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December 3, 2003
Premier Dalton McGuinty
Office of the Premier
Legislative Building, Room 281
Queen’s Park
Toronto, Ontario, M7A 1A1
Dear Premier:
On March 15, 1946, the obstetric delivery rooms at Toronto Western Hospital were unexpectedly overcrowded
and, to delay the birth of Diana Lynn Kingsmill, a panicked nurse told my mother to cross her legs and squeeze.
My sister, as a result, was brought into this world profoundly retarded and it took my mother five years to accept
the fact that her daughter could never be cared for safely or adequately at home; she was all motor, very little
cognition, and a danger to herself and my mother.
Lynn (the name my parents called her) has lived in the Huronia facility in Orillia for 52 years. She is, as she was
more than a half century ago, unable to care for herself in the most menial ways. She cannot speak, and certainly
cannot read or write. She has never been able to handle solid food, as we know it, and as a result has lost all
her teeth through disuse.
And she is happy. She takes pleasure in the most simple of things; her rocking chair in the ward, country and
western music through her Walkman, the grounds of Huronia, swimming. As long as her routine, her
surroundings, remain constant, she is happy. Any disruption to her routine, even a visit by her 87-year-old
mother and me, her brother, results in visible anxiety.
And when medically she is in distress, the staff nurses and doctors have been there to solve her problems; it
took several years, for instance, to determine why Lynn rubbed sand and dirt in her eyes when she was outside
in the summer; she was slowly blinding herself. But they solved the mystery – an allergy, which they treat
successfully.
I am discouraged to hear serious consideration is being given to the closure Schedule 1 Centres, of which
Huronia is one. For 52 years this has been my sister’s home, the only one she has known. It has provided her
warmth, comfort, medical treatment and friendship she would never have outside that facility. It is inconceivable
that closing Huronia and relocating Lynn to another would benefit her. I would respectfully suggest the
opposite; it would be psychologically disastrous.
An over-all scenario may have been presented to you that looks compassionate and practicable. Before your
government closes any of these facilities, go to Huronia, Rideau and Southwestern, meet the people there, all of
them, and judge for yourself whether closing the facilities and relocating patients is compassionate,
responsible, progressive. I would be happy to accompany you and introduce you to my sister because once the
rhetoric and arguments are laid bare in this manner, I believe you’ll find the idea untenable.
Sometimes the best of intentions are blind. That is why we depend upon you, the lawmakers, to have sight.
Sincerely,
David D. W. Kingsmill
cc: Mary C. Kingsmill
Patricia A. Cooke, Huronia Helpers, Orillia Centre
Burlington MPP Cam Jackson