Save a Life

November 25, 2008 permalink

A mother appeals for help in saving the life of her son, Austyn Eric Ryder, who is hospitalized from injuries inflicted in his Ontario foster home. The messages below were posted to Facebook by Cassandra Robillard on November 24, 2008. She is in the Pacific time zone, we have adjusted the postings to Eastern time.

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My son has been beaten! Pass this on!

8:20 pm

I just found out today that my oldest son was beaten so bad in the foster home hes in that he was hospitalized. I was not even notified because they are trying to cover it up and I also found out this is the second time it has happened. He is connected to wires and a heart monitor now I was told. He just turned twelve yesterday. And to top it all off the CAS assholes who did this to him are putting him right back in the home with the abuser saying there is nothing they can do. I am in fear of my son's safety and that of his two brothers in the care of that CAS office and those people running it.

Everyone needs to call/write/email their MP's and MPP's and express their outrage and demand accountability! The office that did this is the Atikokan office in the Fort Frances Rainy River District of Ontario.

9:17 pm

Apparently someone called them and the foster parent called me. My son also told me they took my number away from him and said he can't call me unless they say he can.

The foster parent called me and insisted my son wasn't beaten and is not hurt. My son kept saying in the background that she was a liar. He told me all this about what happened in front of the worker who never said anything or corrected anything. I don't know what to think or believe, but after what they have done to my children I don't believe them. They are going to be calling me at 7:30 am my time in the morning to talk to me about it I was told. I will be taping the conversation.

10:23 pm

Tomorrow I will be taping the phone call, should it come and there had better be a better explanation of what happened to my son, and not a lie covering up the truth, than the two different stories I got today.

I do know my son is desperate to come home and says so all the time and they keep cutting off contact between us.

Have to wait and see what happens now but I'm still filing complaints regardless because if my son is the one not telling the truth then it's because he's crying out for help because of what they have done to my children.

10:56 pm

What I don't understand is this: my son calls me from the CAS office, with the worker standing right there — I can hear him — and my son is telling me all this stuff about what happened to him and the worker can hear it because he's making the odd comment in the background but he doesn't say anything about what my son is saying to me? Then what 3-4 hours later the foster parent calls and insists my son is lying and he's yelling in the background not to believe her that she's the liar?

None of it makes sense, to me anyway.

Source: Facebook

Addendum: The following email was followed up by a call to Howard Hampton's Queens Park Office.

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November 25, 2008

Howard Hampton
MPP, Kenora--Rainy River
Rm 114, Main Legislative Building, Queen's Park
Toronto ON M7A 1A5

Tel 416-325-8300
Fax 416-325-8222
hhampton-qp@ndp.on.ca

copy: Cassandra Robillard
[ sassybrat at shaw.ca ]

Subject: Austyn Eric Ryder

Honorable Mr Hampton:

A child's life is in danger. Austyn Eric Ryder, age twelve years, resides in a foster home in Fort Frances, under the care of Atikokan office of children's aid. Yesterday his mother found out that her son was taken by ambulance to Atikokan hospital for treatment of injuries sustained in the foster home. It is the second incident. Children's aid did not notify the mother either time. A set of messages posted online by the mother is copied below.

Ontario's children's aid societies routinely remove children from homes much less dangerous than that of Austyn Ryder. In this case, the boy should be removed from his current home, not after months of investigation, but today. As the MPP representing Fort Frances, you are one of the few people who may help this life-saving action to take place.

The mother Cassandra Robillard lives in British Columbia and can be reached by email at [ sassybrat at shaw.ca ]. She named the foster parent as Brab Wragg and says the injury was inflicted by a teenager in the same foster home. I believe the phone for children's aid in Atikokan is 807-597-2700.

Robert T McQuaid
558 McMartin Road
Mattawa Ontario P0H 1V0

phone: 705-744-6274
email: [ rtmq at fixcas.com ]

( followed by a copy of the postings of Cassandra Robillard )