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Oslo,
25 November / 4 December / 18 December 2015
The five children of a Romanian-Norwegian family
taken by Barnevernet (the child protection services,
CPS) in Norway
By Marianne Haslev Skånland
The family Bodnariu lives in Naustdal on the west coast of Norway, north of Bergen. There are many websites describing the case in Romanian. Since the children appear to have been taken on grounds of religious raising (the CPS call it "religious indoctrination"), Christian websites are awake to the case.
Here is a description of the happenings:
Marius & Ruth Bodnariu, a Christian family persecuted in Norway! (The English version)
Popas pentru suflet, Christian Ionescu, 19 November 2015
"I am writing in support of my brother, Bodnariu Marian Constantin (Marius), a Romanian citizen, his wife Ruth Johanne Bodnariu, a Norwegian citizen, and their 5 children (Eliana, Naomi Matthew, John and baby Ezekiel who is only three months old) with joint citizenship in Romania and Norway."
"This past Monday, November 16th, Child Welfare Services (Barnevernet) “kidnapped” the two oldest children (Eliana and Naomi) from school without the knowledge of their parents. Barnevarnet, accompanied by police, then came to the Bodnariu home and forcibly took custody of the two older boys (Matthew and John); leaving a devastated Ruth at home with only three month old Ezekiel while Marius was at work. Marius promptly came home from work to understand what was taking place and, together with Ruth, visited the police station and Barnevernet to resolve the situation. Because Ruth was crying and devastated by the events, Barnevernet and four policemen showed up at their family home on Tuesday, November 17, without any court order or documentation, and also took 3 month old Ezekiel on the stated grounds that the mother posed a danger to her child."
The article goes on to describe with some insight the general activities of Barnevernet (although the writer does not seem informed about similar actions in the other countries of the Western world nor quite of the very many ethnic Norwegian families affected, although it is quite right that foreigners are over-represented):
"What happens in Norway via the Barneverent, under the guise of “child welfare,” is outrageous and unfathomable! Children are considered property of the state; a premise utilized by the Barnevernet to abduct children and place them in foster family care for any unchecked/unregulated/unaudited reason as upheld by the Barnevernet. A quick search on the internet will yield results highlighting hundreds of cases of abuse and testimonies from affected families. The Barnevernet has a history of prevalently focusing their efforts on immigrant families or on families in which one of the parents is of a different nationality (as in my brother’s case, Romanian)."
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Norway Return the children to Bodinaru Family
Blog on facebook, November 2015 –
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Norvegia: cinci copii de origine română preluați de Protecția Copilului, de la o familie din zona Bergen
Jurnal de Nord, Publicatie Romaneasca din Norvegia, 20 November 2015
This publication has a page in English and one in Norwegian too, but this article has not (yet) been translated.
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Sustinem Familia Bodnariu Marius si Ruth si cei cinci copii ai lor – alaturati-va acestei familii
agnus dei, english + romanian blog, 19 November 2015
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There is a petition out which can be signed:
"The Bodnariu family! Their children were taken away on charges of Christian indoctrination"
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4 December 2015
On 21 November, a few days after the blog on facebook was opened, there was a new posting on the blog which should be read, and which I feel should be commented on:
Comprehensive update, Sat 11/21 (English version)
It contains several things which must in my view be judged as negative.
"- Initially, we reported that Ruth was left at home with baby Ezekiel. It turns out that Ruth was not left home with the baby; she was arrested and taken to the police station at the same time that the two older boys were taken by the Barnevernet.
… It turns out that Marius was also arrested, at work, and taken to the police for interrogation. Communications with Marius and Ruth were then impossible as the police confiscated their phones.
Monday, Nov. 16th …. After many hours of interrogation, Marius and Ruth were allowed to return home with baby Ezekiel."
So the parents were immediately taken by the police, apparently arrested (apparently, because asking them to go to the police station need not be a formal arrest. The fact that the children are taken could very well be enough to make them comply.) Certainly the treatment of them by the police seems to have been quite harsh. This kind of procedure means the CPS will fight to the bitter end never to let the children out of their clutches.
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"- Tuesday, Nov 17th, Barnevernet, accompanied by four policemen, came to the Family home and took 3 month old baby Ezekiel because they considered that the mother was “dangerous.” At the same time, Ruth was told that their four children were placed in two separate foster homes, have already integrated, and that the children don’t miss them."
Claiming that the children had, after being taken from their parents in that way, "integrated" i foster homes only one day later, shows "attachment theory" in practice. It is by far the most dangerous device of the CPS at the present time and has been heavily sanctioned by state directed policy, rubber-stamped by the Raundalen committee, and is practically never questioned.
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"The lawyer highlighted that the Barnevernet should have been presented parents with written legal accusations at the time of the arrest and that it was the baby’s right to remain with the mother while being breastfed."
This lawyer apparently either totally trusts the CPS to act in children's "best interest", or is completely ignorant of actual practice: Children are all the time torn away from breast-feeding and even before, they are even taken by the CPS in the hospital minutes after being born. In fact, the prevalent idea is that children should be taken as early as possible, to prevent them from "attaching" to the parents.
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"After meeting with their lawyer, Marius was able to look at the docket clarifying the legal accusations filed against them. Among other things, there was the accusation that the parents and grandparents are radical Christians and are indoctrinating the children. The Barnevernet abused their power, broke Norwegian laws, already harshly stacked against parents, and violated the due course of the law as established in that country."
The reference to Norwegian law seems to have come from the family's lawyer. Again, it is alarming if the lawyer thinks that the CPS having broken the law means that the Bodnariu family will easily win through and be re-united. Some thousands of families in Norway have experienced such breaches of the law. They believe that when this is shown in the County Committee or in court, they will emerge triumphant. Great is their confusion and disbelief when no account is taken of it. In fact, in most cases the law does not permit a lot of the things the CPS do, but they are allowed to do it all the same.
When a lawyer argues as if the legal field of child protection is as the words of the law prescribe, the lawyer is ignorant, or speaks against better knowledge. Either way the result is the same: It gives the CPS the upper hand.
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"Legal counsel has advised Marius and Ruth to refrain from disseminating further in-depth details of the case, as customary in any legal proceedings, to avoid stalling and/or negatively impacting their Family’s case."
This is quite revealing about the lawyer. Both the CPS, the courts and also the private parties' lawyers tend to buy this propaganda about silence benefitting the family's case. In reality, the family is then utterly dependent on the lawyer. The lawyer should know that nearly all child protection cases are won by the CPS regardless of what anyone – family and lawyer – does, and not pretend otherwise. In fact, if the family shuts up, the CPS and the whole bureaucracy have even greater power. One is then practically in a secret court case, very much as in Kafka. – This has been going on for several decades, in the hands of the lawyers and the judges. Why should they be trusted? What have they accomplished, other than to implement every system-created "idea"?
In all the devastating destruction by the CPS in Britain, one complaint rises above the rest in utter clarity: about how bad the situation is because of the secret family courts.
A fundamental need in a society under the rule of law is open court cases, open reporting from the cases – transparency. Open procedures all the way through is the only way to try and stop the "system" when the system has completely gone off the track and courts and judges and lawyers nevertheless "believe" naïvely in its excellence.
Secrecy is a rather sure sign that what goes on cannot stand the light of day. The Bodnariu family should know that in Adele Johansen's case against Norway (case (a) here) the Norwegian state even tried to get the European Court of Human Rights to hold closed hearings! With the argument that CPS cases in Norway were confidential!
Of course the Norwegian state and all their minions will threaten the family with sanctions if the family goes public. They always do. Of course they will say that by publicising, the parents prove that they are unfit as parents. They always do. But family lawyers should know better than to yield. In actual fact official Norway is quite bothered about all the information that the internet makes possible, and about the seeds of international networks of people who are working to put a stop to CPS abuses. Look at what is being done on a high political level in the Czech Republic and in India. The Nigerian government, too, has acted very well, as have the Russian children's ombudsman and a Polish court. Malaysia sent a top cabinet minister to get three children out of Sweden. (There are articles about this in the Section for English speakers on Forum Redd Våre Barn (Forum Rescue Our Children).)
In contradistinction to this, look at the limp Norwegian press, which follows official Norway's lead like faithful dogs and believe unquestioningly in the official rigmarole. Norwegian press certainly shuts up about most important details in CPS cases and takes refuge in their "rules of circumspection" about "sensitive" matters. What is the result?
"Conversations or accusations against Norwegian authorities on this page, or other venues regarding this situation, do not benefit the Family or situation."
Oh indeed! – If each family buckles under like this, the CPS atrocities will go on forever. Each single case will not be helped by silence, rather it will cement the idea that the family has grave faults to hide and the children must be "saved" from them. Lack of free information will not prepare the population for ever new cases either, so the CPS are well served by silence.
A characteristic of violent abusers within families is that the abuser isolates his victims from other people and threatens them to shut up - or else! Here we have the Norwegian CPS and Norwegian courts and lawyers doing exactly that. It is necessary to understand, digest, the parallel, and act on it. Unfortunately, CPS victims do not have the understanding and help that victims of abuse from family members have from society at large. Rather, the agents of our society are the ones who abuse and threaten them. But they victims can support each other and contribute to stopping this system of abuse by telling the truth clearly and not letting themselves be cowed into submission.
The Bodnariu family have experienced what a Norwegian state agency does. Apparently they still have great trust in what the system people say.
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"Monday, Nov. 23rd, is a very important day for the Family. The older children will be interviewed by “specialists” and the Barnevernet will determine if the case will proceed to Court. It is expected that if enough evidence against Marius and Ruth is not gathered before Monday, the children might be allowed to go home with their parents and as a family. We are praying and hoping for this outcome, as our efforts support the reuniting of the children with their parents."
"It is expected that .." Who expects?
This shows, again, some trust in what the authorities say – or perhaps in what their lawyer says. It does happen from time to time that children are let go early on in a case like this, but if so, it has nothing very much to do with the merits of the case. It is just accidental. Unfortunately.
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18 December 2015
Some further articles:
Norwegian Christian couple accused of 'indoctrinating' children have them removed
Christian Today, 27 November 2015
Children seized from parents for ‘Christian indoctrination’
The Christian Institute, 2 December 2015
Kids seized over family's 'Christian indoctrination'
WND, 3 December 2015
Children Seized from Parents on Charges of 'Christian Indoctrination' in Norway
Christian News, 3 December 2015
Government Seizes Children Over 'Christian Indoctrination' Charges
Charisma News, 4 December 2015
Christian Family Gets 5 Children Taken Away by Gov't for Teaching God Punishes Sin
The Christian Post, 4 December 2015
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Christian family loses appeal against removal of children for 'radicalism and indoctrination'
Christian Today, 1 December 2015
"The hearing yesterday dismissed their appeal. It ruled that Marius and Ruth are allowed to see their three-month-old baby Ezekiel twice a week for two hours. They can also see their two sons, but not their older daughters.
They are exploring options for further legal action."
This outcome is as expected. Appealing to the CPS or a to county committee or the courts with reasonable and honest argumentation usually has no effect. Whether or not the CPS have broken the law has also no effect on the outcome. They may not have the legal right to do such-and-such, but they are permitted to do so.
Most of these articles seem to have little insight into child protection cases in general, only taking some information from official media, and largely concerned with the Christian aspects – in the present case the accusation against the family of 'Christian radicalism and indoctrination', and also with the view that Norwegian CPS is especially out to take action against foreigners. True, it often works out like that, but the basis is different and in actual numbers, Norwegian families deprived of their children on the same kind of grounds as foreigners are many more than foreign families. Nor are especially religious or devout Christians alone in being attacked; atheists and agnostics are also targets.
It would be very useful if Christian organisations and groups were to go into the whole question of Western style child protection. Christian circles in Norway and most of the Western world are unquestioning supporters of the CPS and the official view of parents as inherently dangerous. They are almost immune to any thought that official employees and the whole ideology they base their work on, are untruthful. It would therefore be a help if Christians abroad would inform themselves and understand that action is needed to wake people up to what is being done to children and their families. In order to start this information work, people, including foreign magazines, have to find other sources of information than the general press, which is very loyal to the state and quite dependent on it. As some of the politicians in Czechia concerned with combatting the evil of Western CPS have said: The Western countries have not lived under communism, so people there do not understand what a dictatorial bureaucracy is like and are not on their guard against systematic atrocities from their state.
The articles in Christian Today do not have comment sections. Christian News does have a comments section, but apparently it does not allow links; I tried to post a comment with links to what I consider would be useful reading, but it was rejected. It is understandable but unfortunate that readers are therefore left in the dark about useful ways to proceed. They will probably think out speculative explanations, like we have seen before in many cases. That does not bring the work against our harmful child protection system forward.
But this is positive:
Christian Family Whose 5 Kids Were Seized by Norway Planning International Protests
Christian Post, 11 December 2015
"On a Facebook page established to raise awareness for the family's situation, the Bodnarius announced that supporters are planning to carry out peaceful protests outside of the Norwegian embassies in a number of Western nations that will attempt to put pressure on Norwegian diplomats to urge the Barnevernet to release the children.
"We would like to act in an organized, legal, and peaceful manner, as we wish to continue being a testimony for the world," a Facebook post states. "In this regard, I assure you, we are currently getting organized and WE will announce the place and the time of the picketing, alongside additional details, at the right moment."
The Facebook post also explains that supporters are working to secure the ability to protest in other major cities in the United Kingdom, Ireland, United States, Belgium, Spain, Netherlands and even in Norway."
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Further information:
On the Forum Redd Våre Barn (Rescue Our Children)
Demonstrations abroad against Norwegian child protection (CPS) – Barnevernet
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