THE MINISTRY OF CHILDREN IS LIKE ICELAND'S VOLCANO / Part 170 / For Love and For Justice / Zabeth and Paul Bayne/

THE MINISTRY OF CHILDREN IS LIKE ICELAND’S VOLCANO

I will admit it up front. This has been pent up all weekend. This piece is my Monday morning rant.

Iceland’s Volcano is spewing ash into the skies across Europe at altitudes of 25,000 to 30,000 feet (7,620 to 9,140 meters). With a monstrous cloud of volcanic ash closing down airports from Britain to Finland to Austria, much of Europe faces this question: What do you do in a world without air travel? Airlines are losing hundreds of millions of dollars each day that they are on the ground. Necessary business travel is halted. Vacationers are stranded unless ground transit is possible. Flights for medical reason are delayed putting patients at greater risk. The air defense system kicks into emergency alternatives. Such is the nuisance created by this active volcano.

But there is trouble pronouncing the volcano’s proper name as well. It is called Eyjafjallajökull. When you sound this out, how would you pronounce it? Unless you are Icelandic and can still romance syllables and vowels, you cannot get it right. Listen to this quick link lesson on the pronunciation of Eyjafjallajökull. So, was your attempt anywhere close to that? When you hear it pronounced you cannot believe the speaker is reading the same word.

What I have been hearing and reading about the work of the Ministry of Children and Family Development in British Columbia over these recent months with respect to its work in child protection and child welfare is comparable to the volcano in some respects.

When it is dormant, as in the Victoria MCFD main offices, it is harmless enough, and on paper it even appears a handsome societal solution to the welfare of children at risk.

'Ministry', now there is a word with significance for me. But how will you pronounce it? Ahh, you see my work as a pastor for over 40 years was called ‘ministry’, so my word association conjures thoughts of caring, visiting, counselling, compassion, empathy, and support. I pronounce it with appreciation. Technically however, 'ministry' simply speaks of a bureau, department, agency or office and the Ministry of Children and Family uses it that way. It would be great if Wikipedia carried a sound bite that could teach the MCFD to pronounce 'Ministry' as 'compassion' for the family.

What do citizens do when the ACT that governs the Ministry is so thick and cloudy that almost no one without a Bachelor of Laws can follow the trains of thought from article to article and thus one’s attempts to recover children or one’s defence against unreasonable practice is disadvantaged and dialogue is nearly impossible. One is grounded, confined to move among the ashes.

What do you do when the employees within a government Ministry mandated to provide a service in the interests of families and children, massage the system and the ACT so that superior human values of mercy and love are obscured by an adversarial flow of negative reporting, legal delays, and unchanging negative assessments regardless of evidence to the contrary.

The MCFD does not have limitless power or uncontrolled, boundless authority yet to parents caught in her wheel house, the Ministry’s power feels infinite. MCFD has unrivalled resources, legislatively and financially, whereas parents are restricted by fear, shock, anger and worry, lack of information, low income level and high projected cost of legal representation. In Child Protection cases MCFD shuts down people’s lives.

What will we do in a province in which a Ministry has unfettered power to remove children and to ignore reasonable and civil and legislative parameters in its treatment of parents and its placement of children?

Mary Polak or someone, please become our champion for parents and families as well as children.

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INVITATION TO PRAY / Part 170 / For Love and For Justice / Zabeth and Paul Bayne/

This is a reminder of the pray wherever you are invitation. You may still become involved where you are.
'A CALL TO PRAYER THIS WEEKEND'

Paul and Zabeth Bayne, have invited people to pray with them and for them in a concerted manner this weekend. Wherever people are located, they are taking time to pray.

This Prayer effort is scheduled between the hours of 8:00 AM on Friday April 16th and 8 PM Sunday April 18th.

Paul and Zabeth have suggested a few things for which people can ask God. 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.

You can read their own Facebook invitation and even indicate there your intention to be part of this effort. At Facebook just search for ‘A Call to Prayer’.

CHILD REMOVAL & BEST INTERESTS / Part 169 / For Love and For Justice / Zabeth and Paul Bayne/

Removal practices in British Columbia are unfavorable to children.
Social workers experience a decision making predicament because not only must they achieve the mandate of protecting children but must also seek to keep families intact. These two are conflicting values or, at least they appear to be in B.C.

Here is what I mean. When social workers leave the child in the parental home to preserve the family unit, the child is not fully protected because of the risk factor – the possibility that an abuse may occur. If the child is removed from the home to provide protection for the child, then social workers are not preserving the family together with all that is familiar to the child. This is clear evidence that an option to remove children is unsatisfactory if the “best interests” of the child are the objective. Through the 1990’s and the early 2000’s the child’s best interests and the preservation of the family were a diminished priority in preference for the focus upon the physical safety of children.

Our Ministry of Children and Family Development must develop policy that states unambiguously and transparently what is of greatest importance, which is, the safety of children, the promotion of best interests of children, or the preservation of the family. Is that possible?

I will say this. The MCFD should be diligent right now about upgrading alternatives to child removal – alternatives that satisfy more completely the Ministry mandate while being less disruptive of the child’s life and home life. I can tell you now that irrespective of conscientious foster parenting in some cases, the MCFD is not and can never be an ideal parent for children. I simply have to cite the three Bayne children as examples – examples mind you, because there are many, many other children passing through this hard passage. Care from foster parents and only occasional access to biological parents, awareness of the impermanence of the foster relationship, deep longing for home and stability, acute sense of loss, inexplicable childhood grief, little opportunity to express personal feelings or ability to process feelings to the point of expression, longing for home that is met with delay after delay, diminishing trust, inability to understand why. How can a child thrive?

There are situations where a parent or parents are unable or incapable of caring for their children or a danger to their children. The Bayne family is not one of these and has never been. The Fraser Valley MCFD botched this badly. And now, twooooooooooooo years and twenty-six months have been the burden borne by three children who have parents who have been misjudged, mistreated, maligned and were in October 2007 and are today in April 2010, capable, willing, deserving and desirous of caring for their three children - heart broken yet respectfully soldiering on every day, waiting for the normalcy of a family in one home to be restored to them.

Watch this Video

CPS Sucks is an aggressive advocate for parents - WATCH THIS VIDEO

WHAT CHILD PROTECTION SERVICES DID WITH $560,000

Effects of Removing Children from their Families / Part 168 / For Love and For Justice / Zabeth and Paul Bayne/

Effects of Removing Children from their Families

Intermittent research has been done into the effects associated with removing children from their families. In cases where a child has been abused, existing data curiously suggests that separation can be both beneficial and harmful. The obvious benefit of removal is the elimination or minimization of the risk of further abuse. Harm comes with the emotional fallout of this disconnection from family. Then please notice this, that in the instances where there has only been suspicion of abuse, as with the Bayne family, removal of children from the family has only had deleterious results. Suspicion of parental liability should have a time or term limit and it does within the Child, Family and Community Service Act, which is precisely why two and one half years of keeping three Bayne children away from their parents Zabeth and Paul, the action of MCFD should be viewed with grave concern by all of us - The Fraser Valley division of the Ministry of Children and Family Development should be our concern and Mary Polak’s concern.

To repeat, separation of abused children can be the solution to an immediate safety concern but even for abused children this separation may produce an injurious trauma. The fact is that whether the child has been actually abused or merely suspected of having been abused, the placement of children away from their own home creates a risk factor with regard to negative psychological consequences. This is understandable when children’s primary emotional attachments and even their routines undergo major interference. Then in the case of the Bayne children, it was the youngest child about whose injuries this controversy originated, yet the two boys have experienced the removal distress whereas the infant girl knew no nothing different. It will soon be revealed that the Ministry had no substantive grounds for taking the boys the second time and certainly not for retaining them until now. Their own lawyer is on record as having communicated this advice to MCFD Fraser Valley. Yes I did say second time. Within these two years, the boys were returned in 2009 to live briefly with grandparents while the daughter remained in care. Because the Baynes agreed to an interview with a TV network concerning their daughter, MCFD militarily seized those boys during one of their birthday parties attended by family and friends. Just imagine what the boys' views of authority may be.

While the separation may be introduced as a temporary measure, it can coast into a lasting split which in the case of the Bayne family, the MCFD is seeking to achieve through court action. Just imagine the anxiety, the grief, the sense of loss and possibly even the depression through which these three children, particularly the two boys have been forced to live for half of their short lives. For the little girl, this arrangement is all she has known as normal. A mommy and daddy visit me two afternoons each week.

Yet for other children such as these two boys, long periods of separation cause the child confusion, inner conflict and insecurity about the future. A child’s self esteem can be damaged. The child can feel unloved, even rejected and children may view the separation as abandonment which exacerbates the feeling of distrust of adults and possibly of their own parents. Anger, hostility and other behavioral problems are understandable results among children. Fortunately this has not been true of the three Bayne children thus far, perhaps due in part to responsible foster care, as well as the consistent visitation by Paul and Zabeth and the love and affirmation they deliver to their children.

Most of the available literature associated with child removal makes the case that separation from parents and the resultant prescribed foster or institutional care have a negative effect upon children’s cognitive and social development. So MCFD, if you assess the children and try to assign to Paul and Zabeth, responsibility for these children’s misbehaviour or developmental issues, DON’T, because you have had their children longer than they had them and through the children's most formative years.

The children seen here are not the Bayne boys.

A CALL TO PRAYER / Part 166 / For Love and For Justice / Zabeth and Paul Bayne/

'A CALL TO PRAYER'

JOIN THEM

On April 6th I mentioned that Paul and Zabeth Bayne, who are committed Christian people, have invited other people who believe in prayer, to join them in a distinctive prayer assembly.

It will happen between the hours of 8:00 AM on Friday April 16th and 8 PM Sunday April 18th.

That is, this invitation has been sent by them or by friends like me to our contacts all over the globe and during that large weekend window of time, wherever people are located, they will take some time to pray.

This is my invitation to you to join them.

Paul and Zabeth have suggested a few things for which people can ask God. 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.

You can read their own Facebook invitation and even indicate there your intention to be part of this effort. At Facebook just search for ‘A Call to Prayer’.

My own personal invitation to people is going to 150 churches in BC, AB, SK, MAN, and ON among whom I served for several years.

MCFD'S NEW PLAN / Part 165 / For Love and For Justice / Zabeth and Paul Bayne/

I mentioned CAPP the other day. This is the new plan devised by the Ministry of Children and Family Development and entitled Child and Family Support, Assessment, Planning and Practice (CAPP) Initial Implementation Plan. It was introduced in January 2010 so it is hot off the press. The stated intention of this initiative from the home office of the MCFD in Victoria is to provide an improved approach to practice. In my April 9th post I highlighted the guiding principles of the new plan, each of which is filled with promise.

As I write I am mindful of the skeptical but insightful comment left on my April 9th blog post when I introduced the MCFD’s new plan. The comment by an anonymous writer stated that reform to the existing system by a rewrite of the guiding principles is not the solution. The writer illustrated this point by citing William Wilberforce’s 1787 Slavery abolition Act, which aimed not to improve the lot of slaves but to abolish slavery. Similarly the liabilities of our provincially sanctioned child removal cannot be corrected without first abolishing the CFCSA and then redrafting it with guiding principles. Do you agree?

You can read about the plan yourself with this MCFD document.

And with this post I invite your comments. After you read the 10 page plan, do you believe it can change the problems about which this blog and others speak? Speak your mind.

PUBLIC HEARINGS ABOUT CHILDREN TAKEN FROM PARENTS / Part 164 / For Love and For Justice / Zabeth and Paul Bayne/

Northwest Territories may Provide Our Example for Action

This is precisely what needs to occur in British Columbia. The public and our MLA’s need to listen to the parents whose children have been removed by the Ministry of Children. The Northwest Territories have commenced a series of nine public meetings during April 12, 2010 because the MLA’s last June 2009, promised to review the Child and Family Services Acts that has been law since 1998. The presenting incentive for the review was the disturbing assertion that the ACT gives social workers too much power to take children away from their parents. I applaud NWT MLA’s for this conscientious process. It demonstrates a legislature of leaders seeking to be responsibly accountable to their electors.

Clearly in NWT the majority of the children in child welfare custody are aboriginal children, but the truth is that across Canada, three times as many aboriginal children as non-aboriginal children are in care. In these cases it is found that neglect, rather than physical or sexual abuse is the dominant cause for children being in the system. Parents don’t have the tools to care for their children and may not have the financial means but surely that doesn’t deserve punishment. Yet the fact remains that non-aboriginals too, are subjected in BC to these removals that rip families apart and in some cases irretrievably.

I believe that NWT has begun a model of action for BC that can view the family differently than it has so that the model for resolution will be putting resources into families rather than taking children away from their families. Children should be with their biological families rather than traumatized within a system that ostensibly is seeking to provide care yet with every action appears to be generating separation.

Twenty-five people spoke at this first public meeting and these included parents who lost children, foster parents, social workers, lawyers and community justice workers all of whom expressed frustration and heartache and criticism of aspects of the ACT they say must be revised. A news report stated that emotions during the meeting ranged from anger to anguish as grievances were aired to a panel of MLA’s and Child Welfare professionals.

Read the online news report by Elizabeth McMillan of the Northern News Services which was published on Friday, April 9, 2010.

PHOTO COLLAGE OF REASONS / Part 163 / For Love and For Justice / Zabeth and Paul Bayne/

Photo courtesy of Zabeth and Paul

Zabeth Kristensen and Paul Bayne were married on June 3, 2001.

As a dating couple intending to be married, they began attending the church that I pastored. As an accomplished pianist, Zabeth’s skills were soon contributing to the musical worship in the church. Zabeth and Paul asked me to officiate their wedding ceremony. During the premarriage counselling sessions I found them to be thoughtful, moderate, clear-headed people. Having counseled hundreds of young couples through the years, I found Paul and Zabeth to be comparatively serious about life, faith, choices and values. Because our church facility was a large one and their wedding party was small they made arrangements to be married in an historic and attractive local church.

I officiated the wedding of Zabeth Kristensen and Paul Bayne. They were married in the sanctuary of Cloverdale United Church, Surrey, B.C. on June 3, 2001.

In October 2001 I left my congregation to take other responsibilities elsewhere and my contact with the Baynes concluded until on September 2009 I learned that for almost two years they had been living without their children. Then I began to learn their heartrending story. That was seven months ago.

Their son Kent was born to them first. Then came Baden but far too early. He was so premature that he looked like a small toy inside his protective and life supportive incubator. No one needs to question their commitment as parents because they were daily for hours at a time attending in hospital to their needy, tiny boy. Finally he could come home. He came with the attendant concerns and complications of preemies. They nursed him well and consistently. At last came Bethany. They enjoyed her in their home for only weeks before the accident which caused her injuries which were diagnosed at Children’s Hospital, Vancouver, as resulting from being shaken. The diagnosis is much disputed. Ten experts disagree with it. RCMP dismissed this matter. The Ministry of Children took the three children into care, that is, removed them from their parents’ care. And that is where we are today, with a regional office insisting upon Paul’s and Zabeth’s culpability as abusers, and now seeking in court to have permanent responsibility for these three children.

THESE ARE SOME OF THE REASONS THE CHILDREN NEED TO COME BACK HOME.

Bethany at three months of age.

Bethany at two and one half years of age in mommy's arms.

Kent's kindergarten photo. What a great shot of a neat son, whom Paul and Zabeth were unable daily to watch grow up from a wee boy and then finally to take him to school.





Baden was one pound and fifteen ounces at birth three months earlier than expected. He was so small that a mom's hand seems enormous beside him.







Baden is a sweet fellow, not without some medical issues now and again from his premature birth - From a toddler into this playful son. That's what 2.5 years will do.










Mommy and her children - visiting always in a neutral location and never at their own home together where they belong.







Paul and his sons now. How much have they missed together? How much has he had to pack into brief 2-3 hour visits two times per week? How many weekends without them? How many years if the Ministry of Children has its way? BUT THAT IS NOT GOING TO HAPPEN.

Thanks to the TV and news journalists for paying attention to these posts. Perhaps soon you can resume to tell the story, glimpses of which you have shared before. Together we can make a change for this family and for others.