Uggity-ugh.
The cops generally have way too much leeway in dealing with minors. I understand their frustrations in some criminal cases, but there are just way too many stories of unacceptable bullshit when the cops question minors without an adult advocate present. It's not cool and not American.
Child services departments . . . always messed up. No one seems to know a good model to form them from, and they just grow in an ill-advised, gormless organic way, with new rules getting slapped on when some petty asswipe gets in charge and has an axe to grind or after some atrocity actually galvanizes legislators into paying attention and overreacting.
It seems like the rule of thumb is that it's really hard to lose custody of your kid if you have an obvious legal claim to begin with and/or a good lawyer. But if you DO lose custody, even 'temporarily', the system will go to ridiculous lengths to prevent ever giving that kid back, regardless of where they put the kid in the meantime. There are way WAY too many stories like that.
You've got to get a government bigwig involved in a case like this -- and a US bigwig, because that judge clearly sounds like the more Canada gets involved, the more his dander gets riled in a This Here Ain't Canada, Bitch! sort of way. Or you've got to get a serious attack lawyer who can find a way to sue for sixty billion zillion dollars and pump the media. The system isn't going to help you, not after it already screwed you over so badly. It will never admit it did something so stupid and awful.
