Did CAS Know about Fonthill?

December 26, 2005 permalink

This article by Anne Marsden suggests that authorities brushed off warnings of abuses at Fonthill, site of the David S Horne home that housed the killer of Matthew Reid until less than a day before his murder.

expand

collapse

"WHAT HE SHUTS NO-ONE CAN OPEN"

By Anne Marsden

The above title, a scripture found in Revelations 3 vs. 7 in the NIV Holy Bible, was first given to me by a member of my church family who sought to comfort me after one of my sons had been abducted (that's what we believe it was) by the Halton Children's Aid Society and placed in a group home in Fonthill. It did not bring much comfort at the time but my husband and I have now begun to understand why the Lord sometimes shuts doors when no human understanding could possibly establish why? Our experience saw us enter a ministry which recently saw the release of a 3 year old Brantford girl from a very similar situation in less than a week. She is one of many children now reunited with the parents they should never have been taken from because of our experience.

My bible notes Friday, December 16, 2005 was the 13th anniversary of the door opening at the Fonthill group home after nine months of sheer misery for our son and the rest of the family. During his incarceration, we got to know a beautiful teenage girl who the family believed was being severely abused by the home foster parents. We reported the abuse to the Halton CAS, the Child and Family Advocacy Office, MPP Peter Kormos when we managed to speak to him personally on the telephone, and others. We also attempted to adopt her to get her out of the situation but "what He shuts no-one can open". We could not have possibly known that on Friday, December 16, 2005 we would see the same group home in Fonthill where the door was opened for us 13 years to the very day, on CH News. But that's exactly what happened. A fourteen year old girl was a resident there and within a short time of her release to a foster home, a three year old foster child resident was found murdered and the 14 year old girl charged in the murder. Perhaps if there is an inquest we can give evidence related to the abuse we know happened behind those Fonthill Group home doors to a girl of similar age as the one charged with murder, and no-one, including MPP Peter Kormos, would listen.

In 1999 we were faced with closed doors that again took us nine months to open, this time at Oakville Trafalgar Memorial Hospital and the family member was my mother. Christmas and her 80th birthday she spent isolated from her family. Family, including our son who knew what incarceration and isolation was, and friends were escorted out of OTMH by Halton Region police, even on Christmas Day. Today we face the same threats if we dare enter my mother's home Brantwood Lifecare Centre after 5:00 p.m. My husband does not finish work until 4:30 p.m. and evening was our visiting time. Again we have repeatedly reported the abuse that goes on behind the doors of Brantwood Lifecare Centre including the isolation of my mother from her family. Again, and more willingly this time we accept "what He shuts no-one can open" because we are assured by our experiences that the promises we read in the bible are true especially "all things work together for good."

A December 21, 2005 Auditors Publication