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“She was thriving. She was happy. She was loved,” said the foster mother in an email. “She was growing in a community where she would know her birth parents and her culture. And now the ministry has stripped her of all of it.”

The couple is refusing to give up their fight to adopt the little girl. Hittrich said they have filed leave to appeal with the Supreme Court of Canada, and have another petition before B.C. Supreme Court.

The case has raised cultural issues as the foster mother is Metis, while the adoptive parents in Ontario are not.

The foster mother said that according to Metis customs, she and her husband have already adopted the girl.

But the woman said the ministry contracted a Metis agency to hold a cultural ceremony for the toddler on Wednesday. She said the ceremony was part of the Metis adoption process and was part of the ministry’s plan to adopt the girl to the Ontario couple.

“This ceremony is a sham and is not representative of our Metis people or traditions,” she said. “They can’t just try to re-adopt our daughter to someone else when we have already adopted her.”

She said aboriginal laws are protected under the Constitution, but the ministry has instead chosen to “ignore” the child’s rights and waste taxpayer money fighting the placement of a happy Metis girl in a loving Metis home.”

“We love our daughter. We fear for her. We fear that she will not understand. We fear that she wonders why we aren’t coming to pick her up. She has no idea how much we want to,” she said.