Archive for the ‘Child & Family History’ Category

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Huronia: Settled, but not forgotten

Monday, September 30th, 2013

The 65,000 documents that will be released by the class-action lawsuit is expected to contain objective documentation of alleged abuses that happened at Huronia from police, witnesses and staff at the institution. But the documents will be held by the Archives of Ontario and only available by filing a freedom-of-information request. Material deemed to infringe on privacy or fall under one of the other numerous exceptions will be censored.

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The hidden heroes of Huronia

Sunday, September 29th, 2013

Marilyn and Jim Dolmage, who set out seven years ago to expose the atrocities that occurred at the Huronia Regional Centre for developmentally disabled children and get restitution for the residents who were still alive… It was Jim’s idea to launch the class-action lawsuit. It was Marilyn’s network of contacts, inside knowledge and ability to earn the trust of the vulnerable that made it possible.

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Huronia institution documents to be shielded by privacy laws

Thursday, September 26th, 2013

The 65,000 documents that could have been made public as evidence in a class-action lawsuit over alleged abuses at the Huronia Regional Centre will instead be available only through freedom of information laws… Anyone wishing to see them will have to file a request under the provincial Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act , which can delay their release and result in portions being kept secret.

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Identities of unnamed dead at Huronia Regional Centre emerge

Tuesday, September 24th, 2013

About 2,000 people were laid to rest on the hospital grounds, 1,440 in unmarked or numbered graves. Huronia was the subject of a recent $35-million class-action settlement between the province and former residents. As part of the deal the government has agreed to establish its own registry of deaths that occurred at the institution, though it’s unclear if that list will ever be made public or how it will differ from the one the institution maintained.

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Huronia: Pierre Berton warned us 50 years ago [developmental disabilities]

Saturday, September 21st, 2013

On Tuesday, the Ontario government settled a class-action suit with former residents of Huronia Regional Centre in Orillia. The terms include $35 million and a formal apology. The problems at the government-run institution for the developmentally delayed go back decades, and so do warnings… Author Pierre Berton wrote a haunting report for the Toronto Daily Star on Jan. 6, 1960

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Ontario is right to finally admit it failed developmentally delayed kids

Thursday, September 19th, 2013

… reaching the agreement — with the promise of an apology and $35 million in financial compensation — was a three-year battle, fought every step of the way by provincial government lawyers. Shamefully, some former residents, now well past their middle years, died before seeing a resolution… By settling the Huronia lawsuit the government has, however belatedly, acknowledged its failures.

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Ontario must step up inspection of nursing homes

Friday, November 23rd, 2012

November 22, 2012
… the Liberal government promised a new inspection system so rigorous it would end the trauma that destroys some residents’ final years. As it turns out, those were little more than promising words. Only a fraction of nursing homes have actually faced that in-depth inspection since the ministry’s new rules began in July 2010…

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What are Canadians really afraid of when it comes to crime?

Saturday, April 9th, 2011

Apr. 09, 2011
Again and again – at least 16 times between 1956 and 2003 – knowledgeable and brain-studded parliamentary committees have concluded that where sentences and jail time are concerned, “preference should be given to the least restrictive alternative” (1982) because (1993) “costly repressive measures … fail to deter crime.”… So the Harper government’s stance defies not just evidence but half a century of Canadian intellectual tradition… Tough-on-crime sentiment may be difficult to justify logically, but it is easy to feel. The question is, why has it become seductive to more and more of us?

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Old Toronto’s farm for minor offenders

Sunday, July 25th, 2010

Jul 25 2010
… in the Toronto of the 1910s, the notion of diverting minor offenders from the Don had gained broad popular support. “We have a barbarous system of handling the fellow who gets drunk,” as one controller put it. “He hasn’t done anything or stole anything. He is a victim of his own weakness.” … the city finally spent $60,000 to acquire the Russell farm… The property, according to a council report, could someday house facilities for very poor seniors and “the indigent.” Conspicuously absent from the plans were bars, fences and other symbols of incarceration.

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8,100 Home Children stayed in Stratford

Tuesday, June 29th, 2010

26 Jun 2010
Annie Macpherson moved to London, England from Glasgow, Scotland in the mid-1860s to further her training as an educator… her experiences with poor children in the city’s East End changed her plans… With her sisters Louisa Birt and Rachel Merry she operated a child emigration organization from 1870– 1925 with homes in Belleville, Galt and then Stratford and Knowlton, Que. Some of the very youngest were adopted and treated as family. More often these children were used as low-cost farm labourers or domestic servants. They were called Home Children.

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