Pubdate: Mon, 10 May 2010
Source: Calgary Sun, The (CN AB)
Copyright: 2010 The Calgary Sun
Contact:  http://www.calgarysun.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/67
Author: Shawn Logan

HARPER ON HOT SEAT TO RETURN "ABDUCTED" CALGARY BOY

Taking direct aim at Prime Minister Stephen Harper, a Calgary mom
whose son has been made a ward of the state in Oregon called for the
feds to step in.

Lisa Kirkman, who has been fighting to have her 12-year-old son Noah
returned to Canada for almost two years after authorities in the U.S.
state tore him from his family, took to the streets of Calgary Sunday
to call on the federal government to get involved in the case that has
attracted international attention.

"I'm suffering yet another Mother's Day without my first born child
and he's suffering another Mother's Day in a cramped foster home," she
said, joined by a crowd of about 30 sign-toting supporters at the
Harry Hays federal building.

"How can it be that in 2010 a foreign government agency can just take
him and keep him and not be met with immediate diplomatic action?"

Appealing directly to Harper, she asked the prime minister to consider
having one of his own young children trapped by the U.S. justice
system with no answers on when a resolution would be made.

Noah was seized by child welfare officials in the state of Oregon in
September 2008 after he was spotted riding a bicycle without a helmet
and subsequently determined to be living in the state without a legal
guardian present.

Since then Kirkman has waged a frustrating legal battle to have Noah
returned home, but so far to no avail.

Joining Kirkman in her Mother's Day march from Calgary's federal
building to the U.S. Consulate was Michael Kapoustin, who was
imprisoned in Bulgaria for 12 years before being freed in 2008 after
years of legal and diplomatic wrangling.

Kapoustin, who has stepped in to help Kirkman along with the National
Council for the Protection of Canadians Abroad, said the idea of an
American judge "abducting" a Canadian child on foreign soil should
prompt immediate action on the part of the government.

"None of it makes any sense - it almost reminds me of when the Soviet
Union used to take kids away from their parents for no good reason,"
he said.

"Canada is capable of dealing with its own and we don't need a foreign
judge telling us who's a good parent and who's a bad parent."

Kirkman is scheduled to have another hearing with an Oregon judge on
May 28 to ask if Noah can live with his grandparents in Calgary.
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake