnosis was increasingly common in the late 1980s and early 1990’s. People suspected of being guilty of SBS are deemed criminally liable, and if the SBS diagnosis is connected with an infant’s death, the sentences imposed are severe.

The reliability of an SBS diagnosis however, has become progressively more doubtful as research has increased. In the early 2000’s SBS skeptics emerged particularly with regard to SBS’s legitimacy as a diagnosis when used within the court for prosecution purposes and the number of skeptics has created into a reform movement in the United States and in Canada.

That misgiving about the legitimacy of an SBS diagnosis is precisely at the heart of the pretense to justice in the case of Bethany Bayne and her disconnected parents, Zabeth and Paul Bayne. One of the tasks of the Ministry of Children and Family Development in B.C. is to protect children. Good. Where a child is harmed or might be harmed, protect the child! Remove the child. Who would question that? That is justice. Paul’s and Zabeth’s two-month old baby girl Bethany was taken from them two years ago because one doctor out of the several who looked at her, made an SBS diagnosis. Although an RCMP investigation concluded there were insufficient grounds to charge these parents with any kind of breach of responsibility or care and cleared them, the local branch of the Ministry of Children and Family Development has persistently held to the conviction that these parents must have done something dreadful to Bethany for her to sustain what appeared to be injuries to her head. MCFD continues to deem the Baynes are a risk to their daughter. This speculative suspicion, when accompanied by the authority to deprive a suspect of natural rights, translate into “presumption of guilt until able to prove oneself innocent.” “Guilty until proven innocent,” is not commensurate with the character for our country’s and province’s justice system. It is, with respect to the Bayne family, fundamentally unjust and is for this reason, a travesty.

The most just action that the local branch of MCFD or the elected Provincial Minister of MCFD could take right now, would be to let Bethany go home to her parents who have loved her and cared for her during their visitation hours each week for two years now. And that Ministry action should be made with unqualified and deliberate haste. It should be accompanied by the most sincere apology that authentic social minded and courteous servants of the public good can generate. I won’t expect that. I won’t expect that because that would be an admission that could be litigated. So, even without the apology, return this now two-year old girl to her mommy and daddy and stop this insult to what is good and proper about the MCFD mandate.