This is a great day! On behalf of my family, we wish to say a profound THANK
YOU to those of you who were so supportive of Jesse, and our cause, and
instrumental in making this happen. We will always, always remember what you
did for us. -Cyndi Cameron & Alex Glinka and Jesse (14)
Mom wins battle for services

Her severely disabled son will no longer have to be in the care of the CAS.
JOE MATYAS, Free Press Reporter 2005-06-08 02:12:32
A London mother has won her fight to have services provided for her
special-needs son in the community rather than through the Children's Aid
Society.

Cynthia (Cyndi) Cameron said yesterday she was told she would be getting a
phone call from the CAS about transferring care for her son to a community
agency.

"We're excited about the transfer because it's a step in the right
direction. It means the care will be assigned to a community provider rather
than the protection agency," Cameron said.

Cameron and her husband, Alex Glink, were among six Southwestern Ontario
families who complained to Ontario Ombudsman Andre Marin in March about
being forced to give up temporary or permanent custody of their severely
disabled children to get provincial placements for them.
Cameron and Glinka tried to get a placement for Jesse, now 14, for two years
but couldn't get one until they agreed to a temporary care agreement with
the CAS last August.

Marin appointed seven investigators to probe their complaint and those of
nearly 100 other parents who subsequently came forward with similar stories.
In a scathing report called Between a Rock and a Hard Place released on May
26, Marin said the province had failed the parents and their severely
disabled children.

He said the province should restore custody to the parents immediately and
pay for services for their children in the community.

In response to the ombudsman's report, Marie Bountrogianni, minister of
children and youth services, promised to move swiftly on the custody issue.
The provision of special needs services will take longer, she said, adding
the government has doubled its level of support to $100 million this year
and plans to build more facilities.

Bountrogianni instructed Children's Aid Societies last week to list all the
special-needs children in their care, Andrew Weir, a spokesperson for the
minister, said yesterday.

"The minister has authorized Children Aid Societies to contact the parents
to restore custody to them as long as there is no protection issue," said
Weir.

In most cases, parents voluntarily signed temporary-care agreements with the
societies, he said.

"Custody was transferred by parents to the societies by agreement and it's
being transferred back to the parents by agreement," he said.
He said the cases are being transferred to community providers.
For the time being, all the children will remain in their present
placements, he said.

Cameron said parents of special-needs children won't achieve full success
until their children are in placements close to home.

Right now, Jesse is in a group home in Barrie and he's going to stay there
for the foreseeable future, she said.

"We've won a victory (on the custody issue), but we haven't reached our
ultimate goal yet," she said. "We won't be there until there's enough
funding and facilities for placements for our children close to where we
live."

I’ve never been a fighter, so it’s hard to imagine myself needing to use every restraint in my being to stop myself from giving someone a shake. On March 31, 2005 that is precisely how I felt. Sitting in the legislature adjacent to our province’s controlling party, I divided my moments between square-eyed stares, and unassuming glares. Seemingly subdued, I had on the very same day assured even my strongest supporters I wouldn’t pull any stunt on Queen’s Park. Once again, I, Cynthia Cameron, champion of all rightful causes for my child in need, would be the ever-obedient citizen. I would follow due process. Get my security clearance, honestly. I would drive exactly 50 kilometres per hour in the city the day before, just in case, this would be the first time, I got a speeding ticket — and I wanted nothing, absolutely nothing or anybody to stand in my way from getting to Queen’s Park on March 31^st.

So, MPP Shelley Martel, a true champion among champion in my books, raised the question to our newly appointed Minister of Children and Youth Services: will you enter into a special needs agreement with this family? The Minister’s indirect reply was that "no family member in this province, in this day and age, should have to consider giving up their child to get the help…because no child should have to wait on a waiting list and no parent should have to give up their child to get the help".

And I hung in the balance, holding in my anxiety, anger, frustration and heartbreak, as the Minister ‘beat around the bush’. I imagined making history that day that I would jump over the legislative gallery where I had been an honoured, invited guest, and maybe, well I didn’t know what I would do, maybe run around the speaker’s chair in circles, maybe use my right to go topless, I didn’t know for certain. What I did know was hurt…and outrage that some Members of Provincial Parliament would heckle, while others, and I say this as objectively as I can, over on the Liberal’s side of the legislative assembly, slouched in their seats, wiping their noses, coughing, snapping fingers and ordering pages around for ice water. Did nobody besides MPP Martel care?

"My son, what about my son", I gasped for breathe and reason. If ever I was a believer, it was then; I never prayed so hard for that answer. "Just do the right thing, Minister", I begged under my breathe. "Please, I won’t streak in front of the speaker — it’s not pretty - just please, be honest, yes or no, will you enter into an agreement with us?"

"No".

After three years on residential wait lists, and eight month’s of involvement with our local children’s aid society, we got the answer, 12 days after my trip to the legislature: "we are not prepared to enter into a special needs agreement with you". They gave us five reasons why, all of which were unacceptable, but one of which was rather unprecedented across our province.

Across the societies involved in this kind of care where families are forced to give up custody of their child with special needs where no child protection issue exists, simply to access residential supports (usually in far off places, too), you have 12 months (six and another extension), under the CFSA Act. However, we were told on this day, not only would we be continuing to be involved in our local ‘CAS’ for the 12 months, we’d be doing so for an additional year. That’s right, contrary to our lawyer, social worker, and the Act, we’ll be forced to either bring our severely Autistic son home, or keep a relationship with a group home 300 KM away, under the hospice of the CAS for another year.

Sometimes I wonder with this crazy journey and where it is headed - because we sense a case is building against us - whether I should have been that fighter. I wonder about that girl I knew in high school, Leah, who got into fist fights with other girls (which meant in the day, throwing a punch), what she would do now. Certainly, I’m not condoning violence, just toughness. Somehow, it would seem that throughout all of this I have held out some blind faith that someone who could, would do the right thing by Jesse and give us the special needs initiative funding we were promised like thousands of families across Ontario. I beat myself up now, "fool, you were so naïve to believe in this. Leah would’ve known all a long".

Or maybe not.

Maybe advocating for what is right according to policy directives, applicable Acts, regulations, and the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, and complaining to the Advocate’s office and Ombudsman Ontario, is my "gallery jumping" fight. Maybe holding onto faith, when I can’t hold onto my first born child, is what makes me a fighter. And maybe, like the man who sent the newspaper a 100 dollar cheque for us today, stating, "I know it doesn’t change your situation, but I wanted to do something for you and your family", it’s about something even more powerful than physical force; it’s about interconnectedness. It’s about knowing what we owe one another, no matter our place in the world. And, it’s about knowing right now that there is no justice for Jesse, and we all ought to do the right thing a little more by one another by shaking things up a little bit more.

www.jimchapman.ca, and click on link that says, "Jim Chapman Live"

Hi, please see the attached article regarding our continued struggle for community residential access for Jesse and the meeting with the ADM this evening.

Please see the attached article regarding families' residential plight, such as our own. It is a very well written article located at Community Living Leaders web site link: http://www.communitylivingontario.ca/Daily_News/2005/May/May09.htm here is the word version

Press Release from the NDP

This was an article written about Cyndi and Jesse

April 25th Article

bountrogianni's latest