With Michael Gordon Jackson in police custody and his seven-year-old daughter found safe, there is relief in Saskatchewan, but also a long road ahead.
RCMP arrested the man Thursday at an undisclosed business somewhere in Vernon, B.C. along with his seven-year-old daughter. They were more than 1,300 km away from her home in Regina.
It had been more than three months since she’d seen her mother, Mariecar Jackson.
“Three months is a long time, but it’s not out of the ordinary, unfortunately,” said Lindsay Lobb, senior support service manager with the Canadian Centre for Child Protection.
Mariecar Jackson has full legal custody of her daughter, but in early January, Michael Gordon Jackson told an online talk show that he was keeping his daughter because he didn’t want her to be vaccinated against COVID-19.
The father was the subject of a Canada-wide warrant and is charged with abduction in contravention of a custody or parenting order. Saskatchewan RCMP expect him to make a court appearance next week.
Lobb said she can’t speak to specific cases, but generally, many people might not think past the joyful reunification of a child with a legal guardian.
“Every situation is going to be unique in terms of what the child was told during the time they were missing,” Lobb said.
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The Winnipeg-based organization works to help parents navigate the return home and connect children with support to process their experience in an alleged abduction.
The involvement of therapists, psychologists or psychiatrists can also help with the process.
“A child may not be ready to run up and hug the parent that’s been searching for them for months or days or years because they may have been told stories about that parent that are untrue,” Lobb said.
RCMP have not said whether or not a tip led officers to Michael Gordon Jackson in Vernon, though lead investigator Sgt. Maj. Darryl Milo told reporters police received information from “several provinces” and “numerous” police forces were involved in the search.
Going forward, police say anyone who may have helped Sarah’s father evade police can still be charged.
“We want to say this investigation is not over. The return of Sarah to her mother is very new and the investigation is ongoing,” Milo said.
Details of the alleged abduction are expected to come out during the court process.
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