EUGENE -- An Oregon judge Friday ordered a 12-year-old boy sent back to Canada, his home country, even though the boy doesn't want to go.



A hearing Friday in Lane County juvenile court centered on the boy, who was taken into the state child welfare system nearly two years ago and whose case threatened to become an international incident.



While the specific circumstances of the case are complex and unusual, it illustrates Oregon's growing number of child welfare cases involving children and parents from other countries.



In the past year, Oregon child welfare officials have handled 12 cases that ended with children being reunited with a parent in Mexico, Canada or one of five other countries. The cases require officials to sort out a complex web of family emotions and international law to try to find the best placement for the child.



On Friday, the boy did not appear in court, but he did spend a half-hour talking privately with Judge Kip Leonard ahead of the hearing. Leonard said they talked about catching mice and snakes, middle school and family.



"He told me where he wants to be," Leonard said. "He told me he'd like to stay in Oregon and have his mother and grandparents come to visit."



But that's not the decision Leonard made at the end of a day of lawyers' arguments about the importance of country, culture and kin. The boy will return to Calgary sometime after school is out this summer to live with his grandparents.



The decision concludes a case that has captured the attention of government officials in Canada, the U.S. State Department, state lawmakers and Oregon's congressional delegation.



The boy, who is not being named by The Oregonian to protect his privacy because of his age, arrived in Oregon in the summer of 2008. His mother, Lisa, whose last name is not being used to protect the boy, said that her son had behavioral problems and that Canadian authorities had indicated he might be better off in a therapeutic group home. Testimony in court Friday indicated that child protective workers in Canada were concerned that the boy may have been emotionally and physically abused, and would be safer in foster care.





Father in Oakridge



Lisa told The Oregonian that she was moving from Montreal to Calgary and felt it would be better for her son to live with his stepfather in Oakridge, about 40 miles southeast of Eugene.

But it didn't turn out that way. Records show that local police had several encounters with the boy -- finding him once alone in an industrial park and another time riding his bike on a highway miles from town. When Oregon child welfare caseworkers checked with their counterparts in Canada, they found an extensive record of contact with the family.

The boy spent time in foster care in Canada on at least one occasion. Lisa says that's because she needed help with the boy's special needs. The files also included reports that she was arrested in 2003 and convicted in 2005 for growing marijuana. There were also psychological assessments questioning her ability to parent as well as questions about the way she physically disciplined the boy when he acted out.

Lisa was in Oregon visiting her son when caseworkers arrived to take him into state custody.

"Had no choice"



"I didn't really get to say anything to the court. But I did tell the judge that neither my son nor I were American citizens," Lisa said in an e-mail this week to The Oregonian. "I eventually had no choice and had to leave Oregon a few weeks later. ... I was led to believe that the quicker I moved and settled in Calgary, the quicker they'd send him back.

Oregon child welfare officials would not talk about the specifics of the case. But Gloria Anderson, international affairs manager for Oregon's child welfare system, said the state worked closely with Canadian officials from Day One to find a way to get the boy back to his home country.

Because the boy was in Oregon and under the state's legal jurisdiction, simply putting him on a plane and delivering him to Canadian child welfare officials was not an option, Anderson said. "We have an obligation, a legal and ethical obligation to ensure his safety."

Long process



The decision took longer than anybody expected.

Records and court testimony show the boy lived in multiple foster homes in Oregon before settling with a family that had three other boys.

An Oregon judge ordered Lisa to undergo psychological testing and complete other steps before the state could release her son back to Canada and into her care. The state paid for a Canadian expert to do a psychological assessment, which recommended that she undergo treatment for a personality disorder.

She balked at some of the requirements but says she is now in therapy. In the meantime, Oregon officials investigated her parents, Phyllis and Mike Heltay, who live in Calgary and wanted to take the boy home.

In the meantime, the boy grew to like living on six acres outside Springfield. He moved from a school for kids with special needs to a mainstream middle school, where he is earning mostly A's this school year.

"I feel successful here"



The boy's psychologist, Craig Steinberg, testified Friday that the boy told him: "I don't want to move to Canada. I want to stay here. I feel successful here."

But Phyllis Heltay said she feels the boy also can be successful with the grandparents he's known as "Bubba" and "Poppy."

"We want him to feel he can be with us as long as he's comfortable," she said. "A lot of thought has gone into this."

Oregon officials have been criticized for keeping a boy who isn't a U.S. citizen. Nevertheless, Kamala Shugar, the attorney representing the Oregon Department of Human Services, argued Friday that placement of the boy "back in his homeland with his relatives is in his best interest."

Connections to culture, country and extended family are important, she said, and "cannot be ignored."

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