JEFFREY: Jailed mother prepared to die

VandeNelsen launches hunger strike to protest loss of baby
by Davene Jeffrey
The Halifax Herald Limited
Saturday, May 21, 2005

Carline VandeNelsen says she's ready to die to change the system.

"I am launching a Starving for the Children campaign," she said in a news release Friday.

The 42-year-old was convicted earlier this month of abduction in contravention of a child custody order, obstruction and a series of weapons-related offences.

She is in custody at the Central Nova Scotia Correctional Facility in Dartmouth and awaiting sentencing late next month.

She and her husband, Larry Finck, 51, held police at bay for three days a year ago after they barricaded themselves inside Mr. Finck's mother's home at 6161 Shirley St. in Halifax.

The standoff ended when the couple emerged carrying the body of Mr. Finck's mother, Mona, on a stretcher. She had died of natural causes during the standoff.

Ms. VandeNelsen carried their baby strapped to her chest.

Today marks the first anniversary of the end of the armed siege, the day Mrs. Finck died and the day the couple lost custody of their baby.

Today is also the day Ms. VandeNelsen vows to stop eating.

"We're very concerned for her," says supporter Marilyn Dey.

Jail officials have refused media access to Ms. VandeNelsen for fear she will continue the hunger strike.

As of Friday afternoon, prison superintendent Sean Kelly had not received notice from his staff that Ms. VandeNelsen is refusing to eat.

Word of the intended hunger strike was announced through supporters.

A letter released on Ms. VandeNelsen's behalf says she will not eat "until Premier John Hamm and Justice Minister Michael Baker agree to investigate the actions of police and child welfare authorities and the disappearance of her baby."

Ms. VandeNelsen writes: "I do not anticipate my survival. However, I see (no) alternative."

Mr. Baker issued a news release late Friday afternoon saying that unless new information becomes available, he has no plans to order an inquiry into the Halifax standoff.

He said the government will do what it can to "make sure that Ms. VandeNelsen's health is not jeopardized by her actions."

If she stops eating, Mr. Kelly said, his correctional staff will do whatever they can to keep her healthy. The jail has dealt with other hunger strikes in the past, the superintendent said.

It is the jail's policy to call a hunger strike "decreased nutritional intake."

"We've had a number of different scenarios over the years," said the superintendent, who estimates that on average, one inmate per year launches a hunger strike.

Prisoners have devised varying food or liquid intake plans, but most have been short-lived, he said.

Some don't make it past the first skipped meal, he said.

None of the hunger strikers at the facility has ever gone to the point of being in physical danger, he said.

When a hunger strike is launched, prison staff monitor the inmate's health and offer nutritional supplements and counselling, Mr. Kelly said.

In Ms. VandeNelsen's release, she spells out her troubled past with children's aid organizations and family law courts in Ontario and Halifax.

In 2000 she fled with her triplets, then age seven, before a court appearance she feared would cut off access to her children, who now live in Ontario with their father.

Ms. VandeNelsen is scheduled to be in court in Ontario this fall to face a retrial for allegedly abducting those children and fleeing with them to Mexico.

More than a year ago, Ms. VandeNelsen left Halifax after a family court judge granted temporary custody of her newborn to the Halifax Children's Aid Society. When officials were notified that Ms. VandeNelsen had returned to the city with the baby, police went to Mrs. Finck's home to apprehend the infant, sparking the standoff.

The pair were convicted by a 12-member jury after almost 10 weeks of trial and two days of deliberations.

Ms. VandeNelsen and her husband were both convicted of abducting a baby in contravention of a child custody order, obstructing police, possessing an unregistered shotgun and possessing a shotgun dangerous to the public peace.

Ms. VandeNelsen was also convicted of using a shotgun while committing an indictable offence, threatening to use a shotgun in committing an assault on police and careless use of a shotgun.

By DAVENE JEFFREY / Staff Reporter