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Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION
Dad seeks return of sons to Canada
THE CANADIAN PRESS archives Stephen Watkins� two sons, Christopher and Alexander, in an undated photo. (CP)
TORONTO -- An Ontario man who found his missing children in Poland after a two-and-a-half year search is heading back to Europe for a court hearing that will decide their fate.
Stephen Watkins will be in a Warsaw court Wednesday, seeking the return to Canada of his two boys -- Alexander, 10, and Christopher, 8.
The 40-year-old Newmarket, Ont., man was granted custody of the children after he split up with his wife, Edyta Watkins. She and the boys vanished in March 2009.
A Canada-wide arrest warrant for abduction was issued for the boys' mother. Police allege she and the children drove into the U.S. and flew to Germany.
In the summer of 2011, Edyta Watkins and the boys were tracked down in Poland, the woman's native country.
But last December, a Polish court ruled against sending the boys back to Canada. Watkins is appealing that decision. The court's ruling was based on its conclusion it would be detrimental for the children to return to Canada as they had integrated fully into Polish society.
But Watkins has maintained his sons still speak more English than Polish and he has secured the support of Canadian agencies that would help his sons resettle into their home in Newmarket.
He argues Poland has recognized Canadian court orders that show he has sole custody of the children and has acknowledged international law had been broken.
Poland doesn't have an extradition treaty with Canada, but it's party to the Hague Convention, which is meant to expedite the process of returning abducted children.
"I am working hard not only to get my own abducted sons home but also trying to set (a) precedence in the country of Poland to see many internationally abducted children returned to their home countries," Watkins wrote in an email to The Canadian Press on Sunday.
He has urged Prime Minister Stephen Harper to raise the issue with his Polish counterpart, Donald Tusk, when the two leaders meet in Ottawa this week.
-- The Canadian Press
Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition May 14, 2012 A9
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