Custody trial with racist overtones wraps up in Manitoba
Published Saturday July 4th, 2009
Court | Kids taken after racist symbols, slogans found on girl's skin
WINNIPEG - A young girl with skin covered in racist markings. A mother testifying in shackles. A father talking about interracial breeding and Norse gods.
Weeks of often startling, sometimes strange testimony at a child custody hearing involving two alleged white supremacists ended Friday.
It remains unclear when a Court of Queen's Bench judge will render her verdict in a case that raises questions about how far parents can go in instilling their beliefs in children.
The children, a girl and boy, were seized by child welfare authorities last year after the eldest showed up at her elementary school with several racist slogans and symbols drawn on her skin in permanent marker.
Manitoba Child and Family Services is asking the court for permanent care of the kids, alleging their parents' views caused them emotional harm. The department also alleges the parents raised their children in squalor and neglected them.
The father's own parents were the last to testify Friday, supporting his attempts to get the children back.
"(The father) has accepted responsibility for his actions and accepts he needs changing," the paternal grandfather said. "He loves his children dearly."
But under cross-examination, the grandfather admitted telling a social worker that neither his son nor his daughter-in-law were dependable enough to even raise a cat because they didn't work and spent a lot of time partying.
"That was the way I was feeling when (the children) were apprehended," he explained.
The case was unusual from the beginning.
When the girl and her younger brother were seized by child welfare workers, she explained that her mother had drawn the racist symbols and slogans on her skin because she did not like white people.
The mother, who is separated from the father and now lives in another province, didn't attend court initially. Instead, she gave interviews to several media outlets and accused the social workers of putting words in her daughter's mouth.
When the mother finally did travel to Manitoba for the hearing, she was arrested on charges of credit card fraud. She testified in leg shackles. For now, she has given up on getting her kids back.
The father admitted to using Nazi salutes, telling his children that white people should not have children with people from other races, and telling them that non-whites belong in other countries.
He testified he was influenced at an early age by stories of Vikings, Norse gods and mythical Greek hero Hercules. But he said his beliefs do not amount to racism, and maintained he never preached violence.
The father has filed a challenge under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, arguing he has the right to instill his beliefs in his children. That argument will be heard in September when the case resumes for final submissions.
Kris Janovcik, the lawyer for Manitoba Child and Family Services, has tried to steer the case away from the charter issue.
The case is not about an adult's charter rights, he said at the start of the trial, but about how children can be affected by being taught to hate people, being "painted up like a billboard" with racist drawings, and living in poverty and neglect.
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