OREGON SHOULD BE ASHAMED OF CHILD ABDUCTION CASE

Perhaps the State of Oregon thought it was acting in the best
interests of a child, but it reads more like a case of judicial child
abduction. In 2008, state authorities stopped the 10-year-old son of
Calgarian Lisa Kirkman for riding his bike without a helmet. The boy
was there to visit his stepfather, but Oregon officials did not
consider Kirkman's husband of 10 years to be the boy's legal guardian,
even though he had helped raise him. Kirkman is also a medical
marijuana activist with a possession conviction, which she says raised
flags with Oregon authorities.

At worst, the boy should have been returned to authorities in Canada.
Kirkman and Alberta child welfare were willing to resolve the issue
here at home, according to her lawyers. Instead, Oregon put the boy
into foster care and did not return him to his mother for two years,
in June. Incredulously, Oregon is now suing Kirkman for foster care
and medical expenses for her son, now 12.

It seems as though Kirkman is the one who should be suing for
compensation from Oregon. It also raises the issue of the Canadian
government's inability or unwillingness to intervene on behalf of one
of its citizens.

"It is hard to imagine the United States meekly standing by were
Canadian authorities to seize and hold for two years an innocent
American child," Kirkman's lawyer, Daniel Mol, writes today on these
pages.

If that was the case, how sad if the Canadian government couldn't even
stand up to a county judge in Oregon.