RoadKill Radio wants answers from the Ministry of Children and Family and has become a champion for the Bayne family in their struggle to be reunited with their children.
That decision was announced on-air by Kari Simpson March 8 after Paul and Zabeth Bayne appeared in studio to relate their story—a story that included information that a Ministry official had admitted—in court—falsifying a document, and the story of a three-pound premature baby being seized in hospital, only five hours after his birth!
The Bayne’s story, as they related it to Kari Simpson and Terry O’Neill, began with an injury suffered by their new-born daughter, Bethany, in October of 2007. Zabeth Bayne had just finished feeding Bethany, she said, and had put the child onto a blanket on the floor, when their second son ran around a corner, tripped and fell onto Bethany.
The Baynes took Bethany to the hospital, where the doctor on duty said, “She’ll be fine.”
“But you knew something was still wrong with her, so you persisted,” Kari interjected.
“Yes,” said Zabeth. “It was approximately three weeks we spent going from Emergency to public clinics; calling the public health line, asking for advice. And during those three weeks, the medical professionals noted, but allowed our daughter’s head to swell six centimeters; and she was constantly vomiting, she got dehydrated; and I think that those three weeks caused more extensive damage to her than what would have happened if she had been treated…”
One doctor told the Baynes she could not “step on the toes of a colleague” by reporting the first mis-diagnosis.
October 18, 2007 the Baynes took Bethany to Children’s Hospital; Oct. 22 all three of their children were apprehended by the Ministry of Children and Families. They said there was suspicion of Shaken Baby Syndrome.
Their second son, Braden, was born prematurely, with a condition called osteopenia, a form of brittle-bone disease. When he suffered a fracture, the Ministry reviewed the case, but closed the file in two weeks.
But the Baynes were now on the Ministry’s radar. So when Bethany was taken to Children’s Hospital, they began to investigate.
But in spite of the Baynes’ requests, the Ministry was not seeking a second medical opinion.
“After the removal (of the children), we had a family meeting October 31, 2007,” Zabeth said. “We were told that the Ministry was not seeking a second opinion—we had asked for one—and if we wanted that, we’d have to seek that on our own.
“That started us on a journey of trying to find experts that knew child abuse issues; that could review her files and the films, and provide a second medical opinion…”
Paul interjected: “In court, we found out that a report, dated Oct. 22nd, was falsified by the Ministry. They knew that Baden’s situation was osteopenia, but when they wrote up the letter, they called it ‘unexplained fractures’. Our lawyer got him to admit, ‘Yes, that was falsified.’”
For the three years that the Baynes have been fighting for the return of their children, they have been limited to two visits a week. The two boys are in one foster home and Bethany in a different foster home. They have lost their home, their grand piano (Zabeth teaches piano), and Paul has lost jobs because of phone calls telling his employers, “They’re dangerous to be around children.”
Then last February, Zabeth gave birth to their third son—about a month premature and weighing only three pounds, 15 ounces. The tiny baby was snatched (apprehended) by the Ministry five hours after he was born. Social workers then decided to remove the tiny baby from the hospital!
Paul Bayne said, “They put him in a car seat to take him out of the hospital, and he didn’t fit the car seat; they had to stuff towels underneath the straps in order to make up the room!”
Terry O’Neill was astonished: “Even though the judge’s decision on the other apprehensions was going to come just a week following this birth… and there was a chance—at least 50/50, one would think—that the judge was going to say, ‘Clean slate! Go!’… any sort of scenario says: ‘Let’s let them keep the baby for a week—in hospital; keep them in the hospital; they can’t do any harm… keep them in hospital until this ruling comes down. And they didn’t even do that?!?”
Paul: “No.”
Kari: Simpson—who has battled the Ministry over many previous cases—declared: “They are duty-bound to do what’s ‘in the best interests of the child’. Isn’t it in the best interest of the child to be given mother’s colostrum? We know how essential that is to the health of a new baby—especially a premature baby. Mother’s milk, nurturing—all those things; every act they did was contrary to the best interests of the child!
“Regardless of what the Minister does,” Kari Simpson said, “I’m going to swear an affidavit and put it on your child’s file, so that those kids can sue the *** off the ministry when they get to a legal age to do so…
“Whether or not we can get the judges to apply the law—because we have another problem we have in this province, in this country: that judges are unaccountable… judges hide behind the ministry; they’re so fearful of making a wrong decision and having it come back to bite them; their reputation takes precedence over the interests of your children!”
Near the end of Tuesday’s broadcast, Kari Simpson said, “I want to tell our audience, if they write the ministry, please send a copy to us at RoadKill Radio.
She continued: “My question is: ‘What does Minister Polack know about this?’ Obviously, people have written to her… What’s her response?”
Paul: “It’s been the same response: Because it’s before the courts, she can’t get involved…
Kari: “Like hell she can’t!… This has got to end… the abuse of children, under the guise of ‘the best interests of the children’…
Terry: “Abuse of parents, too!”
Kari declared: “We will not let this one down… I know in the ‘downstream media’ you’ve had some good coverage; but there isn’t consistent coverage. There aren’t updates—weekly, if we need to do it. And any social workers, if you’re watching… Madame Minister, when you get a copy of this: we will not let this story go. Know that now.”
Stay tuned to RoadKill Radio for further developments…
Click hereto listen to/download RKR archived show:
Click here for Video: Bayne Family Crisis Part 1 of 4.
Click here for Video: Bayne Family Crisis Part 2 of 4.
Click here for Video: Bayne Family Crisis Part 3 of 4.
Click here for Video: Bayne Family Crisis Part 4 of 4.
Click here for Bayne Family backgrounder.
Click here for information on how to donate to the Bayne Family Legal Defense Fund.
4 Responses to “RKR launches drive to have the Baynes’ children returned to home and parents”
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Awesome! How can we help?
Do whatever you can RKR. It has been a 3.5 year mountain of disappointments to date and the latest ruling extends the family heartache another 6 months. Most of the older two boys lives have been spent in care and all of the youngest two children’s lives. Now the ruling said that the girl’s injuries were not the result of shaken baby. These people are good and fit parents. It is time for this Ministry to do the right thing. Perhaps the changed key personnel of MCFD will take hold of this case and issue a directive. Dr. Ron Unruh, author of http://www.ronunruhGPS.blogspot.com
What should outrage people is the discovery at the Friday (April Fools day) Presentation Hearing for Josiah that the 50-year old caregivers have a live-in Filipino Nanny to take care of the four Bayne children. The Ministry has been ordered to return the children in six months. Apparently, the chief justice who made the order finding the parents DID NOT shake their baby as alleged, Judge Crabtree, made a mistake in assigning a time 6-months when it should have been 3-months.
Taxpayers are on the hook to something in excess of $10,000 monthly for foster care plus supervision costs. The foster parents have assigned parenting duties to a Filipino nanny, and there was some question of whether not the assigned caregivers were even present in the home at all times. Just ONE child they get $2,500 tax-free per month for because of a “special needs” classification, which is the most expensive. Two or three of the Bayne children as so classified. The presiding judge became upset when costs were discussed during court proceedings, and barred further discussion on the matter.
Now, for the Ministry to be “satisfied” that unspecified Ministry “concerns” are addressed, they are going to spend $5,000-$10,000 for a Parental Capacity Assessment by a Dr. Bowden (the judge rejected an assessment provided by a former MCFD social worker Ray Ferris). At least that much more cost is for a parenting course called “Project Parent” over the next six months (which can, and is often automatically renewed for a year.) Ongoing supervised-only access costs about $100/hr for each 9-hour weekly visitation with just the three older children, and an ADDITIONAL 6-8 hours for Josiah, as the Ministry brings the infant to mom for 2hr-4x/wk breastfeeding. Just to transport the children is a $40/hr cost. Once you start adding up these costs, and extrapolating these over the four year period, it becomes mind boggling. Imagine 14,000 such children in care of MCFD in BC.
In the four visits per week back and forth for Josiah, it came out in court Friday April 1st, the transportation contractor rear-ended another car and the child was taken to the doctor as a result.
The judge has reserved his decision, and will likely fax it to the parents within the next three weeks. A return to court happens April 21st, at which time another protection hearing trial date will likely be set.
My first time on Roadkill — after hearing many recommendations to check it out — and I am feeling outraged at the brutal power tripping of MCFD and the complacent and complicit judges and court system. I’m consindering going to law school – for just such a time!
Baynes family — hang tough together!