© OJO Images / Rex Features
Porcelain Easter bunny and candy eggs.
Porcelain Easter bunny and candy eggs.
Derek and Frances Baars have filed a court application alleging the Hamilton CAS violated their Charter Rights by closing down their foster home because the couple refused to tell the girls in their care that the Easter Bunny is real.
The couple, who now reside in Calgary, began taking care of two sisters, aged three and four, in December 2015.
The Baars, who call themselves devout Christians, say they told CAS that "they don't celebrate Halloween and do not endorse Santa Claus or the Easter Bunny."
But in February 2016, CAS support worker Tracey Lindsay allegedly told the Baars that the girls would be taken away, and their foster home permanently closed, if they refused to tell the girls that the Easter Bunny is real.
The girls were taken away March 4, and the Baars foster home was shut down.
"The Hamilton Children's Aid Society needs to be held accountable for its misguided emphasis on a single, minor issue," stated Calgary lawyer and Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms president John Carpay.
"People can be good foster parents even if they refuse to say that the Easter Bunny is real, especially with the pressing shortage of foster parents which the Hamilton Children's Aid Society itself has spoken about publicly," continued Carpay.
As Frances Baars explains it in her affidavit:
We had poured our lives into taking care of the girls. To have them suddenly ripped away from us was deeply painful. ... It was the days after they left that the house felt empty without them. I lacked desire to do anything. As remains of their belongings kept popping up-we had so little time to pack the girls' belongings that we weren't able to collect everything-it finally struck me that they weren't coming back. Several weeks later the girls' worker stopped by to pick up their remaining belongings, including the scrapbooks I had made for the girls, which I had purposely held on to so I could finish the scrapbooks before sending them on. The scrapbooks were my final way of showing our love and care, and to provide them with reminders of all the good times we had together. A picture of the girls is still on our fridge, so we can remember the happy times we shared.
Reader Comments
Unbelievable
Thus that which governs best, governs least.
Most people have forgotten these simple truth as they goose-step their way through life. Re read the Declaration of Independence.
R.C.
Broaden your understanding and imagination and you too might perceive that 'Father Christmas' is a spiritual bearer of intangible, valuable and very real gifts such as excitement, hope, love and happiness.