Monday, February 5, 2007

A true victim of the system

I live in Prince George, BC. There is a lot of abuse of power and discrimination against people here. I have faced a lot of discrimination and steriotyping from MCFD because I grew up in the system and used drugs from age 13 to 18 when i was in a group home as a teenager. I quit using drugs and started seeing a drug and alcohol counsellour when I turned 19 and got out of ministry care. I became pregnant shortly after that and MCFD opened a file on me when they found out. I had to go on a supervision order for 18 months, even though it is only supposed to be one year, because the ministry assumed that I would take off and leave my baby and go do drugs because I always used to take off from my group home when I was a teenager. I had some pretty rediculous conditions on the order. My boyfiend that I had at the time ended up breaking up with me because he had to go to the neighbor's to have a beer after work because ther was no alcohol allowed in the house. Also, he didn't like to have people meddling and dictating over his life. After we broke up I ended up going to Quesnel and got engaged to and got pregnant from a guy who turned out to be really abusive. I left him when i was pregnant and move back to Prince George to have my second baby. When the Ministry found out that I had given birth they tricked me into opening up another file with them. They told me that it was a family services file to get free daycare when it was really a protection file. Then they refused to close it. Then they made me go to mental health because I was really depressed about the fact that MCFD would not close the file. Then they took my kids away and told me that I would not get them back unless I co-operated with the psychiatrist they made me see and took pills that made me feel really wierd. I continued taking the pills, but I kept getting screwed over more, especiallybecause the pills I was on made it impossible for me to keep a job because I was so out of it when i took them. Finally I got fed up with all the crap MCFD was pulling and reacted violently. I ended up getting an adult criminal record and spending 3 and a half moths in jail for punching out my social worker's team leader. I stopped taking the pills when I was in jail and am now in counselling for what MCFD has done to me. I am now pregnant again and with a good man who has a good job, but MCFD still has a file open on me and probably wants to try to take this baby. Fortunately I have some professional people on my side that are advocating for me but I am still living in fear. I have never hurt or neglected my children in any way, but MCFD is trying to say that this baby could be unsafe because I was violent to the social worker's team leader. I haven't seen my other children for almost a year and hope they are ok. Me and my boyfriend are stuck here in Prince George too because we don't have enough money to move. He thinks things will work out, but i'm not sure. This is like a terrible nightmare come true!