ORILLIA TODAY HRC Lawsuit By Frank Matys Published: Tue, Sep 20th, 2005 Families of the Huronia Regional Centre’s long-time residents have kicked off a class-action lawsuit that places the Ontario government in the crosshairs. Flanked by a small group of parents and other supporters, lawyer Doug Elliott announced the suit before a clutch of provincial and national media at Queen’s Park on Monday. “There is no justification for this reckless rush toward closing a facility that is presently working well to meet the needs of these vulnerable people,” he told the gathering. Elliott, lead counsel for the case, said families believe the movement of developmentally delayed residents to group- home settings will result in severe trauma, health problems and, in some cases, possible death. “We have been trying to negotiate, educate, plead with the government for months to listen to reason, to listen to world-renowned experts who say this is a deadly position to take, to apply even a little common sense,” said Dr. Liz Sayer, president of Huronia Helpers. “It has fallen on deaf ears.” In the immediate future, the group is seeking an injunction preventing the government from moving residents out of their home. Ultimately, they hope to reverse an earlier decision to close the Memorial Avenue facility, one of three such facilities slated to shut its doors by 2009. “They are going to try to get the judge to move quickly on this,” said Simcoe North MPP Garfield Dunlop. “(Elliott) is one sharp cookie.” The province has repeatedly vowed that residents will receive appropriate care and treatment in group homes — facilities that Elliott claims are overburdened and fraught with problems. In a statement issued on Monday, he said the province is now attempting to relocate an HRC resident against the “expressed written will” of his family, “and continues to push his family into accepting a wholly inappropriate facility for him.” Added Dunlop: “There are already a shortage of spaces for developmentally challenged people. I just don’t see the urgency in this.” The province has said it will work with families to ensure their loved ones are properly cared for. A similar injunction application is underway in Smiths Falls, where relatives of those living at the Rideau Regional Centre are urging the courts to halt the facility’s closure until a proposed class-action suit is approved. Lawyer James Gray, whose sister has called the facility home since the 1950s, will appear at a motions court in Ottawa on Thursday. Dunlop said he and other supporters of the cause will attend the hearing in a show of unity, boarding an early morning bus bound for the nation’s capital. Tory MPP Garfield Dunlop is backing families of Huronia Regional Centre residents in opposing what they call an early closing of the facility.