\u201cIt is reverse racism,\u201d says Paul Walsh.<\/p>\n
Paul Walsh is an attorney representing a Filipino-Canadian couple in Winnipeg who are in the middle of a dirty legal battle for the child they considered their own for the last two years.<\/p>\n
The 2 \u00bd year old little boy is part M\u00e9tis, one of the constitutionally recognized and protected Aboriginal peoples of Canada.<\/p>\n
The custody fight began when Manitoba\u2019s M\u00e9tis Child and Family Services Authority (MCFSA) deemed the Fil-Can couple as \u201cculturally\u201d unfit to raise the child, even after the child has been with them for two years of his life and refers to the couple lovingly as \u201cMama\u201d and \u201cPapa.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd it is a tragedy for this little boy,\u201d Walsh said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI suppose the M\u00e9tis people would prefer to put a positive spin on it, but I don\u2019t know how you can have positive racism,\u201d he continued. \u201cThey will say it is cultural rather than racist, but we all know what the facts are and the facts are this: I have two Filipino clients that are ideal parents that can\u2019t adopt a child of M\u00e9tis background \u2014 no matter how long that child has been in their care, because they are not culturally appropriate.\u201d<\/p>\n
The couple and MCFSA gave their arguments with an independent arbitrator and a decision is expected by September 27th. <\/p>\n
The legal battle-slash-mess has been gaining spectators and raising questions about adoption not just in Canada but all over the world.<\/p>\n
Is cultural heritage really important? How did the kid end up living with the couple for so long before family services decided they were actually not the right people to raise the little boy? Is this an issue of parenting abilities or (reverse) racism?<\/p>\n
According to MCFSA chief executive officer Billie Schibler, the agency\u2019s aim is to match a M\u00e9tis child with a foster family who identifies themselves as M\u00e9tis as well.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe refer to it as \u201960s Scoop,\u2019\u201d Ms. Schibler tells Jon O\u2019Connor of the National Post.<\/p>\n
\u201cThousands of children were taken away from their culture and their communities, and a lot of communities are still suffering the effects of that,\u201d she explained.<\/p>\n
From 1960s to the 1980s, thousands of M\u00e9tis children were taken from their foster families and brought to other places, even as far as the United States, only to be raised by non- M\u00e9tis parents and family members.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur children are the spirit of our communities. If you don\u2019t have that spirit, if you don\u2019t have children in your life, you lose all purpose in life,\u201d Schibler noted.<\/p>\n
Though this may be the sad history that gave birth to the MCFSA, some people can\u2019t help but disagree with their mandate. Some people like the little boy\u2019s biological mother.<\/p>\n
\u201cRight now the people he\u2019s (little boy) with, he sees them as his parents. To him, it doesn\u2019t matter what color or race they are\u2026 Why should it matter to anyone else?\u201d she asked.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019d be really sad if people could just open the door and say goodbye to a child that they have cared for without there being some feeling of loss,<\/p>\n
\u201cBut, again, I don\u2019t think it has to be the end for them. If everybody is doing this right, the [MCFSA] will see that these [Fil-Can couple] are people who need to be involved in the adoptive child\u2019s life\u2026 It doesn\u2019t matter what your culture is,\u201d the mother explained.<\/p>\n
On the other hand, the MCFSA disagrees. To them, culture matters and it matters a lot. Schibler also insists that the parents know what they were getting themselves into two years ago\u2013that nothing\u2019s final until the court of law agrees.<\/p>\n
Whether it matters or not, an innocent kids life is at stake, and perhaps there are just some things that are beyond the court of law or a government-recognized agency to declare.<\/p>\n
With report from Joe O\u2019Connor, National Post<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u201cIt is reverse racism,\u201d says Paul Walsh. Paul Walsh is an attorney representing a Filipino-Canadian couple in Winnipeg who are …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1070","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-news-ca","mauthors-ching-dee","mauthors-philippine-canadian-inquirer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1070","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1070"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1070\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1070"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1070"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1070"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}