Posted on 05/05/2008 6:44:40 AM PDT by MizSterious
ROBERT MATAS
From Monday's Globe and Mail
May 5, 2008 at 4:32 AM EDT
SAN ANGELO, TEX. — The federal government should intervene to speed up the return to Canada of a 17-year-old girl who was apprehended during a raid of the Yearning For Zion polygamist compound in Texas, the parents' lawyer says.
The Canadian teenager was among 463 children under 18 years old who were taken into custody during a raid of the isolated compound run by the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, 523 kilometres southwest of Dallas.
Texas authorities said they found underaged children who were pregnant and some who already had their own children. They alleged that the evidence indicated sexual abuse and a pervasive pattern of grooming young girls for underage sex.
The girl's parents told their lawyer that their daughter had come to the YFZ compound from the Canadian FLDS community of Bountiful, B.C., a few weeks before the April 3 raid, to visit her grandmother. Former FLDS members say young FLDS girls are brought as child brides from Canada to the U.S. and assigned to be "celestial wives" of older men. They accuse the church of trafficking women across the Canada-U.S. border for sexual purposes.
A member the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints stands outside the Tom Green County Courthouse during a short break from the second day of a custody hearing in San Angelo, Tex., on April 18. (Tony Gutierrez/Associated Press)
Stephanie Goodman, a Texas lawyer retained by the parents who lived in Bountiful, said she had expected the Canadian consul would try to expedite the girl's return to Canada.
The Canadian girl was placed by court order in a foster care facility for abused children. Ms. Goodman said the parents had not been allowed access to their daughter. Also, child protection officials and the child's lawyer were not returning Ms. Goodman's phone calls.
She hoped Canadian officials would contact Texas Attorney-General Greg Abbott or possibly Texas Governor Rick Perry in order to "open up the process," she said.
But the Canadian girl did not receive any special consideration because she was a foreigner.
The Globe and Mail is not publishing the girl's name in order to protect the identity of a minor who is in foster care.
Eugenie Cormier-Lassonde, a spokesman for the Department of Foreign Affairs in Ottawa, said in an interview the government, for privacy reasons, could not release any information about a specific case.
The federal government announced on April 25 that a Canadian was among those found at the YFZ ranch, but did not release any further details.
The announcement stated that consular officials were "actively monitoring the situation" and were "in constant contact" with Texas child protection officials to offer assistance to Canadians.
Consular officials had made contact with the lawyer representing the Canadian and assistance was being provided, the government announcement said.
However, the well-being of Canadian children in the U.S. would be the responsibility of the Texas agency, with the Foreign Affairs Department working with the agency to provide assistance.
The girl's lawyer did not respond to a phone message from The Globe and Mail requesting an interview.
Rod Parker, a lawyer for the FLDS, has questioned whether Texas authorities could substantiate their allegations. He has disputed the ages of the children stated by Texas child protection officials.
The teenager's parents say their daughter was not married or pregnant and did not have any children, Ms. Goodman said.
Texas authorities have not mentioned that the girl was at the Yearning For Zion ranch for an assigned marriage, she added in a later interview.
"But they really haven't said very much to me or any other lawyer representing the parents," Ms. Goodman said. "I am having difficulty just getting a CPS representative to call me back and give me accurate [file] numbers for my cases."
She questioned whether a former FLDS member would know whether the girl was at the ranch for an arranged marriage unless they had left the ranch shortly before the raid. "It all sounds very speculative to me," she said.
The children were placed in temporary foster care during a two-day hearing on April 17 and 18 at the Tom Green County Courthouse in San Angelo, Tex., about an hour's drive from the FLDS compound. Under Texas law, authorities have 60 days to decide what will happen to the children.
The court also ordered DNA testing for all children to identify their parents.
Ms. Goodman said the girl's parents were willing to provide DNA samples at their own expense to compare to their daughter's.
The parents came from Bountiful to the San Angelo courthouse for the April hearing. However, they were not allowed to speak to their daughter. Ms. Goodman said that she has been told the mother spoke to her daughter on the phone from Bountiful for the first time late last week, more than three weeks after the girl had been apprehended.
Child Protective Services indicated they may be willing to let the Canadian go home if they could obtain a valid copy of the girl's birth certificate, the lawyer also said.
Brother Joe would be proud...
These FLDS family members want their children back.
However, they won’t give their names, or use aliases.
They admit they have multiple wives, but won’t name them.
They change their stories constantly.
They won’t (men) give their DNA to the State for testing.
They don’t believe they are doing anything wrong.
They have been raised their whole life on that belief.
They have been taught that the ‘outsiders’ will come after them and they must lie to the ‘outsiders’ to protect themselves.
They are repeatedly told the end of the world is coming (the PROPHET’S GREAT PREDICTIONS), and that they must hold out until it happens.
Each time it doesn’t happen, Jeffs makes a new prediction.
And they wonder why their children aren’t being returned.
If Warren Jeffs decides he doesn’t like you, your wives and children are taken away, and you fall into the not enough wives category. How convenient.
They probably want to ascertain how she got into the US. I think a lot of these cross-border movements of people by the FLDS are of the sneaking across the border variety, not the presenting ID at a border crossing variety. Even if they let the girl go back to Canada (which I expect they will if the Canadian consul requests it), they still need to gather evidence about the cult leaders’ methods of transporting people across national borders.
The doctrine isn’t that men get booted out of the community for having fewer than 3 wives, it’s that neither they nor their wife/wives can enter into the “celestial kingdom”, the highest level of Heaven. Doctrine also requires striving towards reaching the celestial kingdom, so any man who doesn’t have 3+ wives must be striving to acquire more. Announcing he doesn’t want anymore would be heretical, and would probably get him kicked out and his wife/wives and children “reassigned”.
“The doctrine isn’t that men get booted out of the community for having fewer than 3 wives, it’s that neither they nor their wife/wives can enter into the “celestial kingdom”, the highest level of Heaven.”
Logically, one would assume that each young man (which would seem to be limited to Warren Jeffs progeny) has a first marriage. Until that man gets told by JEFFS who he will marry next, he is, at that point, monogamous.
We all have discussed the women and children who are given no choice, but it is also important to remember that none or very, very few of the men are given a choice whom they marry either.
The only ‘choice’ the men have, is that by kissing JEFFS *ss, they might be favored with a ‘good female’, and the ‘pick of the litter’.
They sound a lot like Crystal Gail Mangum, From the Duke lacrosse hoax.
In keeping my consistant position, I think this child should be returned to her parents in Canada, unless they have specific evidence that her parents have abused her in some way.
The Bishop’s record is an interesting read.
Some are listed as ‘wife’, some are listed as ‘spouse’.
Wonder what the difference is, to them?
Also the ‘location’ is listed as ‘elsewhere’.
Gee, that pins it down.
BTW, Thank you for doing the lookup work.
Your efforts are appreciated.
Whoa. They never showed the kids were abused. The first hearing was a pass-over because they didn't have time to do it right. Now they are arguing that they don't need to do a real hearing because they already did it?
And now they are arguing that, contrary to what a lot of people have said here, the reason the kids were taken was because of the beliefs of their parents, and not because of their actions?
So, if I believe something that would be illegal if practiced, the state can take my children? If I write a column that marijuana should be legal, the state can say I am pro-drugs and take my kids because I'm a threat?
No. In fact, the argument most have made here at FR is that it isn't what they believe, it's that they were practicing what they believed.
And those of us on the other side have said we don't see sufficient evidence that EACH family got a fair hearing to dispute whether they had practiced anything untoward.
And those against us say that the state IS giving people a fair hearing -- but now this article says they aren't getting a hearing at all.
Instead, the next hearings are about the children and foster care, not about the families and whether there was any evidence of abuse.
At some point, I hope that even those who are certain every parent is guilty will realise that the state still has to actually provide evidence in court that each parent is guilty before we take their kids away for good.
You are assuming they ‘sent’ her, instead of her being a ‘pick of the litter’ by the LOYAL INNER CIRCLE.
They might be telling the truth, since we have seen ‘consistent’(sp) proof that the FLDS folks don’t lie.
“that each parent is guilty before we take their kids away for good. “
The children are in ‘temporary custody’.
You should at least get your facts straight.
When will she be 18?
Hopefully this is just paranoia. It would be a shame to think the state would use their investigative powers to silence anybody who is critical about what they are doing.
Texas Child Protective Services initially pledged it would keep siblings together, but later acknowledged that has not happened in every case. The eight Barlow children are in five different locations, ranging from Cal Farley's in Amarillo to Kidz Harbor in Liverpool. While Vera and Viola are at the Baptist children's ranch in Gonzales, Lola is an hour away at Boysville in San Antonio.
The state said that to get some of the critics off their back. Apparently they had no interest in keeping their word, and no need to do so legally.
"Lydia, Edward and Lola are each alone, without a sibling to comfort them," Barlow said.
The couple said they gave the state accurate names and birth dates for all of their children. And later they submitted DNA samples.
I know, we can't believe a word these evil people say -- but do we have any evidence from the state that this is a lie?
In the absense of any other evidence, this is an example of a family, together, which was not practicing any of the horrors mentioned, where the mothers were all 18, and where the children are NOT being married off, and won't be. One where the family does not BELIEVE in underage marriages.
They do believe in men having sex with other adult women than their wives. That is not generally considered child sex abuse, and is not normally a reason to take a person's kids away.
I suppose you could argue that teaching your children that they can have sex outside of a single-woman marriage is child abuse, but then we'd have to round up the kids of most planned parenthood members.
maybe they didn’t live at the ranch, and were not taken away. Maybe he didn’t want to give any more information lest that situation change.
Or maybe he’s a typical pig male who doesn’t mind sleeping with other women and not taking part in their lives or the lives of his children.
“One where the family does not BELIEVE in underage marriages.”
Well, according to the statements given to the CPS, NONE of the FLDS members believe, or practice underage marriage.
So, I guess we should just let them all go.
Not that there aren’t a few families who are telling the truth, maybe.
The only ‘truth’ the courts have at their disposal is DNA tests, and those aren’t complete.
Surely, if these people have nothing to hide, then all the MEN would come forward and offer their DNA.
It is, after all, for the children.
“They never showed the kids were abused. “
Who didn’t show the kids were abused, and to whom?
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