A Vancouver couple has taken the provincial social services department to court in protest over the apparent right of social workers to remove children from their parents. It promises to be a precedent-setting case, since it is the first of its kind in Canada.
Wanita and Maurice Gareau, a Mormon couple, are suing three social workers and the provincial superintendent of family and child services over the seizure of their seven children in 1982.
The children were returned to their mother after spending five days in a foster home. Mr. Gareau was allowed only limited access to the children for three months.
The parents charge that the incident violates the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. They are asking for damages for “negligence, false imprisonment, distress and suffering,” and for defamation because their names were placed on a child-abuse registry.
Provincial lawyers are arguing that the social workers acted “in good faith,” regardless of whether there was any abuse. Ean Maxwell, the Garneau’s lawyer, said that was not good enough and that a system of “checks and balances” should be created to ensure that such incidents don’t happen again.
The social workers took the Garneau children against RCMP advice, who had interviewed the children on the allegations of abuse and decided there was no basis for such charges. The social workers also interviewed some of the children at school but no independent witness was present and there was no tape recording or transcript notes made. Mr. Maxwell charges that the defendants acted unreasonably by refusing to speak to the parents or their lawyer before taking the children.
He also said that the children could have remained with their mother because their father had agreed to leave while an investigation was taking place.
The trial was adjourned until May 5 so that one of the social workers could retain a lawyer.
