How Could You? Hall of Shame-Canada-74-year-old Man

This will be an archive of heinous actions by those involved in child welfare, foster care and adoption. We forewarn you that these are deeply disturbing stories that may involve sex abuse, murder, kidnapping and other horrendous actions.

From Manitoba, Canada, “a rural Manitoba man is going to jail for helping Old Order Mennonite children run away from their foster homes in the midst of a child abuse investigation involving the RCMP and the province’s Child and Family Services department.

The man, who is not Mennonite and can’t be named under a publication ban, was sentenced in Brandon, Man., to 12 months in jail, minus nine months credit for time he spent in pre-sentence custody, followed by two years of probation. He could be released in two months.

The man pleaded guilty to abducting a child under the age of 14 and interfering with the foster parents’ ability to care for the child. Several other charges were stayed.

“I pleaded guilty because we are trying to hang onto what we have left on the farm. We’re trying to get this done faster,” the man, now 74, told CBC News in a recent interview.

“If I can do something for the children, which I tried to do, which I really wanted to do …  They’re the future of our country.”

The charges stem from a child abuse investigation in which social workers apprehended 42 children from 10 families. That was all but one of the community’s children.

Soon after, a 13-year-old boy ran away in 2013 from the foster home he was placed in. He returned to his community, but his father told him he had to go back into CFS care.

The father walked him part-way to his foster placement, but the boy disappeared.

More than 100 days after he went missing, the boy was found hiding in a house the non-Mennonite man had rented near Yorkton, Sask.

In court on Thursday, Crown Rich Lonstrup said the man carried out a detailed plan to remove the children, knowing they would be returned to their placements, “doing it so many times that CFS… would just give up.”

“It was the epitome of someone who says I don’t like what CFS is doing; I’m going to sneak around behind them and do whatever I want, effectively trying to exploit the institutional weaknesses of CFS to bring about a result we know would have been dreadful,” Lonstrup said.

“He is not just someone who should have known better, he is someone who knew better.”

The man had previous business contacts with the Old Order community and was living with two adult sisters who had left it. One of them is now his wife.

“I’m really disgusted with the justice system,” the man’s wife told CBC News after his sentencing hearing Thursday.

“We were taking care of kids who did not want to go back to the community or the foster homes. We told them to go back. The community asked us to take care of the kids. It was not a choice.  [My husband] is being held in jail for things the community asked us to do. He is paying the price of other people’s sin.”

In 2014, the sisters each received 18-month suspended sentences with 60 hours of community service for their roles. An Old Order Mennonite man was also fined $50,000 for helping the boy run away to Saskatchewan.

So far, 38 of the children have been returned and are living with their parents, who are receiving counseling and parenting courses. Two of the children have been made permanent wards of Child and Family Services, and two teenagers are refusing to return to the conservative Christian community.

Originally, 13 people were charged in connection with excessive discipline – in some cases, involving straps, whips, and cattle prods.

In 2014, charges against four men and four women were stayed. They agreed to peace bonds to enter into counseling and have no contact with the other accused.

Two Old Order men have been convicted and are serving time ranging from six months to one year for their assault charges. Another is awaiting his sentence next month, while a woman was sentenced to three years probation for her role in shocking two girls with a cattle prod, and strapping another one.”

Man jailed for helping Old Order Mennonite children flee foster care [CBC 3/4/16 by Karen Pauls]

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