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May 17, 2005. 01:00 AM
Anne Larcade of Huntsville, lead plaintiff in a lawsuit against the province, has managed to keep custody of her
15-year-old son Alexandre. However, many other Ontario families have had to relinquish custody to get the care
their severely disabled children need.
Parents can sue Ontario
Custody, care of severely disabled children at issue
Familes suing province over change in rules
KERRY GILLESPIE
QUEEN'S PARK BUREAU
A $500-million lawsuit can go ahead against the province for forcing parents to give up custody of their severely
disabled children to get them the help they need, a court has ruled.
The families charge that the government has been breaking its own law since 1997 when, under then-premier
Mike Harris, it stopped issuing "special needs agreements."
Under those agreements, parents could get access to group homes and other special services without giving
up custody.
Without the agreement, parents whose severely disabled children need more care than they can give or
services than are available in the community have two choices.
They can try to manage on their own while waiting for the services to become available or they can "abandon"
their child to the Children's Aid Society.
The CAS is bound by law to find the necessary services for children in its care so it has to expand treatment
facilities or programs to make room.
The problem for parents, like Anne Larcade of Huntsville, is that they have to say they are unfit parents and once
the child is a permanent ward of the state, parents lose all say in where and how their child is treated.
Larcade managed to keep custody of her severely disabled 15-year-old son Alexandre but there are many other
families who have not been able to do so.
"Everyday that this goes on, families are losing custody of their children," Larcade, the lead plaintiff, said
yesterday.
The class-action lawsuit was originally filed in February 2002.
In June 2003, a court ruled that it didn't meet the test for a class-action suit and dismissed it.
The families appealed and on Friday the Divisional Court of Ontario unanimously ruled it meets the standards
and put the case back on track.
Yesterday, Attorney General Michael Bryant said he hasn't made a decision yet on whether the province will
appeal that decision or just fight the case in court.
Neither route is what Larcade and the other families want.
"It's time for the government to show these families some compassion and follow the law," lawyer Douglas Elliott
said.
So far, they say, they've had encouraging words from the government, but little else.
"No family in this province, in this day and age, should have to consider giving up their children to get the help
they need," Children and Youth Services Minister Marie Bountrogianni said recently in the Legislature.
When the Liberals where in opposition they supported the families in their lawsuit, but once they were in power
they continued to fight it, Elliott said.
Bountrogianni has said that special needs agreements aren't the answer and expanding services — which takes
time and money — is the way to go.
Ontario Ombudsman André Marin has given Bountrogianni until Thursday to respond to his interim report on the
"simply unacceptable" practice of parents having to give up custody to get help.