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Sarah
Gibb's feature | Previous Vopni stories | Sermonette:
The Crown keeps right on breaking the law | Justice Minister
Frank Quennell and Premier Lorne Calvert publicly place undue
influence on the court : Sermonette If
Frank Quennell is any example of what former Justice Minister
Chris Axworthy called "evolving," Saskatchewan is ready
to kiss justice good-bye! | Albert
Royer, Timmons, Ontario |
The Vopni family
Gibb
story nominated for national award
Lives ruined when officials
heed only children
Special to The StarPhoenix,
May 20, 2004
Editor's Note: The following
personal viewpoint was written by the parents featured in the
story Another Family Destroyed (SP March 27). They cannot be
identified because to do so would contravene a court order that
protects the identity of the children involved.
We, as a married couple, made
a choice to help needy people. We didn't go to a Third World
country. We opened our home and our lives to children who were
disadvantaged because of their birth mother drinking alcohol
while pregnant.
We adopted older children who
needed a home, children who might never had been adopted because
of their birth defects.
Even though Fetal Alcohol Spectrum
Disorder is 100-per-cent preventable, there are many, many children
being born today with this disorder.
We had biological children
before we adopted. As a family, we gave everything we could to
help the adopted children. We loved them as our own and there
was never a reference made about "who came from where."
We all lived with the results
of FASD -- learning inefficiencies, inability to project consequences,
trouble separating fact from fantasy, behavioural problems including
lying and stealing. Among all of this, we were still able to
be a very public family that participated often at many community
functions and activities.
In order to do our best in
providing for these children, we researched FASD. Our eldest
discovered a book about a family who used a therapy program that
helped. This led us to the Hope Centre which developed programs
that made it possible for even our most severely FASD child to
begin to learn and begin to overcome some of the most traumatic
behavioural problems.
The program took hours of daily
one-on-one therapy -- a parent working with each child individually.
The program helped the children develop in areas of memory retention,
speech, gross and fine motor ability and academics. We were also
able to give children with learning inefficiencies skills in
music, art and dance which gave each child a talent that provided
much-needed self-esteem. We always felt that there was hope for
these children.
We had spent years of our lives
loving, caring for and helping children who had a lot of problems.
It was not easy. Any family that has adopted FASD children would
know what we mean.
Older siblings were not resentful
of parents' time spent with younger siblings. We did not have
a lot of financial resources. We shared what we had and gave
of our love and time.
Then, one day, after authorities
spoke to two adopted daughters for about 45 minutes each, we
were told that they were apprehending four of our children and
charging three family members. We were (and still are) in shock.
We had no idea what happened
or what this was about. We did not know what to do. We really
felt that someone would talk to us and this would all be sorted
out.
This never happened. In fact,
we, and others are still wondering why no one ever listens to
parents, family friends and older siblings. Where is the "balance"
in all of this?
Our lives changed forever.
We were told that we are not allowed to know where our children
are or to see our children. Over the years, we have tried to
get a change to the order that separates our family. Everything
is denied and now we have been separated for almost three years.
Young people in our family
have had to live with criminal charges for years, have had to
cancel career and educational plans, have tried to hide from
it all, have tried moving away and running away.
Nothing helps, except our family's
faith in God and our knowledge that we did help children and
that they had a family, they were loved and were given a chance
at a productive life which, unfortunately, was taken away from
them.
Our older children continue
to be thoughtful, kind, caring individuals. Two of them have
worked as volunteers in Third World countries. One continues
to work with special needs children. They are trying to carry
on under circumstances that only others who have lived with FASD
children and have been falsely accused can ever understand.
Reporter Sarah Gibb is one
of the very few people who has taken the time to research our
family's life and story, talk to people who knew us well, and
talk to FASD professionals.
The public needs to realize
what can happen when:
- Children tell stories,
- People in roles of leadership
feel they must report to Social Services,
- No one takes the time or
cares to talk to the family, to others who know the family or
to professionals who work with FASD children.
Canada may be a great country
but changes need to made to some of our government agencies so
that it is safe for everyone.
© The StarPhoenix (Saskatoon) 2004
Update from the Vopni
family
Social Services and the Justice
System has broken this family in two - three children remain
in foster care after 1 year and 7 months and there seems to be
nothing that the Vopnis can do to change that. Vopnis have tried
everything. Social Services will not listen to parents or older
siblings.
A variety of criminal charges
were laid against 3 family members - Charges against one family
member were stayed - another family member had one charge stayed
and was found not guilty on the other charge and third family
member was found guilty. That case was appealed and Judge Gerry
Allbright there to be insufficiient evidence. The Crown has now
appealed Judge Albright's finding.
Www.canadesign.com states "What we are calling for
is accountability to an outside agency: Indiscriminate removal
of children must stop, as well as harrassment of parents who
have done no wrong. Wrongful removal is child abuse, and months
or years of costly court cases forcing parents into bankruptcy
is a national disgrace."
The Vopni family has followed
all court and social service orders including those that did
not allow them to see their children, and orders that prevented
Aaron from living with his father and brothers when he was returned
home after 5 weeks in foster care and at a cost of several thousand
dollars to his family.
Family members that have been
allowed to stay together are trying to pick up the pieces of
their lives: Derek after 1 1/2 years of difficulty finding a
job (including difficulties caused by a CPIC placed on his 'criminal'
record) has a position that he enjoys with Living Books. Rebecca
is continuing to teach music and is currently organising a new
venture - a summer music/dance camp in rural Saskatchewan (see
www.vopnimusic.com and
is assisting several senior students that would like to make
music a career.
Even though Rebecca and Derek
no longer have the 'backup' of an organised church (it was their
church that 'turned the family in' to Social Services) they are
looking for ways to work with youth and taking a small group
to YC2003, a large (15,000 young people) youth conference in
Alberta in May. Because of the location of their jobs, Derek
is now based in Saskatoon and Rebecca in Tisdale.
The family no longer has a
home as their home was sold to help pay for legal and other costs.
Alicia is continuing to teach music but is now once again planning
to complete her bachelor's degree and is also planning to complete
her dance teacher's credentials later this year. David has possibly
given up on working in the mission field but is now considering
taking mechanics training. Frederick, who went to work full time
at the age of 16, is trying to complete his high school while
working full time at a Seed Plant. He is also taking seed plant
operator training. Aaron, after being allowed to live with his
family, has excelled in many areas including in music, dance
and cadets and has received several awards including Saskatchewan
Junior Citizen of the Year 2002. Aaron is planning on completing
his dance teaching credentials later this year, is starting a
B.Mus. programme and may study law after completion of his bachelor's
degree.
They do not know how the children
that remain in foster care are doing but assume that there is
little hope of any type of future for them.
This family gave all their
time, love, and resources to help some special needs children
and have had to sell what they did own (home, land and cattle)
in order to pay for legal costs because of the allegations made
against them.
If this is how society feels
that families that are willing to help needy Canadian children
should be treated, then there will never be any help for children
born due to no fault of their own with FAS and other special
needs.
Vopni family
- pre 9/19, 2001
You may have seen them perform
-- at music or highland dance festivals, at athletic events --
the Vopnis are high achievers and they have overcome obstacles
to become the recipients of many awards both as a family and
as individuals. Mom, Dad, two biological and five adopted children
-- accomplished and energetic . . . All that changed September
19, 2001 when biological son Aaron and the three of his adopted
siblings were apprehended. It would take them months to find
out anything about what was going on. It had all begun with a
busy-body 14 year old girl who was at Team Canada camp with one
of the Vopnis. | Interview with Rebecca
Hankins-Vopni | Aaron Vopni named
Jr. Citizen of the year
Background
Derek Vopni and Rebecca Hankins
were married on August 16, 1975 at age 20. Soon Derek completed
a B.S.A. degree majoring in Agricultural Economics and Rebecca
completed A.T.C.L. (piano performance), B.A. (music) and L.T.C.L.
(piano pedagogy).
Alicia was born in 1980. Rebecca
stopped performing with the Saskatoon Symphony Orchestra and
quit her job at Yamaha Music and became a La Leche League leader
and taught music privately. Derek was employed by Federated Cooperatives
Limited.
They decided to adopt a special
needs child and David (age 2) joined the family in 1984. Aaron
was born in 1985. They then applied to adopt another child. Eventually
they received a call from Social Services and adopted Clara (age
2 1/2) in 1990. Clara had been diagnosed with fetal alcohol syndrome.
They believed that there is hope for all children and that all
children need a family.
Derek and Rebecca purchased
a small farm shortly after Clara's adoption. Several months later
they received a call from Social Services informing them that
Clara had two siblings: would the Vopni family like contact with
them? They decided that families need to be together and they
would, therefore, adopt these children. Then they learned there
were actually three siblings.
In 1991 they adopted Frederick
6, Aldina 4, and Ole age 2. These children all had the same alcoholic
birth mom. The adoptions were not finalized for over a year as
the Vopnis were home schooling, a practice of which social services
did not approve. The Department of Education - Director for Private
Schools, Rebecca's cousin - a lawyer, and the Adoptive Parents
Association all worked with the Vopnis to get the adoptions finalized.
Derek was no longer working
full time - he did some farming but was primarily a full time
dad taking occasional short term positions when Rebecca wasn't
teaching music. She worked part time as a private music teacher
which allowed her to schedule her teaching around their family's
schedule.
Family dedicated
to academic, music and sports education
By this time Alicia, David
and Aaron had been home educated for some time and were doing
well. The children were registered with Clonlara School (Michigan)
and with the Tiger Lily School Division. The family designed
programs for each child based on their abilities and interests.
They believed in doing things as a family. They did unit studies
together on topics of interest to the children.
The children were learning
from each other and learning to help each other (older helping
the younger). They were learning by example. Each child's learning
programmes were adapted to each child's learning abilities and
learning style. For example, Clara learned best by repetition
so they repeated everything several times a day and also made
tapes for her to listen to - some of the children were kinesthetic
learners - some oral - some visual learners.
They also took part in activities
at the skating rinks in Tisdale, Melfort and Star City - skating
lessons, hockey, etc. The older children took swimming lessons
with Aaron, Frederick and Aldina completing Bronze Medallion.
They enjoyed swimming, hiking, camping, skiing, picnics, etc.
together. The children all participated in animal care, gardening,
meal preparation, preserving food, etc. Frederick wanted to see
mountains so they found a family camp in the Rockies and went
to the mountains. They took the children to museums, fairs, etc.
The older children were already
studying music and the younger adopted children all wanted to
play instruments also. Rebecca taught all of the children to
play the instruments of their choice. For children with FAS this
was very time consuming and took a lot of patience. All of the
children were very pleased with their accomplishments.
- Alicia plays flute, piano,
recorder, sang and played guitar.
- David played violin and fiddle,
piano, percussion and guitar.
- Frederick played violin and
fiddle, clarinet and bass guitar.
- Aaron plays trumpet, sang,
played piano, guitar and fiddle.
- Aldina played flute, piano
and sang.
- Clara played violin and fiddle
and sang.
- Ole played violin and fiddle
and sang.
Alicia was studying dance and
the other children soon wanted to dance also so soon they had:
- Alicia - ballet and Highland
Dance.
- Aaron and Frederick - tap
- Aaron - Highland Dance - he
became a Saskatchewan Premier Highland Dancer.
- Aldina - ballet and Highland
Dance - she also became a Saskatchewan Premier Highland Dancer
and represented Saskatchewan in National Competition in 2000.
- Ole - Highland Dance
Winning
competitions
Soon the Vopni family was attending
dance competitions in Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba and
the children were winning medals.
By the time Ole was four years
old the entire family was performing together at local events,
churches and soon not only in Melfort, Tisdale, Nipawin and Naicam
but in Saskatoon, Kindersley, Watrous, etc. They received several
awards for their family performances. They combined Christian
music - Classical - folk - fiddle and dance and all their instruments,
voices and piano with Alicia and Rebecca doing most of the arranging.
When they found that some of
the children had learning difficulties they searched every where
for help for them. They read and attended everything that they
could find regarding FAS and learning difficulties. The programmes
that helped the children to overcome their difficulties the most
were NACD (discovered by Alicia in her reading) and the Hope
Centre (discovered through an article in the Melfort Journal).
When she was 7 years old they
enrolled Clara, who had the most problems, in the program and
then spent 3 hours/day 7 days a week working on her individualized
program while also continuing with everyone's home education,
household and farming duties, gardening and music. They saw an
immediate change in Clara - her behaviour and sleep problems
all improved and she was able to learn even though it took a
lot of time and patience. Progress was slow but there was progress.
They paid for this program
themselves, not receiving any subsidies or grants. They paid
for everything for the children including dental care, educational
materials, special diets (two of the children had allergies),
trips to Saskatoon for dance lessons (twice a week for Aldina
when she was representing Saskatchewan), etc.
Soon they enrolled Aldina and
Ole and were doing three programs (approx. 3 hours each) 6 days
a week. They were very busy but saw such progress in the children.
The children had come to them with many behaviour problems that
they were slowly overcoming. There was a lot of hope for each
child's future.
To their credit each of the
children earned awards in something - even those children that
had great difficulty learning - for example: one of the awards
for each child was:
- Alicia -Best performance -
Melfort Music Festival (Wind instruments)
- David - highest level attainable
for down hill skiing in Sask.
- Frederick - Most Valuable
Player - Hockey
- Aaron - Saskatchewan Junior
Citizen of the Year 2002
- Aldina - Best over all premier
Dancer - Trophy - Saskatoon - 2000
- Clara - First place Novice
Fiddle Competition - Nipawin - age 8
- Ole - Best over all dance
- 10 and under - Saskatoon Dance Competition
Alicia started university studies
at 16. David was employed at age 16. He completed Grade 12 and
then studied missions. He did short term mission work in Mexico,
Barbados, England and Israel. Frederick was enjoying working
with animals, horse riding, hockey, swimming and skiing. Aaron
was enjoying hockey, history, and air cadets. All the boys enjoyed
building forts and rafts. Aldina particularly enjoyed swimming,
dance and doing mom's hair. Clara enjoyed beading and the family
pets. Ole enjoyed activities with with his older brothers particularly
Aaron.
Fetal
Alcohol Syndrome
As a family, they had worked
through many problems caused by FAS, years in foster care, medical
and behaviour problems. They were unsure whether Clara would
ever be able to live on her own but she would always have a family
and a home with them; they felt that Aldina with help could probably
have a job and contribute to society. David, who had medical
problems at age 2, had been a healthy young man for years. Alicia,
A.T.C.L., was planning on furthering her music studies and had
been teaching music privately for several years. Aaron was thinking
of a career in law. Frederick had an interest in missions and
was enjoying his job as a carpenter's assistant. They felt that
Ole would be able to contribute to society in some way. They
had wanted to give children that may not have had much hope for
a future a future and it seemed like the children would all have
a future.
Then came
Sept. 19, 2001.
Two male RCMP officers accompanied
by Social Services worker Susan Pasieka arrived at the Vopni
home and took Rebecca into the police station for questioning.
RCMP Constable Bonnie Campbell and Pasieka informed her that
they were taking the kids because Derek and Rebecca physically,
emotionally and sexually abused the children.
They told Rebecca that they
had statements from the girls and a statement from Derek (this
was later shown to be a lie -- Derek Vopni has not ever given
a statement or testified in court . A judge later would quote
him as saying that the girls had told him about the sexual activity
and that he had told the girls that this was wrong) and that
there would be charges laid. They told Rebecca that the girls
were being seen by a doctor on Sept. 19, also a lie -- or, as
they say, a "ruse."
Alicia did not complete her
Bachelor's degree. David could not go back to Mexico. Frederick
went to work full time until he suffered a car accident in which
his neck was broken in three places left him in bed for a time.
Aaron was in a foster home
and was not allowed to try out for the hockey team, take referee
training, attend music lesson and rehearsals or championship
dance class or see his family.
The three younger children
were in foster care - their neuroeducational programmes from
the Hope Centre were discontinued as was everything else that
the family had arranged for them - music, dance, special diets,
Sunday School. The family still has not seen these children since
Sept. 19, 2001!
Authorities
deaf to appeals to reason
Social services made no effort
to get correct information directly from the Vopni family. Efforts
to to meet with them were sabotaged. Eventually, a meeting was
arranged and held in Prince Albert during February, 2002. Although
agreements were made, Social Services did not keep fulfil them.
Over 80 people sent letters
of reference regarding the family and many stated that the allegations
could not possibly be true. Over 300 people signed a petition
supporting the Vopnis. Several lawyers they contacted told them
YOU CANNOT FIGHT SOCIAL SERVICES. They have also contacted the
office of the Children's Advocate, which specifically deals with
issues arising from government services to children. They have
not been helpful.
Children's
Advocate
At that time they were in receipt
of a letter, printed and signed by Ole Vopni which reads: "I miss my family
a lot and would like to go home. I don't want to go to a  different foster
home in the summer. I wish could see my Mom and Dad again. I
can see Aaron not to often. I'd like us all to be a family again." Ole Vopni
The person who helped Ole write
this letter tried to encourage the Child Advocate to look into
this matter; the advocate's office said that this doesn't warrant
investigation unless Ole phones them directly. Ole Vopni was
12 years old then; he has FAS and a functioning IQ of 70. It
is unlikely he will be able to make this phone call.
The Mandate of the Children's
Advocate Office is to review issues raised concerning a child
or youth receiving direct government services. In a letter dated
May 9/02 they add a new idea to this by saying, ..."it is
our practice to take direction for a child or youth if they are
able to articulate their issues related to service they are receiving."
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Truth can never be
told so as to be understood, and not be believ'd. William Blake, The Proverbs of Hell