IT IS TIME FOR AN INQUIRY: PROVINCE FAILING FAMILIES AND CHILDREN

________________________________________


 "The department of Child, Youth and Family 
Services was great window dressing. But when
you open that window, there's kids still out
there in this system and nothing has changed 
for them," 


Yvonne Jones, Opposition Leader

Dec 10, 2009

_________________________________________

While some Conservative types may have offhandedly suggested that laws be put in place to ensure IQ tests are carried out before people are allowed to vote, or propagate - some elements of the provincial government's  Child, Youth and Family services have taken up a quasi eugenics (  I am speaking of the social philosophy of labeling and classifying individuals and their families, not the extreme case of Nazi Germany and mass exterminations) approach to who can, and can not raise children, in the province of Newfoundland and Labrador.

Dorothy and Bobby Rodgers of Port aux Basques, had their children taken away from them by Child, Youth and Family services allegedly because they were not deemed unintelligent enough to raise their own children.

Government officials removed the children after the Rodgers failed to show up for a doctor's appointment for their son, who has special needs. Following the missed appointment the children were placed in foster care and the couple were forced to undergo psychological assessments. They say that the results of the test were not good, showing the adults had low IQ's. They say these results are now being used to justify the government sanctioned kidnapping of their children.

Ironically, Dorothy and Bobby have attended college and have diplomas. The husband is employed and there does not appear to be any indication of abuse. Rather than provide assistance to the couple to assist with parenting and the boys special needs,  social workers took their children away.

The couple's lawyer, Adam Crocker, has told CBC News that there are concerns about the paperwork carried out by local social workers which he says contain "hearsay allegations and judgmental language."

What about the harrowing case of Amanda Duggan, a professional babysitter who was falsely accused by the child protection system of injuring a child in her care, and who was separated from her own two children for more than a year as a result. Fifteen months later, notes in the child protection report written weeks after the incident indicate that the injury could have been sustained up to four days before and not necessarily while the child was in Duggan's care. Although she was never charged, her reputation was destroyed and she endured the pain and humiliation of having her children taken away from her.

How is it that Christine Tremblett's concerns about how child protection workers made a decision to leave 13 year old Matthew Gear Allen Gear at a home in Goose Bay where a party was going on, after they arrested his mother, were ignored? That night the house burned killing gear and four others?

What about the continuing lack of support and infrastructure to deal with the volume of children removed from their families' care?  Social workers are earning overtime acting as nannies and many children are being exported to facilities in other provinces.

What about a 2006 study at the Jens Haven Memorial School in Nain stating that a majority of students have been directly affected by suicide and alcohol abuse and are in dire need of counseling and support, which only came to light when the opposition acquired it.

I have often wondered how I would react if Child, Youth and Family Services ever knocked on my door to discuss my ability to parent. I think that I am a reasonable individual,  but there is a line that I would not want to cross. Imagine some trumped up hearsay leading to your children being forcibly taken away and placed in foster homes. How would you react?

How many other horror stories are out there buried in the bowels of the unaccountable bureaucracies of HRE and Child, Youth and Family Services?

Forget the politics, forget covering people's asses, the system appears to be dysfunctional and it is failing children, youth, parents, families and social workers in this province.

It is time of a full and comprehensive inquiry into the Department of Child, Youth and Family Service. This cocktail of shame needs to be examined.