Calgary Social Services Steals Baby from Handicapped Mom

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2005: Year of the David Milgaard Inquiry: 35 years in the making!

From our archives

injusticebusters received this urgent appeal from Calgary. We would urge anyone interested in helping Jodi to also visit the Emma McCarthy site. Some of the strategies we have used in this case might work in Alberta, too. (But of course they didn't work there, either. The theft of our children continues across the continent. So-called Child Protection agencies account to no one. -- April, 2005)

January 14, 1999

I wish to bring to your attention a case that just happened in Calgary. This is a clear case of abuse by Social Services. Abuse of parenthood. Abuse of the justice system. And abuse of moral right.

A news article appeared on CFCN news out of Calgary yesterday, January 13, 1999 of a 19 year old young mother who had muscular dystrophy. Six days after the baby was born Social Services walked into the hospital and apprehended the baby. They would only allow the mother one supervised visit a week. They gave no reason at the time of the apprehension for their actions. They demanded that if the mother was to get her baby back she had to take parenting classes. She did. They demanded she get rid of her pet dog. She did. Everything they demanded of her she did. They would not allow her to even know where they placed her baby.

Yesterday Social Services went to court to ask for permanent guardianship of the baby. They called a psychologist to testify that the mother was unable to provide proper care of the child. The psychologist said she WAS able to look after the baby and if the family was unable to help when help was needed that some assistance should be provided by Social Services.

This is a travesty of justice. It is an outright attack on not only Jodi but on parent hood in general. It is an outright attack on the handicapped. Regardless of how severe the handicap. This is a clear cut case of "Big Brother looking down on you".

We, the citizens of Canada, must rise up and challenge this action. We must demand that the judge be removed from his position. We must demand that the Social Services workers who are responsible for this action be removed permanently from their positions.

We strongly urge you to immediately write your MP's and MLA's. Phone them demanding that this be stopped or that the child's adoption out be temporarily stopped until an independent review be conducted. There is no time to delay as the child will be put up for adoption immediately. Of particular importance would be to send a letter or fax to

Lyle Oberg, Minister for Social Services in Alberta, 104 Legislature Building, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, T5K 2B6 | Ph. (403) 427-2606 | Fax (403) 427-0954

and

Jon Havelok, Minister for Justice and Attorney General of Alberta, Room 320, Legislature Building, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, T5K 2B6, | Ph. (403) 427-2339 |Fax (403) 422-6621

For more information: Elwyn Holmberg, 810 18 St. North, Lethbridge, Alberta, ph. (403) 381-3336

Contact: V.O.C.A.L. Lethbridge office | phone Ph. 381-3354 | V.O.C.A.L.

We would appreiate it if anyone could provide us with an update on this case. Thank you.--webmaster

Revitalizing the archives

From 1998 until 2002, injusticebusters was in the throes of identity crisis. What was it? What were we doing? We grappled with editorial policy at the same time we were learning the nuts and bolts of building and posting a website. Once we had a secure, paid site I had full editorial control, although I talked regularly to Richard Klassen who was forced to move his family several times and did not always have access to the internet. Rick's pages: one | two

We posted our earliest and later actions.

Early versions of the site can be found on the Wayback Machine.

I began following other threads to stories of police and prosecutorial misconduct and the site's character took on another facet: a newsclipping scrapbook where stories could live longer than they would in print form. I also began picking up other stories of wrongfully convicted people. It was an explosion. By 2003 there were over 700 pages. I also had contact with several other people (Don Smith, Leon Walchuk, Monique Turenne, the Vopnis) and kept these stories going.

It was the story of the Ross children's treatment at the hands of the Saskatchewan government which grabbed the attention of The Fifth Estate. The civil claim (The $10M Lawsuit as we called it) was only mentioned briefly at the end of their show which aired in November, 2000.

When Richard Klassen began to make progress in bringing his civil claim to court, the government and police defendants alleged he was breaking the rules of court by publishing discovery material on the internet.

MacNeil clinic (the document which started it all)
The Thompson Papers
Carol Bunko-Ruys reports

This claim was absolutely false. However, rather than risk being thrown out of his civil claim, Klassen undertook before Judge Mona Dovall to sever all ties with the website.

The court fights:

Les Perreaux report
QB271

These pages have links which lead to other pages from that era. Now that some of the dust has settled, I have been going back through the material we had posted in the early days. In the spirit of keeping the scrapbook alive, I have been reformatting and placing links. The original material remains intact. I hope the information, which chronicles our struggle is useful to you.

The identity crisis is over. We know who we are --Sheila Steele, March 28, 2005

Truth can never be told so as to be understood, and not be believ'd. William Blake, The Proverbs of Hell

Truth suppress'd, whether by courts or crooks, will find an avenue to be told. Sheila Steele, injusticebusters.com

If you hold the mouth of Truth, It will burst out its rib-cage. Somali proverb

Publisher : Sheila Steele

Got something to say about this or any other stories on this site? Go to injusticebustersblog Participate!

injusticebusters court advice :
How to walk yourself through the justice system

Why you should dump your preliminary hearing (written July 1998 and still valid)

Sermonette: The Naked Truth -- (You will find links to many more sermonettes in the sidebar on this page

Another target of Dueck's malice: : Wilf Hathway

Our activism contributed greatly to the good vibes which happened around the civil trial.

Index to the stories on this website

This is not regularly updated so if you are looking for a particular story and you have a name or keyword, please use the site search engine(at the bottom of the page) which IS regularly updated

Index to Saskatoon Police stories

This is a pretty good scrapbook for the 1998-2002 period.

Inquiry into the malicious prosecution of David Milgaard untanling 36 years of Saskatchewan police and Crown misconduct: : Opening day | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 |

Stephen Williams: Canadian writer subject to Stasi-like treatment by Canadian police
Terry Arnold: : Snitch a suicide?
RCMP scenario stings: Brian Hutchinson starts digging