Dale Brazao

Nobody pushes Judy Finlay around, especially the Ontario government. Finlay, who as the child advocate is charged with protecting the rights of some 23,000 children in the province's care, says the government can huff and puff all it wants, but it won't blow her office away. In a wide-ranging interview with the Star yesterday, a feisty Finlay said she has no intention of signing a contract that would effectively eliminate her independence and destroy her ability to protect the most vulnerable children in our society.

"Since 1996, six children have died in group homes or institutions in Ontario," she said. "The rate of one death per year of children in care is unprecedented.
"All of these deaths were avoidable and unnecessary."

Finlay is currently investigating a seventh death, which occurred at the Toronto Youth Assessment Centre. An inquest is expected in the fall in the case of 16-year-old David Meffe, who hanged himself at the institution last November.

She says she had warned the government about the dangerous conditions at the detention centre a year before the death. "I was beating my breast about TYAC, but the government wasn't making any progress in addressing the conditions," she said. The Ontario government may pay her salary, but "the children are my clients."

Finlay has been child advocate for 13 years, but it is only now that she believes she has to take the government on in public to protect her office. The contract she is refusing to sign would allow the Ministry of Community, Family and Children's Services to oversee her investigations of its treatment of children under its charge. The contract orders her to submit all her reports, findings and press releases to the ministry for approval before they can be released.

She believes the contract is being forced on her as payback for her involvement in two embarrassing and costly lawsuits against the government.

Last fall, the government agreed to pay almost $1 million to 12 young men who say they were abused during a night of violence that began at Bluewater Youth Centre in Goderich and ended at Elgin-Middlesex Detention Centre in London. The incidents took place during a public-service strike six years ago.

A second, ongoing lawsuit has 2,000 parents of severely disabled children suing Ontario for $500 million, alleging they were forced to give up custody of their kids in order to get the care the children desperately needed.

The issue has become a hot potato at Queen's Park, with the opposition attacking the government for trying to muzzle Finlay, whose office employs 10 children's advocates across the province. Premier Ernie Eves has denied there is any wrongdoing. Brenda Elliott, minister of community, family and children's services, declined to comment yesterday, but a spokesperson for the ministry said the contract row is merely "a human resources issue."

Finlay said she has no plans to resign and doesn't think the government will fire her. She said she refuses to be bullied, believing the independence of her office may mean saving the lives of some of the children she is charged with looking after. In other cases, it may mean saving entire families.

More than 100 families were forced to give up custody of their children because it was the only way the province would pay for the children's care, Finlay says, adding it can cost as much as $200,000 a year to care for a severely disabled child.

Families decided to sue the province after a series of stories in the Star detailed how the Harris government had eliminated a mandated program to provide funding for disabled children's care as a cost-cutting measure. That left families with no choice but to give up their children to children's aid societies to get them the proper care. In the Star stories, Finlay's office criticized the province for its harsh treatment of parents.

"I think that people should be outraged that parents are having to give up their severely disabled children in order to get them the treatment they need," Finlay said.

Over the past several years, Finlay has written more than 50 reports, most of them highly critical of the government.

Her most disturbing findings included the excessive use of force in handling young offenders, and the use of dangerous physical and chemical restraints on youths with disabilities. She also highlighted poorly equipped facilities where bed sheets cover the windows and exposed light bulbs pose safety hazards.

She also noted that children in some institutions are forbidden from playing outside because of noise complaints from neighbours. Her work has made her a target outside government offices as well. In the past three years, Finlay has been victimized by vandals, and harassment by a stalker forced her to move from her downtown home to a suburban location. Sugar has been poured into her gas tank and a dead squirrel thrown on to her porch.

Despite the harassment, Finlay is resolved to remain on the job until she can safely pass the torch on to another advocate. She is pushing to be given the autonomy that will allow her to report directly to the Legislature instead of to the ministry.

"If I leave now, the government will dismantle this office," she said. "So I'm not giving up."

See Toronto Star feature in CYC-ONLINE for July (url)

By Patricia Orwen
7 July 2003

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