Pubdate: Tue, 14 Sep 2010 Source: Calgary Herald (CN AB) Copyright: 2010 Canwest Publishing Inc. Contact: http://www2.canada.com/calgaryherald/letters.html Website: http://www.calgaryherald.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/66 Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/people/Lisa+Kirkman OREGON SHOULD BE ASHAMED OF CHILD ABDUCTION CASE Perhaps the State of Oregon thought it was acting in the best interests of a child, but it reads more like a case of judicial child abduction. In 2008, state authorities stopped the 10-year-old son of Calgarian Lisa Kirkman for riding his bike without a helmet. The boy was there to visit his stepfather, but Oregon officials did not consider Kirkman's husband of 10 years to be the boy's legal guardian, even though he had helped raise him. Kirkman is also a medical marijuana activist with a possession conviction, which she says raised flags with Oregon authorities. At worst, the boy should have been returned to authorities in Canada. Kirkman and Alberta child welfare were willing to resolve the issue here at home, according to her lawyers. Instead, Oregon put the boy into foster care and did not return him to his mother for two years, in June. Incredulously, Oregon is now suing Kirkman for foster care and medical expenses for her son, now 12. It seems as though Kirkman is the one who should be suing for compensation from Oregon. It also raises the issue of the Canadian government's inability or unwillingness to intervene on behalf of one of its citizens. "It is hard to imagine the United States meekly standing by were Canadian authorities to seize and hold for two years an innocent American child," Kirkman's lawyer, Daniel Mol, writes today on these pages. If that was the case, how sad if the Canadian government couldn't even stand up to a county judge in Oregon. - --- MAP posted-by: Richard Lake