MOULDY LOGIC

Law Allowing Police to Seize Children Weakens Society

Police in Alberta now have the power to seize children as old as 17
from their parents if there are any illegal drugs in the house.

Just to clarify: The kids might not even know about the drugs. Even
the parents might not know the drugs are there. There might not even
be any drugs -- just "a chemical or other substance" used to
manufacture drugs. If any of these things are even in the house,
police can seize the children.

Without a trial.

Under the new "Drug-endangered Children Act," all a police officer has
to do is phone a judge and swear the child is "drug-endangered."

That doesn't mean the child uses drugs, or that the parents do, or
that there's any real danger at all. The government claims "research"
shows children are at "high risk" for health "damage" or "abuse."

So because of some abstract "research" about children in general, a
real child can be taken from its parents.

Of course, real drug abuse can be dangerous. And parents pressuring
their kids to use drugs is a danger. But that's not what this law
talks about -- it doesn't even mention drug abuse.

The government's website explains what "drug-endangered" means and why
children must be taken from their parents. I clicked on a link called:
"What are the dangers associated with marijuana grow-operations?"

This is literally what the government site says: "The surroundings in
which marijuana is grown needs to be warm and humid and this creates
an ideal environment for potentially dangerous mould and mould spores."

Mould? That is cause for seizing kids? That's what "drug-endangered"
means?

The site also worries about improper electrical wiring. This is a
police matter? This is why we make children wards of the state?

Section 2(9) even gives police the right to seize children without
going to a judge first if there is "imminent" danger of, say, mould
spores. And section 2(10) allows police to enter a private home
without a warrant to search for children.

Section 3(2) says when a child is seized, police don't have to give
written explanations to the parents -- they may "orally" tell the
parents why their kids were taken. And any distraught parent who dares
interfere with this baby-snatching is liable to two years in jail and
a $25,000 fine.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not in favour of drug dealers -- though anyone
walking through downtown Calgary would think the government is.

I just think we already have plenty of fines and jail time for illegal
activities -- punishing the criminal, not their kids. Seizing children
without a trial, who are not in any real danger, (other than from
mould) does not strengthen our society, it weakens it. It puts the
state ahead of the parent-child bond. It allows police to use children
as weapons in a battle against their parents. That isn't right.

This is a political stunt, not an act of law and order. It is a
circumscription of rule of law, a product of junk social science and
cruel and unusual punishment.

It is the nanny state, backed up with guns. What an embarrassment to a
government that claims to value families.