CAS AND SPANKING

Toronto Star - July 7, 2001
7 children removed in spanking dispute
Family minister says use of 'rod' in discipline is a religious right
Cal Millar

AYLMER - A fundamentalist minister is vowing to fight to the end after seven children were forcibly removed from a parishioner's home when their parents refused to promise they wouldn't use a switch to discipline them. Rev. Henry Hildebrandt said Aylmer, a town of 6,500 southeast of London, Ont., is a divided community because of a growing population of people with strong religious beliefs.

"There has been some discrimination," he said. "It happens from time to time ... There's going to be a court challenge." He said he wants the issue resolved and doesn't want any foot-dragging when the matter comes to court Monday. The seven children will remain in foster care at least until then.

Hildebrandt said there is no way the church can go against the Bible and tell parents they can't use a rod as a final resort to punish children. The deeply religious parents, who cannot be named because their children, aged 6 to 14, are now in the care of Family and Children's Services, moved to Canada from Mexico two years ago and joined the Church of God. The Church of God strictly adheres to biblical doctrine, which it believes allows the use of a rod to discipline children. Hildebrandt quoted the verse in Proverbs which suggests that sparing the rod will spoil the child. "We do not condone abusing children in any way," he said. "This is used as a last resort."

Hildebrandt said there is no indication the children were disciplined with a switch, and he has no idea who complained. But he said Family and Children's Services workers had visited the home several times and told the parents they were not allowed to hit or spank their children. Police and family services were concerned that the spanking in this case was going beyond the realm of what is within the law, and the parents were not willing to change their way of disciplining.

"We believed that it would continue to occur because they would not promise to stop," said Aylmer police deputy chief Andre Reymer. Reymer, along with a family services representative, spent several hours interviewing the children Wednesday. By the end of the interviews, they decided it would be in the best interests of the children to place them in foster care.

Hildebrandt got a call Wednesday afternoon, when Family and Children's Services arrived at the house with a police officer and an order to take the seven children. Extra police and 11 members of the Elgin County OPP arrived to provide assistance as 40 to 50 family and church members crowded around the family. "It was passive resistance. They surrounded the children," Reymer said. "It was like breaking up a protest." Amid prayers and shouts, three girls and four boys were carried or escorted into cars.

Hildebrandt said the parents speak German and Spanish but very limited English. He said he didn't know if an interpreter had been present during the interviews, but said one came with the workers Wednesday. His son Herbert said the younger children were screaming and crying as they were carried from the family home on Fourth St. The older children refused to leave and dropped to the ground. "They wanted to stay with their parents," Herbert Hildebrandt said. "They had to also be carried." He described the parents and children as a "good family" and said there have never been concerns about abuse.

Now Rev. Hildebrandt is angry that officials are refusing to allow the parents contact with the children and won't permit the children to attend Sunday School. "They said the children could talk by telephone to their parents," he said. "Now they say it's not possible." The children were taken to various foster homes in the St. Thomas and London area. Officials who later interviewed them said there was no physical evidence of abuse. "There were no bruises or anything like that," said a worker who asked not to be named.

Next-door neighbour Ernie Timmons said he couldn't believe what he was seeing. "I saw a policeman bringing out this little girl," Timmons said. "She was shouting and hollering for help. I could see the fear in her face. It was unbelievable." He said he was so upset with what he saw he had trouble sleeping Wednesday night. Timmons said that after the little girl was carried out, they brought out an 8-year-old child. "You've never heard so much squealing, crying and wailing from children," he said. "These kids are scarred for life. The (workers) don't realize the scars they put on these little kids."

Timmons said the family moved into the house in December. He described them as quiet and said he never heard any problems. "Those children, believe me, they were happy. They were always playing. They were forever rollerblading, bicycling and playing all the time." Timmons suggested the children's aid society had picked the "weakest link" from various churchgoing families in the area to send a message to others that they aren't to follow their beliefs and use a rod to punish children. "Heads should roll for this," he said. "The CAS people should be charged with kidnapping. They are the ones that should have been sent away."

Another neighbour, who asked not to be named, agreed there was no indication the children had been abused. She said the matter might have been straightened out if the congregation hadn't come. "It got blown out of proportion," she said. "I think the kids would have been home by now if everyone hadn't got involved."

Authorities had kept an ongoing file on the family. "We would not be removing children from homes with information that they are being spanked," said Steve Bailey, executive director of Family and Children's Services, St. Thomas and Elgin County. Only spankings that cause welts, bruises or other injury, or that employ objects such as a belt, would be reason to investigate.

-------- Toronto Sun - July 7, 2001 'There has to be pain,' church says By Randy Richmond and JONATHAN SHER SUN MEDIA AYLMER, Ont. - The Church of God will go to court to defend its right to spank, strap and strike children, its pastor vowed yesterday. "If we give this right up, we are basically giving our children up to becoming wayward," said Rev. Henry Hildebrandt. "I think (court) is where this is going."

Even as a caravan of supporters from the US made its way north today for a rally, the parents of the seven children seized by social workers admitted they made mistakes - but stopped short of saying they wouldn't use force again. The children have been placed in foster care until their parents appear in court next week in St. Thomas in an effort to regain custody.

CAS 'KNEW ALL KIDS' Church congregants from as far away as Wisconsin, will rally at a Children's Aid Society hearing Monday, Hildebrandt promised. Neighbours said the CAS had been to the kids' house several times before. "There was some talk on the street about that. The CAS knew all the kids by name," said one who didn't want to be identified.

Section 43 of the Criminal Code of Canada says parents and guardians are "justified in using force" as long as it "doesn't exceed what is reasonable under the circumstances." That law was challenged by child advocates and upheld by Ontario Superior Court.

To the Aylmer Church of God, spanking means an open hand slap or the use of a switch or belt or strap. Hildebrandt said the church prefers parents use something like a switch, only as a last resort and only after cooling down. A hand leaves marks and can do more damage than a belt, he said.

'NEVER IN THE HEAD' "Never in the head. Never a slap in a face, or in the ear. I believe the only places is to be spanked is in the bum," he said. Hildebrandt said the church must protect its belief that "it takes more than a slap on the butt to obey. There has to be pain. There will be a pain."

-------- National Post - July 7, 2001 Kids' removal worse than spanking: critic Seven taken from parents: 'The screeching was so unbearable that I had to leave,' neighbour says Michael Friscolanti Family rights organizations yesterday condemned "incompetent" child welfare officials for removing seven children "kicking and screaming" from their home because of accusations their parents may spank them with sticks and belts. "The government is always talking about doing things in the best interest of the children," said Brian Rushfeldt, the executive director of the Canada Family Action Coalition, an organization that works to preserve traditional values. "But when you rip kids out, kicking and screaming, that isn't in the best interest of the children."

Friends and neighbours, who watched in horror on Wednesday as social workers and police dragged the seven children from their Aylmer, Ont., home, also slammed the "barbaric" raid. "It's about the most disgraceful thing I've seen in my life," said Ernie Timmins, who was fertilizing his lawn next door when the police cruisers arrived. "There was a six-year-old girl with policemen carrying her by her arms and her legs and the fear in that kid's face was unbelievable. The screeching was so unbearable that I had to leave." The children, aged six to 14, remain in the custody of social workers while their parents prepare for a family court hearing scheduled for Monday.

"You just feel like you want to wake up from a dream," said Henry Hildebrandt, the family's pastor at the Aylmer Church of God, located about 50 kilometres southeast of London. He said officials with the area's child services department told him they decided to take the children only after the parents refused to promise never to hit the children with rods or switches.

Corporal punishment is validated by the teachings of the Bible, Mr. Hildebrandt said, and it is common among his 200 parishioners. "[The children] want their parents to do it because it makes them happy children," he said. "From time to time it is needed. It keeps them in line." It is, to an extent, also legal. Last year, a judge with Ontario's Superior Court of Justice ruled that spanking, and the section of the Criminal Code that regulates it, does not violate children's constitutional rights as long as the force is "reasonable under the circumstances."

Steve Bailey, the executive director of Family and Children's Services of St. Thomas and Elgin, said mere spanking is not enough to even warrant an investigation. Although he would not speak specifically about this case, he said injuries or weapons would have to be evident before his staff would take action. "We would not go to the removal stage unless we had some fairly clear sense of presence of harm," he said.

Still, spanking advocates say the violent seizure was more harmful to the children than any form of spanking could be. "To take seven children away kicking and screaming shows a tremendous insensitivity and lack of understanding of little children," said Gwen Landolt, the national vice-president of REAL Women of Canada, an organization that promotes the importance of family. "The trauma caused by the ineptitude and the incompetence of the welfare authorities will be with [the children] forever." Added Mr. Rushfeldt: "If it's proven that there was no physical abuse that was taking place in that home, there should be charges laid against the government officials who very intrusively went into this family and disrupted it."

Many neighbours are convinced there was not any abuse. "The kids are nice and clean, well-dressed and well-disciplined," said one man, who lives down the street from the family but did not want to be identified. "They came by, spoke to us, and told us how nice our flowers are. Very well-behaved kids." The children were always smiling, others said, either riding bikes or playing in the yard. "I live right beside them," Mr. Timmins said. "I'm sure I would have seen something that seemed suspicious."