People in Edmonton were shocked over the weekend to hear about a 3-year-old boy who was beaten and subsequently died in hospital. While this in itself is a tragic tale, adding to the distress is the fact that this boy was allegedly beaten by his foster mother. She has been charged with 2nd-degree murder. It has not been reported how this young child ended up in foster care.
For our clients with young families, designating a guardian for their minor children is usually the reason why they come to see us in the first place. Since the new Family Law Act came into effect in 2005, testamentary guardianship appointments are valid without having to first obtain a guardianship order from the court, so long as the appointed guardian acts as guardian, either expressly or impliedly. This provides a signficant degree of comfort to parents, who (assuming that they have chosen their guardian well) can rest knowing that their children will not be further traumatized by a custody dispute. As a bit of a qualifier, parents can only give the guardianship rights that they have, so if they are currently subject to a parenting order the appointed guardian will only inherit those rights that the deceased parent had in the parenting order.
So how does this relate to foster care? Well if a parent dies without appointing a testamentary guardian, their children may be subject to a custody dispute between warring family members, or even close family friends. A biological parent without custody may come back to assert his or her parental rights if the custodial parent dies without addressing guardianship in a will. In cases where children are subject to such disputes and where a known, neutral third-party cannot be found, those children may well be placed in foster care until the dispute is settled. How many parents would choose that scenario for their children?
I would like to end this post by saying that while this particular foster parent proved to be a worst-case scenario, most foster parents should be applauded for the work that they do. It's a tough job and it's not for everyone, but we need more people to do it.
