Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 24/1/2018 (970 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A 15-year-old boy in foster care is tweeting about the injustice of the child welfare system, picking up where his mother left off in the fall when she took her decade-old battle with CFS to social media.

The woman was ordered to stop tweeting under penalty of prosecution a month before Christmas and resumed after CFS allowed the family to reunite briefly for the holidays.

The heart of the dispute is the mother's efforts to regain custody of her three oldest sons, all of whom were removed from her care a decade ago in Manitoba where she is originally from. She now lives in Ontario.

The eldest son has since aged out of foster care, but the two younger boys are still in the system. Their mother, meanwhile, has matured into her 30s and moved to a First Nation in Ontario. She has also given birth to a daughter, now 8, who she and her husband have been raising.

Her lawyer has described the mother as mature, stable and a "middle-class mom."

The latest developments happened after the holidays.

Within a week or two of the 15 year old returning to Manitoba following a Christmas reunion with his mother and siblings, the teen took to Twitter. In the past few weeks he has tweeted out more than 60 posts outlining his perspective on foster care and dealing with the West Region Child and Family Services (WRCFS), one of a group of Indigenous child welfare agencies.

"For 10 years, I’ve been in the clutches of WRCFS. All I want is to go home," the 15 year old wrote in his introductory post. His subsequent posts have built on the opening theme.

His mother is urging her followers to follow him.

"My son started his own Twitter much to my surprise. I’m so proud of him! I was threatened by CFS w/lawsuit & jail time if I named or showed photos of my kids. But he’s 15 & now telling his own story. What kind of system brings ppl to desperation to turn to Twitter," the mom posted Jan. 11.

The Free Press is not naming either mother or child because of legal restraints.

Last fall, counsel for the agency cited confidentiality provisions of Manitoba's Child and Family Services Act to the woman's attorney and asked the offending posts be removed. It also cited penalties for breaking the provisions; they include a fine of up to $50,000 or imprisonment for up to two years, or both.

The agency that oversees the guardianship for the two sons still in care said authorities are monitoring the feeds of both mother and son but they don't plan to penalize the son the way they threatened to do with the mother.

"Our agency is doing everything in our power to reunite this family." a spokesman said. "It's not in the best interests of the child to take him to task on his tweets."

The mom has over 4,000 followers and the son has 1,200, according to their Twitter profiles.

alexandra.paul@freepress.mb.ca