BORDEN COLLEY: Standoff couple loses baby

Judge denies VandenElsen, Finck access to child
By SHERRI BORDEN COLLEY / Court Reporter
The Halifax Herald Limited
Friday, June 24, 2005

The baby at the centre of a police standoff a year ago last month has permanently been taken away from the parents - Carline VandenElsen and Larry Finck.

On Wednesday, Associate Chief Justice Deborah Smith of the family division of Nova Scotia Supreme Court placed the couple's infant in the permanent care and custody of the Children's Aid Society of Halifax - with no access for either parent.

A written copy of the ruling was made public Thursday.

"I am satisfied that (the baby) continues to be a child in need of protective services," Justice Smith wrote in a 48-page decision.

"Serious mental health concerns have been raised throughout this proceeding about both of (the child's) parents."

Ms. VandenElsen and Mr. Finck, who are in jail pending their sentencing next week on convictions stemming from the standoff, were not permitted to speak to the media Thursday.

"The issue is in relation to not feeling it's in their best interests at the time to speak to the media and the fact that they still have outstanding matters before the courts," said Sean Kelly, superintendent of the Central Nova Scotia Correctional Facility in Dartmouth.

Marilyn Dey, a friend who visited Ms. VandenElsen in jail on Thursday afternoon, said Ms. VandenElsen found the ruling too upsetting to even read it.

"If this report is anything like the previous orders and renderings of Justice Smith, it is libellous and slanderous and shows a grave conflict of interest," Ms. Dey read from a four-page statement Ms. VandenElsen wrote.

Ms. Dey said her "emotionally strong" friend expected the decision to go against her.

"She's known that right from the time (the baby) was a fetus, when they (Children's Aid) were after it," Ms. Dey said.

"I mean, this is the written word but she has known that this was going to come. I mean, she is devastated. There's no question about it."

In January 2004, the month after the child's birth, Children's Aid asked the court to find that the child was in need of protection.

At the initial hearing, the society requested a supervision order that would have allowed the child to be left in the care and custody of the parents but would have permitted social workers to periodically visit the family home to make sure the child was being properly cared for.

The society also requested that both parents undergo a psychiatric and psychological assessment, which the court subsequently ordered.

Ms. VandenElsen and Mr. Finck have never complied with that order.

Evidence from the interim hearing, particularly that given by the doctor who delivered the baby, indicated that the child appeared to be well-cared-for by the parents.

But other evidence raised serious concerns about the mental health of both Ms. VandenElsen and Mr. Finck.

Both have been charged in the past with child abduction.

In November 2003, Mr. Finck and Ms. VandenElsen, well along in her pregnancy, moved to Nova Scotia from Ontario because they knew Children's Aid officials in Ontario wanted to seize the baby soon after birth.

On Dec. 19, 2003, the Huron-Perth Children's Aid Society in Stratford, Ont., issued a Canada-wide child protection alert telling authorities that Ms. VandenElsen's access to her triplets from a previous marriage had recently been terminated.

The alert also noted Ms. VandenElsen's pending trial for the alleged abduction of those three children and that Mr. Finck was on probation for abducting his older daughter and bringing her to Nova Scotia. It also said he had refused a psychological assessment.

The supervisor who wrote the alert recommended a warrant be issued to apprehend the couple's baby, who was born just days later.

Based on information received from its Ontario counterpart, the Children's Aid Society of Halifax became involved with the family in December 2003, the month the baby was born.

The standoff began in the early hours of May 19, 2004, when police tried to enforce Justice Smith's court order from Jan. 15, 2004, mandating that the baby be placed in the temporary care of the Children's Aid Society of Halifax. That order was upheld in subsequent reviews.

Last summer, in Mr. Finck's criminal case, a psychiatrist at the East Coast Forensic Hospital in Dartmouth found that he suffers from chronic delusions of persecution and has serious psychotic illness along with a personality disorder.

While Justice Smith had no expert opinion evidence concerning Ms. VandenElsen's mental state, she had no hesitation in finding there are "serious and legitimate concerns about her mental health."

Ms. VandenElsen presents herself in court as an intelligent individual but "her conduct is often grossly inappropriate, aggressive, antagonistic and sometimes bizarre," the judge said in Thursday's ruling.

"There have been a number of occasions during the course of these proceedings when she has either been unwilling or unable to control her behaviour."

Ms. VandenElsen and Mr. Finck dispute any suggestion that they suffer from mental illness and claim they are being persecuted because of their strongly held belief that the family justice system is corrupt.

They also believe that the court violated their charter rights by ordering them to participate in a psychiatric and psychological assessment.

Ms. VandenElsen also alleges that government agents "systematically kidnapped" her baby.

Justice Smith said Ms. VandenElsen's involvement in the child's disappearance from Halifax on Jan. 15, 2004, and the couple's role in the armed standoff in May 2004 put the child "at substantial risk of physical and emotional harm."

Since the standoff ended on May 21, 2004, the couple have done little to deal with the issues that put the child in temporary care, the judge said.

"They refuse or are incapable of recognizing or dealing with the mental health issues that have been raised throughout this proceeding - opting instead to charge ahead in what appears to be a relentless pursuit of fighting 'the system.'

"They appear to be consumed with their perception of a corrupt family justice system and seem incapable of recognizing their role in (the baby) being placed in care."

The judge concluded that the parents are unable to focus on or act in the best interests of their child and that the child would be at substantial risk of physical and emotional harm if returned to their care.

The custody decision comes on the heels of the couple's criminal trial stemming from the standoff.

On May 12, Ms. VandenElsen and Mr. Finck were convicted of obstruction, contravening a child custody order and weapons offences during the standoff. Their sentencing hearing begins Tuesday.

Ms. VandenElsen, who is demanding a public inquiry, began a hunger strike in jail on May 21.

She is also awaiting a new trial in Ontario on charges of abducting her triplets after an acquittal was thrown out in 2003.

Mr. Finck was convicted in 2000 and served prison time for abducting his daughter, then four, from an Ontario reserve in 1999.

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