VANCOUVER — The British Columbia foster parents of a Metis toddler have lost an emergency motion in the Supreme Court of Canada to keep the little girl until their appeal is settled.
The couple’s lawyer says the Children’s Ministry plans to fly her to Ontario today to live with non-aboriginal adoptive parents and her biological sisters, whom she has never met.
The Vancouver Island couple filed leave to appeal to the Supreme Court and sought an injunction to stop the ministry from moving the girl until their leave application is decided.
But Canada’s highest court ruled that the best interests of the child are paramount and favour the continuation of the ministry’s transition plan for the nearly three-year-old girl.
The ruling says the plan began on Sept. 15 and stopping the process would result in unnecessary hardship for the child.
It calls the motion a “heart-wrenching last attempt” by the foster parents to retain care of a child they love, but it does not meet the test for a stay of proceedings and must be dismissed with costs to the ministry.
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