Woman’s son removed unfairly, court rules

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This article was published 04/02/2016 (3733 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

MANITOBA’S highest court has waded into a messy child-welfare case, ruling a mother was improperly stripped of her son based on a finding she was unfit to parent.

As a result, a permanent order of guardianship that was granted to Child and Family Services has been overturned — paving the way for a family reunion.

“In raising children, few parents are perfect. Certainly this mother understood that she had many things to learn. However, in order to terminate the parental bond, the law provides that an inability to provide adequate care, supervision and control must be shown,” Justice Janice leMaistre wrote in a decision released this week. “Certainly there may have been concerns, but in my view they did not rise to the level of a child in need of protection and defined by the act.”

The case involves a woman who has lived a troubled life. Her first three children had been apprehended by CFS and placed in permanent foster care as a result of what the court called a history of “drug abuse, transience and domestic violence.”

CFS issued a “birth alert” in 2012 after learning the woman was pregnant with her fourth child. After he was born Aug. 8, the boy was seized at the hospital and put in foster care.

The mother agreed to a temporary order with a number of conditions, including scheduled visits, counselling and participation in parenting programs.

One such program went off the rails when the mother moved in with an older female “mentor” who was fostering her son. The mother accused the mentor of “running her home like a residential school” and also being physically abusive to her child. Their relationship was terminated, and it appears tensions between her and CFS also were rising.

Following this, CFS moved for permanent guardianship. At a trial held in October 2014, a Queen’s Bench family court justice ruled against the mother in describing her as a “very substandard parent who constantly brings her child into danger.” He cited testimony from her case worker, which questioned the mother’s parenting skills and relationship with her son during supervised visits.

In the Appeal Court decision released this week, leMaistre said there was no basis for such a finding. She noted all evidence suggested the mother was drug-free and in a stable relationship with the child’s father at the time of the 2012 birth.

There would have been no need to find the baby was in need of protection.

“He misapprehended the evidence and made findings of fact not supported by the evidence, thereby reaching an erroneous or unreasonable conclusion,” leMaistre said. She also criticized the CFS worker for providing vague, unsubstantiated evidence that painted the mother in a negative light.

These included claims the mother took too many “smoke and phone breaks” while visiting, her “breasts and buttocks were exposed in inappropriate ways” by the clothing she often wore, she failed to properly secure the child in a high chair, she failed to properly supervise him in a kitchen where he could have accessed sharp knives and she once let him get too close to a smouldering firepit.

‘Certainly there may have been concerns, but in my view they did not rise to the level of a child in need of protection… ‘

— Justice Janice leMaistre

LeMaistre said the trial judge didn’t give proper weight to the mother’s testimony, which included both denials of certain claims from the CFS worker and reasonable explanations for other issues.

She said the judge also failed to account for the mother’s own personal issues — she was apprehended at the age of 11 and raised in foster care, she only achieved a Grade 7 education and she became pregnant with her first child and dropped out of school in Grade 8.

LeMaistre said it’s clear the mother has “come a long way” in recent years and deserves another chance to be a parent.

She encouraged CFS officials to undertake a gradual reintegration between the mother and son to minimize disruption with the existing bond he has with his foster family.

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