Story Archive

If You Keep Making That Face, It’ll Freeze That Way

When Derek and Frances Baars became foster parents, they told the Children’s Aid Society of Hamilton, Ont., Canada, that they wouldn’t lie to foster children in their care — about anything. The CAS agreed with that — until they barred the couple from ever being foster parents, and took two children away from them, because they failed in their “duty” to tell the girls, aged 3 and 4, that the Easter Bunny was real. Their hopes for adoption crushed, the Baars sued. The CAS testified that it expected its staff and foster parents put their “personal beliefs and values aside,” but Ontario Superior Court Justice Andrew Goodman ruled such a requirement “interfered substantially” with the couple’s “freedoms of conscience, religion and expression.” Vindicated, the couple says they will now pursue adoption again. CAS Executive Director Dominic Verticchio “apologised to the couple through the newspaper,” CTV noted. (RC/CTV, National Post) ...Because not apologizing in person is a better example to children than honesty is.