Hi there! This is the April/May 1999 edition of Tone newsletter. This issue contains a variety of articles. The newsletter's page is planned to be updated regularly. So come back and see what's new.
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The Voice of the Cerebral Palsied of Greater Vancouver and the Voice of the Cerebral Palsied Housing Society are hosting a joint Annual General Meeting at the Holiday Inn in Metrotown on Sunday. May 16th.
Please phone the office at 874-1741 before May 7th., if
you are planning to attend. Enclosed is a pull-out sheet listing the AGM's
agenda.1
Sincerely,
Alison O. Peyman
In the last Tone I told you about what motivated Yoshi and I to go on Choice in Supports for Independent Living (CSIL). In a nutshell: without prior consultation, our agency did away with our live-in attendants whom we chose to work with us, and replaced them with a number of attendants paid hourly, whom we had no choice about. We lost the flexibility of our 24 hour coverage. Instead, we were given specific time slots for the delivery of our care from which there was no deviation. Because we were extremely unhappy with this situation, we decided to apply for CSIL. After waiting approximately eight weeks we officially got on CSIL December 1st.
I am happy to report that everything is going very well for us. We have three regular staff whom we are pleased with. (One works during the week days and the other two work alternate weekends.) They all are very pleasant and obviously enjoy working with people.
When hiring attendants we look for applicants who speak English as their native language, are people oriented, intelligent, and enjoy cooking and cleaning. The one area we do not compromise on is hiring people who have English as their first language. We have found over the years that people who have English as their second language do not understand us. (We both have speech impairments.) Because we are constantly giving our staff directions verbally, it is critical that they are understood. Nothing is more frustrating and exhausting, to say nothing of time consuming, than constantly having to repeat oneself. We also want to develop rapport with our staff, something which cannot occur if there is a communication barrier. Other important traits include both a pleasant personality and a willingness to learn. Having these, any weaknesses in cooking or cleaning can usually be overcome. An unpleasant personality cannot be overcome. We are fortunate because all three of our staff have different strengths, and thus complement each other.
Of equal importance to having pleasant and competent regular staff, is having a list of numerous people who are willing to work on an on-call basis. In fact, one of the requirements of CSIL is to develop a back-up plan. Before we officially got on CSIL we started compiling a list of such people. Our preparations definitely paid off. So far, whenever an attendant has not been able to work we have been able to find fill-ins from our back-up list.
Any one who is interested in finding out more about CSIL can either phone us at the office at 874-1741 or Paul Gauthier at 681-1434.
The answer to that deceptively simple inquiry, which is not expected for several months, will make Canadian legal history. In 1993, the Supreme Court ruled that a child - "born alive" - could bring action for injuries suffered in the womb through the negligence of a third party. But the Court has never been asked if the mother is in the same position as the third party: that is, can the mother be held responsible for injury to her "born alive" child as a result of negligent conduct while pregnant? Is there any difference in the legal relationship between a mother and her fetus - and a third party and the fetus? What, for that matter, constitutes negligence during pregnancy?
During the hearing, which lasted for more than three hours, James and Ann MacAulay, lawyers for five-year-old Ryan, insisted that their case was narrowly focused: his mother simply owed the same duty of care to Ryan when she operated a motor vehicle as she owed to other people. They accepted that a fetus has no status as a person under Canadian law: last year, for example, the Supreme Court ruled that a pregnant woman, addicted to glue sniffing, could not be confined against her will - because "a pregnant woman and her unborn child are one." As Ryan's lawyers' statement to the court declared: "This is not a case asserting fetal rights. It is not an intrusion on a woman's fundamental human rights." They asked for a narrow ruling on the right to sue for negligent driving.
But the other parties to the case, as well as the judges themselves, clearly perceived the potentially explosive implications. In separate interventions, two church groups argued that the fetus was a distinct entity - and therefore the mother was in the same legal position as a third party. Abortion rights activists countered that if Cynthia Dobson were held accountable for her driving, pregnant mothers would face judicial scrutiny of their everyday activities - from shovelling the sidewalk to keeping their jobs. As Justice Frank Iacobucci noted: "Isn't that a significant decision in terms of saying to all pregnant women: 'You now have a duty owed to a fetus?'" Chief Justice Antonio Lamer added that the Court might be usurping the role of legislators with its decision: "It is a legislature undertaking that is difficult for the courts to do."
The Dobson case has transfixed - and troubled - the courts since its inception. In 1995, with Ryan's parents' tacit blessing, his maternal grandfather Gerald Price, acting as Ryan's so called litigation guardian, launched action against Cynthia Dobson and the driver of the other vehicle, alleging negligence. The Dobson family's insurance company, which has not been named, retained legal counsel to defend her - and to protect its own interests. The insurance firm has already agreed to an undisclosed settlement for Ryan, who lives with both parents. But if the boy wins the right to sue his mother, the company has agreed to make a further payment without the requirement of additional court proceedings. In early 1997, Justice Richard Miller of the New Brunswick Court of Queen's Bench concluded that Ryan could sue his mother for negligence while he was in the womb, adding that the implications of the decision were many fold. "Can a child at birth sue the mother because she used narcotics or drank alcoholic beverages?" he wondered. "Did the mother over-exercise [or] follow an unsafe diet program?" Later last year, three judges of the New Brunswick Court of Appeal agreed - although they considerably narrowed the grounds for their decision: Cynthia Dobson had a general duty to drive carefully - and this was not a duty "peculiar to parenthood". In effect, the court tried to draw a distinction between duties that any person owes to others and lifestyle choices during pregnancy.
Nothing in this case is simple including what constitutes ''general" duties. As Cynthia Dobson's lawyer, Robert Barnes, noted, the case has opened a Pandora's box. Where would a mother's general duty of care to a fetus end - and where would duties "peculiar to parenting" begin? Would the mother be excused from liability if the accident occurred while she was driving to her obstetrician's office? "A mother is inseparable from the fetus during the nine months of pregnancy," Barnes told Maclean's. "To equate her risk and her duty of care to that of a third party discriminates against her: she is always at greater risk of liability." With momentous consequences in the balance, it is perhaps no wonder that the judges themselves seemed daunted by Ryan's tragic question.
Reprinted from the December 21, 1998 issue of Maclean's magazine
Thompson was arrested on November 8th after walking into a Niagara Falls police station and telling the receptionist she wanted to speak to an officer. "I just happened to be going past at that time and I asked her if I could help her," said Det,-Sgt. Mike Gamble. After they spoke, "emergency crews were sent to the Thompson home and started working on the girl, Gamble said, "She was in distress when they found her." As for Brandie-Leigh's mother, he added, "there is no doubt in my mind that she loves her daughter and cares for her dearly. No doubt whatsoever."
While Thompson's lawyer, Charles Ryall, declined comment, friends, asking that their names be withheld, rallied to her support. They talked of her commitment to her daughter's welfare - which had left Thompson with "an unbelievable life" -and how she had become "increasingly demoralized" by the demands it made on her. They said the child was always in pain and had to be medicated, was fed through a tube into her stomach because she was incapable of swallowing safely, and had days when she could not even move and appeared to be comatose. Thompson's immediate family - her mother and brother live in Niagara Falls and her father runs a restaurant in the Niagara region community of Jordan -were described as "good, honest people." Brandie-Leigh's father lives in Hamilton.
But of those caught up in the tragedy, few were more moved by it than Gamble, a Niagara region police officer for 28 years. "I have had a lot of cases dealing with children being abused or dying at the hands of a parent or guardian, but those are usually referred to as shakenchild syndrome, " he said- "One thing you will find, not talking about this case, because I would not, but in other cases I have been familiar with, is that basically the parents have reached their limit. Emotionally, they short-circuit; they can not cope anymore. When I finished with the case, I came back to the office and I said to my partner, "I can not categorize anything I have in my life as a problem when you look at what some people go through.
Although Kitchen issued an order prohibiting the publication of evidence, it seemed inevitable that the case would revive the debate over mercy killing and provoke comparisons with the ongoing ordeal of Saskatchewan's Latimer family. Five years ago, farmer Robert Latimer killed his 12-year-old daughter, Tracy, disabled by cerebral palsy by putting her into the cab of his pickup and filling the interior with exhaust fumes. Convicted twice of second-degree murder (an appeal was sandwiched between the trials), Latimer could have been sentenced to life imprisonment with no parole for at least 10 years. Instead, he was given two years with only one to be served in custody. However, both he and the Crown are appealing- Latimer's lawyer argues that the penalty was too harsh and the prosecution says it was inadequate. Organisations representing the disabled sided with the Crown, contending that the sympathy for Latimer was misplaced.
The killing of Tracy Latimer led to one of the nation's most widely publicised criminal cases in recent years, but there have been others involving handicapped children since. In December, 1994, Cathy Wilkieson of Hamilton and her 16-year-old son, Ryan, died of carbon monoxide poisoning from exhaust fumes in a car in her parent's garage. The boy, who had cerebral palsy, was in his mother's arms when they were discovered. The 43-year-old Wilkieson left a suicide note in which she said she could no longer go on but could not leave her son behind.
Two years later, 44-year-old Danielle Blais of Montreal drowned her six year old autistic son Charles-Antoine in a bathtub. She slashed her wrists and then called police who got her to a hospital in time for doctors to save her life. Blais left a suicide note in which she criticised her son's school for not understanding the behavioural problems caused by autism, Blais eventually pleaded guilty to manslaughter and was given a 23-month suspended sentence.
Last week, as doctors remained hopeful
that Brandie-Leigh Thompson would survive and the legal system prepared
to deal with her mother, a social work professor at Wilfrid Laurier University
in Waterloo, Ont.; released a report critical of government cutbacks across
Canada in programs for the disabled. It is an urgent concern, says Peter
Dunn, because as the population ages, so will the number of disabled people.
And so, predictably, will the number of families living their lives in
anguish.
Reprinted from the November 23, 1998 issue of Maclean's magazine
Anne McLellan said yesterday she was weighing her options and would decide whether to get involved in the case should it proceed to the high court. "It is a very important issue, and therefore I am seriously considering whether I on behalf of the government of Canada, will intervene," she said outside the Commons.
A spokesman for the minister said later that the government's position on the issue would not be made public until the court decides whether it Will hear the case.
Latimer filed the application Monday seeking the court's permission to appeal a recent life sentence with no chance of parole for ten years.
He will argue the sentence was cruel and unusual punishment as defined under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms in his circumstances, because he killed his severely disabled daughter in 1993 to spare her constant pain.
Latimer's counsel will also try to persuade the high court to hear the case on the grounds that juror's did not know how small a role they would play in sentencing when they handed down the conviction.
They will also argue the jury should have decided for itself whether Latimer's defence of necessity - that he had no option but to kill his daughter - was valid.
McLellan said she would
decide within the coming month whether the government would intervene.
Reprinted from the November 26, 1998
issue of the Province
A Kamloops mother who harmed her special-needs daughter by sabotaging her medical treatment has been denied a second chance to raise the girl. Instead the 12-year-old will remain in the care of child, family and community services and live with the foster family with whom she has flourished for the past two years.
The mother, identified in BC Supreme Court documents as B.S., lives with anti-government crusader Kari Simpson and her family in Langley.
In an earlier decision against B.S.; family court judge Phillip Collings labelled Simpson "a fanatic, " a description endorsed by Justice Mary Boyd, who dismissed the appeal by B.S. "I am a fanatic," Simpson, executive-director, of the Citizens Research Institute, shot back yesterday, "...about the truth."
She said the judges have refused to hear evidence she claims shows the girl's condition continued to decline after B.S. was banished from her bedside and improved only after medical staff stopped giving the girl, R.S., heavy doses of drugs.
"They poisoned her at Children's Hospital," claimed Simpson, who threatens suit against the hospital, the child services director and two directors. "The social workers are not smart enough to question the doctors- Instead, we have everybody covering each other's backside."
R.S. was born with cerebral palsy and is mentally disabled- She was adopted by B.S. when she was four.
Four years ago she developed a feeding problem and went to Children's Hospital where doctors decided to insert a tube to help her feeding. But after months of treatment, staff could not explain R.S.'s recurring, life-threatening infections.
Their suspicions fell on B.S., whom an expert said suffers from Munchausen syndrome, a rare psychological condition that causes a person to seek approval even if it involves hurting someone in their care. B.S. was never diagnosed with the condition, but Judge Collings still found she had harmed her daughter, a finding upheld by higher judges.
"Following B.S.'s departure, the child enjoyed an almost miraculous recovery," wrote Justice Boyd in her reasons for judgement. " ... I find that the court's original findings were clear - B.S. was found to have harmed R.S. by sabotaging her medical treatment."
Justice Boyd found "ample evidence"
to support Judge Collings's impression that B.S. is 'an individual steeped
in denial, whose mind-set was re-inforced by a distaste for the medical
profession and a hostility towards authority."
Reprinted from the December 10, 1998
issue of the Province
As a small business owner, Shaw hopes that a small cut in income taxes will help her run a profitable business in B.C. as she sees others fleeing the country.
As a cerebral palsy sufferer, Van Biesen hopes the promise of new health care dollars will add up to an improvement in her very low standard of living.
Shaw hopes a three-per-cent cut in taxes on income of more than $50,000 will put more dollars into the economy and make her fledging company, Lunapads, more competitive. "When people have a little more money, they spend more money, and that helps the economy," said Shaw, 31, who sells her "world's finest" reusable menstrual pads in Canada and Australia, With her aim set on the lucrative U.S. market. "There's a huge underground economy"
"The more taxes go up, the more people cheat, and then they raise the tax rate to make up for lost revenue."
Shaw manufactured her own clothing line but the tax bite made her switch products. "I had been working in the fashion industry for six years, and I kept watching people closing their doors," she said. "We are trying to stop the brain drain. People in every tax bracket who get a break are going to be willing to spend that money."
For Van Biesen, 37, making do on $771 per month is a daily struggle, and she has watched services deteriorate over the years. "Why don't they contact the people who are using the system, and ask, 'How can we make it better?" We used to share round-the-clock service among five people in my building. Now I only get 12 ½ hours a week, and that includes physiotherapy, cleaning, cooking and shopping."
Van Biesen says she is encouraged if services are being restored, but has been fighting for the - right to choose her own caregivers. "With the disabled community, the government has always taken a paternal role, " she said. "I think people with disabilities should be able to direct their own care.
Shaw will not believe the budgetary good news until she sees the proof. "I am basically mistrustful of the difference between what the government says and what it does," she said- "We still have the GST
"When things change for Karen, I will believe it is happening.
Reprinted from the February 17, 1999
issue of the Province
Washington Post WASHINGTON: Sophisticated x-ray studies conducted on a single hair may reveal whether? woman has breast cancer, and could ultimately help doctors diagnose other cancers, new research suggests.
If the test's value if confirmed, however, it could be done for a "few dollars" on hairs received by mail, and could be offered to women without access to mammograms. ...
[Researchers] found that hairs from breast cancer patients generate atypical x-ray images when they are exposed to high-intensity beams from a "third generation" synchrotron, a radiation-generating machine....
Combined results of scalp and pubic hair tests, published today in the journal Nature, were positive for all 23 women with breast cancer diagnosed. ...
Preliminary studies show other, unique
abnormalities in hairs from people with other kinds on cancer.
Reprinted from the March 4,1999 issue
of the Sun
*Editor's Note
Excerpts of the article are Included in
Tone because this procedure would greatly benefit women with CP and other
disabilities who find it difficult or Impossible to have mammograms. I
caution readers that the results to date are only preliminary. Let's hope
that future studies confirm the accuracy of the test.
The Voice of the Cerebral Palsied of Greater
Vancouver
NEWSLETTER COMMITTEE
Suite 103, 577 East 8th Avenue,
Vancouver, B. C.
V5T 1S9
Production:
Chairperson of the Board of Directors - Ted
Nelson
Executive Director - Yoshinori Tanabe
Chairperson of the Newsletter Committee -
Laurette Yelle
Webmaster - Derek Isobe
Editorship - Newsletter Committee
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