MCFD JUST GOT SLAMMED/ Part 383 / For Love and For Justice / Zabeth and Paul Bayne

Here is today's Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond's 60 page report.

 GRAND SLAM, SLAM DUNK, call it what you will, the head honchos of the Ministry of Children and Family Development had it done to them. The Directors, team leaders and social workers in the various regions have earned this failing grade but the top bureaucrats own the responsibility for it. Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond delivered it on Monday in Victoria. She is the Representative for Children and Youth. While she has given scathing reports in the past today was the most recent and perhaps the most stinging assessment of the province's child welfare system.

I have written blog posts for the next couple of days but these must be shelved for the moment to focus on Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond's report. I cannot even wait until tomorrow. You need to engage with this now. If you didn't hear her speak during news hours today, then you will want to read this. If you are one of those who feel she is just a headline grabber, then I disagree with you. I see her as our best ally. She is seeing what we have been seeing and expressing. She has the weight of office to say it in a manner that will be heard. If she gets increasing news coverage we had better be thankful because it means that the public is going to be informed and concerned and demanding of answers. She was hired to be a watchdog and she has been growling in the past and today we heard that she has a big bark as well.

Listen to her as CBC recounts her report. http://www.cbc.ca/canada/british-columbia/story/2010/11/29/bc-childrens-watchdog-report.html?ref=rss

She says that the Liberal “government has only fully implemented less than half the recommendations in the 2006 landmark report on the child welfare system by retired judge Ted Hughes.” She is “deeply disappointed with the government's progress and is particularly critical of what she sees as a lack of accountability and oversight in the child welfare system.” She said that “the changes made in public reporting have met neither the letter nor intent of the Hughes report and the information posted publicly now is less useful than in the past.” She described the government's action “as vague promises that make high-level references to the Hughes review yet offer no detailed information, and at other times outright government dismissal." She feels that the “Ministry of Children and Family Development has failed to meet the targets in its service plans, and that means troubles ahead. Difficult economics times can mean harsher realities for many of B.C.'s families.... Poverty will deepen for some, unemployment rates will climb, and previously successful families may struggle. Social services may be required more often, and community supports may disappear. Stagnant or decreasing budgets will not be able to address the need of additional children and families," she said.”

American Family Rights is the Voice of America's Families and its slogan is 'Until Every Child Comes Home.' It published this CBC story in a hurry today. Believe me, this is news around the world where similar issues exist. http://afrafrontpagenews.blogspot.com/2010/11/bc-childrens-watchdog-slams-government.html

mcfd SLAMMED

Turpell-Lafond slams MCFD
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/british-columbia/story/2010/11/29/bc-childrens-watchdog-report.html

THE EARLY INTERVENTION CONCENTRATION / Part 382 / For Love and For Justice / Zabeth and Paul Bayne

Do you see what is going on here?

Victoria, you have to pay attention here! THE CITIZENRY DO NOT WANT THIS.

Header from Autism Association of Western Australia

It is discreetly profiled in MCFD literature. The Ministry of Children in B.C. is practicing a policy of early intervention as well as the often criticized reactive services to serious problems, albeit under the umbrella of the Child and Family Community Services Act. Yes I understand that the term 'early intervention' applies to a diverse range of assistance situations, many of which I would certainly affirm. A true early intervention program provides services. Early Intervention is appealing. It clearly decreases the harm and suffering that can be experienced by children. To address concerns early proves to be very helpful in assisting a child's development and less complicated than arresting developmental concerns for older children later. Costs can also be reduced when good responses are made early rather than when troubled children become disturbed youth and adults. However, I speak of the emphasis with respect to child protection cases in which Early Intervention is also being practiced, and this is where I have problems. Not early involvement of services but early involvement of government and professionals in your family life creates some significant and perhaps enduring issues.

This emergent child welfare theme that promotes prevention and early intervention services appears attractively altruistic but it is creating an ethical dilemma. Even conscientious social workers find this emphasis a challenge if they are thoughtful. How are they to balance respect for service users with concern for social justice. You see the great issue is that an early intervention emphasis is effectively shifting the balance of power away from families towards the BC government and toward professionals making the decisions about the lives of children. That's right, and that is what a great many of you commentators have been telling me long before I thought about it. Those of you who feel that you have been shafted by this MCFD have caught on much sooner than some of the rest of us. Who decides what is in your child’s best interests? Many of you will attest that the government is making the decision, that is, someone employed by the government. Someone who goes home at night and can ignore until tomorrow, or next month, or next year, that a specific child is not at home while this process grinds.

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.

Public Trust, Power and Corruption / Part 380 / For Love and For Justice / Zabeth and Paul Bayne

Public Trust, Power and Corruption

A fundamental theme of democracy is the concept of the public trust which asserts that within the public there lies the true power and future of a society and therefore the trust that the public invests in its officials must be respected.

A young person was speaking with me about the seeds of cynicism that have germinated and developed into full grown pessimism. At first one surmises this is cynicism about government but closer inspection reveals it is cynicism about persons, people, humanity. So few people come to power without becoming tainted or even derailed. The reality was captured in a phrase. “Power corrupts: absolute power corrupts absolutely.”

There is more to this adage which derives from a quotation by Lord Acton, who was actually John Emerich Edward Dalberg Acton, in fact Baron Acton (1834–1902). As an historian and moralist he summed his thought in a letter to Bishop Mandell Creighton in 1887 with these words: "Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men." What chance had public trust if that revelation becomes our starting point? Another ancient, William Pitt, the Elder, The Earl of Chatham and British Prime Minister from 1766 to 1778 is recorded as having made an equally profound and disturbing statement in a speech to the UK House of Lords in 1770. "Unlimited power is apt to corrupt the minds of those who possess it."

If the Liberal caucus is comprised of many who have already compromised their respect and the opposition NDP has nothing better to show, where are we to look for leadership and guileless aid when we want something as simple as mercy or compassion?

Employees within the B.C. Ministry of Children and Family Development are not elected officers yet to them has been invested a responsibility that in some circumstances has not unlimited power but immense power which when employed can shroud its actions under a legislatively sewn cover of confidentiality and privacy. That without question has generated a pattern of conduct and job performance that has not been in the best interests of children and families for countless thousands of British Columbians. Public trust has been lost for all of these in their elected officials and others employed within governmental ministries. I mentioned to that young person with whom I spoke that he had articulated his eroded trust issues much sooner than I have. I have waited until my senior years to realize how awful things are. Now, I am almost overcome by the avalanche of disappointments. The few untainted MCFD employees whom I earlier mentioned must be as much or more discomfited by what they see around them each day.

Will the true champions please stand up? Will the honourable call for accountability? Will the untarnished stand out as attractive leaders?

A BRIEF REPRISE/ Part 379 / For Love and For Justice / Zabeth and Paul Bayne

A BRIEF REPRISE

Yes of course issues of abuse and neglect affect children from every social and economic societal strata. The majority of families involved with MCFD however, are socially marginalized and economically disadvantaged. In 2005, 2006, and 2007 Paul and Zabeth Bayne did not fit that social classification. They were employed and had purchased a new home with property. They were beginning to fulfill a shared dream of family in a family home where children grow up well and happy and motivated to aspire to develop and to achieve. Paul experienced job layoff that many others do and then an on the job injury but they were okay and they would have been fine. They had a community of friends and family who responded kindly with help.

Their third child's injury sustained in the home in 2007 and the indicators which obligated the investigative pediatrician to base her diagnosis on her conviction and training turned their idyllic world on its ear. You who are familiar with this case hardly require a reminder of the precipitant diagnosis. In this physician's mind, the child's observed medical conditions corresponded unambiguously with non accidental causation. The injury(ies) had to be inflicted by someone. That was the assumption, not the evidence. That led to the understandable involvement of the RCMP and then MCFD. When the investigative dust settled, RCMP withdrew and MCFD based its opposition to the fitness of the Baynes to parent that injured child, on that first doctor's diagnosis. MCFD action can only be countered legally and the costs of that now marginalized the Baynes in this sense, that they forfeited their home and Zabeth's grand piano to cover legal costs. So they too could have been called economically disadvantaged I suppose. They needed to be available during day hours to attend meetings, court dates, and visitation dates with their children. Did they seek social assistance? Listen, they took night custodial jobs and have lived in rental facilities. But you need to know that they have an attractive, warm, clean, roomy house with a yard and ample space to which their children can return. They have food and security and friends and family. They have everything that is required materially and socially and emotionally and morally to manage this family.

And they didn't hurt their youngest child.

They provided the only explanation they could, and it was reasonable in the opinions of many experts who were asked to review the same medical evidence that the original pediatrician discovered. A playful running sibling fell on the baby. That much the Baynes knew. Neither child at the time appeared to be more than temporarily affected so the event was dismissed. When their infant newborn began to be distressed over a period of days and no medical professional in any of several medical facilities was able to accurately assess what was going on, they were desperate. They did mention the children's collision during one medical visit but that data was noted and ignored. Only when the serious findings were disclosed in Children's Hospital did they realize the impact of that earlier domestic accident. What else were they to deduce? Faced with an accusation that one of them had willfully harmed the child, that childish tumble now offered the only explanation. An explanation which was not accepted by the medical professionals at Children's Hospital or by the caseworkers assigned by the Fraser Valley MCFD. So it has come to this. We wait now for a judge to come to a judicial opinion. We may have eight or nine weeks to wait.

DOING IT RIGHT

Paul Daly/Canadian Press

Danny Williams, First elected premier of Newfoundland and Labrador in 2003, announced Thursday he is leaving politics, AND DOING IT RIGHT, leaving within two weeks.

PROUD MARY KEEPS ON BURNING/ Part 378 / For Love and For Justice / Zabeth and Paul Bayne

PROUD MARY KEEPS ON BURNING
Mary Polak has been treated fairly on my blog. I report what is to be reported. I have not taken unkind shots at her. Perhaps I am like one hundred other journalists who are politically polite. Not so Alex G. Tsakumis, an insider, politically savvy writer, whose blog is easily the most straight-shooting prose you will find in cyberspace. So if you want another good way to fill five minutes of every day, check out his Rebel with a Cause site.

Some days ago, when Bill Bennet was getting axed by his Liberal Caucus amigos, Alex wrote a post. Mary Polak had been tiptoeing to explain the Cultus Lake incident in which for nine days a disabled girl was stuck with her dead mother's body. Straight-shooting means that sometimes the target gets wounded or dead. Tsakumis' target was proud Mary and the article was entitled, 'Bill Bennett Booted but Mary Polak Rewarded?! Democracy in B.C. Politics–Non-Existent.'.

I have pasted the article in its entirety here because I am very concerned about the governance of our province, and particularly now as it relates to the welfare of children and their families.

“Think about this. On all the news programs and in the papers this morning, and for the last week, we are consumed with the story of a 14 year-old Down syndrome girl, who for nine days, soaked in her own urine and excrement, was trying to nurse back to life her mother’s rotting corpse.

But this is apparently of no interest to presumptive Premier Kevin Falcon, or contender Rich Coleman, or dreamer George Abbott and the deeply delusional, ‘Basi-Virk’ excuse pinch-hitter Mike DeJong. NOT ONE of them stood up in Cabinet today and demanded Children and Families Minister Mary Polak be immediately fired.

Why should Proud Mary, Gordon Campbell’s chief loyalist in caucus be fired?

Read on.

After the young girl’s two courageous brothers begged the Ministry of Children and Families to intervene two months ago and extract the girl from her alcoholic and drug addicted mother, the Ministry, in turn, left the child in a definitively at-risk position, where if she had not been discovered when she was, within two days, she too would have perished.

In subsequent interviews, Minister Polak, in what I can charitably describe as a woman suffering from the most severe case of PMS in the history of the menstrual cycle, mouth frothing with indignation, high-gloss manicured claws growing, proceeded to provide the most disgusting display of media deflection and excuse-peddling I’ve seen in years–angry, defiant and nasty. Sound familiar?

But Polak’s Campbell-fueled fib factory is rewarded with the crown for winning ‘Survivor of the Dimmest’. Not a single Cabinet member went after her for such a despicable display. Not one of them cares about the fact that Judge Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond, MCFD watchdog, has written a letter to the Minister complaining that the incident with the Prentice family was not only NOT reported to her, but never even booked by the Ministry.

That was a week ago.

No response from Deputy Minister Lesley DuToit (a hand-picked Campbellite) or Minister Polak herself whose is content to gloriously writhe under the cover of the Campbell tartan.

She doesn’t care. She fabricates conditions upon which this near double tragedy unfurled. She takes a position most offside of an honest word.

And yet Bill Bennett is jettisoned by his Cabinet colleagues for telling the truth. Mind, if Bennett felt the throne was occupied by the wrong royal, what was he doing sitting at the round table for as long as he did?

Only in Gordon Campbell’s universe do you survive for being a rube or a charlatan. If you tell the truth, they rip the phone from your hands and send a disgraced Cabinet member to display your head on a stick.

While Mary sits, laughing…”

Clearly Alex doesn't want to sit with her to fix things. He merely thinks she and others deserve to be gone.
Post title suggested by the song Proud Mary, written by John Fogerty and made famous by Credence Clearwater Revival and by Tina Turner, and the Post theme derived from Mary Polak, Minister of Children, B.C.

TRANQUILITY BASE / Part 377 / For Love and For Justice / Zabeth and Paul Bayne

My mind thinks like this. When finally Judge Crabtree publicly discloses his ruling in this case, how will the family mark the occasion? In this case of MCFD versus Paul and Zabeth Bayne for the continuing custody of their children, when the judge awards the three children to the Baynes unconditionally, what will be a fitting memorial? Of course that will be the Baynes' decision but I can't help but offer a suggestion. I have no idea why this theme comes to mind other than an emphasis upon danger, risks and cost.

I was a young man and it was one of those events in history that is so indelibly etched on the mind you remember where you were and what you were doing. It was 1:17 pm PDT on July 20^th, 1969 and American astronaut Neil Armstrong announced to NASA's Houston headquarters, "Houston, Tranquillity Base here. The Eagle has landed." Tranquility Base was the name given by American astronaut Neil Armstrong to the landing site on the moon where the Apollo 11 Lunar Module Eagle made the first moon landing. It took seven years and $150 billion in today's dollars to get there. Armstrong apparently named the site himself and it surprised NASA Mission Control personnel but the International Astronomical Union honoured the men by recognizing the designation 'Tranquility Base' and listed on lunar maps today, is Statio Tranquillitatis, to correspond with other lunar Latin names.

So when the children come home, perhaps the Bayne home can be dubbed “Tranquility.” After the years of trouble, heartache, personal losses, fears, hardships and costs, their family home can be for all five, well, six, the base of tranquility. Perhaps wherever they move, the home can bear that name. Other words speak similarly to the comfort that will be resident in this home, such as serenity and placidity. I like the sound of the word serenity. If I can be so bold as to suggest a name for the new baby, what if this is a girl? Do you think a name like Serena is out of the question? The name means "serene, calm, composed, peaceful, cheerful ". It was apparently a name used by Roman Christians.

That's my most presumptuous post so far.

NASA Page reporting the actual lunar landing and the dialogue of the principals. 

BULLETIN, BULLETIN: This news arrived this morning. Baynes don't need my help. They are having another little boy and have chosen the name 'Josiah', which means 'God heals'. It's fitting they are praying that God will heal their family physically and emotionally and in restoring their family that God will continue to allow them to help others in need of restoration and healing in their families. Josiah will be given "Idar" as a middle name in honour of the baby's Bumpa, Zabeth's father, because he has suffered a great deal through the tragic removal of his grandchildren and this news has brought joy to his spirit even while tears are in his eyes.

A Photo Collage

Take a Look... Another visual indicator that the Bayne family must be together now and forever. A collection of images from a recent supervised visitation in their own family home.  
Courtesy of Zabeth Bayne Facebook page.