Can children be taken from parents suspected of being racists?

WINNIPEG - A case of two youngsters seized from a couple suspected of being racist has raised the question of how far parents can go in teaching their children what they think is right.

"I think it's really a tough issue," Harvey Frankel, a professor of social work at the University of Manitoba, said Monday.

"I'm not aware of the courts giving a whole lot of guidance here in (this) area of child welfare."

A seven-year-old girl and a boy, 2, were recently taken by child welfare workers from a home in south Winnipeg after the girl showed up at school with "hate-related drawings on her body," police Const. Blair Good said Monday. Good would not confirm a media report that quoted unnamed sources as saying the girl was sporting a swastika and a white supremacy slogan.

Manitoba Child and Family Services is before the courts looking to obtain permanent guardianship of the children. The move is based partly on "concerns that the parents' conduct might endanger the emotional well-being of the children ... and that the children may be at risk of harm due to the parents' behaviour and associations," according to an affidavit from a child welfare worker.

A Crown lawyer is reviewing the case to see whether criminal charges are warranted.

The couple, who cannot be named under provincial law, were not reachable at their home Monday. They have not yet filed affidavits outlining their position.

Manitoba guidelines allow child welfare workers to investigate any situation where there is concern for the safety or well-being of a child, including cases involving "religious or political practices ... if those practices could be harmful to the child," said Nadine Delisle, communications co-ordinator for Family Services and Housing.

Whether a judge would permanently remove kids from parents with racist beliefs could be a different matter, according to Frankel.

"It's tough for me to imagine parents who are preaching sort of a neo-Nazi philosophy to also be providing a safe, nurturing environment for their child. This is a philosophy that talks about hate, talks about much of the world being a dangerous place," he said.

"At the same, time, I don't think just on the face of it, you can say it's an environment that requires you to remove the child. Kids grow up in all sorts of situations that you or I or someone may not agree with."

A hearing is set for later this month that could determine who will care for the children.

Or they might decide if you refuse to allow your 10-year-old daughter to carry condoms in her purse the way her health teacher at school taught her to do, that’s child abuse and they’ll have to take her and everyone else in your family away.

Or perhaps they’ll decide if you’re teaching your son that man-made global warming is a cock-and-bull story and everyone who believes in it is a fool, your children have to be taken away from you and you’ll be forced to sign a paper saying you agree to allow the government to monitor your child-raising if you ever want to see them again.

Or they might decide if you teach that polygamy is fine and the age-of-consent laws are crap and ought to be changed, and that in the meantime, one should get married as soon as the age-of-consent laws permit, you and everyone who KNOWS you will have to be rounded up, and every child of every family within a mile’s radius of you taken away.

Or maybe they’ll just decide that if you teach them not to wear the mark of Obama on the wrist or forehead, they’d better take your children away and sterilize you before to keep you from breed any more little hate criminals.

You know, I don’t think even some foul-mouthed goose-stepper in his bedsheets with a pointy white hood over his face and a blue-spiral triangle around his neck could wreck his little tyke’s mind as badly as the Canadian government is planning to.

"It's tough for me to imagine parents who are preaching sort of a neo-Nazi philosophy to also be providing a safe, nurturing environment for their child. This is a philosophy that talks about hate,

Maybe we should send Reverend Wright up there for a few "sermons", with Father Phlegm Pfleger in tow. Then those kids would appear docile in comparison.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.