I have learned that the MCFD is discontented, maybe even distressed with the publicity that is being received by the Bayne Campaign for Justice whether it has been through televised reports, online or hard copy news reports, or information at assorted websites and blogs and the unusual number of emails and correspondence and phone calls from Bayne supporters asking for the return of the children. The copy is always unflattering and critical of course. The phone calls and emails denunciative and demanding. I fully appreciate the frustration felt by social workers and managers of MCFD who principally seek to administer their responsibilities effectively. They want to go home at nights feeling that they have done the right things at the right times. I understand that. And MCFD employees feel that with respect to the Bayne support network no one appears to respect these sincere efforts. Wouldn't tough-minded public ministry be convenient if everything that one did could be affected under a cloak of confidentiality or silence? That was practiced for years. Checks and balances were deemed necessary, an example of which is the position of Representative of Children and Youth designed to ensure that agencies serving children and youth are providing programs and care with which all of us are satisfied.
I was amused to hear Point #12 among the thirty point Ministry affidavit authored by social workers assigned to this case. I will tell you more about the MCFD affidavit next week. It's not appropriate for me to divulge more now before the Judge makes his ruling next Monday on the Baynes' application for unsupervised access to their children. Point #12 was a “poor us” statement that had no bearing whatsoever on Baynes' unsupervised access application. It said, “The Baynes have a large following of supporters, often having many of those supporters present during Court hearings and otherwise engaging the Ministry through letters, phone calls, emails, and internet postings which convey many specific details of the Baynes' case and question the Ministry's motives."
What was the point of that? It entertained me because the authors appeared not to grasp that this MCFD Ministry is not beyond questioning. Any time that an agency's actions impinge upon the rights and freedoms of people, other citizens will question and expect reasonable answers. When the optics appear unjust, the questions intensify. And yes indeed people know about this case and feel strongly about it. After all, it was aired nationally as well as provincially by CBC and Global TV news. I have certainly capitalized on the vast network of contacts across the provinces that were afforded to me by the executive position from which I retired. A current total of fifty thousand page hits have been registered since the blog began in October 2009. Each day among the one thousand daily hits are social workers, directors and ministerial staff with the MCFD around the province, present and past caregivers, people with RCMP, people in medical facilities and universities, people from news media, from provincial government offices, from interested agencies in the U.S., and from many, many people in Canada who have been burned by child protection agencies. This blog as I have said before, is decidedly 'pro return the children,' expressed within a framework of fair play. It may not always seem fair but that is the affect of stating an opinion on a blog. However, because I have invited comments, permitting both dissenting comments and passionate anti-MCFD comments, some significant exchanges occur. For the most part people are respecting civility while responding to one another. Yes people are being informed, challenged, caused to weigh arguments, and perhaps somewhere in the future, making the improvements that will reduce the number of removals and modify public perception. Yes there is publicity around this case.
