Mom’s fight for child pits state against international law

PORTLAND, Ore. - A Canadian mother described her fight to free her son from Oregon foster care as “torturous” on Monday in a case that pits the state against federal law and the Hague Convention.

A year and a half ago, Noah Kirkman came to Oregon during summer vacation as a 10-year-old to visit his stepfather in Lane County, and it was there that he was put in protective custody.

Noah’s mother, Lisa, said her son, now 12, was taken because he was not with a person considered a parent even though his stepfather raised him.

“That sounds like something if you’re visiting a country in the Middle East or North Korea or something, but the U.S.? The state of Oregon?” said Lisa Kirkman by Skype from her home in Calgary.

“It’s torturous - like getting your heart ripped out,” she said about the year and a half she’s been separated from her son.

She’s gone on a public campaign to get her son back by lobbying politicians on both sides of the border and by doing interviews.

On one interview with CTV, Kirkman explained what happened in 2008 when she sent Noah to the small town of Oakridge, Ore. with her husband.

“The cops recognized other kids, of course, (but) didn’t recognize my son (and) kept seeing this child who said he’s Canadian,” she said in that interview.

Police said they saw Noah around town several times, trespassing at the city’s industrial park, and sitting alone on a fence. They said after questioning the boy he could not explain who he was staying with and why. When they ran his name, they found a past with Canadian Social Services. They then referred him to the DHS.

 His mother said Noah has severe ADHD and other anxiety disorders that kept him from clearly explaining his situation.

“What it literally says on the court order is the reason for keeping Noah is that I abandoned Noah down there, and that I neglected him by sending him down to Oregon to stay with someone who does not have parental authority,” she said in the CTV interview. “John is the only father Noah knows.”

She said Noah had his birth certificate, passport and a note that said his stepfather had permission to care for him.

Kirkman said she believes the real issue is that she’s an outspoken cannabis activist. She was convicted for growing medical marijuana without a permit and was sentenced to ten hours of community service. That conviction was not enough to lose Noah then or his sister now.

“They didn’t take my daughter - my daughter’s seven. Why not send him to my parents or to my sister?” she said in the Skype interview. “It simply just does not make sense to me why my son should be down in the Oregon foster care system taking up a space that could be better used to help a child from Oregon.”

DHS said it is working to return the child to Canada and a hearing date will be set on Tuesday.

Juvenile records in the case are closed and the Department of Human Services doesn’t comment on these types of cases.