Standoff case and politics in N.S.: the need for a fix
By RALPH SURETTE
NDP MLA Graham Steele went to court this week to force the Hamm government to obey its own law and set up an advisory committee to review the Children's and Family Services Act. There's a statute that requires the province to do that every year, but there hasn't been such a committee since 1999.
In other words, there's a problem here even before we evoke the dramatic Carline VandenElsen/Larry Finck case, in which the Halifax couple's child was taken away last year after a heavily armed, dead-of-the-night police raid followed by a 67-hour standoff. Now the two have been jailed for three-and-a-half and four-and-a-half years respectively, amid public and media concern about whether officialdom's hostility to the spectacularly antagonistic pair is partly to blame for the debacle. There are demands for a public inquiry.
By RALPH SURETTE
NDP MLA Graham Steele went to court this week to force the Hamm government to obey its own law and set up an advisory committee to review the Children's and Family Services Act. There's a statute that requires the province to do that every year, but there hasn't been such a committee since 1999.
In other words, there's a problem here even before we evoke the dramatic Carline VandenElsen/Larry Finck case, in which the Halifax couple's child was taken away last year after a heavily armed, dead-of-the-night police raid followed by a 67-hour standoff. Now the two have been jailed for three-and-a-half and four-and-a-half years respectively, amid public and media concern about whether officialdom's hostility to the spectacularly antagonistic pair is partly to blame for the debacle. There are demands for a public inquiry.
As far as Justice Minister Michael Baker is concerned, the courts have duly judged and there's nothing more to be said, and no reason for a public inquiry. As for the advisory committee, Community Services Minister David Morse has responded, absurdly, by saying that if Steele knows anybody who wants to sit on such a committee, he should send them to see the appropriate government officials.
In both cases, then, the response is no: no transparency, no openness, no explanations.
Let's do a little review that may, in part, explain why the VandenElsen case and such a reaction from government make many Nova Scotians queasy.
Although things have settled down since, it's easy to trigger the question: Have the lessons of all that really been learned? Specifically, things have settled down since Premier John Hamm's Tories came to power. The method employed to bring this about has been that whenever the Tories were backsliding or overboard, they'd get broadsided by the NDP, even a few times by the Liberals, and they'd back off. In this way, ironically, Premier Hamm finds himself riding high in the polls.
In order to keep looking good, the premier will, I'm sure, do his number and call Baker and Morse in for a little chat, if he hasn't done it already. With regard to Morse, it should be a quick shuffle - before the embarrassment of a court order.
After all, the law - Section 88(1), Children and Family Services Act - is clear: "the minister shall establish an advisory committee . . . etc." Steele and two others are looking for a Writ of Mandamus - a legal order designed to force a public official to do his duty.
Whether an advisory committee is enough to do the job in this case is another question. However, Steele says the advisory committee was designed for precisely these situations, where parent, Legal Aid and minority group representatives can get answers, and make sure the law is working right. Parents whose children have been taken by the Children's Aid Society (CAS) often complain to their MLAs, "but we have neither time nor resources to follow up," says Steele. Plus, the complainants are often paranoid and into conspiracy theories, he says (as are VandenElsen and Finck), "but after all that is stripped away, they usually have legitimate questions." Indeed.
As for the embattled CAS, it says it has good reasons for acting as it did in the VandenElsen case, but can't reveal them because of confidentiality. Social workers are always in this bind. I fully assume that the social workers at CAS are trying to do the right thing. But the point is that without regular review and open give-and-take, even the right thing can become the wrong thing. And in terms of public perception, if everything is on the up and up, CAS would benefit from such a review, as would the cause of good government.
Ralph Surette is a veteran Nova Scotia journalist living in Yarmouth County.
Whether an advisory committee is enough to do the job in this case is another question. However, Steele says the advisory committee was designed for precisely these situations, where parent, Legal Aid and minority group representatives can get answers, and make sure the law is working right. Parents whose children have been taken by the Children's Aid Society (CAS) often complain to their MLAs, "but we have neither time nor resources to follow up," says Steele. Plus, the complainants are often paranoid and into conspiracy theories, he says (as are VandenElsen and Finck), "but after all that is stripped away, they usually have legitimate questions." Indeed.
As for the embattled CAS, it says it has good reasons for acting as it did in the VandenElsen case, but can't reveal them because of confidentiality. Social workers are always in this bind. I fully assume that the social workers at CAS are trying to do the right thing. But the point is that without regular review and open give-and-take, even the right thing can become the wrong thing. And in terms of public perception, if everything is on the up and up, CAS would benefit from such a review, as would the cause of good government.
Ralph Surette is a veteran Nova Scotia journalist living in Yarmouth County.
Something smells fishy in this case, and it ain't the fish in NS.
