Grandson taken by Ministry for 3 years
I read Lexi Bainas’s special report on the actions of the Ministry of Children and Families with great interest, created in large part by my own experiences with them when they abducted my grandson and refused to return him for three years. Without going into great detail, my wife and I were lied to and about by the social workers on the case. Eventually we had to spend close to $30,000 of our retirement savings to force them into court and win his return.
It would be arrogant to assume ours was a special case. It is far more logical to assume that the Ministry uses this approach on every victim, and the disgusting truth is that there are more First Nations children in care now than there were in the heyday of the residential schools. Did I mention our grandson is three quarters Tsimsian? Funny, none of our white grandchildren have ever even been visited.
Our grandson was a happy, well adjusted nine-year-old honours student when he was taken. He returned as an angry 12-year-old who had learned to tell people what they want to hear. I will never, ever forgive the Ministry for what they have done to him. Truth and reconciliation are not about removing statues. Until the children are returned and provided with the resources to thrive with their families and people about them truth and reconciliation are simply lies.
It would be comforting to believe in a Hell specially designed for the people who commit this continuing cultural genocide in the name of the taxpayers of British Columbia.
David Lowther
Mesachie Lake