Lev Tahor: "Fear can cause unwise actions."

The letter "Fear can cause unwise actions." which I have pasted at the bottom of this page was written last Sunday to the editor of the Chatham Daily News. For me, it appeared like another candle being lit in the darkness. There is a vigil being kept by voices that are thankfully not shrill and bloodthirsty. There are a few more like these available online and I have been trying to collect them all. I imagine that there are many other people who are not speaking out but who are also experiencing the disquiet which I have been trying to work through here. I hope also that behind the scenes, others are witnessing as they stand alongside the community. Fear is part of the disquiet - fear within and without that something is very wrong.

Yesterday I read the document, "With Liberty and Justice for All...? The Trial and Prosecution of Rabbi Shlomo Helbrans." By Yacob Y. Zick, 1997.

I assure you that you will not regret also taking the time to read it because it is my belief that it sets the record straight on this matter at least. It is absolutely, absolutely essential reading for those following the Lev Tahor case, especially those who are not content to accept without question, the stories that have been handed to us thus far. This document provides credible descriptions of events as they unfolded in the community and the courts before, during and after the 1994 conviction of Rabbi Helbrans in the USA for kidnapping and supplies documentary evidence to prove that justice was not served, but instead energetically and maliciously perverted.

The entire document is arresting. I am sharing below, two statements by credible witnesses to the events. Their assessments should make us all think twice, because if these statements can also be made about this present situation in Canada, then we are in a very bad place as a society. If this situation is not resolved with justice for all, then another group of people will be fully justified in asking questions about genocide. We know that this question is now being examined in relation to the Canadian First Nations people who were direct victims of Canada's Residential Schools and survived to tell their horrific stories of a systematic attempt to break and bury an unwanted culture. "Forcibly  transferring children of one group to another group" is listed among the acts of genocide included in Article II of the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide. This activity is  not something that can ever again be taken lightly and hopefully today there is a new breed of Canadians standing guard to ensure that we do not get to the point where victims asking for justice are again victimised by courts finagling the guilty away from a moral and legal interpretation of the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide. Violence on this scale is never accidental.  In this case unfolding now before us, can conspiracy, incitement, attempt and complicity be proven?

I repeat again that it is not that we do not want all our children to be safe and loved. This is a given. And we also support the authorities' responsibility to investigate allegations that any residents of this country are endangered. What is causing the disquiet in this case is that some of us are not convinced by the evidence, or rather, the lack thereof, that this situation warranted the persecutory and penalising actions that have been taken thus far by the authorities. Those of us who are increasingly aware that the law does not always deliver justice are not about to offer unconditional respect and acquiescence to the rulings of any courts. This is ultimately not an adversarial stance but an effort to arrive at some position that is just. As Bernard Fryshman urges below, it is right and fitting that people should be thinking, reviewing, writing and asking....particularly asking. Barring the uncovering of any sinister motives, a transparent and positive outcome for all will prove that all of our voices had the same motivation - the courage to err on the side of the children.

"Rabbi Barry Kupperson, Religious Zionist leader writes:

"In my personal and community life I am a true Zionist. The differences between the views of Rabbi Helbrans and my own are vast, literally at the extreme ends of religious Jewry. He strongly opposes my Zionist philosophy and the better part of his books are dedicated to fighting the whole concept of Zionism. Similarly I sharply oppose most of his views.

However, even I must say!

As a Jew and Zionist I am alarmed! The Israeli aspirations of religious persecution have pained me for a long time. It hurts me to see how secular and even 'religious national' journalists conduct slanderous campaigns against religious Jews. These articles - in my opinion - are written in a manner which can almost rival the Nazi 'Shtirmer' by Julius Streicher of the pre-Holocaust era.

I am extremely perturbed and distraught, not only by what was done to Rabbi Helbrans, but by the entire degrading slander which Israeli secular society incites against the religious factions. Is this what I have sacrificed my very being for? Is this why I have donated to every conceivable Israeli organization for the past twenty five years? This is in total contradiction to the good and beauty which I believed and still believe Israeli society to possess.

I know that many Israelis are irreligious and that the government is controlled by the secular parties. I still believe, however, that Zionsism represents the adherence to the Jewish Nation. That is what I preach and believe!

If, however, official government organisations such as the Israeli Consulate, in conjunction with the Israeli press, can organize such a libel --p. 59

and then ship it to a foreign country...as was done in this case...then I must reexamine this assumption and question myself whether Zionism still represents adherence to the Jewish nation." --p 60

SOURCE

"It was not circumstances which led to an innocent man being convicted of kidnapping to a jail term and finally to the verge of deportation. It was people. Powerful people, and unfriendly people. I am convinced that law alone will not suffice to undo some of the harm inflicted on Rabbi Shlomo Helbrans. Rather it will be people of good will, concerned over the train of justice visited on Rabbi Helbrans, who will make a difference. Hence this review. Hopefully, it will get people to think, to review, to write and to ask. Particularly to ask." ----Bernard Fryshman SOURCE

Letter to the editor.
Chatham Daily News | Sunday, March 23, 2014
Fear can cause unwise actions.

Sir: I was interested in Greg Van Moorsel’s column “Jewish sect far from persecuted” in March 21 issue of The Chatham Daily News. He’s writing about the 200 members of Lev Tahor, an ultra-Orthodox Jewish community, who suddenly arrived in Chatham last November. I have spoken to these people in town and I find them to be quiet and gentle.

I don’t know much about their background. According to the CBC, which did a program about them on Fifth Estate in February, the group’s name means Pure Heart. They were fleeing from Quebec because, they said, their religious studies were at odds with Quebec’s curriculum. This is understandable because Quebec’s laws are a law unto themself. Also it seems the Quebec government was accusing Lev Tahor of neglecting their children, forcing girls to marry under the age of 16 and not letting the children receive adequate education. The Quebec youth protection services were determined to take a group of children away and put them in foster homes which would have been very traumatic to the poor youngsters. Yet none of these allegations have been proven in court.

I am not sure about the legal implications and at this point I don’t really care! I’m sure Justice Stephen Fuerth went by the law – that is if a judge in Ontario has the legal authority to hear a child-protection case begun in Quebec. But my heart bleeds for those dear children, some of whom are apparently in hospital on hunger strikes. Others have carted to western Canada and to Trinidad and Tobago en route to Guatemala. They must be terrified and we must pray they will recover. Now they have offended many by wearing yellow Stars of David, the symbol that Hitler's Nazis used to mark Jews for torture and death.

OK. These people have different beliefs from us. They dress differently. They have done some strange things but to the casual observer they seem to be gentle people. Israel doesn’t like them and they don’t like Israel.

But a lot of us don’t agree with many other people. But how would you react if police cruisers come speeding along the 401 from Quebec and Chatham-Kent police help to search your homes. Perhaps you would be angry or maybe just fearful. You do some strange things when you’re scared.

These people had come here – to Chatham – to what they believed was their New Dawn Settlement, the name of the community where we welcomed runaway slaves. Those runaway American slaves were probably terrified by the unusual. Just like the Lev Tahor were scared by the way in which they were treated. So they started doing unwise things, like leaving the country. People do foolish things when they face fear. Charles Stanley once wrote that “Fear stifles our thinking and actions. It creates indecisiveness that results in stagnation. I have known talented people who procrastinate indefinitely rather than risk failure. Lost opportunities cause erosion of confidence and the downward spiral begins."

There must have been a better way of handling this. Not armed police. Thank God some people I know actually visited this community and spoke to them in love. If everybody had done this, things might be very different.

I’m sorry to be so long-winded but I have been musing and praying about this situation since it all began.

Stephen J. Beecroft

Chatham

Stephen Beecroft, don't ever lose your humanity.

Lev Tahor: "untested before a court".

“I am entirely satisfied that the allegations, although untested before a court, of sexual, physical and emotional harm, and deprivation of the rights of the children to an education are sufficiently grave and serious that intervention of a court is immediately warranted,” the judge said, adding that these children were at risk of suffering emotional or psychological harm.----Superior Court Justice Lynda Templeton.  SOURCE

This post [started March 23, 2014] will be ongoing and will be written as it is written. It will consist of notes reflecting my random thoughts about the Lev Tahor case. It will end as it ends. I want peace and love and justice for all, even when that is what we often continue to work against.

Random Thoughts From My Disquiet.

"Documented allegations."

The wheel is still in spin and with it my feelings about the Lev Tahor case. Despite the flurry around and within, I have not budged one inch from the conclusion which I shared when I first commented on this matter. My position remains that despite the pressure of public opinion, I cannot, and must not, at this point in time and with the evidence that has been made available to us, support any of the allegations which have been made against the Lev Tahor community.

Somehow, despite energetic and intrusive investigations, those allegations of abuse have just stubbornly refused to upgrade themselves to facts. To their credit, the news reporters, though their biases are revealed in other ways, have all been united in respecting that status, and have been careful to use "alleged" and "allegations of" when referring to the stories of abuses under investigation. Sometimes I have seen "documented allegations" used, but that is as far as the envelope has been pushed towards giving the allegations more authority.

I don't feel that I have to apologise for my sluggishness, for the fact that I am handicapped by the lack of evidence. Like the lame child in the story of the Pied Piper of Hamelin, my disability has prevented me from going the way of all the other fleet-footed children who danced gaily behind the Piper and were lost. Also like that child left behind, I cannot help but wonder about the destination from which I have thus far been excluded. Would my disquiet have been erased there?

"Think about the Children!"

I know that accusers, whatever their motivations, are free to make the wildest allegations without evidence and even anonymously. I understand the job of the authorities to act upon those allegations, to investigate and to ensure by finding, or not finding evidence that either the accused are guilty or not guilty. But are the authorities allowed to penalise without evidence? Is this how child protection works in this country? Are the accused guilty until proven innocent? And can children's protective services in Canada really bear the scrutiny now that it is in the spotlight? In the course of my reading I have come across dozens and dozens of articles about the nightmares that have been created by child protection services in this country, and how many innocent guardians and/or their entire families have been traumatised sometimes beyond repair.

Here are a few links if you can handle the disquiet:


Court Watch on Vimeo.

"The Rev Stephen Rudd from Hamilton, Ontario speaks about his experience with the CAS [Children' Aid Society] during his 25 years as a church Minister. He has seen countless horror stories of children and families being abused by Ontario's privately operated CAS agencies.

Rev Rudd believes that the government of Ontario must take the job of protecting children out of the hands of unaccountable CAS agencies and put this task under the direct control of government ministries who would be accountable."

Former director of the Children’s Aid Society of the Districts of Sudbury speaks out. Larry Killens. Letter to the Editor – January 2012. Ontario Commission for Accountability.


The Trailer for the deeply disturbing documentary -  "Powerful as God: The Children's Aid Societies of Ontario." | About the documentary.
Recently added [Via Yakov]: Children’s Aid horrors. By Michael Coren | The Interim | Thursday, April 24, 2014.

Fatal Care Series. The results of a six-month investigation by the Edmonton Journal and Calgary Herald into Alberta's child welfare fatalities. National Newspaper Awards for investigative reporting and news photography.

Barbara Kay: The problem with Children's Aid Societies. By Barbara Kay| National Post | February 27, 2013.

Alberta reveals hundreds more children died while receiving provincial care. Roundtable to review deaths in foster care. By Karen Kleiss. Edmonton Journal, January 9, 2014.

New minister Bhullar says inquiry into deaths of kids in government care not needed. By James Wood, Calgary Herald December 12, 2013

Families will be free to speak about children who have died in care: Alberta human services minister. By Karen Kleiss. Edmonton Journal, February 28, 2014.

The unlawful practice of social work in Ontario by unregulated CAS workers who provide services to the public under false pretence. Published by Vernon Beck, Child and Family Justice Advocate. Working paper – July 1, 2013.

UNDERSTANDING CHILDREN’S AID: MEANING AND PRACTICE IN ONTARIO CHILDREN’S AID SOCIETIES, 1893 - 1912 by Michael Reid. 

A Thesis Submitted to the Department of Graduate Studies in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Arts Canadian Studies and Indigenous Studies, Trent UniversityJanuary 2009 © Copyright by Michael Reid, December 2008.

"There's A Kind of Hush."

I need to hear some discussion about the "documented allegations" and the contents of the unsealed transcripts released thus far and how they have advanced the case of the accusers. Who has asked aloud, apart from the lawyers for the media, why there was secrecy in the first place? These are the same lawyers who successfully petitioned to have some of the court transcripts unsealed. 

I agree completely with Judge Sheindlin who said:

"....closed courtrooms protect two things – bad judges and bad lawyers.
“They also protect bad institutions that serve those courts, such as social services,” she continued. “They [cameras] should be there as the norm. If you have a specific exclusion, then you make it.”

When finally the transcripts were partially unsealed, we got to read about such pertinent revelations as the "odd silence" heard by the social workers visiting the abandoned Lev Tahor compound. Apparently that "odd silence" has also drowned out the voices that should be asking questions. Apart from the quietly or rabidly convinced, I imagine that the undecided concerned are silently thinking thoughts like: "Where there is smoke, there is fire." "What if it turns out that they are guilty?" "What do we really know about this religious community?" What if they really are a dangerous cult?" "For the sake of the children, we just have to back off, cross our fingers and let justice take its course."

The problem for me is that in this case I find those doubts less disturbing than the "odd silence" that floods my brain whenever I ask myself the question, "Upon whom does the burden of proof rest and have they convinced me beyond a reasonable doubt that they were justified in ordering the removal of people's children?"

Thundering also is the "odd silence" from the legal luminaries and the lack of their enlightening commentary on this case. If, for whatever reasons, they cannot risk being critical at this point, then can they at least reassure us that we should not let our hearts be troubled? Instead, the few who have commented, jumped nimbly on to musings about the terrain of the ongoing chase and how domestic and international law could be used by the hunted or hunter to find refuge or to enable capture. Another reverently espoused the need for secrecy in these cases. With what we know about the appalling actions of child protection services in Canada, I think that secrecy is the last thing that we need in this case. Where are the lawyers who can explain to us how it is that the law presides over the removal of children from their families BEFORE allegations of abuse have been proven? 

I keep wanting to go back to the court order issued in Quebec on Wednesday 27 November 2013 and later, almost as if under pressure, upheld in Ontario. Upon what evidence was that original order to remove the children based? What was it exactly that made the Quebec welfare authorities describe the situation for some children as "serious". How do the rest of us make the leap from things like foot fungus to separation of children from their parents? 

As I said before, couldn't all of this have been resolved with the children left in situ? Can anyone explain to those of us uninitiated in the ways of the law, how the situation "establishes a presumption of neglect against children."

Is anyone sharing my disquiet? Has anyone heard the wider and odder silence? Is there nothing here to be discussed about Canada's handling of this case? Are we looking away until there is a new distracting development in a far away place called Guatemala?

"Objects in the rearview mirror are closer than they appear."

Sharpened now by hindsight is the significance of the 2007 exodus of the fifteen Mennonite farming families from Quebec. What was the disquiet that compelled them to make the drastic decision to abandon their beautiful farms and the solid connections which they had made with the community? Which authority took care then to report with equally dramatic concern on the "odd silence" which their absence must have left upon the landscape of Roxton Falls, east of Montreal?

Like the Lev Tahor community, they also were not adhering strictly to the Quebec curriculum. Because of their religious beliefs, they also could not in good conscience teach their children about ideas anathema to them. It was also alleged that authorities had threatened to remove their children and put them in foster homes.

When they fled to Alexandria, Ontario, where the laws are more accepting, they left behind the homes and farms in which they had invested their labour, love and hopes. Even though the Mayor of Roxton Falls did not want to lose the Mennonites, even though he had praised their contribution to the community and had pleaded on their behalf to Education Minister Michelle Courchesne to allow their school to stay open, eventually they had no choice but to uproot and leave.

See here,  here and here.

"We hoped to grow old here," a tearful Ron Goosen, one of the Mennonites, told CBC News on Thursday. "We have our burial plots and we hoped to be buried here, but it doesn't look that way."

To be continued...