Rachel Anne Notley – Premier of Alberta
By Shari Narine AMMSA.com
A class action law suit, that
claims from 1985 to 2009 the province took thousands of children and then
illegally retained them, is a step away from certification.
“You can’t take somebody’s child
without following the law, whether you’re a neighbour, a stranger or the
government,” said lawyer Robert Lee, whose firm began the class action. “The
only way (Alberta) child welfare can take a child away from the parent is if
they follow the law and if they take a child from a parent without following
the law, to me, that’s kidnapping.”
In 2008, the Child Youth and
Family Enhancement Act was amended removing the obligation to prepare
concurrent plans. The Child Welfare Service Plan Class Action claims that the
government failed to follow its own legislation by allowing temporary
guardianship orders, under which the children were initially claimed, to expire
but still holding on to the children without court orders.
“If
the TGO has expired, especially by reason of the Department failing to follow
legislated procedures, it is certainly arguable that children were kept in
government care without lawful authority,” said Alberta Court of Queen’s Bench
Justice Robert A. Graesser in his 76-page ruling released on March 14.
The issue surfaced, says Lee,
following two Alberta Court of Appeal cases in 2002. In both, the central issue
was the failure to file a plan for care under the Child Welfare Act. Lee
says he was contacted by multiple families after those cases and, because
handling each matter individually was impossible, he decided to proceed with a
class action.
In his decision, Graesser called
attention to a March 8, 2002, email sent by Darryl Bertch, acting manager of
child welfare resources of the Ministry of Children’s Services, in which he
requested a list of non-compliant TGOs. He was told 539 TGOs were invalid,
impacting 332 families.
Lee says it’s reasonable to assume
that figure of 539 is a fair representation for every year from 1985, when the
act was brought in, to 2002, representing the number of children whose service
plans were not filed in court. That means as many as 8,000 children could have
been impacted. The government has not yet supplied figures up to 2009, says
Lee, but if that stands at 500 each year, as well, that could be another 3,500
to 4,000.
The Child Welfare Service Plan Class
Action also seeks compensation for the parents, who had their children
illegally retained by the province.
Lee has no specific numbers as to
how many Aboriginal children or families could be impacted, but as of March
2016, 69 per cent of all children in provincial care were Aboriginal.
“I’d say at least that and probably
higher because of just how poorly the system treats Aboriginal families,” said
Lee.
Canada is one of the more dangerous countries in the world
for the wellbeing of poor children, youths and parents, ranking 33th of 35
nations. The roots of mental health, education, protection and destruction of
underprivileged children and youths should be investigated by independent human rights
organizations. Life annihilation of children and parents by the Ministry
of Children and Family Services, private societies and the corrupted justice
system is unacceptably. Every day Canada's children are in constant danger.
No comments:
Post a Comment