AFN attempts to intervene in native children's adoption case.

HAMILTON -- Preventing the adoption of native children by white families requires "extraordinary measures" Assembly of First Nation chief, Phil Fontaine, wrote to Mr. Justice George Czutrin on Sept. 5, asking him to consider the importance of native heritage in deciding who will get custody of two half-native girls. However, the judge will not read the letter.

Two families are fighting to prevent the Hamilton Children's Aid Society from sending the sisters to the Squamish Nation reserve where their mother was born.

The unusual, but not illegal, communication was handed over by the judge to the the lawyers for the parents and the CAS. The lawyers agreed that judge should seal the letter without reading it.

In 1999 the AFN in 1999 passed two resolutions condemning the adoption of "First Nation children by non-First Nation families" as "a form of genocide." The resolutions says that many of the children "who were deported" from reserves face cultural identity crises, and are subjected to abuse, neglect and discrimination.

The foster parents argue the girls are in need of protection from the CAS, claiming the decision to send the three-year-old and her two-year-old sister to the B.C. reserve will cause "devastating" emotional trauma.

At this stage the judge is hearing arguments as to his juriction in making a decision in this case. The girls came into CAS custody when they were removed from the mother's care because of drug addiction and drug dealing.