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By MICHAEL JIGGINS
Staff Writer
OTTAWA -- A legal bid by families to keep the provincial government from shutting down Rideau Regional Centre faces
what their lawyer calls a critical first day in court here Thursday.
With more than 200 supporters expected to be protesting outside the Elgin Street Courthouse, lawyer Brenda
Hollingsworth will attempt to block the province from what its critics charge amounts to closing the Smiths Falls area
facility by stealth.
She's seeking an injunction to prevent the province from transferring more of its mentally disabled residents out into
group homes while the case is before the courts.
"The stakes are high," Hollingsworth said Tuesday in an interview from her office in Ottawa.
Already, according to the union representing workers at the facility, the Ministry of Community and Social Services
has transferred five residents since August.
And Hollingsworth said she's been told four more are scheduled to go Thursday while she's in court.
"It's a huge day for the residents, their families and the staff at Rideau Regional Centre," stated Dave Lundy,
executive board member with Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU) Local 436, which represents workers
at the facility.
Hollingsworth said failure to win the injunction "will certainly be a blow to the residents who are transferred before
their rights are determined."
She has been retained by James Gray, the Toronto man who in July filed the suit on behalf of his sister, Ann, 54, a
Rideau centre resident since 1957.
According to Hollingsworth, family members representing 160 of the centre's remaining 416 residents have signed on
to be represented in the class action.
Thursday's appearance is the first phase in what could be a three-year legal battle for the families.
And it comes two months ahead of a December hearing at which a judge will determine if the suit has enough merit to
be certified for trial.
As they await that hearing, Hollingsworth stressed Justice Robert J. Smith's decision on the injunction is critical.
"The province has made it clear that without the injunction it is going to continue to transfer residents out of Rideau
Regional, with or without the family's consent," she told The Recorder and Times.
"At the end of the day, lawsuits take time and if 18 months from now we're successful at trial, but half the residents
have been transferred out É it's not much of a victory."
Hollingsworth and lawyers representing the province each have three hours Thursday to present their arguments.
Hollingsworth submitted to the court Monday a 100-page factum outlining her case and the legal basis for the
injunction.
"This is not a tactic or a strategy," she insisted, adding, "We think the law and the facts are there for (the injunction)
to be granted, but ultimately the judge will decide."
Justice Smith could rule on the injunction as early as Thursday.
Meanwhile, Lundy said Thursday's planned protest will have representation from a cross-section of groups
concerned about the province's planned closure.
Among those expected is lawyer Douglas Elliot, who this week filed a similar class-action suit to keep the province
from closing the Huronia Centre, a long-term care facility for adults with severe mental disabilities in Orillia.
Elliot is also seeking an injunction to prevent resident transfers while the case is before the courts.
At a news conference at Queen's Park on Monday, Elliot challenged the statutory authority of Community and Social
Services Minister Sandra Pupatello to close the facilities.
Pupatello is named in both suits (Gray's also names Premier Dalton McGuinty), which contend the province is violating
the charter rights of residents.
Located on Highway 43 east of Smiths Falls, Rideau Regional Centre opened in 1951 and at the time of the closure
announcement had 818 employees.
Centre residents have an average age of 52 and have called it home for 40 years. Seventy per cent are non-verbal
and the average IQ for residents is 40.
Rideau, Huronia and a third similar facility in Blenheim are all slated for closure by March 2009.
With a file from The Canadian Press.
Published in Section A, page 3 in the Wednesday, September 21, 2005 edition of the Brockville Recorder & Times.
Posted 4:30:05 PM Wednesday, September 21, 2005.