Upstanding Father. Druggy Mother. Father is denied Custody

After all this and he still does not have custody... sheesh



http://www.torontosun.com/News/Other...72229-sun.html



Toronto Sun

Tue, June 19, 2007

The father is an upstanding, sober citizen. The drug-addled mother can't
care for their children. Why is he being denied custody?

By MARK BONOKOSKI

This dad’s all alone after spending Father’s Day with his kids. The dad,
employed in the U.S., had to return them to foster homes. (Mark
Bonokoski, Sun Media)

From the outside looking in, it was the perfect Father's Day weekend.
The kids' eyes lit up when they heard they were going for a boat ride on
the lake where their paternal grandparents ran a country store and inn.

The store had a candy counter, of course.

It was a kid's dream come true.

From there, it was off to a reunion of his father's side of the family.
Lots of pop and hot dogs. Lots of cousins to play with. Lots of fun.

And then it was home to the Oshawa area, the kids fast asleep from the
exhaustion that comes from burned energy and fresh air.


When their father dropped them off, however, it was not at their
mother's house, even though the courts had once given her joint custody.

No, instead of dropping his children off at his ex-wife's house, he had
to drop them off at the homes of their foster parents -- the oldest boy,
at 13, going to one foster home, while the two youngest, his 10-year-old
son and his 8-year-old daughter, having to go to another.

'BREAKS MY HEART'

"It breaks their heart, and it breaks my heart," the father says. "All I
can tell them is to trust me ... that things will work out eventually.

"But what a nightmare."

The Durham Children's Aid had scooped his kids from their mother's
custodial care and, from the outside looking in, social workers could
not be criticized for their initial actions -- not by a long shot.

They had responded to a 911 call from one of the children. There was no
food in the house, the child had said, and they were hungry.

When Durham Regional Police arrived, the children's mother had trouble
talking coherently and negotiating the hallway.

Drug use was suspected.

Before the children's parents broke up, and later divorced, their mother
was a pharmaceutical technician. Unfortunately, it also led to her
allegedly treating each pharmacy as if it were its own kind of candy
store.

It led to lost jobs for suspected theft of narcotics. It led to an
addiction to prescription painkillers. And it led to her going into
detox and rehab.

In rehab, she got knocked up by another patient.

That child, now 3, is also in foster care.

And that, in a nutshell, is all she wrote on this mother -- other than
the impaired driving charge she is also facing, having blown into the
balloon at 0.14, almost twice the legal limit, and all while driving on
a suspended licence.

It would seem, however, that the Durham CAS is doing everything it can
to give the children's mother more chances than she deserves to
straighten out her life than it is willing to give the children's'
father even one chance at trial custody.

STEADY JOB

And here is what he has to offer, as compared to the woman he divorced
several years ago. He has a steady job that earns him $65,000-plus a
year. He is married to a woman who holds an executive position as the
general manager of a Holiday Inn and who wants, and has said so in
writing, to be the stepmother of his children.

Unlike his ex-wife, the father has no substance abuse issues. He also
has no criminal record, all which can be verified because, as a licensed
aircraft mechanic, he has done high-level contract work for the American
military, which had him checked out every-which-way but Sunday.

The reason the Durham Children's Aid is balking at giving him custody is
as simple as its reasons are complex for siding with the drug-addicted
mother who is now facing a drunk-driving charge.

The mother lives in Durham Region.

The father lives eight hours away, but those eight hours take him across
the border into a small town in the northeastern United States.

He lives in a three-bedroom townhouse in what he describe as a "picture
postcard town, with blue-ribbon schools." And he is employed by a
subsidiary company of the Sikorsky helicopter corporation as manager of
its composite shop, a job which had its beginnings in Toronto when it
accepted an offer to do a contract job in West Virginia five years ago
when his marriage tanked and his divorce was finalized.

No calls were made to the Durham CAS, by the by, for either confirmation
or denial of the scenario presented here. The Privacy Act prevents the
CAS from commenting on any specific case and, from past experience, the
Privacy Act is also used as blanket to cover any and all controversy --
which is one reason Ontario Ombudsman Andre Marin wants to oversee CAS
operations province-wide.

But there is such a thing as court documents, and those in the Sun's
possession paint a fairly clear picture.

Within the week, the lawyer representing the father of these children
will be appearing before the Superior Court of Justice, yet again, in an
attempt to persuade the judge to cut the father some slack.

By month's end, the children's school year will have ended and, rather
than have them spend their summer in a foster home, he is seeking the
court's permission to take them home to the States -- first for two
weeks, then possibly for a month.

The childrens' mother, it should be noted, also remarried, but it was
not to the man who made her pregnant while in drug rehab.

Unfortunately, this marriage, too, is reportedly ending in divorce.

this looks like something that I would have to call the Media into.. a lot
of times calling a new camera can help get things moving. Nothing is more
damadging (or helpful depending on what side you stand on) can be to a case
like this one to the courts of the system.

I have found that going FULLY public can draw the much needed attention to
get things resolved!

Robert

"Henry" wrote in message
...
After all this and he still does not have custody... sheesh



http://www.torontosun.com/News/Other...72229-sun.html



Toronto Sun

Tue, June 19, 2007

The father is an upstanding, sober citizen. The drug-addled mother can't
care for their children. Why is he being denied custody?

By MARK BONOKOSKI

This dad's all alone after spending Father's Day with his kids. The dad,
employed in the U.S., had to return them to foster homes. (Mark
Bonokoski, Sun Media)

From the outside looking in, it was the perfect Father's Day weekend.
The kids' eyes lit up when they heard they were going for a boat ride on
the lake where their paternal grandparents ran a country store and inn.

The store had a candy counter, of course.

It was a kid's dream come true.

From there, it was off to a reunion of his father's side of the family.
Lots of pop and hot dogs. Lots of cousins to play with. Lots of fun.

And then it was home to the Oshawa area, the kids fast asleep from the
exhaustion that comes from burned energy and fresh air.


When their father dropped them off, however, it was not at their
mother's house, even though the courts had once given her joint custody.

No, instead of dropping his children off at his ex-wife's house, he had
to drop them off at the homes of their foster parents -- the oldest boy,
at 13, going to one foster home, while the two youngest, his 10-year-old
son and his 8-year-old daughter, having to go to another.

'BREAKS MY HEART'

"It breaks their heart, and it breaks my heart," the father says. "All I
can tell them is to trust me ... that things will work out eventually.

"But what a nightmare."

The Durham Children's Aid had scooped his kids from their mother's
custodial care and, from the outside looking in, social workers could
not be criticized for their initial actions -- not by a long shot.

They had responded to a 911 call from one of the children. There was no
food in the house, the child had said, and they were hungry.

When Durham Regional Police arrived, the children's mother had trouble
talking coherently and negotiating the hallway.

Drug use was suspected.

Before the children's parents broke up, and later divorced, their mother
was a pharmaceutical technician. Unfortunately, it also led to her
allegedly treating each pharmacy as if it were its own kind of candy
store.

It led to lost jobs for suspected theft of narcotics. It led to an
addiction to prescription painkillers. And it led to her going into
detox and rehab.

In rehab, she got knocked up by another patient.

That child, now 3, is also in foster care.

And that, in a nutshell, is all she wrote on this mother -- other than
the impaired driving charge she is also facing, having blown into the
balloon at 0.14, almost twice the legal limit, and all while driving on
a suspended licence.

It would seem, however, that the Durham CAS is doing everything it can
to give the children's mother more chances than she deserves to
straighten out her life than it is willing to give the children's'
father even one chance at trial custody.

STEADY JOB

And here is what he has to offer, as compared to the woman he divorced
several years ago. He has a steady job that earns him $65,000-plus a
year. He is married to a woman who holds an executive position as the
general manager of a Holiday Inn and who wants, and has said so in
writing, to be the stepmother of his children.

Unlike his ex-wife, the father has no substance abuse issues. He also
has no criminal record, all which can be verified because, as a licensed
aircraft mechanic, he has done high-level contract work for the American
military, which had him checked out every-which-way but Sunday.

The reason the Durham Children's Aid is balking at giving him custody is
as simple as its reasons are complex for siding with the drug-addicted
mother who is now facing a drunk-driving charge.

The mother lives in Durham Region.

The father lives eight hours away, but those eight hours take him across
the border into a small town in the northeastern United States.

He lives in a three-bedroom townhouse in what he describe as a "picture
postcard town, with blue-ribbon schools." And he is employed by a
subsidiary company of the Sikorsky helicopter corporation as manager of
its composite shop, a job which had its beginnings in Toronto when it
accepted an offer to do a contract job in West Virginia five years ago
when his marriage tanked and his divorce was finalized.

No calls were made to the Durham CAS, by the by, for either confirmation
or denial of the scenario presented here. The Privacy Act prevents the
CAS from commenting on any specific case and, from past experience, the
Privacy Act is also used as blanket to cover any and all controversy --
which is one reason Ontario Ombudsman Andre Marin wants to oversee CAS
operations province-wide.

But there is such a thing as court documents, and those in the Sun's
possession paint a fairly clear picture.

Within the week, the lawyer representing the father of these children
will be appearing before the Superior Court of Justice, yet again, in an
attempt to persuade the judge to cut the father some slack.

By month's end, the children's school year will have ended and, rather
than have them spend their summer in a foster home, he is seeking the
court's permission to take them home to the States -- first for two
weeks, then possibly for a month.

The childrens' mother, it should be noted, also remarried, but it was
not to the man who made her pregnant while in drug rehab.

Unfortunately, this marriage, too, is reportedly ending in divorce.