CAPP - A NEW MINISTRY PLAN / Part 162 / For Love and For Justice / Zabeth and Paul Bayne/

Child and Family Support, Assessment, Planning and Practice (CAPP)
Initial Implementation Plan

You should know more about this new plan from the Ministry of Children and Family Development. In January 2010 the ministry introduced CAPP as a key part of Practice Change. The Ministry says that “CAPP includes a new comprehensive, strengths-based, developmental approach to assessment, planning and practice.”

The vision for this fresh initiative is a valid and uncomplicated one, “BC children and youth are strong, safe and supported to reach their full potential.”

Those of you who are critics of MCFD will immediately be saying, “Well, then leave the children with their parents when those parents have proven themselves responsible, or at least provide the help that they require to parent effectively."

But I suggest that you acquaint yourself with this plan and see what you think.
You can read about the plan yourself with this MCFD document.

The stated intention of this initiative from the home office of the MCFD in Victoria is to provide an improved approach to practice. MCFD asserts that this is a top ministry priority. This is an action plan with a motto, “Strong, Safe and Supported – A Commitment to BC’s Children and Youth.”

If the stated principles for CAPP are realized I wonder whether you might conclude that these are precisely the changes that could transform this Ministry. Here are the principles.

PRACTICE PRINCIPLES

• We will apply the following practice principles to all of our work with children, youth, families and communities:
• All aspects of practice seek to identify and build on the individual and collective strengths of children, youth, families and communities.
• The rights of children and youth, as identified in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child and in the United Nations paper on the Rights of Indigenous Children are recognized.
• Children, youth and families will receive services that are holistic and directly address their assessed, individualized needs and will be active participants in design, implementation and review of services.
• All practice for the child or youth is provided within the context of the family and community.
• Practice at all levels of the child and family development service system will be transparent and accountable.

My sense after reading this document is that there is a great deal of hopeful promise for conceptual change and I want to examine this further with you in the next day or so to see how it might filter, affect and transform the regional level of practice.

Also see the MCFD website blurb about this initiative as part of its transformation.

SUPERVISED VISITATION / Part 161 / For Love and For Justice / Zabeth and Paul Bayne/

Supervision during Parental Visits with Children

Don't press the supervised visitation arrow. It's misleading.

This blog post will not be the full story. I am asking that some of you who have had experience with supervised visits, will write a comment to inform the rest of us.

One might think that it should be relatively uncomplicated for parents to visit their children who presently are being held in Ministry care. One might also assume that supervision is unnecessary.

MCFD will always maintain that supervised visits are necessary to insure the safety of the child.
This means that a supervisor is present for each visit between forcibly separated children and parents. A supervisor takes notes.

What becomes clear from the paper and reporting trail of countless case histories is that the supervised visit is an important and invaluable source of information for the Ministry. The information is a collage of observations, impressions and opinions written by the supervisor during the visit. These seldom work to the benefit of the parent(s).

Different types of supervision prescribed by MCFD are noteworthy.

1. A supervised visit might occur in a child-friendly room in the MCFD office suite. These can be two hour visits. They can be conducted without a supervisor in the visiting room. In some cases one way mirrored walls provide opportunity for supervision by social workers secreted behind the wall. This visitation space is free to the parent and means that the MCFD is not required to contract a third party to either transport the children or to monitor the visit in an independent location. In the office environment, if a supervisor is assigned to sit in during the visit, it may be a social worker but may also be an uncertified employee paid a per hour stipend. In the latter scenario, the employee has a modicum of training for this task including how to perform supervision and to write notes. The form used by the supervisor can be a standard fill-in form.

2. A part-time uncertified MCFD employee (not a social worker) is paid per hour to transport the children from the foster home to the parental home for an in-house visit. These may be 90 minute visits. The more acculturated the supervisor has become to MCFD practice the more predictably the supervisor’s notes suggest diminished affection between children and parents(s) and the more they infer or portray perceived problems. Further, the supervisor exercises control over parents by imposing restrictions upon the parents and children i.e. topics of communication, gestures and signs.

3. The visit takes place in a neutral or independent location supervised by an employee of a company or service provider contracted to transport children and to monitor the visit and take notes. Two local supervisory visitation providers Tin Harbour and NICCSS. Tin is an acronym for ‘Teens in Need’ and it was established in 1994. It’s website provides information about Tin. With few exceptions for court ordered visitations, Tin works for the Ministry of Children and Family Development almost exclusively. The work consists of supplying the transportation for children from the foster home to the visitation destination and return. Charges to the Ministry are for travel and reports. NCCSS is the other company doing supervision and its website identifies the details of its services.

Both of these service providers charge about $40/hour and double that on holidays but holidays I have learned are virtually impossible to obtain unless booked very well in advance.

Supervision procedure according to parents:
1. Parents never gain access to a supervisor’s written reports and are therefore unable to refute information that would be mistaken, imprecise, inaccurate or incorrect.
2. Parents are disadvantaged as well because they are not permitted to have guests in attendance lest they become witnesses in favour of the parents.
3. Parents are customarily not permitted to use video equipment during visitation and photos with digital cameras are permitted with supervision only.
4. Supervision is scheduled during regular working day hours, arranged at the convenience of the Ministry and the contracted service providers but seldom or never in consideration of the parents. Parents must miss work or surrender day jobs for evening work or miss their visits. Parents do not have input into the scheduling of visits.
5. Parents testify that the contracted supervision companies have given evidence that their reports tend to reflect the present position of MCFD with respect to the parents, so reports by the same supervisor who has reported parental inattentiveness or lack of affection by parents or children, may capriciously transform into positive affirmations when MCFD is moving to return the children.

I grant that my opinion of supervised visitation is shaped by injured parents but what they say is easily enough to disturb me. Some of the things that I hear should not be happening.

LISTEN TO THE COMMENTS - PLEASE LISTEN / Part 160 / For Love and For Justice / Zabeth and Paul Bayne/

Listen to the Comments – Please listen to the Comments

In our communities parents whose own lives, temperaments, emotions and values are confused, even loathsome, cannot care for the children they have conceived. As a society we must act to provide the protection, love and opportunity these children deserve. We elect government and legislators to commission services to accommodate our high ideals for this vulnerable generation in whom we invest our futures.

That’s an essential element of the Ministry of Children and Family Development’s mandate. A tragic corollary of this terrifying responsibility is the mounting family wreckage that MCFD is generating.

I am humbled by the eloquence spoken in broken prose that come from broken hearts. They have pulsed for some time now in the comment sections of my blog posts. I have been writing with compassion for two parents, only to find that there are two thousand or more others without voices. Seldom do channels of communication speak for them. Their stories are deemed not to be big enough. An earthquake however is big. A drug related slaying is. A mine disaster is. A college basketball victory is. Yet the stories of these disenfranchised parents are titanic. Above its foundations our provincial government has an unsteady Ministry – the Ministry of Children, and that should be worrying responsible people. If this is not a public narrative now, before long these silent voices will blast the confidentiality of their untold stories. The fear of repercussions will give way to a rush to be heard.

Paul and Zabeth and the multitude have dissimilar stories but their refrain is disturbingly identical, like pointing fingers becoming arrows aimed at what the lyrics say is a heart-less service agency. Read back through the comments and you will hear the loudest song of sorrow you have ever heard. Sorrow that is expressed angrily because of helplessness to right the wrongs over which they have no control. Sorrow that is a chorus of cries for help.

INVITATION TO PRAY / Part 159 / For Love and For Justice / Zabeth and Paul Bayne/

Whatever works right?

The Bayne family believe that prayer works. Some might suggest that it hasn’t worked so far. That’s merely a matter of perspective. In any case, they are going to pray again and they have invited other people to join them.

It’s a thing that Christians do – pray together. It’s a united front, a combined intercessory effort.

In this case it has an interesting twist. They are not inviting people to meet at a particular location. They are merely asking people to allocate some time to prayer during a two day period. You simply become involved wherever you are.

They have asked that from Friday April 16th at 8 AM until Sunday evening April 18th at 8 PM, people pray. They know that some people will robustly commit to this so according to a formula in the Bible they invite people to fast and to pray.

To harmonize this prayer focus they have listed a series of requests to put to God and here they are.
1. Pray for God's Will to be done and His Sovereignty and His Purposes to be made clear in their family.
2. Pray for wisdom, understanding and patience as they wait upon God and His timelines to be fulfilled.
3. Pray that God’s Love and Tenderness will be made evident in their children's daily lives.

As you know, you can ask anything else you desire, and on their Facebook 'A CALL TO PRAYER' page you can add those requests for others to read. (at Facebook just ask for A Call to Prayer.) Once there you are asked to RSVP to indicate your involvement in the special two day prayer effort.

The Baynes cite a couple of Bible verses to explain their position of faith.

Proverbs 16:33
“We may cast lots (dice) but the Lord determines how they fall.” The Baynes believe that every decision, every step has been ordained and allowed by God's Sovereign Will.

1 John 5: 14 - 15
“14 And we are confident that he hears us whenever we ask for anything that pleases him. 15 And since we know he hears us when we make our requests, we also know that he will give us what we ask for.”

The picture was taken some time after the children were taken into care. "Pray that the Lord keeps hope in their hearts as we wait for His intervention in our lives."

“God bless everyone of you that has supported and prayed with us these many months.” The Baynes

THE INTERSECTION OF HOPE AND CHANGE/ Part 158 / For Love and For Justice / Zabeth and Paul Bayne/

American missionary to India, E. Stanley Jones, wrote, “Don’t bear trouble, use it. Take whatever happens – justice and injustice, pleasure and pain, compliment and criticism – take it up into the purpose of your life and make something out of it. Turn it into testimony.”

It would be far better that the MCFD give the children back now. If the group think of Fraser Valley MCFD assumes that if the court case verdict goes against the Baynes, this couple will go away, they fail to understand love and justice to a greater degree than I have witnessed. While Paul and Zabeth have been vocal in their protests, by any reasonable measure of suffering of this kind, they have been humble in their hardships. Take their children away permanently and from what I sense about them, their life purpose will become the exposure of the pockets of liability operative within this much criticized Ministry.

Of course it is to be expected that when you mess with people’s families for any reason, the reactions will be passionate and the rhetoric vitriolic. Further, what you have read on this blog is mild in contrast to other online blogs and websites that chronicle the stories of government endorsed and funded child protection that loses its way, when challenged with larger tasks of healing families, building relationships with restricted parents, practicing objectivity, benevolence and sympathy. It is not exceptional yet it is still baffling that we suffer most from the hands of the people who should love and care for us the most. It is so unnecessary. Trained workers should be able to discern clearly when parents are broken and incapable of parenting but also recognize when parents are responsible and dependable and then work to help them. The two boys should most certainly be at home by now and the girl, well, when the entire MCFD file folder is jammed with a paper trail supportive of the starting premise of child abuse by infant shaking, then nothing but a judge’s verdict will settle it.

The offices of Mary Polak, Minister of Children and Family Development, of the MCFD Deputy Minister Lesley du Toit, of Ombudsperson Kim Carter, and of Premier Campbell, have paid casual attention to this story. The newly appointed Chief Judge, Thomas (Tom) James Crabtree, who is incidentally the presiding judge in this Bayne/MCFD case is ensconced in the details of this story. It will be interesting to see whether right minded people will want to bring further reform to a Ministry that espouses it is in Transformation mode already. Cynics, from whom I hear every day, will tell me, “Don’t hold your breath!”

That’s why protagonists like Paul and Zabeth and a host of others with similar stories, or those with influence and position will step up to compel changes to a maligned Ministry so it can do what it tells us it is designed to do. From its page ABOUT US, “The Ministry provides programs and services to ensure that healthy children and responsible families are living in safe, caring and inclusive communities.”

A PLEA FOR JUSTICE

Special Easter Visit on Saturday

While I have commented that Paul and Zabeth could not take their children to church today, they did enjoy a make up Easter visit on Saturday, for which their foster family dressed them to look sharp and made this a special celebrative time. Some photos were taken of them during this visit and here is the happy family. They are very appreciative of this time.

EASTER SUNDAY / Part 157 / For Love and For Justice / Zabeth and Paul Bayne/

Shouldn't these puzzle pieces be interlocked for solution rather than separated in an obvious disconnect?

MCFD workers and Paul and Zabeth joined to fix it rather than alienated and combative the way they are.

It is EASTER SUNDAY The Bayne family could have attended church together. Paul and Zabeth made this request. I was permitted to print their letter to their worker for you to read. The Baynes will not be attending church together today. Their request was not acknowledged. Ms. Polak, this is the pattern of you Ministry workers with the Bayne Family.

Workers, shoulder to shoulder in a show of solidarity and strength.
Paul and Zabeth disadvantaged and compliant. They pose no risk to the workers or their own children.
True, they have not admitted to shaking their baby. How could they? Why should they? They didn't do it!
Workers! lift the Baynes up, lock arms with them and help them to restore this family!

INJUSTICE 101 / Part 156 / For Love and For Justice / Zabeth and Paul Bayne/

Elie Wiesel, writer and winner of the 1986 Nobel Prize for Peace wrote, “There may be times when we are powerless to prevent injustice, but there must never be a time when we fail to protest.”


I have neither delight nor pride in protesting the excessive and unreasonable treatment of Paul and Zabeth Bayne by the Ministry of Children. I must not fail to disapprove. I have such respect for the democracy in which I am privileged to live. That explains why it is unsettling for me to view a provincial ministry with suspicion. The Ministry of Children of the Fraser Valley has given me reason to worry. I seem to be far more naïve than many of my blog readers. When people like Paul and Zabeth are victimized, no one is protected. Protect children by all means. But what has been done to the Baynes and their children is patently wrong.

Martin Luther King, Jr. said, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”

Reporters and journalists uncover stories like this. Readers raise objections when they read these articles. CBC journalist Kathy Tomlinson met for hours in conversation with Paul and Zabeth Bayne in March 2009. She prepared a couple of reports that were televised. The video interview to which I refer you now, while taped in March 2009, is the essence and truth of Paul’s and Zabeth’s story and their experience with the Fraser Valley Ministry of Children. The court case is still in a delay but when this court case concludes, reporters will be all over this. You owe it to yourself to hear Kathy’s questions and the Bayne’s responses and to form your opinions about these parents. You will gain a better appreciation for the significant obstacles which parents face when accused of an abuse that never happened.

When you suffer an injustice you must simply console yourself because the true unhappiness is in doing the injustice.

At this CBC link, the article is presented and then on the right hand side are two video interviews by Kathy Tomlinson. If you have already seen the first and shorter version, select the second video interview link and hear the fuller account.

IT'S FRIDAY BUT SUNDAY IS COMING / Part 155 / For Love and For Justice / Zabeth and Paul Bayne/

“It's Friday, but Sunday's a comin'!"

Tony Campolo is the man who made this phrase famous. In a classic sermon he tells the story of a white pastor preaching at a predominantly black church and finally catching on to the cultural speak that communicates the great news of Easter.

“It's Friday, but Sunday's a comin'!
It’s Friday, but Sunday’s a comin’. It was Friday, and my Jesus is dead on a tree. But that’s Friday, and Sunday’s a comin’. Friday, Mary’s crying her eyes out, the disciples are running in every direction like sheep without a shepherd. But that’s Friday, and Sunday’s a comin’. Friday, some are looking at the world and saying, “As things have been, so they shall be. You can’t change nothing in this world! You can’t change nothing in this world!” But they didn’t know that it was only Friday, and Sunday’s a comin’. Friday, them forces that oppress the poor and keep people down, them forces that destroy people, the forces in control now, them forces that are gonna rule, they don’t know it’s only Friday, but Sunday’s a comin’. Friday, people are saying, “Darkness is gonna rule the world, sadness is gonna be everywhere,” but they don’t know it’s only Friday, but Sunday’s a comin’. Even though this world is rotten, as it is right now, we know it’s only Friday. But Sunday’s a comin’.”

The message builds to a powerful conclusion when the pastor simply shouts, “It’s Friday!” and the congregation responds, “But Sunday’s comin!’”

Today is Good Friday, a day of reflection and meditation for Christian believers all over the world. I reflect upon Christ to be sure and I am also reflecting upon our condition. It’s Good Friday in Canada the Good and countless children will be sexually or physically abused, scores of people will attempt suicide and a dozen will succeed. Several young adults will be murdered and one hundred unmarried girls under 19 years of age will become pregnant, seventy percent of them opting for abortion. It’s Friday here in the 2010 Olympic host country and several hundred parents will announce to their children that they are divorcing. A staggering number of people will not have a job on Monday. A few thousand people will die, and a few hundred of those will be from some form of cancer. Hundreds of people will be incapacitated by depression and grief and many households will not have enough to eat.

Christians are certain that the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead on Sunday heralds an eternal hope that transforms individual lives. Let the Christian community rejoice on Sunday yet let us all not forget that Friday is presently typical of most Canadian days and the human need for kindness, gentleness, compassion, sympathy, mercy, forgiveness, intervention, assistance, encouragement, protection and affirmation is constant and daily. We can give that.

It is Friday, and Sunday is coming! But so is Monday. And what you and I do to supply human need may turn that Monday into a Sunday of hope for someone.

ON EASTER SUNDAY CAN THE BAYNE FAMILY ATTEND CHURCH? / Part 154 / For Love and For Justice / Zabeth and Paul Bayne/

Paul and Zabeth want to take their children to church on Easter Sunday.

This is the third Easter that the children are not in the Baynes’ home, 2008, 2009, 2010.


They have written a letter to their social worker making this request. It’s a reasonable request for which to grant permission and to make the arrangements.

Paul and Zabeth are waiting to hear from the worker or from the MCFD with regard to this request.

They have made similar requests to MCFD before, if not for Easter then for another special event or season, but to no avail.

During these past two and one half years they have continued to practice their personal faith with a believing community and if the children were living with them, the family of five would attend church together and the children would be enrolled in a Sunday School program. MCFD is directed by its governing Child Family and Community Service ACT to respect this feature of a child’s background and family heritage and to seek to provide this to the child.

Here is the essence of their letter to the worker.*

“We are requesting to take our children to the Easter Service being done at our church. If this is denied please state why and also inform us what measures the Ministry is taking to ensure the religious preferences of our family are being met during the Easter Occasion as per standards of care.

Also, what measures are currently being taken to ensure our children are involved in Sunday School at a church of our religious background? According to the caregiver XXXXX during court testimony, the children were registered for Sunday School at a local church, but since we had a high profile in the community they were not taken back. What is now being done to meet this requirement?

If they are in attendance please inform us of the denomination of this church so we can determine if it meets our current denominational preference.

Thank you for your attention to this extremely important part of the care and best interests of our children. “

Zabeth Bayne

Tomorrow is Good Friday. Can Paul and Zabeth take their children to church on this coming Easter Sunday?

* Names of Social Worker and Foster Parent contained in the original letter were not included in this copy.