Justice tempered with Mercy: A Mitzvah for Passover.

We’re very happy. We thank the Lord for the good news … I think it’s very obvious that children should be with their parents, with their family, with their friends — in a natural place”..."Hopefully, the whole thing about the community with the whole persecution and allegations, everything will calm down and we will be able to practise our religion quietly and peacefully.---Uriel Goldman, Lev Tahor community. SOURCE

Today, Superior Court Justice Lynda Templeton found a way to take us all to a better place. Justice Templeton ruled not only that Justice Fuerth had erred, but also that returning the children to Quebec would not be in their best interest.

Even if I were wrong with respect to any or all of the above, I am entirely satisfied that it would be contrary to the best interests of these children to be returned to Quebec. I decline to visit upon the children the consequences of the conduct of their parents.”  SOURCE

"To create further upheaval and instability in their lives would most surely have disastrous emotional and psychological ramification for them.”

I am satisfied that the rehabilitation that may be necessary for the parents in order to achieve reunification of their families… can be commenced and continued in the current locale,” Templeton stated. SOURCE

"Ontario does not have jurisdiction under common law to enforce the Quebec ruling, as a non-monetary and temporary judgment."

"There is currently no provision in the Child and Family Services Act for the enforcement of an order rendered outside Ontario, she ruled. Chatham-Kent Children’s Services had turned to the Children’s Law Reform Act, but Justice Templeton found that enforcement provisions in that law are not available in this case either."

"When a family in such a situation moves to another province, the supervising agency can give evidence in support of their concerns to the agency where the family has relocated “to allow that agency to assess the situation under its own mandate and to apply the provisions of the [Child and Family Services Act] as it sees fit,”..."But “for reasons known only to the agency” in this case, they have not done that." SOURCE

See entire ruling at Chatham-Kent Children’s Services v. J.S., 2014 ONSC 2352 (CanLII)

I cannot speak for the members of the Lev Tahor community because in this matter, they are the ones who have suffered the most over the past few years and in the end it is their assessment/appreciation of today's ruling that carries the most weight. I speak only for myself, as an outsider who has felt compelled to stand with them in spirit, when I say that I am finally allowing myself a sigh of relief. With full awareness that their journey is not over, and that even if it were, there would still be a long period of healing ahead of them, I am still venturing to thank every heart and mind that has hoped for the arrival of this moment. Yes, I do believe that all this pain and destruction could and should have all been avoided but it has happened and there is no turning back. There is a greater scheme of things and I have to trust that, like the song says, there is some redemption to be found:  

Gham ko aapne saath mein lele dard bhi tere kaam aayega
Take the sorrow with you. This pain will be of use to you.
Bhikre tukdon mein Allah ki marzi ka manzar paayega.
On these scattered pieces, you will find God's wishes.
--- Allah ke bande

0 comments: