Re: “Foster parents lose emergency motion to keep Métis girl,” Sept. 30.
The Child, Family and Community Service Act defines the rights of children by defining the best interests of children. Many of these deal with children who are taken into care. These rights do not cease once a child is a ward of the province.
The guidelines were drafted with advice from child-development experts and support best practices. No one right is paramount, and judgment is to be used in balancing the various rights according to circumstances.
Highly important are timeliness, continuity of care, kinship contact and protection of aboriginal culture. Timeliness means young children should not be kept in limbo for more than three months if possible and absolutely not more than one year as defined in temporary care. When siblings come into care from a family where they have lived and bonded together, a section in the act recommends placement together if possible.
With the Métis foster child, this is not the case. The siblings and their caregivers are strangers. There will be no mysterious benefit from placing her with them.
On the contrary, all the other best-interest clauses will be shattered, and the little girl will suffer serious harm. The plan is an abuse of administrative law and is perverse and vindictive.
Ray Ferris
Saanich
