Phyllis Heltay
From the Calgary Sun. Please follow this story at http://weird-load.blogspot.com/
“He has to come home.”
Phyllis Heltay’s words hang between desperation and disbelief.
She’s been fighting for over a year to bring her 11-year-old grandson home to Canada, after he was taken into custody by the State of Oregon and placed in foster care.
Noah Kirkman faces the possibility of being permanently adopted out to strangers, despite having a mother and sister in Calgary, and at least three willing homes where the Canadian boy might be cared for by blood-relatives.
One of those relations is Noah’s mother Lisa Kirkman, and therein lies the rub: Oregon’s Department of Human Services considers Lisa such an unfit parent, they’d rather keep Noah in the foster system than let him come home.
They won’t say why. Indeed, officials in that state won’t even acknowledge the existence of the Canadian child in their custody, who lives with a foster family and attends school near Eugene, Oregon.
“I am not able to provide you with any information about specific child welfare cases,” said Gene Evans, a state spokesman.
The silence is official, but Lisa Kirkman has reams of court documents to back her story, which started when social workers arrived on the doorstep, to take Noah away “for a few days.”
That was Sept. 2008, and Lisa has been battling to get her son back ever since, with her last physical contact in July 2009. Since last summer, they’ve only spoken through supervised phone calls.
“It’s an absolute and utter nightmare,” said Lisa, a 34-year-old freelance journalist.
“To me this is an abduction — they took my child from me for no reason.”
Lisa and John Kirkman rest in their home in Robert’s Creek in British Columbia’s Sunshine Coast. Kirkman is the director of the Sunshine Coast Compassion Society Club, which dispenses marijuana for medical use. Renee C. Byer / Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Noah and his younger sister Mia were staying with their step-dad in Oregon for the summer, with Lisa joining the family at the end of August to collect them home for school.
Unfortunately, Noah was collected by the local police force first. Officers in Oakridge, Oregon nabbed the boy for riding his bike without a helmet, and then struggled to determine who he was.
Noah is bright, getting top grades, but he has special needs, with severe attention deficit disorder being his main challenge.
Noah’s unusual behavior probably led the officers to run the boy’s name through their system, where they discovered his past history with Canadian social services.
Noah’s special needs meant Lisa had turned to child and family services in two provinces seeking help — as a result, she has a “record” of family difficulties in Canada.
To make matters more sticky, Lisa has a criminal record in Canada. She is a marijuana crusader and columnist, and was busted years ago for growing medical marijuana without a permit.
That past led Oregon officials to keep Noah and place him in foster care, forcing Lisa to undergo a psychiatric evaluation and swear off drugs before they’ll even consider returning her son.
His American step-father, John, can’t take custody, as he is not a legal guardian.
Despite “testing well”, according to court records and a letter from a Calgary-based psychologist, it was recommended Lisa undergo behavioral therapy, to teach her emotional control.
All the while, as months ticked by, Noah was moved through four different foster homes and various schools. At one point, he was living in a devout Christian home, despite being Jewish.
The seemingly-endless tangle of red-tape has even stymied attempts by Noah’s grandparents from bringing him home. If Lisa isn’t a suitable parent, they argue, why not give Noah to us?
“More than a year ago, we said we’d be willing to take him until this is all sorted out, but we’re still waiting,” said Heltay.
As well as the grandparents, both working professionals in Calgary, Lisa’s sister has offered her home.
Before the grandparents can take the boy, officials in Oregon want a full assessment of their home, and the Heltay’s now await an official inspector who will put their lives under a microscope.
Meanwhile, Lisa can only speak to her son over the phone, trying to remind a boy who last lived with her 20 months ago that he still has a loving family, 1,000 kilometers and an international border away.
“It’s like getting your heart ripped out,” said Lisa.
“If I allowed myself to get too emotional, I couldn’t function. I just have to focus on bringing him home.”
Many of my readers will know and love her as Mamakind from the pages of Skunk Magazine and the blog sheets of CelebStoner where she has been practicing her particularly beguiling brand of free and freaky for years now letting us all know how to get our groove on in sometimes weird, but always creative ways. She is also a serious Marijuana Policy Reform activist in her native Canada as well. There, my friends, is the rub. Lisa has never been one to hide her ideals. In fact she has been extremely upfront and lived her life exactly as she sees fit. I salute her for that. Now, however, she is paying for some of those stands on sexuality, politics, and drug policy. Rather than attack her, however, there are powers to be in Oregon that are using her child against her… and hurting this innocent young man in the process.
At this point I am sure most of you have heard of Sean Goldman. All American Jewish kid kidnapped by a family in Brazil that thought they knew better how he should be brought up. While that story was everywhere from Fox, to MSNBC, to major mags on newsstands across the country- no one has even noticed what is going on in Oregon. America is doing the same thing to a Canadian citizen and no one seems to give a shit. Of course not. America is always right… right?
Here is the short version. I’ll provide more details in the days to come:
Child Protective Services in Oakridge, Oregon currently holds an 11 year old Canadian citizen with special needs (Noah Kirkman) against his will, that of his mother (Lisa Kirkman), the recommendation of Canadian authorities, and CPS in Calgary where his mother resides. This is unprecedented in United States history and is a brewing international incident. The US Department Of State has so far refused to become involved in this case in spite of the fact that it certainly violates the tenants of Hague Convention on Protection of Children and Co-operation in Respect of Intercountry Adoption of which the US became a signatory in 1994. Canadian authorities are becoming involved and the Lisa has obtained representation from an attorney specializing in this sort of law. The problem is that no one from our Federal Government to Canadian authorities know how to react because there has never been a case like this in United States. The CPS will not get involved on the Canadian side because they see no reason to be involved as they have cleared Ms. Kirkman as a fit parent. She currently has custody of her daughter in Calgary and they have been in her home. Our Federal government seems to be deferring to the local CPS in spite of the fact that the boy is a Canadian with no familial ties to the US outside of his stepfather who also wants the boy returned to Canada . An element of religious and cultural persecution is here as well. The young man is Jewish but has been placed with a fundamentalist Christian foster family. Noah has complained to Lisa that they refer to him as “Beaner” (he has dark skin because of his First Nations heritage) and “Dirty Canadian Jew”. They are forcing him to study Christian theology and will not allow him to attend Synagogue or celebrate Jewish holidays. Noah has also been put on heavy anti-psychotic drugs and his mother describes him as “drooling”. There was a mediation set for Dec. 7th 2009. Lisa sent me this statement on the 8th:
Last Thursday or Friday, the Governor’s office and DHS said that they refused to participate in the mediation at all. They also refuse to have their lawyers speak with any experts on international custody disputes and the Hague Convention.
At this point Noah is still being held prisoner in the United States. Lisa was basically told by the offices of congressmen and Canadian MPs that she has contacted that they would come to Noah’s aid if there were more media attention. There has been no interest because after all… the kidnappers are a local American government and Lisa is a known wild woman/activist who “flaunts” her “alternative” lifestyle in the face of strait America.
Here are contacts for CPS in Oakridge.Here is a contact for the Mayor’s office:
Don Hampton, City Hall, 48319 E. First: 541-782-2258 If you care on whit for justice, or simply have compassion for a child who has been ripped from his family, kidnapped, drugged, and abused then please begin now. Perhaps this tiny ripple can start a wave. Please stay tuned on this one as there will be more details in the following days and weeks. Here is something that Lisa sent me recently… WARNING: It is heartbreaking to read. 
If Jesus Were Born Today
Child advocates would remove the child from the custody of his mother when they discovered she was shacking with a guy (not the child’s father) in a barn. In most jurisdictions that would constitute child neglect.
Of course, Mary would have an underpaid court appointed attorney to represent her in the dependent-neglect proceeding, and Joseph would be out of luck once it was determined that paternity could not be established within a reasonable degree of medical certainty through blood or DNA testing (97% probability that Joe was the dad is sufficient, but absent divine intervention, that couldn’t happen, hmmm?). He would be excluded from juvenile court as a stranger to the proceeding and investigated for possible sexual deviance (all those oxen and asses around), and he would be told that he had no standing to object since he was not the natural father of the child and was not yet married to Mary (by their own admissions they had not yet consummated their union).
Mary wouldn’t dream of trying to explain that Jesus was the Son of God, out of fear of being labeled as delusional.
The Division of Children and Family Services would ask the court to order Mary to take parenting classes, and the Court would order that homemaker services be provided as well, since obviously Mary can’t keep house properly (the place where the DHS workers found the child was kept remarkably like a barn).
Mary would be allowed to have one visit with Jesus per week at the Centers for Youth and Families. The visit would be one hour long, and supervised by a therapist since Jesus would no doubt be put in therapeutic foster care to prevent psychological damage resulting from the horrible lack of civilization to which he had been exposed at such a tender age.
At the eighteen month dispositional hearing, the court would consider terminating parental rights because of Mary’s refusal to bring a paternity suit against Jesus’ true biological father (or even to identify him to the satisfaction of the Court). The Court would be appalled at the life choices Mary would have made: she would have completed her marriage to Joseph (that suspected sexual deviant) and had more children by him, which was obviously contrary to Jesus’ best interest.
Since Mary and Joseph had fled the jurisdiction with Jesus once to escape encounters with the authorities, they would determine that Mary and Joe had nefarious plans to abscond with the Ward of the State to Egypt again, where they would possibly engage in dangerous and illegal activities with him. Parental rights would be terminated, and Jesus would be put up for adoption. He would be adopted by the Herods, a well-connected and politically powerful family, who have been searching for just such a child as Jesus. Of course, Jesus will die in the custody of his adoptive family, because that’s all they wanted him for in the first place. Social services will NOT have intervened prior to his death because the state social workers could never imagine someone as highly placed as the Herods exploiting children or torturing them to death. The political ramifications for the Herods would have been too severe. In all likelihood, the social service agencies would cover up the death as one occurring from accident, and Herod’s good name will be preserved. -author unknown
Комментариев нет:
Отправить комментарий