Oh my goodness, Murphy family, I came across your thread (it was highlighted briefly on the BE Home page) and how your hearts are breaking. I can sense how frustrated you are with the Canadian authorities and how every time the phone rings your hearts probably skip a few beats in case it is bad news regarding the welfare of your daughter.

I was reading an online article in the New York Times last weekend. It was about a couple whom had adopted a little boy from Russia and they eventually discovered that he has 'FAS' - with the associated behavioural problems such as violent rages. The mother was desperately trying to find a way to care for her son - he'd been on 20 different medications and none of them had worked. Then she heard about a charity which provides 'service dogs' - and a dog called 'Chancer' (the 'Wonder Dog') came into their lives:

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/05/ma...ewanted=1&_r=1

http://www.nofas.org/living/spotlight.aspx (especially note the last two paragraphs)

Now I have no idea if your daughter loves dogs.....but I wonder if there is an outside chance that a service/therapy dog could help her in some way? Not only to calm her down, but possibly be trained to be a kind of guard dog in some way, to protect her from the undesirable people she is hanging out with? For example, if the dog can smell certain chemicals/drugs or alcohol in a room or on other people, then it would steer your daughter away from the situation or growl menacingly at these undesirables? I have no idea if this is even do-able, but the NYT article made me realise that service/therapy dogs don't just assist with physical impairments. It may be worth investigating some of the charities which provide these dogs to see if your daughter may benefit from such a dog. (It's interesting that some prisoners train them too, whilst incarcerated).

I hope I haven't been untoward in writing this post, I can imagine you are tearing your hair out trying to save your daughter and clutching at straws. I wish your family all the very best and send you some (((((hugs))))).

Well i didn't think it could get much worse, but apparently it can. Because of some cock up with our LMO, our visa's have not been renewed.
Apparently when our daughter went for Medical treatment, because of the assault by this 21 year old boyfriend of hers, the hospital wouldn't treat her because her Alberta Health Card wasn't valid.(Because of the Visa's i assume).
So now we can't work either. It's going to take 25 days ,after we receive our new passports that is(and send them off) before we have our visa's reinstated.
Thoughts of just giving up are creeping in now. This is just so impossible.

My heart really does bleed for you with all you are continuing to face. Please don't give up x

Sounds shit and i hope you find some resolution.

I mentioned it before but pulling your daughters residency would certainly get her out of her current situation i'd have thought. Having witnessed this type of situation first hand whereby the "victim" left the country in similar circumstances, the end result was much much better for all involved.

Exiling your daughter is an excellent option.

Unfortunately sending her back is out of our hands. She is still with this couple whom child services have seen fit to leave her with.
What was a temp situation supposedly has now gone to her classing our daughter as a family member now.
Who does that. Who takes someone they don't know who is not a family member or a family friend or any kind of relative at all into their home and then decides they are now the new Mum & Dad.
The only connection to our daughter was this prostitute girl who they took in @ some point in the past.This is the same girl who taught our daughter to withdraw money from the ATM machine by putting empty deposit envelopes into the machine and making withdrawls against it.
This prostitute girl has now been kicked out from this womans house for committing another crime against Money Mart.
So we are the legal gaurdians yet Child Services are running around this couple as if they were our daughters parents.
I have said to not only Child Services and this woman that if our daughter is not under our roof,we will not be applying for permanent residency for her.
I have told them that our solicitor has advised us that permanent residency under a humanitarian application takes over 3 years and this woman is it seems, considering it.Who the hell does that.
Does this not seem weird to anyone else?
The woman from Child Services asked for the solicitors no who is trying to sort out our visa's etc,the solicitor that our employer is paying for i hasten to add,so they that they can ask them questions if they need to.
The cheeky bitch.

It certainly seems crazy, and totally surreal.

I wonder, though, what 'stories' your daughter has told this woman and whether she sees it as rescuing her from the streets and perhaps an unhappy home life. Who knows what she has been told!

Perhaps if she is taking on parental responsibility she can pay for your daughters health care premiums too. On that note, I wonder if your daughter is not attending school if that could be why her card was refused at the hospital?

Can you legally not include your daughter on your PR application particularly as she is resident in Canada? Is she still classified as your legal dependent, regardless of her present living arrangements?

Worrying times - what a mess. I hope that things improve soon.

What happened at the Court on Friday?

Apparently not much happened in Court. A curfew i think. Child Services hasn't had the decency to inform me of the outcome.

On a different note, i have been invited to a press conference with Dr David Swann tomorrow with the TV news crews.
Lets see where it takes us.

Why was guardianship removed from you and given to Child Services?

We are still the guardians of our daughter.

So why were you not in Court and how do Child Services have standing to be in Court?

Our daughter has signed some thing called an enhancement agreement with Child Services.

http://www.globaltvedmonton.com/vide...arlynews/video

We are about 5 mins in

http://www.qp.alberta.ca/documents/Acts/c12.pdf section 57:2

I am suprised the Director of Child Services thinks your daughter's "survival, security and development will be adequately protected" whilst she lives independently of her parents.

It is only good for 6 months from what I read.

Exactly. Child Services, it would appear, believe the child is better off living independently of her parents. There is more to this than meets the eye. I say this as a family lawyer practising in Alberta that deals with child welfare cases all the time.

The issue is: the Director can only become involved if the child is in need of intervention. What constitutes a need of intervention is set out in s. 1(2), none of which paint the OP in a very good light.