Province has ‘no knowledge’ of abuse in treatment facility
Posted Jul 20, 2010 05:53:57 AM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Community services officials in Nova Scotia say they have no knowledge of a Cole Harbour-area boy being abused in an Ontario treatment facility.
Last Sunday the 15-year-old called relatives in Nova Scotia to say he was thrown to the floor, punched in the ribs and kneed in the throat after trying to go to the bathroom against staff orders.
Community Services Director of Child Welfare Vicki Wood says she can’t speak about this specific case.
“I can talk about the fact that some children who have behaviour disorders, part of the reason they’re receiving treatment is violent, aggressive behaviour,” she said. “They may attack other people.”
The boy’s family, through an advocate, is calling for an investigation of the alleged abuse and for him to be removed until a treatment program can be set up for him in Nova Scotia.
While Wood couldn’t comment on the abuse allegation, she says the family has been fighting to have the boy returned to Nova Scotia for more than a year.
“There’s a forum for the family to bring their concerns forward and that would be the court, not a press conference,” she said. “It’s ultimately a judge that’s going to make that decision.”
Wood says the boy was sent out of province because of his unique needs, which exceed what the province can help with.
A Nova Scotia Supreme Court judge ruled last summer that the boy needed treatment in Ontario for behavioural issues that made him “totally out of control.”
