The Resentment Of A Mother

This is an essay about resentment of a mother toward a decision of a local Court of Appeal that enforced the parent to temporarily surrender her disabled son to the custody of the local government of Ontario. This essay provides a summary of an article in a local paper (Canadian Press, November 24, 2006) that published the matter as well as an analysis of the same.

Summary A mother launched a class-action lawsuit against the Ontario local government alleging it failed to meet its legal obligations toward severely disabled children that included her son. The Ontario Court of Appeal, however, ruled that the lawsuit cannot go forward. The Court’s decision provoked the parent into vowing to take her case to the Supreme Court of the nation.

Anne Larcade is the mother of a “mentally disabled,” Alexandre. Her predicament six years ago was to decide to give up her son to the local government’s institution because it was the “only way to get the province [of Ontario] to pay for his treatment.” The boy, however, was returned to his mother’s care after one year. Larcade stresses that the “province’s treatment policy … affect thousands of Ontario families.” These “policies,” however, are not elaborated by the daily that published the matter.

What makes Larcade resentful toward the local government of Ontario is that it “can force good parents to surrender custody of their children to the province and [one] can’t do anything about it,” making reference to the Court of Appeal’s decision. What is lamentable about the case of Alexandre is that he was “forced into the care of Children’s Aid … two years after the former Conservative government cancelled the program that would have covered his treatment costs,” the paper reports.

The program known as the “Special Needs Agreement,” is the only way through which disabled children, like, Alexandre, can obtain governmental subsidy for illness treatment cost; otherwise, concerned individuals will have to be classified as “in need of protection”—which literally means that said individuals will be “placed under the control of child welfare authorities.”

The Liberal-party dominated local government of Ontario is still reviewing the decision of its Court of Appeals, but an NDP critic has already expressed his opinion about the matter saying, “We have a huge community of children and their families that have a common concern, that have suffered a common hurt, and the government should be conceding, quite frankly, that their cases be heard as a class action.” He said further: “Government’s responsibility is to help the weakest in society and to live up to the responsibilities that it has.”

Larcade’s lawsuit … accuses the local government of Ontario of being negligent because “families were forced to personally fund services for their severely disabled children, and in some cases, relinquish custody to the government in order to obtain life-saving procedures,” the paper reports.

Analysis There are several lamentable situations brought into light by the lawsuit forwarded by Larcade: first, severely disabled children do exist not only in Ontario, but in the entire Canada and in the entire world as well and that not all parents of these handicapped children are capable of providing the full financial support to these individual’s special needs; second, that the Children’s Aid program of Ontario is an ideal program expected of any government, however, for whatever reason there was, it was abolished rendering affected families disadvantaged forever; third, here is a courageous soul in the person of Larcade, who brought the matter under the light so that local and national legislators should look into the matter and decide favorably for the needy; fourth, Canada has been and until today attracting potential immigrants around the world over for the past few decades now—the Larcade case is not a good Canadian image to circulate.

Finally, the “North American Council on Adoptable Children (NACAC)” cites the “Toronto Profile on Adoption Assistance” service under which the “Children’s Aid Society of Toronto” organization is mentioned with the full details of the services being provided. The question is: with which Canadian local government institution this admirable institution being attached to for appropriate governmental support for the benefit of the needy?

Reference

North American Council on Adoptable Children. (June 2003). Toronto Profile on Adoption Assistance. http://www.nacac.org/provincialprofiles/toronto.html [November 25, 2006].