Justice is the Fabric of a Healthy Society

When a society such as ours creates a system to punish wrong doers, to defend innocents, to correct mistakes and to restore liberties, we expect that justice will be delivered. When within a society a ministry dedicated to children and families is empowered, we expect that it will protect the vulnerable, accurately assess people, and repair broken situations.

Love is the thread .Woven from billions of such threads, justice is the resultant strong and integrated fabric. The fabric is known by the name of integrity and it can be fashioned into a garment prepared for residents of earth. It is the fabric of a healthy society.  

Injustice occurs when countless numbers of these threads are pulled from the garment. As the holes enlarge, the wearer of the garment is uncovered and vulnerable.

A work of justice becomes essential to mend the rips and tears that have occurred in the fabric of a society and its governance. The repair consists of the replacement of frayed threads. That work must begin again with love. 

APPLICATION WAS DENIED / Part 184 / For Love and For Justice / Zabeth and Paul Bayne/

We are in the midst of a Continuing Custody hearing which according to Section 50 of the 'Child, Family and community Services Act' is the ruling by which the Court may make an order placing all three Bayne children in the continuing custody of a director. The director then becomes the sole guardian of the persons of those three children and the director may consent to the adoption of these children. Defending against this is a very serious even desperate endeavour.

Fifteen days of evidence and testimony by the Ministry counsel has already been conducted and transcribed. Then we went into a delay in late February and ever since we have been waiting for a new dates in which to conclude the hearing. We learned that August 9-13, 2010 have been reserved. Judge Crabtree expressed his desire to locate earlier dates if possible.

On the last day of the primary hearing on February 24th, Judge Crabtree permitted Baynes' attorney Doug Christie to present an application to have the boys returned to Paul and Zabeth under a supervision care order persuent to the terns by written document produced during the trial and marked exhibit 3. It is the mediation agreement from May 16, 2008 which the Ministry claimed was breached when Global TV ran a story. It was an unusual step in the midst of a Continuing Custody hearing. Mr. Christie provided several salient reasons for this action.

Ministry lawyer Finn Jensen had his opportunity to oppose this application on April 29th, 2010 essentially arguing that Judge Crabtree was not in a position to make a ruling on a matter of this nature at this juncture in the CC hearing. .

Yesterday, May 7th was the scheduled day for Justice Thomas Crabtree to deliver his ruling on this application for custody of the boys. I was there. Ministry personnel Berhe Gulbot and Loren Humeny were observers. Mr. Christie was listening via telephone connection. The Baynes had a few supporters present in the court room. As a matter of fact this same application for the return of the boys has been presented by the Baynes on two previous occasions, once before Judge Crabtree and another time before Judge Maltby and in both instances the application was denied. Judge Crabtree informatively provided a background of the case, time lines, key events and decisions. He then recited Doug Christie's grounds for granting this petition as well Finn Jensen's objections. Judge Crabtree demonstrated that he had studiously processed Mr. Christie's points and one by one he was compelled to decide that to issue a ruling on this application in the middle of the CC hearing would be an error in law. In making this response he was very careful about his remarks lest there be any hint of bias in one direction or the other.

The judge then permitted the Bayne's to introduce their application for increased visitation privileges. The papers were received and the matter will be heard on some time between May 25th to 28th.

Zabeth' and Paul's faith, composure and courage continues to amaze me.

For Love and For Justice / Part 102 / Zabeth and Paul Bayne

MORE ON THE COLBOURNE TESTIMONY

(The first portion was written earlier today and near the bottom you see an urgent addition in yellow font added a little later. The first is positive, the second is a concern)

I return to recap the results of the testimony and cross examination of Dr. Margaret Colbourne. She was in the witness box Wednesday and Thursday. She is a pediatric emergency medicine physician at BC’s Children’s Hospital, Vancouver, BC, and a pediatrician with the Child Protection Service Unit of the hospital. She was a witness for the Ministry of Children and Family Development. It was her well intentioned diagnosis of shaken baby syndrome in connection with Baby B Bayne that initiated the October 2007 police action MCFD actions against the Baynes. It was her testimony of this diagnosis that was pivotal to the continued claim by MCFD that the Baynes are unfit parents. On Wednesday, when Judge Crabtree stepped from the bench and deliberated for one hour and returned to rule on the matter of whether Dr. Colbourne was qualified to testify that seven week old Baby Bayne's’s injuries were accidental or non accidental, and whether she was qualified to state categorically that Baby B'ss injuries had been sustained by being shaken by an adult, the earth stopped on its axis for a moment. Then it continued to turn while simultaneously the sun shone more brightly and the landscape became clearer for the Baynes. Finn Jensen and Dr. Colbourne were informed that Dr. Colbourne’s testimony concerning the nature of the injuries she observed on the day in October 2007 when she examined Baby B was admissible, but that Dr. Colbourne was not permitted to state her opinions about whether the injuries were non accidental or accidental nor was she permitted to state her belief that Baby B was a shaken baby.

Fundamentally, this is a ruling which speaks to the requisite expertise for distinguishing accidental injuries from injuries inflicted by someone, the latter leading possibly to criminal charges and other consequences such as removal of the children when the injury inducer is a parent. This ruling on this day is specific at the moment to this one case. In time it may serve as the precedent in British Columbia for subsequent cases in which assumptions of cause have been rendered or will be rendered by medical professionals who are unqualified precisely in the disciplines needed for making such critical diagnoses. It is a ruling that speaks to an understanding that certain types of injuries require particular professional credentials. This may become a standard by which to assess the reliability of an expert witness in such cases as shaken baby and other suspected abuse cases that could have differential diagnoses.

In all the incidents of life that are horrific and painful, the understandable instinctive response is to ask, ‘WHY?’ It is possible and even likely that Paul and Zabeth Bayne asked this simply question. But two years and three months have crawled by. During these past months they began to reflect more seriously on the grand scheme of things and the possibility that their agony might one day result in not only redemption for their family but also the restoration of other families where there have been mistaken diagnoses yet no legal recourse because of the strength of condemning testimonies by professionals.

The following is a quick addendum to the post above. It's important to supporters of the Baynes because it shows they need your support and prayers so much more. If you can be at one of the court days, your presence helps them and makes a point to the Court.

I now have had to hastily add this addendum to my previously more positive note about the testimony of Dr. Margaret Colbourne. Yesterday, Thursday, Finn Jensen cleverly began his examination of Dr. Colbourne this way. Since on Wednesday he had received the Judge’s ruling that he could not have Colbourne speak to the cause as accidental or non accidental, he asked for her opinion on what causes she could rule out for Bethany’s injuries. Despite Doug Christie’s objections she was permitted ultimately to narrow the causes until shaken baby was the only statement of cause left standing. (This, in spite of the previous day’s ruling.)

It was revealed during cross examination that Dr. Colbourne now views this injury as ‘blunt impact’ and shaking. She was reminded that she did not state this in her initial diagnosis. When asked at what time she arrived at this conclusion, she stated in the spring of 2008. Doug Christie suggested that this would have been following her receipt of the experts’ reports that had been supplied by the Baynes – reports which validated the history of events as the Baynes had described. Her response was that she had believed the ‘blunt impact’ component at the beginning but had omitted it in her initial report. (The point is that her exclusive shaken baby diagnosis was damning and did not allow for other causal possibilities.)

Dr. Colbourne disagreed that Zabeth witnessed the accident of Baden falling on Bethany. Colbourne testified that Zabeth told her Baden fell on Bethany but that Zabeth had not seen this happen. (That account of the event contradicts the doctors’ reports that preceded Colborne’s involvement – reports which make reference to a witnessed accidental fall of one child on the other.)

Dr. Colbourne also denied knowing that for three weeks prior to admission at Children’s Hospital, Bethany had severe vomiting. When Colbourne was shown an expert’s article which stated that a head injury accompanied by severe vomiting increases intracranial pressure and can cause supplementary bleeding and eye bleeds, Colbourne disagreed.

When Mr. Christie referenced numerous biomechanical papers to which she had access, articles on shaken baby and the physical impossibility for shaken baby to produce the symptoms under discussion, Dr. Colbourne disagreed. (She admitted that when reading the articles she did not comprehend them since biomechanics is not her specialty.)

The witness also disagreed with the published research papers by noted biomechanic and pathology experts which contend that a shaken infant will bear signs of a neck injury. She said that she could not state with assurance that she had ever observed a neck injury on any of the shaken infants she has diagnosed.

Today, Friday, Dr. Randell Alexander has been flown from Florida to give supporting testimony for Dr. Colbourne’s evidence. (His testimony in numerous other cases has assisted the successful prosecution of parents who are in prison today and their children adopted into new families and some parents have faced the death penalty.) More about him later.

Zabeth and Paul Bayne – Part 73 – The Bayne Campaign for Justice

“For Love and for Justice”

This coming Sunday will be a special day for a select group of 300 or so people which is the maximum seating in a venue in which a musical concert will be played and heard this evening. These guests have all reserved a seat for the evening. Three musicians at this concert will provide us with a musical treat. Two are concert pianists and one is an accomplished flutist. Those of us who attend have not had to pay an admission price. The expectation with which we are going is that our donations will be welcomed. We are convinced that this is for a good purpose and the title for the evening concert reflects this conviction.

For the love of a family, for the love of two parents, and the love for three children we come together to make contributions to a trust fund to finance the legal expense that the Bayne family must pay in order to restore their identity as a family. We are hoping that the Bayne Family story will be finished in January when a Judge issues custody rights to Paul and Zabeth after two years of separation.

“For Love and for Justice”
A piano duo Fund-Raising Concert
The Bayne family’s unfinished story
You are cordially invited to attend the
“For Love and for Justice” Fund-Raising Concert
At Richmond Peace Mennonite Church
11571 Daniels Road, Richmond, BC
January 3, 2009
6:30 pm to 8:00 pm

One of the pianists is Zabeth Bayne, mother of Kent, Baden and Bethany. She is joined by a friend, internationally known pianist DIETMAR SCHMUECKER, and flutist CRYSTAL YANG. Mr. Schmeuker has performed publicly in Germany, England, Australia, the United States and Canada. Since settling in the Vancouver area in 1986, Dietmar has been widely active as a performer in recitals, programs of chamber music and with local orchestras, as well as an accompanist, teacher, and church musician. Ms. Yang holds a Bachelor of Music degree with distinction in Flute Performance from the University of Victoria. Crystal has performed widely in recitals and chamber music groups and has won numerous awards including BC representation at the National Music Festival competition in 2008. Zabeth studied with such instructors as Dietmar Schmeuker, Walter Bresch, the late composer of many of the two piano selections to be heard today and Alice Enns, professor at UBC. She received her ARCT. Zabeth has taught piano for over eighteen years, been active as an accompanist in church performances, school productions and competitions and performed solo, duo and in chamber groups.

If you care to attend, then due to limited seating we ask you to indicate your intention to come by calling 778-228-4717 to reserve your place or send an email reservation request to sendthechildrenhome@gmail.com