Judge tears a strip off B.C. ministry for ignoring orders
Custody: Girl held in foster care despite court order
AB.C. Supreme Court justice has lambasted the Ministry of Children and Family Development for ignoring his orders in a case where a girl was kept from her grandmother for five years.
Abandoned as a toddler, the now 13-year-old, U.S.-born girl was being raised by her B.C. grandmother when the legal squabble involving her guardianship erupted.
The grandmother was forced to spend more than $43,000 and fight a 20-day trial to win her back.
“I took a first-grader to school one day and now she’s in the seventh grade — a former good student without any study habits now,” the 71-year-old lamented.
“It’s the loss of a childhood.”
The case was complicated by cross-border issues and exacerbated by the substance abuse of the girl’s mother and the father.
The grandmother began caring for the child shortly after she turned four and was awarded custody by an Illinois court in June 2008, after which she returned with the little girl to Kamloops.
On Jan. 5, 2009, however, the girl was spirited from her school and it took the grandmother months to find her and then to launch court action in 2011 to establish her rights as the legal custodial parent.
The ministry fought her tooth-and-nail, supporting the damaged mother and a distant relative the judge portrayed as a pernicious presence.
Although the grandmother was awarded custody March 8, 2013, it took another 18 months, until Sept. 19 — after Justice Joel Groves’ scolding — that the ministry returned the girl.
“I have concluded that the Ministry is acting like the orders of the B.C. Supreme Court are an annoyance; something they might consider following, but do not necessarily have to, and this is particularly troubling when one considers the context,” Justice Groves said. “The Ministry of Children and Family is in breach of an order of the B.C. Supreme Court. They are arguably in direct contempt of that order.”
In the strident oral decision that has only now been transcribed and made public, Justice Groves warned ministry workers’ further refusal to follow his orders could bring imprisonment or a fine.
He said they similarly treated the grandmother as “an annoyance” rather than the child’s rightful parent.
He suggested ministry workers ignored common sense and raised trivial complaints to justify their intransigence — “significant delay and inaction for what was no apparent or reasonable reason, in my view … ”
The judge cited his own history as a lawyer acting for the ministry in child protection matters to underscore his appreciation of the issues and his anger.
“An order was made which binds the Ministry of Children and Family,” he said. “They were represented. The court told them to do something. They have not appealed that order. They have not made an application to reopen the matter. But still, they did not follow the order.”
The grandmother, who spent her savings in legal fees before representing herself, said the entire ordeal was a nightmare.
“The child should have been returned to me before the last school year, and then I saw she wasn’t going to be back before school this year,” she explained.
Justice Groves said the girl “has a right to get this resolved and a right to get out of foster care … deserves, as a result, to have an opportunity to begin her life again in the home that the court has determined is in her best interest.”
He was particularly upset that a former ministry lawyer in the case suggested it was “only bound to abide, to follow,” provincial court orders.
“This, frankly, is disrespectful and it is wrong,” Justice Groves said.
“No branch of government with the resources it has, with the number of employees it has, should be ignoring court orders. … Society breaks down when anyone, be it a branch of government or an individual, has the arrogance to believe that they are above the law or above the order of the court.”
Asked about remedial, disciplinary or other measures taken in response to Justice Groves’ findings, the government hid behind legislation meant to protect the privacy of the family, not shield the ministry from scrutiny.
“Due to privacy laws we cannot speak about the specifics of a case,” said ministry spokesman Sheldon Johnson.
“Any time a judge raises concerns about the conduct of our staff, the ministry would conduct a fulsome review and any measures taken would be informed by that review.”
That’s not an answer; it’s a cop-out.
Nicholas Simons, a former social worker, now NDP MLA for Powell River-Sunshine Coast, said the ministry is “supposed to make things better, not worse.
“This case shows the lack of accountability of the ministry, and how this results in harm to children and families. The child missed important bonding opportunities with her caregiver and guardian because the ministry dug in their heels. I’m glad to see judges questioning the actions of the ministry but it is all too rare.”