Two years ago, Lisa Kirkman, a single mom, took her son, Noah to Oregon for a visit with his step-father. What she never could have imagined at the time, was a legal battle against the state.
While he was in Oregon, Noah was stopped by local police for riding a  bike without a helmet. The police contacted the state's department of human services when they became concerned about his behaviour. Noah, it seems suffers from several mental disorders, including obsessive-compulsive behaviour and attention deficit disorder. Then, rather than contact his mother through the step-father, family services in Quebec and British Columbia, where the family used to live and soon learned that Kirkman has a history of being a marijuana activist. In 2003, she was convicted for possession and is currently a medical marijuana user.
It was also learned that Noah himself had undergone part-time therapeutic foster care.
The officials in Oregon immediately put the boy, who was 10 years old at the time, into foster care and Kirkman spent the next two years battling to have her son returned to Canada.
This past May, a U.S. judge ordered the boy to be returned to Canada, but not to Kirkman. Rather, he was returned to Noah's maternal grandparents.
If Kirkman thought it was all over when Noah was returned to Canada, She was very wrong. The Oregon government, who vehemently refused to return the boy to his home country for two years and kept him in their foster care system on their own accord, is suing Kirkman, who fought to get Noah back home.
Apparently, Oregon now wants to be reimbursed for child support and medical costs incurred while he was in their care. Why should the mother have to pay for costs that accumulated while Oregon dragged its heels in returning Noah? There was absolutely no reason for Noah to have been held in the state's foster care system in the first place. Remember this all started over him not wearing a bike helmet.
Arrangements could have been made between the state and Alberta's Children and Youth Services so Noah could have been at least in foster care in his home province if it was deemed that Kirkman was an unfit mother...which she was not.
Maybe Oregon should try recouping some of the cost from its own court system for dragging its heels and not passing the most appropriate judgment.
What started out as a vacation has turned into a nightmare for Kirkman and her son. The bond between mother and son may not be broken, but financially, Kirkman is probably ruined. Many single moms do not have the financial means for years-long legal battles. Kirkman will appear in provincial court in September, but legal aid likely will not be an option for the international case.
As well, Alberta Children and Youth Services is not getting involved in the case because they call it a private legal matter.
Noah should have been returned to Canada immediately, if at least to foster care here. It was incredulous he was being held there at all, never mind for two years. To now have Oregon sue the mother is nothing short of mind-boggling.