Access to kids being denied, Winnipeg 'white pride' mother claims

CBC News - Canada February 20, 2009


A Winnipeg mother whose children were seized after one of them went to school with a swastika drawn on her arm says child welfare officials have revoked her visitation rights.

“It's completely destroyed me. I’ve got nothing,” said the woman, who can’t be identified to protect her children. "The only thing holding me steady is the thought that I might get my kids back."

Until recently, she and her former partner had supervised visits with the children. But she said that those visits have since been removed.

"It makes me so angry to think that a government official has the right to say when and where we can see the kids and if we can see them," she said.

She does admit the whole process has strengthened her political beliefs.

"They've made me more dedicated, more aware of the political oppression that we suffer in the country just trying to fight for freedom of speech for anyone."

The children were seized by social workers last March after the woman's then seven-year-old daughter went to school two days in a row with a swastika drawn on her arm. Days before, she and her partner had attended a White Pride rally in Calgary, organized by a group called the Aryan Guard.

The woman says she is not a white supremacist or neo-Nazi but instead a white nationalist — someone proud of her European heritage.

The Aryan Guard is planning another rally in Calgary next month. The mother said she will take the opportunity to raise money for her legal defence.

Helmut-Harry Loewen, who teaches sociology at the University of Winnipeg and is an anti-racism activist, said the organization of these various groups is in a bit of a tatters and they need this kind of case to mobilize.

"Clearly, leaders of the movement have identified her as potentially useful for their ultimate aims and she’s playing along with it,” he said.

But the mother rejected that idea.

“It’s not about sacrificing my kids, it’s about fighting for what’s right and what’s right is my freedom as a mother to be a mother. They’re making it more about politics than I am. They’re trying to make examples, not only of me, but they’re trying to make examples of my kids and I don’t appreciate that.”

Child welfare officials can't comment on the case under provincial law. But their lawyers want a ban on media coverage of the upcoming custody hearing.

In court documents, they say all this attention is harming the children.

The CBC and other media outlets are fighting the ban application.

This article was found at:

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2009/02/20/mother-swastika.html