WINNIPEG - Child and Family Services had no good reason to seize two children at the centre of a controversial custody case involving allegations of racism and substance abuse, a judge was told this morning.
Child and Family Services seized a now eight-year-old girl and her three-year-old half-brother last year after the girl was sent to school with a swastika and racist writings drawn on her body. CFS is seeking permanent guardianship of the children.
Katherine Dunn, the lawyer representing the girl's step-father, said the children are not in need of protection and never have been.
"There was no need to apprehend the children," she said in her closing argument before Justice Marianne Rivoalen. "There was a need to open a file, there was a need to sit down with (the parents) and say 'What the heck is going on here?'... It was not a child protection issue."
The girl's stepfather is seeking custody of the children, arguing CFS is infringing on his freedom of conscience, belief and association.
Kris Janovcik, the lawyer representing CFS, said the case has nothing to do with the man's allegedly racist beliefs, but his and his ex-wife's inability to safely parent their children.
"The father does not accept responsibility today - and never did - for his actions that brought his children into care," Janovcik said.
