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This article was published 04/06/2009 (5110 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

WINNIPEG – The foster mother of two children at the centre of a controversial custody battle is giving tearful testimony in court today.

The woman – who is the biological aunt of the eight-year-old girl seized last year by Child and Family Services – struggled to keep her emotions in check as she detailed her role in the children’s lives.

The woman – who also happens to be a social worker – was given temporary custody of the girl and her three-year-old brother last year after CFS expressed concerns they were being raised in a “white supremacist” environment. CFS is now fighting to get a permanent order of guardianship for the children.

The woman described being “shocked” to learn her now-elderly brother had impregnated a woman nearly 40 years younger than him. She also described her brother’s notorious past, which includes several brushes with the law and long-standing drug and alcohol addictions, and his non-existent role in his daughter’s life.

The woman described how the children’s biological mother began to change after ending her relationship with her brother, meeting a man over the Internet in 2004 and then quickly marrying him and moving to Brandon without her daughter for several months in early 2005.

“(The little girl’s) heart was broken. She cried every night, and just sobbed for her mother,” she said.

The mother eventually returned to Winnipeg with her husband, announcing she was pregnant. She later gave birth to the young boy now involved in the custody dispute.

The foster mother said she knew they were “white supremacists” because she used to see Nazi flags hanging in the family’s home. She also described a disturbing conversation with her young niece.

“She said ‘You know, Aunty, we don’t like black people. I asked her why. She said ‘Because they hurt people, they steal things, they hurt children’,” she told court.

She said the little girl also began talking about seeing her mother and stepfather drinking and partying with several strangers in the home. She described them bringing a snake into the house.

The trial began last week, resumed today and will continue Friday before taking another break until the final week of June.

Mike McIntyre
Sports columnist

Mike McIntyre grew up wanting to be a professional wrestler. But when that dream fizzled, he put all his brawn into becoming a professional writer.

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