McGuinty no friend to autoworkers: Hampton
Dalson Chen, Windsor Star
Published: Tuesday, September 11, 2007
TORONTO - Dalton McGuinty has been bad for the auto sector, despite his endorsement by CAW leader Buzz Hargrove, according to Ontario NDP leader Howard Hampton.
"Mr. Hargrove is entitled to his opinion, but the evidence is in. I was in Windsor last week -- 35,000 jobs destroyed in the auto sector," said Hampton on Monday morning in Toronto .
Hampton also pointed to GM layoffs in Oshawa . "It's pretty tough to argue that this government has been good for the auto sector when you see literally tens of thousands of auto sector jobs being lost ... almost on a weekly basis."
Hampton made the comments after delivering a speech to kick off the Ontario NDP's campaign bus tour leading up to the Oct. 10 election.
For the next 30 days, Hampton will visit communities across the province to drum up support for his "fair deal" for modest and middle-income families.
"That's what this election is all about," Hampton said. "A fair deal. Not more broken promises, not more disappointment."
In April, Hargrove pledged his support to the provincial Liberals, and told CAW members that "strategic voting" is necessary to prevent a majority Progressive Conservative government.
But standing before a bus emblazoned with the orange NDP logo, Hampton accused Ontario Liberal Premier Dalton McGuinty of failing to deliver the positive change he promised in the 2003 election.
"What did he deliver? A $40,000 pay raise for himself. That was more important to him than increasing the minimum wage to $10 an hour, or helping children with autism."
According to Hampton , McGuinty has given multimillion-dollar payouts to his "Hydro executive" friends, but has only offered "a shrug and weak excuses" for laid off workers. "That's the record of the McGuinty government."
In his wide-ranging attack speech, Hampton criticized the Ontario Liberals on such issues as lost manufacturing jobs, struggling rural communities, "unfair" property taxes, hospital wait times, and "internationally trained doctors delivering pizzas instead of babies, while one million Ontarions can't find a family doctor."
Hampton predicted that the Ontario voting public won't be fooled again.
Later in the day during a stop in Hamilton , Hampton continued his attack.
"Dalton McGuinty will promise anything," scoffed Hampton .
"I understand he was even here the other day promising to help Hamilton get a NHL team. He must know something about (NHL Commissioner) Gary Bettman the rest of us don't know," said Hampton, a lifelong hockey enthusiast.
"You talk about something that's completely absurd. As I say, he will promise anything."
Hampton told members of the media and about 50 placard-carrying supporters that Hamiltonians "have gotten a raw deal from the McGuinty government.
"If there's a city in this province that represents working people -- people who work hard, people who pay their taxes, people who contribute to their community, people who are responsible -- this is it."
© The Windsor Star 2007
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Ottawa Citizen
Opposition leaders attack McGuinty's credibility
Lee Greenberg, CanWest News Service
OTTAWA — Ontario ’s opposition leaders maintained their attack on Dalton McGuinty’s credibility Tuesday — the same day the Liberal premier literally sidestepped the faith-based school’s issue by ignoring his Catholic alma mater in favour of a secular public school.
Asked about the decision, which comes during a campaign centred on the school funding issue, McGuinty downplayed his choice. “I’ve visited many Catholic schools during my (mandate),” he said in French, adding that the campaign “has just started.”
McGuinty recently called faith-based schools segregationist and suggested they could have a negative impact on social cohesion, despite being a product of a faith-based school himself.
In campaign stops around the Greater Toronto Area Progressive Conservative Leader John Tory hammered the premier over his ill-fated promise not to hike taxes if elected. NDP_Leader Howard Hampton also accused McGuinty of failing to help children with autism, while also challenging his counterparts to debate him on northern Ontario issues, in a northern Ontario community.
Proponents of religious school funding saw McGuinty’s choice on Tuesday to visit Charles H. Hulse Public School as significant.
The school is within spitting distance of McGuinty’s Catholic high school, St. Patrick’s.
“We note with interest that two doors down, there’s a Catholic school that is fully supported by the government of Ontario ,” Bernie Farber, chief executive officer of the Canadian Jewish Congress said.
“St. Patrick’s High school serves as a model of how we can integrate other faith based schools into our public education system.”
Farber and others have labelled McGuinty a hypocrite for excluding Catholic facilities from his attack on faith-based schools.
McGuinty, his wife Terri and the couple’s four kids all attended schools in the Catholic system. Terri still teaches part-time in a Catholic board.
His opponents complain the premier’s position focuses only on other religious schools and not those run by the Catholic board.
“He’s said in not so many words that the Catholic community can be trusted not to cause social unrest and not to be segregationist while all other faith communities cannot,” Farber last week.
Public school funding is a focal point for election interest in Ontario , where voters will go to the polls Oct. 10.
Ontario has long-funded only Catholic schools and none of any other religions, an arrangement that dates back to Confederation.
Tory reignited a long-simmering debate when he promised to extend full funding to all religious schools. The policy corrects what he believes is an unfair system.
McGuinty, who as opposition leader held much the same position as Tory but has since changed course, on Tuesday dismissed any thought of dismantling the current arrangement.
Tuesday also marked the fourth anniversary of McGuinty signing a pledge drafted by the Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF) stating he would “not raise taxes or implement new taxes without the explicit consent of Ontario voters.”
After he was elected, his Liberal government introduced the Ontario health premium, which costs middle-class residents an average of $750 annually.
“Dalton McGuinty not only broke his promise not to raise taxes, he shattered it beyond any recognition,” Tory told reporters at a Toronto press conference on Tuesday morning.
Tory noted the Liberal leader also pledged not to run a deficit, but government did just that during their first two years in office.
“If you held a competition and invited all the best screenwriters, conspiracy theorists, filmmakers – everybody – and asked them to dream up the stereotypical scandal of a politician breaking his promises and eroding the public trust, you would be hard pressed to come up with something worse than the McGuinty health tax,” Tory said.
John Williamson, CTF president, on Monday presented Tory with a framed original copy of Mr. McGuinty’s pledge.
“I think a lot of people – our group included – have branded the premier a liar,” Williamson said.
Tory himself has refused to refer to his Liberal rival as a “liar,” instead saying McGuinty “broke many, many promises” and “failed to keep his word.”
But Liberals were quick to condemn Williamson’s choice of words. Greg Sorbara, the finance minister and liberal campaign’s chairman, said he was “saddened by the quality of the rhetoric.”
“When a party and a campaign go exclusively negative, it usually means they’re in a freefall,” Sorbara said in an interview.
But Tory remained focused on the health tax throughout the day, devoting a substantial portion of a speech to business people in Oakville to the same issue.
Tory’s message is being reinforced in attack ads the Conservatives began airing on Tuesday on television stations across the province.
Built around the theme “Promises made, promises broken,” the four 30-second ads focus on commitments McGuinty has failed to keep in relation to crime, the environment, taxes and the treatment of autistic children.
New Democratic Partly Leader Howard Hampton picked up on the issues of services for children with autism on Tuesday.
But Hampton remained vague about the Ontario NDP’s own financial plans for helping the needy group.
“We’ll be laying out exactly how we’re going to approach this issue in some detail in a couple days,” Hampton said. “I’ll be happy to lay it out in a couple days. Along with some other educational services that are interlinked and interwoven.”
Hampton made the comments at a Richmond Hill , Ont. centre for children with autism and special needs called Leaps and Bounds.
The parents of autistic children took the McGuinty government to court in 2003 over a broken election promise to fund what is known as intensive behaviour intervention (IBI) for autistic children over six years of age. They won that initial decision, but the province appealed, arguing the intensive one-on-one process works best for children under age six and that other forms of treatment work better for older children.
In July 2006, the government won the appeal, and earlier this year the Supreme Court of Canada announced it would not hear their appeal case.
Although the McGuinty government has since eliminated the age cutoff, Hampton said the Ontario NDP has discovered — after much trouble — that it cost the government $2.4 million in legal fees to fight the families in court.
“We want to quantify that for you. $2.4 million would’ve provided IBI treatment for 50 children,” said Hampton .
At a later campaign stop in Sudbury he challenged his counterparts to a debate on northern issues.
“Let’s give them a chance,” said Hampton standing outside the Club Age D’Or centre for seniors in Sudbury on Tuesday afternoon. “I’m going to continue to raise the issues of northern Ontario . If Mr. McGuinty and Mr. Tory aren’t up to it, I think what it indicates is they don’t take the challenges that Northern Ontario faces very seriously.”
Hampton, a native of the northwestern Ontario community of Fort Frances , said that throwing down the gauntlet was necessary due to the severity of the problems faced by northern Ontario such as doctor shortages, lack of long-term care, an inadequate level of children’s services, major job losses and the migration of workers elsewhere.
- with files from Dalson Chen ( Windsor Star) and James Cowan ( National Post)
©Ottawa Citizen 2007
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Vancouver Province
Money for religious schools an early issue in Ontario election
CanWest News Service
Published: Tuesday, September 11, 2007
TORONTO -- An already-stormy Ontario provincial election officially kicked off yesterday Premier Dalton McGuinty dropped the writ on what he called "one of the most important elections" in the province's history.
McGuinty signalled his intention to hammer his Conservative rival, John Tory, over Tory's plan to fund religious schools.
"Publicly funded education is at the heart of our agenda," McGuinty told reporters.
Tory has been on the campaign trail for a week, much of the time defending the proposal to extend public funding to Christian fundamentalist, Jewish, Muslim and other faith-based schools.
The Liberals, who held 67 seats in the legislature at dissolution, contend the plan would suck $400 million in funding from public schools.
Ontario fully funds Catholic schools, but none run by other religious groups.
Tory, whose Conservatives held 25 seats at Queen's Park, vowed to make "leadership" the central issue of the campaign, saying McGuinty has broken too many promises.
"You cannot lead if you have lost credibility, if trust has been broken," Tory said.
Tory was flanked by 45 black-and-white signs, each listing a promise supposedly broken by McGuinty's Liberals.
"Mr. McGuinty promised not to raise taxes and raised them," Tory said.
The Conservatives have promised if elected to eliminate the controversial Ontario health premium tax, which currently generates $2.6-billion a year.
The Conservatives have also promised to cut $1.5-billion in government spending, cap property-tax assessment increases at five per cent and move government jobs out of Toronto to communities that have lost jobs in the manufacturing sector.
NDP Leader Howard Hampton said dental care, municipalities, a freeze on tuition fees, global warming and green energy top his proposals.
"They're all about making life more affordable for hard-working modest and middle-income families," said Hampton .
Hampton also slammed McGuinty.
"What did he deliver? A $40,000 pay raise for himself. That was more important to him than increasing the minimum wage to $10 an hour, or helping children with autism," said Hampton .
Hampton, whose party has 10 seats in the legislature, also said working families would not find any comfort with Tory, alleging that the Conservatives seek "profit-driven, private hospitals" and "expensive, environmentally risky" nuclear plants.
Voters go to the polls on Oct. 10.
© The Vancouver Province 2007
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National Post
The election race is officially on in Ontario
CanWest News Service
Published: Monday, September 10, 2007
TORONTO - An already-testy provincial election got underway Monday with a warning from Premier Dalton McGuinty, who said if elected, his opponents would deplete public services and return the province to days of "conflict, cuts and division."
But McGuinty, whose Liberals held 67 seats in the legislature at dissolution, didn't apologize for breaking a now-famous pledge not to raise taxes.
"I was faced with a difficult choice. I made a decision," he said, referring to his government's $2.6 billion health tax, a levy Conservatives - who are lead by John Tory - call the biggest in the province's history.
Conservative party leader John Tory. (Bruno Schlumberger, The Ottawa Citizen)
"Mr. Tory says he disagrees with me. I know what he would have done - he would have closed still more hospitals."
The premier said voters will now have to decide on Oct. 10 if they are happy with the legacy of that broken promise, increased public-sector spending on things like teacher salaries and nurses.
Tory, whose Conservatives held 25 seats at Queen's Park, vowed on Monday to make "leadership" the central issue of the Ontario election campaign, saying McGuinty has broken too many promises. "You cannot lead if you have lost credibility, if trust has been broken," Tory told reporters minutes after the election officially began. "Keeping your promises matters."
Tory was flanked by 45 black-and-white signs, each listing a promise supposedly broken by McGuinty's Liberals.
While the promises ranged from blocking development on the Oak Ridges Moraine - a belt of rolling hills that runs north of Toronto eastward toward Peterborough - to diverting 60 per cent of municipal waste away from landfill to closing coal-fired power plants, the most important broken promise to the Conservative campaign is McGuinty's introduction of the Ontario health premium after he promised not to raise taxes.
"Mr. McGuinty promised not to raise taxes and raised them," Tory said. "I think he has mislead voters, I think he has been less than straightforward with voters and I think he will be held to account for that. It is going to be a major issue because people have the right to know that their leaders are going to tell them the truth."
The Conservatives have promised if elected to eliminate the controversial tax, which generates $2.6 billion in revenue annually.
The PCs have also pledged to cut $1.5 billion in government spending, cap property tax assessment increases at five per cent and move government jobs out of Toronto to communities that have lost jobs in the manufacturing sector.
McGuinty raised on Monday the spectre of former Conservative premier Mike Harris, who executed a radical agenda of tax and spending cuts. McGuinty said Tory offers voters "the same old failed Conservative approach - one that will take us backwards."
"He said he'd find $1.5 billion in efficiencies ... but he's not prepared to tell us where," McGuinty said. "Well, we've seen that movie before. They found efficiencies last time by closing hospitals, by firing nurses and by increasing wait times."
The two leaders have already tangled over Tory's plan to fund religious schools, a controversial issue that Liberals say will ghettoize minority communities.
Tory has already been on the campaign trail for a week visiting ridings in the Toronto area. And much of his time has been spent defending the proposal to extend public funding to Jewish, Muslim and other faith-based schools.
The Liberals contend the plan would suck $400 million in funding from public schools and are attempting to cast the election as a referendum on the future of Ontario 's education system.
McGuinty on Monday emphasized his party's support for public education. "Publicly funded education is at the heart of our agenda," he told reporters at Queen's Park. "Nothing is more important to building the society we want and the economy we need."
The faith-based school issue has quickly become a flashpoint in the provincial election, with McGuinty portraying himself as the defender of the public system. Not so long ago, however, McGuinty proposed much the same fix to what he saw as "inequities" in the current system.
Ontario fully funds Catholic schools and none run by other religious groups.
Asked Monday when he changed his position, McGuinty ducked the question: "People know what I ran on last time," he said.
McGuinty was formally nominated in his Ottawa South riding Monday night where he told a surprised crowd that his first stop would be to hospital where his mother, Elizabeth, was recouperating from emergency surgery after falling downstairs and breaking her hip.
"You know how I know she's doing fine? Because when I was talking to her earlier ... she said 'if you don't win the election you're out of the family," he joked. "(That) is so typical of my mom."
NDP_Leader Howard Hampton said Monday modest and middle-income families disappointed by the McGuinty government will get a "fair deal" with Ontario New Democrats.
"That's what this election is all about," said Hampton . "It's what they deserve. A fair deal. Not more broken promises, not more disappointment."
McGuinty later singled out Ontarians who were considering parking their vote with the New Democrats.
"Only one of two parties is going to win this election. And those who are considering voting for the NDP need to understand there's only one party that can form a government that can continue to invest in public services that will champion the needs of families," he said.
Elements of the NDP election platform include: dental care for those without coverage, help for farmers, support for municipalities, a freeze on tuition fees, environmental programs to fight global warming and encourage green energy, and a property tax assessment model that especially protects seniors and those on fixed incomes.
"These and other ideas, we will be discussing over the coming weeks. They're all about making life more affordable for hard-working modest and middle-income families," said Hampton, who later campaigned in Hamilton .
Questioned on how the NDP would pay for its platform, Hampton said a detailed fiscal plan will be laid out later this week.
"It will show how we intend to have a balanced budget, and pay for the proposals that we've outlined."
Hampton, who shares space at Queen's Park with nine other NDP_MPPs, also said working families would not find any comfort with Tory, alleging that the Progressive Conservatives seek "profit-driven, private hospitals" and "expensive, environmentally risky and unreliable" nuclear plants.
Hampton noted that Tory "quietly" supported the McGuinty government's $40,000 pay hike for MPPs in December 2006.
"Mr. Tory's Conservatives are sounding a lot like the Liberals these days," Hampton said.
As it stands, the campaign is the closest in years, with Tory running at 36 per cent popularity, just five points behind McGuinty.
Liberal support stands at 41 per cent, according to the Ipsos Reid poll, but is waning in the so-called 905 region, a suburban belt surrounding Toronto . The 905 district has been instrumental in propelling recent provincial governments to Queen's Park, both Liberal and Conservative.
According to the poll, the New Democratic and Green parties trail at 17 per cent and six per cent, respectively.
The Ipsos Reid telephone poll, which was conducted with a random sample of 801 respondents between Aug. 30 and Sept. 8, is considered accurate within 3.5 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.
At dissolution one seat was vacant at Queen's park, which is expanding from 103 to 107 seats in this election
- with files from Lee Greenberg ( Ottawa Citizen), James Cowan (National Post) and Dalson Chen ( Windsor Star)
© CanWest News Service 2007
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Windsor Star
Attacks kick off Ontario election campaign
Dalson Chen, CanWest News Service
TORONTO -- Modest and middle-income families disappointed by the McGuinty government will get a "fair deal" with the Ontario NDP, said Howard Hampton.
"That's what this election is all about," said the leader of the provincial New Democrats on Monday morning. "It's what they deserve. A fair deal. Not more broken promises, not more disappointment."
Ontario NDP Leader Howard Hampton. (Dan Janisse, Windsor Star)
Hampton made the comments in front of Queen's Park as the NDP's campaign for the Oct. 10 provincial election began in earnest.
Standing before a bus emblazoned with the NDP logo that will tour across Ontario over the next 30 days, Hampton accused Liberal Leader Dalton McGuinty of failing to deliver the positive change he promised in the 2003 election.
"What did he deliver? A $40,000 pay raise for himself. That was more important to him than increasing the minimum wage to $10 an hour, or helping children with autism."
According to Hampton , McGuinty has given multi-million dollar payouts to his "Hydro executive" friends, but has only offered "a shrug and weak excuses" for laid off workers. "That's the record of the McGuinty government."
In his wide-ranging attack speech, Hampton criticized the Liberals on issues such as lost manufacturing jobs, struggling rural communities, "unfair" property taxes, hospital wait times, and "internationally trained doctors delivering pizzas instead of babies, while one million Ontarians can't find a family doctor."
Hampton predicted that Ontario voters won't be fooled again.
"Four years ago, they put their trust in Dalton McGuinty. Now they recognize that Mr. McGuinty will say anything, promise anything to get their votes -- but won't do anything about those promises after the election."
With the bulk of Hampton 's salvos aimed at McGuinty, he only took time to fire a few criticisms at Progressive Conservative Leader John Tory.
Hampton said working families would not find any comfort with Tory, alleging the Progressive Conservatives seek "profit-driven, private hospitals" and "expensive, environmentally risky and unreliable" nuclear plants.
Hampton noted that Tory "quietly" supported the McGuinty government's $40,000 pay hike for MPPs in December 2006.
"Mr. Tory's Conservatives are sounding a lot like the Liberals these days," Hampton said.
Features of the NDP election platform pointed out by Hampton included dental care for those without coverage, help for farmers, support for municipalities, a freeze on tuition fees, environmental programs to fight global warming and encourage green energy, and a property tax assessment model that especially protects seniors and those on fixed incomes.
"These and other ideas, we will be discussing over the coming weeks. They're all about making life more affordable for hard-working modest and middle-income families," Hampton said.
Questioned on how the NDP would pay for their platform, Hampton said a detailed fiscal plan will be laid out later this week.
"It will show how we intend to have a balanced budget, and pay for the proposals that we've outlined."
Windsor Star
©CanWest News Service 2007
From a listmate
The Kingston Whig Standard
Youth mental health an issue; Candidates agree more money needed to alleviate problems
Posted By Ian Elliot
Posted 4 days ago
The first all-candidates event of the 2007 provincial election took place at Portsmouth Olympic Harbour last night with a forum on mental-health issues among children and youth.
It is an issue that no candidate could outright oppose, and last night's forum, organized by the Ontario Public Service Employees Union and six local mental-health agencies for children and youth, saw four of the candidates running to represent Kingston and the Islands on Oct. 10 give their own nuanced positions on the issue.
Organizers brought in an expert panel of speakers in the area, but most of the questions from the audience were not addressed to the panel - who uniformly believed more money needs to be pumped into the field and barriers between ministries and agencies broken down - but to the politicians, who also acknowledged many of the same problems.
"There's no question that much more needs to be done," said Liberal MPP John Gerretsen in response to a question from Bob Eaton, a regional vice-president with OPSEU, saying that services for children and youth are not centrally co-ordinated but are overseen by individual ministries as diverse as health, justice and education.
"We owe it to our young people to ensure they get the services they need."
John Rapin, an emergency-room physician running for the Conservatives, noted that the provincial government is pouring money into autism treatment, but only because parents took the government to court to force them to provide treatment.
"Maybe everyone else should get together and sue the provincial government also," he mused.
And Rick Downes, a local vice-principal who is running under the NDP banner, said that the whole mental-health system is triggered by crisis rather than by a multi-year plan.
"The problem with the system now is that we are constantly dealing with crisis and the solution is not to spend a couple of million dollars here and there - we need to look at the entire system."
Green party candidate Bridget Doherty said her party would put nurses back in school to help diagnose problems earlier and establish five new substance abuse centres.
Dr. Abel Ickowicz, the chief of psychiatry at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto and one of the speakers at the event, noted there was a wait of more than five months for young people needing psychiatric care in Ontario and said that all young people deserve to have speedy access to such care, in the same way they have a right to quick diagnosis and treatment of physical ailments.
"This is why we are in a mess in Ontario - because we have a number of sources of funding and they don't talk to one another," he said. "Mental-health problems in children are no different than asthma or diabetes."
From a listmate
The Toronto Sun
NDP: Grits' autism stand cost family house
By CHIP MARTIN, SUN MEDIA
RICHMOND HILL -- Premier Dalton McGuinty has failed working families, none more so than parents of autistic kids, Howard Hampton charged yesterday.
The New Democrat leader produced a family that says it has lost its home paying for treatment for its autistic son, the sort of costs McGuinty promised to cover during the 2003 election campaign.
McGuinty's government then spent $2.4 million in a court fight to withhold the promised help.
"This campaign is about hard-working families such as these that Dalton McGuinty has taken advantage of," said Hampton . "Ontarians deserve better than this."
Cemil and Nazile Asianboga said they spend $5,000 a month on medications and treatments for their son Burak, 11, because they had no help from the provincial government.
The couple said they had to sell their west Toronto home because of the cost burden.
"What we need is so expensive, financially," Nazile Asianboga told reporters.
Now with three children, including Burak and another on the way, the family lives in an apartment in Etobicoke.
The family was joined by NDP candidates from the area, including Nancy Morrison from York-Simcoe, parent of autistic son Sean, 8.
It was to Morrison in 2003 that McGuinty delivered his pledge of support for families of autistic children, promising they'd get "the support and treatment they need."
A copy of that vow was distributed by Hampton 's staff.
From a listmate
Parents of autistic kids plan to protest
Where the parties stand
Liberals say they have met and exceeded their promise from the 2003 election to extend intensive behaviour therapy to kids over the age of 5. They have doubled the number of kids getting the therapy to more than 1,200, tripled the annual budgeted funding on autism services to $140 million and are continuing to reduce wait lists, add therapists and starting to make it possible for autism treatment to be provided in schools.
Progressive Conservatives say they will invest another $75 million annually to speed up autism assessment and reduce wait lists for intensive therapy, provide treatment for kids over 6, increase therapist numbers and allow parents to choose whether they want government-funded treatment or direct funding for families to find private treatment.
New Democrats say they'll announce their plans to help autistic children later in the week.
Costly treatment set to be campaign issue
Sep 12, 2007 04:30 AM
Kerry Gillespie
Queen's Park Bureau
Burak Aslanboga used to live in a nice house with a backyard to play in, but his parents had to sell their home to pay for his autism therapy.
Now, 11-year-old Burak, his two sisters and his parents are crammed into a much smaller apartment in Etobicoke.
"What we need is so expensive. That's why we're asking for help," his mother Nazile Aslanboga said yesterday.
On just Day 2 of the provincial election campaign, the issue of services for autistic children was thrust into the spotlight.
Parents angry about insufficient government-funded autism services attended an NDP event in Richmond Hill yesterday morning and others plan to hold a protest at Liberal Premier Dalton McGuinty's office in Ottawa on Saturday.
"It's hard to live with a child with autism, especially if there's no support (from) the government," Aslanboga said.
NDP Leader Howard Hampton lashed out at McGuinty for leaving children with autism "languishing on waiting lists" for treatment and forcing desperate parents to sell their homes to get the money they need to help their children.
"That is completely unacceptable. No parent should have to do that ... after the premier of the province gave them, and all other parents, a written promise that this was not going to happen," Hampton told reporters.
Right now, there are about 1,000 children on the waiting list for intensive behaviour intervention (IBI) therapy that can cost $50,000 a year per child.
In the 2003 election, McGuinty promised – in a letter to a mother of an autistic child – to end the previous Conservative government's "unfair and discriminatory" practice of cutting off IBI funding when children turned 6.
Once elected, he delayed doing it until 2005 and continued to fight parents in an existing court case.
Even though the Liberals have since tripled annual funding for autism to $140 million and more than doubled the number of children receiving the intensive therapy to some 1,200 children, the broken promise has dogged the party.
"We were not able to do it as quickly as we wanted because of a lack of therapists," Finance Minister and Liberal campaign co-chair Greg Sorbara said, adding that autism services was the only area that experienced a tripling of funding.
Hampton said parents would hear in "a couple of days" what his party would do for autistic children if elected.
Bruce McIntosh will be listening closely. He remembers the day in 2005 he got a call telling him his son Cliff had finally made it to the top of the waiting list for therapy.
Three days earlier, he and his wife had talked to a real estate agent about selling their home. For more than two years they had been paying some $20,000 a year to provide Cliff with part-time therapy.
IBI therapy, parents say, can change the world for some autistic children.
Sharon Gabison still remembers the first time her son, Eric Segal, asked a question.
"I had a son who didn't speak and one month after he started (intensive treatment) he came out with a question," Gabison said.
They were standing in a KFC fast food restaurant.
"What's the name of this place?" she recalls her son, then 5, asking.
"It was one of those oh-my-god moments in life," she said.
When her son turned 6 and was cut off the treatment that had made such a difference in his life, Gabison paid more than $50,000 to keep it going and joined with other families in a court case.
"You do anything you can for your kids," she said, adding too many families can't afford to go it alone.
She's a member of the Ontario Autism Coalition, which is trying to make autism funding a prominent election issue. "We're not necessarily targeting the Liberals. We're trying to make the issues known to everyone," she said.
Gabison attended Hampton 's event yesterday with the coalition's glass fish bowl. If every Ontarian put $7.50 in the bowl, the waiting list for services for autistic children could be eliminated, she said.
The coalition plans to give the money they collect throughout the election campaign to whichever party forms the next government and ask them to fix the system.
SPECIALS
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NDP calls for debate on North
JEFF GRAY
September 12, 2007
THUNDER BAY -- Northern Ontario , plagued by closing lumber mills and other job losses, has been left behind by the McGuinty Liberals, NDP Leader Howard Hampton charged yesterday, challenging his two main rivals to a debate on issues facing the region.
Mr. Hampton, who was born in Fort Frances , Ont., and whose riding is Kenora-Rainy River , said he wanted to take on Liberal Leader Dalton McGuinty and Progressive Conservative Leader John Tory in a debate held in Northern Ontario on its problems.
Yesterday, Mr. McGuinty rejected the proposal for a separate debate and said northern issues would be discussed at the leaders debate on Sept. 20.
Brendan Howe, a spokesman for Mr. Tory, said, "Our position is that we would be more than happy to debate both Dalton McGuinty and Howard Hampton on northern issues."
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Mr. Hampton said that more than 40,000 people have lost their jobs, many in the forestry sector, across Northern Ontario since 2003, and blamed Mr. McGuinty for failing to deliver on a promise to create a new era of prosperity in the region.
Instead, he said, spiking hydro rates have forced lumber mills to close and a failure to reach agreements with native people means potential mineral wealth has not been mined. Local hospitals lack doctors and nurses, he said, and young people are leaving in droves.
"Increasingly, across the North, people feel they've been left out. This is especially so after the last four years of the McGuinty government," Mr. Hampton said at a campaign stop outside Sudbury .
Around midday, Mr. Hampton attended a staged meeting at a French-language seniors centre in Hanmer in the riding of Nickel Belt.
The woes in Northern Ontario , he said, are "not acceptable when we are told every time we open the pages of the business press that the stock market is booming, we've created more multimillionaires than ever before and that the economy is supposedly doing well."
Mr. Hampton began his day in Richmond Hill where, flanked by parents of children with autism, he accused Mr. McGuinty of betraying those with the disorder after promising to help in 2003. While decrying a large increase in the waiting list for treatment, he refused to outline or cost out his proposals to help autistic children, saying details would be revealed in the coming days.
Mr. Hampton, who has attracted Nancy Morrison, the parent of an autistic child, to run in York-Simcoe, said the Liberal Leader promised parents that he would fund the expensive treatment autistic children need beyond the age of 6, but then fought against the idea in a court battle that cost taxpayers $2.4-million - a number the Liberals tried hard to keep secret. The Liberals countered yesterday that they had tripled funding for autism treatment. "It's beyond cynical to use these families as the NDP have," Liberal campaign chairman Greg Sorbara said.
Google alert
Sep 11, 2007 15:41 ET
Politics Before Principle(TM): A McGuinty Trademark
TORONTO , ONTARIO --(Marketwire - Sept. 11, 2007) - NDP Candidate Nancy Morrison, the woman to whom Dalton McGuinty directly promised IBI autism services for her son, says "politics before principle" should be a McGuinty trademark.
"If there's anyone who knows politics before principle, it's Dalton McGuinty", said Morrison. "It's beyond cynical to suggest somehow that the McGuinty Liberals - who have done nothing but fight families of children with autism every step of the way - are somehow the antidote to threats to autism services. They are the threat," said the York Simcoe candidate. "Dalton McGuinty will say anything and do anything to get elected. I'm running for politics to step up my advocacy and show Ontario 's hardworking families can stand up for ourselves, our communities, and our children."
On September 17, 2003 Dalton McGuinty wrote to Morrison personally and made this promise: "I believe that the lack of government-funded Intensive Behavioural Intervention (IBI) treatment for autistic children over six is unfair and discriminatory. The Ontario Liberals support extending autism treatment beyond the age of six."
He broke that promise. Then he wasted $2.4 million fighting families of children with autism in court instead of providing the services they need.
Nancy Morrison's family has mortgaged their home four times in order to pay for the IBI therapy her son Sean requires to help overcome the challenges of living with autism. It's just not fair.
As a direct result of McGuinty's promise and the hard work of the NDP to ensure children with autism are no longer ignored, Morrison decided to run for politics: for the NDP.
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Star
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Star PM
Hampton slams Liberals
Sep 11, 2007 03:41 PM
Kerry Gillespie
Queen's Park Bureau
If every Ontarian put $7.50 into Sharon Gabison's fishbowl, the waiting list for services for autistic children could be eliminated, she says.
Gabison and other parents of autistic children were at a press conference with NDP Leader Howard Hampton in Richmond Hill this morning and Hampton had no problem putting his $7.50 in Gabison's bowl, but he wasn't willing to say exactly what his party would do for autistic children if elected.
But he did have plenty to say about how badly the Liberals have handled the autism file.
"McGuinty Liberals have disgraced themselves by breaking their promise to Ontario 's most vulnerable citizens and their families," Hampton said.
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From a Listmate
Windsor Star
Kids' centre gets $2.8M
As election looms, province allots money for expansion
Grace Macaluso, Windsor Star
Published: Friday, September 07, 2007
With an election call just days away, MPP Sandra Pupatello (Liberal -- Windsor West) announced Thursday an additional $2.8 million in funding for an estimated $16.8-million expansion of the John McGivney Children's Centre.
"This is more than a building project," Pupatello told a news conference at the Matchette Road facility. "This $2.8 million is about increasing the number of children and families who can access the quality treatment provided by the dedicated and talented staff at the John McGivney Centre."
The province had already committed $8 million to the project, bringing its total to $10.8 million.
'ADDITIONAL SUPPORT': Students Christina Bially, right, and Brayden O'Gorman, centre left, are joined by other children as they listen to resource teacher Anita Hayes, not shown, during a program at the John McGivney Centre. The children's centre will receive $2.8 million for its expansion.
Nick Brancaccio, Windsor Star
On Monday, Premier Dalton McGuinty is expected to call an Oct. 10 election, but Pupatello said the plan to provide additional funding had been in the works for several months.
The expansion was originally slated to cost $12 million.
"Once they got the go-ahead with the project when the $8 million (from the province) was announced, then the organization had to go through all of the machinations to develop the plans," she said.
55,000-SQUARE-FOOT EXPANSION
"While that was happening over the course of the last year it became very obvious that the amount was going to be far in excess of the fundraising component and the $8 million ... they needed more support and we'd been working for the last year to secure that."
The centre must raise another $6 million for the 55,000-square-foot expansion, which would to be ready for occupancy in 2009, said Stephen Payne, chairman of the fundraising committee.
Established by the Rotary Club in 1978, the centre is one of 20 children's treatment centres in Ontario and one of only three that provides comprehensive rehabilitation and integrated preschool and elementary school in one location.
It serves 150 clients and provides services to 2,100 children a year with conditions such as spina bifida, cerebral palsy, muscular dystrophy and autism. There are about 345 children on the centre's waiting list, said Payne.
"The additional support will allow us to move forward and realize our vision to be the centre of hope, support and inspiration for children with disabilities and their families," said Arla Peters, president of the centre's board of directors.
© The Windsor Star 2007
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McGuinty no friend to autoworkers: Hampton
Dalson Chen, Windsor Star
Published: Tuesday, September 11, 2007
TORONTO - Dalton McGuinty has been bad for the auto sector, despite his endorsement by CAW leader Buzz Hargrove, according to Ontario NDP leader Howard Hampton.
"Mr. Hargrove is entitled to his opinion, but the evidence is in. I was in Windsor last week -- 35,000 jobs destroyed in the auto sector," said Hampton on Monday morning in Toronto .
Hampton also pointed to GM layoffs in Oshawa . "It's pretty tough to argue that this government has been good for the auto sector when you see literally tens of thousands of auto sector jobs being lost ... almost on a weekly basis."
Hampton made the comments after delivering a speech to kick off the Ontario NDP's campaign bus tour leading up to the Oct. 10 election.
For the next 30 days, Hampton will visit communities across the province to drum up support for his "fair deal" for modest and middle-income families.
"That's what this election is all about," Hampton said. "A fair deal. Not more broken promises, not more disappointment."
In April, Hargrove pledged his support to the provincial Liberals, and told CAW members that "strategic voting" is necessary to prevent a majority Progressive Conservative government.
But standing before a bus emblazoned with the orange NDP logo, Hampton accused Ontario Liberal Premier Dalton McGuinty of failing to deliver the positive change he promised in the 2003 election.
"What did he deliver? A $40,000 pay raise for himself. That was more important to him than increasing the minimum wage to $10 an hour, or helping children with autism."
According to Hampton , McGuinty has given multimillion-dollar payouts to his "Hydro executive" friends, but has only offered "a shrug and weak excuses" for laid off workers. "That's the record of the McGuinty government."
In his wide-ranging attack speech, Hampton criticized the Ontario Liberals on such issues as lost manufacturing jobs, struggling rural communities, "unfair" property taxes, hospital wait times, and "internationally trained doctors delivering pizzas instead of babies, while one million Ontarions can't find a family doctor."
Hampton predicted that the Ontario voting public won't be fooled again.
Later in the day during a stop in Hamilton , Hampton continued his attack.
"Dalton McGuinty will promise anything," scoffed Hampton .
"I understand he was even here the other day promising to help Hamilton get a NHL team. He must know something about (NHL Commissioner) Gary Bettman the rest of us don't know," said Hampton, a lifelong hockey enthusiast.
"You talk about something that's completely absurd. As I say, he will promise anything."
Hampton told members of the media and about 50 placard-carrying supporters that Hamiltonians "have gotten a raw deal from the McGuinty government.
"If there's a city in this province that represents working people -- people who work hard, people who pay their taxes, people who contribute to their community, people who are responsible -- this is it."
© The Windsor Star 2007
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Ottawa Citizen
Opposition leaders attack McGuinty's credibility
Lee Greenberg, CanWest News Service
OTTAWA — Ontario ’s opposition leaders maintained their attack on Dalton McGuinty’s credibility Tuesday — the same day the Liberal premier literally sidestepped the faith-based school’s issue by ignoring his Catholic alma mater in favour of a secular public school.
Asked about the decision, which comes during a campaign centred on the school funding issue, McGuinty downplayed his choice. “I’ve visited many Catholic schools during my (mandate),” he said in French, adding that the campaign “has just started.”
McGuinty recently called faith-based schools segregationist and suggested they could have a negative impact on social cohesion, despite being a product of a faith-based school himself.
In campaign stops around the Greater Toronto Area Progressive Conservative Leader John Tory hammered the premier over his ill-fated promise not to hike taxes if elected. NDP_Leader Howard Hampton also accused McGuinty of failing to help children with autism, while also challenging his counterparts to debate him on northern Ontario issues, in a northern Ontario community.
Proponents of religious school funding saw McGuinty’s choice on Tuesday to visit Charles H. Hulse Public School as significant.
The school is within spitting distance of McGuinty’s Catholic high school, St. Patrick’s.
“We note with interest that two doors down, there’s a Catholic school that is fully supported by the government of Ontario ,” Bernie Farber, chief executive officer of the Canadian Jewish Congress said.
“St. Patrick’s High school serves as a model of how we can integrate other faith based schools into our public education system.”
Farber and others have labelled McGuinty a hypocrite for excluding Catholic facilities from his attack on faith-based schools.
McGuinty, his wife Terri and the couple’s four kids all attended schools in the Catholic system. Terri still teaches part-time in a Catholic board.
His opponents complain the premier’s position focuses only on other religious schools and not those run by the Catholic board.
“He’s said in not so many words that the Catholic community can be trusted not to cause social unrest and not to be segregationist while all other faith communities cannot,” Farber last week.
Public school funding is a focal point for election interest in Ontario , where voters will go to the polls Oct. 10.
Ontario has long-funded only Catholic schools and none of any other religions, an arrangement that dates back to Confederation.
Tory reignited a long-simmering debate when he promised to extend full funding to all religious schools. The policy corrects what he believes is an unfair system.
McGuinty, who as opposition leader held much the same position as Tory but has since changed course, on Tuesday dismissed any thought of dismantling the current arrangement.
Tuesday also marked the fourth anniversary of McGuinty signing a pledge drafted by the Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF) stating he would “not raise taxes or implement new taxes without the explicit consent of Ontario voters.”
After he was elected, his Liberal government introduced the Ontario health premium, which costs middle-class residents an average of $750 annually.
“Dalton McGuinty not only broke his promise not to raise taxes, he shattered it beyond any recognition,” Tory told reporters at a Toronto press conference on Tuesday morning.
Tory noted the Liberal leader also pledged not to run a deficit, but government did just that during their first two years in office.
“If you held a competition and invited all the best screenwriters, conspiracy theorists, filmmakers – everybody – and asked them to dream up the stereotypical scandal of a politician breaking his promises and eroding the public trust, you would be hard pressed to come up with something worse than the McGuinty health tax,” Tory said.
John Williamson, CTF president, on Monday presented Tory with a framed original copy of Mr. McGuinty’s pledge.
“I think a lot of people – our group included – have branded the premier a liar,” Williamson said.
Tory himself has refused to refer to his Liberal rival as a “liar,” instead saying McGuinty “broke many, many promises” and “failed to keep his word.”
But Liberals were quick to condemn Williamson’s choice of words. Greg Sorbara, the finance minister and liberal campaign’s chairman, said he was “saddened by the quality of the rhetoric.”
“When a party and a campaign go exclusively negative, it usually means they’re in a freefall,” Sorbara said in an interview.
But Tory remained focused on the health tax throughout the day, devoting a substantial portion of a speech to business people in Oakville to the same issue.
Tory’s message is being reinforced in attack ads the Conservatives began airing on Tuesday on television stations across the province.
Built around the theme “Promises made, promises broken,” the four 30-second ads focus on commitments McGuinty has failed to keep in relation to crime, the environment, taxes and the treatment of autistic children.
New Democratic Partly Leader Howard Hampton picked up on the issues of services for children with autism on Tuesday.
But Hampton remained vague about the Ontario NDP’s own financial plans for helping the needy group.
“We’ll be laying out exactly how we’re going to approach this issue in some detail in a couple days,” Hampton said. “I’ll be happy to lay it out in a couple days. Along with some other educational services that are interlinked and interwoven.”
Hampton made the comments at a Richmond Hill , Ont. centre for children with autism and special needs called Leaps and Bounds.
The parents of autistic children took the McGuinty government to court in 2003 over a broken election promise to fund what is known as intensive behaviour intervention (IBI) for autistic children over six years of age. They won that initial decision, but the province appealed, arguing the intensive one-on-one process works best for children under age six and that other forms of treatment work better for older children.
In July 2006, the government won the appeal, and earlier this year the Supreme Court of Canada announced it would not hear their appeal case.
Although the McGuinty government has since eliminated the age cutoff, Hampton said the Ontario NDP has discovered — after much trouble — that it cost the government $2.4 million in legal fees to fight the families in court.
“We want to quantify that for you. $2.4 million would’ve provided IBI treatment for 50 children,” said Hampton .
At a later campaign stop in Sudbury he challenged his counterparts to a debate on northern issues.
“Let’s give them a chance,” said Hampton standing outside the Club Age D’Or centre for seniors in Sudbury on Tuesday afternoon. “I’m going to continue to raise the issues of northern Ontario . If Mr. McGuinty and Mr. Tory aren’t up to it, I think what it indicates is they don’t take the challenges that Northern Ontario faces very seriously.”
Hampton, a native of the northwestern Ontario community of Fort Frances , said that throwing down the gauntlet was necessary due to the severity of the problems faced by northern Ontario such as doctor shortages, lack of long-term care, an inadequate level of children’s services, major job losses and the migration of workers elsewhere.
- with files from Dalson Chen ( Windsor Star) and James Cowan ( National Post)
©Ottawa Citizen 2007
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Vancouver Province
Money for religious schools an early issue in Ontario election
CanWest News Service
Published: Tuesday, September 11, 2007
TORONTO -- An already-stormy Ontario provincial election officially kicked off yesterday Premier Dalton McGuinty dropped the writ on what he called "one of the most important elections" in the province's history.
McGuinty signalled his intention to hammer his Conservative rival, John Tory, over Tory's plan to fund religious schools.
"Publicly funded education is at the heart of our agenda," McGuinty told reporters.
Tory has been on the campaign trail for a week, much of the time defending the proposal to extend public funding to Christian fundamentalist, Jewish, Muslim and other faith-based schools.
The Liberals, who held 67 seats in the legislature at dissolution, contend the plan would suck $400 million in funding from public schools.
Ontario fully funds Catholic schools, but none run by other religious groups.
Tory, whose Conservatives held 25 seats at Queen's Park, vowed to make "leadership" the central issue of the campaign, saying McGuinty has broken too many promises.
"You cannot lead if you have lost credibility, if trust has been broken," Tory said.
Tory was flanked by 45 black-and-white signs, each listing a promise supposedly broken by McGuinty's Liberals.
"Mr. McGuinty promised not to raise taxes and raised them," Tory said.
The Conservatives have promised if elected to eliminate the controversial Ontario health premium tax, which currently generates $2.6-billion a year.
The Conservatives have also promised to cut $1.5-billion in government spending, cap property-tax assessment increases at five per cent and move government jobs out of Toronto to communities that have lost jobs in the manufacturing sector.
NDP Leader Howard Hampton said dental care, municipalities, a freeze on tuition fees, global warming and green energy top his proposals.
"They're all about making life more affordable for hard-working modest and middle-income families," said Hampton .
Hampton also slammed McGuinty.
"What did he deliver? A $40,000 pay raise for himself. That was more important to him than increasing the minimum wage to $10 an hour, or helping children with autism," said Hampton .
Hampton, whose party has 10 seats in the legislature, also said working families would not find any comfort with Tory, alleging that the Conservatives seek "profit-driven, private hospitals" and "expensive, environmentally risky" nuclear plants.
Voters go to the polls on Oct. 10.
© The Vancouver Province 2007
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Google Alert
National Post
The election race is officially on in Ontario
CanWest News Service
Published: Monday, September 10, 2007
TORONTO - An already-testy provincial election got underway Monday with a warning from Premier Dalton McGuinty, who said if elected, his opponents would deplete public services and return the province to days of "conflict, cuts and division."
But McGuinty, whose Liberals held 67 seats in the legislature at dissolution, didn't apologize for breaking a now-famous pledge not to raise taxes.
"I was faced with a difficult choice. I made a decision," he said, referring to his government's $2.6 billion health tax, a levy Conservatives - who are lead by John Tory - call the biggest in the province's history.
Conservative party leader John Tory. (Bruno Schlumberger, The Ottawa Citizen)
"Mr. Tory says he disagrees with me. I know what he would have done - he would have closed still more hospitals."
The premier said voters will now have to decide on Oct. 10 if they are happy with the legacy of that broken promise, increased public-sector spending on things like teacher salaries and nurses.
Tory, whose Conservatives held 25 seats at Queen's Park, vowed on Monday to make "leadership" the central issue of the Ontario election campaign, saying McGuinty has broken too many promises. "You cannot lead if you have lost credibility, if trust has been broken," Tory told reporters minutes after the election officially began. "Keeping your promises matters."
Tory was flanked by 45 black-and-white signs, each listing a promise supposedly broken by McGuinty's Liberals.
While the promises ranged from blocking development on the Oak Ridges Moraine - a belt of rolling hills that runs north of Toronto eastward toward Peterborough - to diverting 60 per cent of municipal waste away from landfill to closing coal-fired power plants, the most important broken promise to the Conservative campaign is McGuinty's introduction of the Ontario health premium after he promised not to raise taxes.
"Mr. McGuinty promised not to raise taxes and raised them," Tory said. "I think he has mislead voters, I think he has been less than straightforward with voters and I think he will be held to account for that. It is going to be a major issue because people have the right to know that their leaders are going to tell them the truth."
The Conservatives have promised if elected to eliminate the controversial tax, which generates $2.6 billion in revenue annually.
The PCs have also pledged to cut $1.5 billion in government spending, cap property tax assessment increases at five per cent and move government jobs out of Toronto to communities that have lost jobs in the manufacturing sector.
McGuinty raised on Monday the spectre of former Conservative premier Mike Harris, who executed a radical agenda of tax and spending cuts. McGuinty said Tory offers voters "the same old failed Conservative approach - one that will take us backwards."
"He said he'd find $1.5 billion in efficiencies ... but he's not prepared to tell us where," McGuinty said. "Well, we've seen that movie before. They found efficiencies last time by closing hospitals, by firing nurses and by increasing wait times."
The two leaders have already tangled over Tory's plan to fund religious schools, a controversial issue that Liberals say will ghettoize minority communities.
Tory has already been on the campaign trail for a week visiting ridings in the Toronto area. And much of his time has been spent defending the proposal to extend public funding to Jewish, Muslim and other faith-based schools.
The Liberals contend the plan would suck $400 million in funding from public schools and are attempting to cast the election as a referendum on the future of Ontario 's education system.
McGuinty on Monday emphasized his party's support for public education. "Publicly funded education is at the heart of our agenda," he told reporters at Queen's Park. "Nothing is more important to building the society we want and the economy we need."
The faith-based school issue has quickly become a flashpoint in the provincial election, with McGuinty portraying himself as the defender of the public system. Not so long ago, however, McGuinty proposed much the same fix to what he saw as "inequities" in the current system.
Ontario fully funds Catholic schools and none run by other religious groups.
Asked Monday when he changed his position, McGuinty ducked the question: "People know what I ran on last time," he said.
McGuinty was formally nominated in his Ottawa South riding Monday night where he told a surprised crowd that his first stop would be to hospital where his mother, Elizabeth, was recouperating from emergency surgery after falling downstairs and breaking her hip.
"You know how I know she's doing fine? Because when I was talking to her earlier ... she said 'if you don't win the election you're out of the family," he joked. "(That) is so typical of my mom."
NDP_Leader Howard Hampton said Monday modest and middle-income families disappointed by the McGuinty government will get a "fair deal" with Ontario New Democrats.
"That's what this election is all about," said Hampton . "It's what they deserve. A fair deal. Not more broken promises, not more disappointment."
McGuinty later singled out Ontarians who were considering parking their vote with the New Democrats.
"Only one of two parties is going to win this election. And those who are considering voting for the NDP need to understand there's only one party that can form a government that can continue to invest in public services that will champion the needs of families," he said.
Elements of the NDP election platform include: dental care for those without coverage, help for farmers, support for municipalities, a freeze on tuition fees, environmental programs to fight global warming and encourage green energy, and a property tax assessment model that especially protects seniors and those on fixed incomes.
"These and other ideas, we will be discussing over the coming weeks. They're all about making life more affordable for hard-working modest and middle-income families," said Hampton, who later campaigned in Hamilton .
Questioned on how the NDP would pay for its platform, Hampton said a detailed fiscal plan will be laid out later this week.
"It will show how we intend to have a balanced budget, and pay for the proposals that we've outlined."
Hampton, who shares space at Queen's Park with nine other NDP_MPPs, also said working families would not find any comfort with Tory, alleging that the Progressive Conservatives seek "profit-driven, private hospitals" and "expensive, environmentally risky and unreliable" nuclear plants.
Hampton noted that Tory "quietly" supported the McGuinty government's $40,000 pay hike for MPPs in December 2006.
"Mr. Tory's Conservatives are sounding a lot like the Liberals these days," Hampton said.
As it stands, the campaign is the closest in years, with Tory running at 36 per cent popularity, just five points behind McGuinty.
Liberal support stands at 41 per cent, according to the Ipsos Reid poll, but is waning in the so-called 905 region, a suburban belt surrounding Toronto . The 905 district has been instrumental in propelling recent provincial governments to Queen's Park, both Liberal and Conservative.
According to the poll, the New Democratic and Green parties trail at 17 per cent and six per cent, respectively.
The Ipsos Reid telephone poll, which was conducted with a random sample of 801 respondents between Aug. 30 and Sept. 8, is considered accurate within 3.5 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.
At dissolution one seat was vacant at Queen's park, which is expanding from 103 to 107 seats in this election
- with files from Lee Greenberg ( Ottawa Citizen), James Cowan (National Post) and Dalson Chen ( Windsor Star)
© CanWest News Service 2007
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Windsor Star
Attacks kick off Ontario election campaign
Dalson Chen, CanWest News Service
TORONTO -- Modest and middle-income families disappointed by the McGuinty government will get a "fair deal" with the Ontario NDP, said Howard Hampton.
"That's what this election is all about," said the leader of the provincial New Democrats on Monday morning. "It's what they deserve. A fair deal. Not more broken promises, not more disappointment."
Ontario NDP Leader Howard Hampton. (Dan Janisse, Windsor Star)
Hampton made the comments in front of Queen's Park as the NDP's campaign for the Oct. 10 provincial election began in earnest.
Standing before a bus emblazoned with the NDP logo that will tour across Ontario over the next 30 days, Hampton accused Liberal Leader Dalton McGuinty of failing to deliver the positive change he promised in the 2003 election.
"What did he deliver? A $40,000 pay raise for himself. That was more important to him than increasing the minimum wage to $10 an hour, or helping children with autism."
According to Hampton , McGuinty has given multi-million dollar payouts to his "Hydro executive" friends, but has only offered "a shrug and weak excuses" for laid off workers. "That's the record of the McGuinty government."
In his wide-ranging attack speech, Hampton criticized the Liberals on issues such as lost manufacturing jobs, struggling rural communities, "unfair" property taxes, hospital wait times, and "internationally trained doctors delivering pizzas instead of babies, while one million Ontarians can't find a family doctor."
Hampton predicted that Ontario voters won't be fooled again.
"Four years ago, they put their trust in Dalton McGuinty. Now they recognize that Mr. McGuinty will say anything, promise anything to get their votes -- but won't do anything about those promises after the election."
With the bulk of Hampton 's salvos aimed at McGuinty, he only took time to fire a few criticisms at Progressive Conservative Leader John Tory.
Hampton said working families would not find any comfort with Tory, alleging the Progressive Conservatives seek "profit-driven, private hospitals" and "expensive, environmentally risky and unreliable" nuclear plants.
Hampton noted that Tory "quietly" supported the McGuinty government's $40,000 pay hike for MPPs in December 2006.
"Mr. Tory's Conservatives are sounding a lot like the Liberals these days," Hampton said.
Features of the NDP election platform pointed out by Hampton included dental care for those without coverage, help for farmers, support for municipalities, a freeze on tuition fees, environmental programs to fight global warming and encourage green energy, and a property tax assessment model that especially protects seniors and those on fixed incomes.
"These and other ideas, we will be discussing over the coming weeks. They're all about making life more affordable for hard-working modest and middle-income families," Hampton said.
Questioned on how the NDP would pay for their platform, Hampton said a detailed fiscal plan will be laid out later this week.
"It will show how we intend to have a balanced budget, and pay for the proposals that we've outlined."
Windsor Star
From a Listmate, for our American neighbours.
September 13, 2007
In the Hunt
Out of Adversity, an Opportunity
By BRENT BOWERS
As his mother tells it, Cade Larson was a lively 15-month-old who loved playing peekaboo and chase with other children and was quickly adding to his vocabulary of more than 50 words, including “fish,” “bowl” and “shoe.”
But then, said his mother, Jennifer VanDerHorst-Larson, Cade got vaccinations for measles, mumps and rubella, influenza and chicken pox on Oct. 15, 2001. He wailed for a few moments, then slumped into a deep sleep that lasted 14 hours. When he woke up, she said, he was a different child.
“He stopped looking at me,” Ms. VanDerHorst-Larson said. “He had lost his speech.” She believes he had a huge seizure that resulted in brain damage.
In a heartbeat, her mission became healing her son. In that, she failed. On Valentine’s Day 2002, her school district told her that Cade had the severest case of autism it had ever seen. “This is my only child,” she said. “I can’t describe the pain.”
The idea that vaccines cause autism has been widely rejected by mainstream scientists, though some doctors are investigating it and many parents of autistic children remain convinced there is a link.
But Ms. VanDerHorst-Larson, 35, had a resource for fighting back that many parents do not: She was an entrepreneur. In 1996, she had opened a Pilates studio in Minneapolis . In 1998, she had started Vibrant Technologies, a buyer and seller of information technology hardware that now has 40 employees and expects revenue this year of $45 million, up from $37 million last year.
In the five and a half years since Cade’s condition was diagnosed, Ms. VanDerHorst-Larson has thrown herself into the challenge of giving meaning to his life with all of the classic weapons of the entrepreneurial personality: superhuman energy, bottomless self-confidence, bulldog tenacity, a compulsion to be in control and a knack for spotting opportunities in even the most disheartening reversals of fortune.
In effect, she has made caring for her son and for others like him her third business.
She shut her first one, the Pilates venture, to free up time. For two years, she traveled the country, attending seminars and taking Cade to neurologists, immunologists and other specialists, until, she said, she realized she would never find the cure she was seeking.
“By then, I was running a home program for him, nine people in all: a behavioral analyst, a speech therapist, an occupational therapist, a psychologist, a social worker, a special education teacher and three behavioral therapists,” Ms. VanDerHorst-Larson said.
She was also running Vibrant. She said she was getting just two hours of sleep a night. “It was not normal,” she said. “It was inhuman.”
“It was the same drive you have when you start a company,” she said. “My son was my investment. I was the manager.” Ms. VanDerHorst-Larson said that her husband, David Larson, a co-owner of Vibrant, was very supportive, but “this was who I am, not who he was.”
In April 2003, she started the nonprofit Holland Center in Excelsior, Minn. , for children ages 2 to 8 who have autism, including Cade, whose face is on the Web site’s home page. The staff consists of a behavioral analyst, an occupational therapist, a speech therapist, a special education teacher, a music teacher, two psychologists, 15 behavioral therapists and Ms. VanDerHorst-Larson as the business manager. That comes to 23 people working with 17 children.
Six months after the Holland Center was created, she was back to more traditional entrepreneurship, starting St. Croix Solutions, a technology consulting firm and provider of computer hardware. She said that she wanted her son to sprout his wings and that she realized he could not do that if she was at the center all the time.
But it was more than that. “It’s in my nature,” she said. “I saw an opportunity. My husband says, ‘Don’t start anything else.’ But it’s like a drug.” Ms. VanDerHorst-Larson estimates that St. Croix ’s revenue this year will be $26 million, up from $18 million last year.
Dr. Kerry J. Sulkowicz, an M.D. who founded the Boswell Group, a New York consulting firm that specializes in business culture issues, says Ms. VanDerHorst-Larson’s approach to her son’s disability is a case study in “the uncanny ability of entrepreneurs to see obstacles as challenges and to jump over them instead of being stopped by them.”
“Many mothers might react to the discovery that their child has autism with depression,” Dr. Sulkowicz said. “Jennifer didn’t because she had pre-existing resources that she could call upon to seek a solution to the problem.”
Asked how he interpreted her statement that her son became her investment and she the manager, Dr. Sulkowicz said it was “ a depersonalization of something that is extremely personal.” He continued: “It’s kind of like saying, ‘On one level, I’m not going to think in terms of mother and son, I’m going to take a half step back and approach and deal with that as a business problem. Because that way, I will be more likely to find a solution.’ That approach, in turn, has probably made her a sturdier and more satisfied mother.”
Ms. VanDerHorst-Larson said she had not decided yet what to do next. She said she might create a chain of autism centers or a foundation to help children with autism. Or both.
Her ordeal, she agreed, had made her a better entrepreneur. “It changed my perspective on everything,” she said. “It gave me more drive in looking for opportunities and challenging myself more. It has led me to think harder, make smarter decisions.”
Successful entrepreneurs do not agonize over problems. They jump in and solve them, often in ways they could never have foreseen. Ms. VanDerHorst-Larson was unable to find a quick fix to Cade’s autism. But she found a remedy.
“Today, he does speak,” she said. “He says, ‘Sit, mommy,’ and ‘Blue crayon,’ and ‘Red shirt.’ He’s not in pain anymore. He’s a social person. He makes eye contact. He’s happy.”
•
Next week at www.nytimes.com/smallbusiness, an In the Hunt column online: How an entrepreneur overcame depression so debilitating it had forced her to close her business.
Yorkregion.com - Regional News - NDP leader slams McGuinty on autism
NDP leader slams McGuinty on autism
MORE STORIES
* McGuinty team uses hurry-up offence
* NDP leader slams McGuinty on autism
* York-Simcoe federal Grits try to stop infighting
Regional News
Sep 12, 2007 09:08 PM
Premier hasn't kept promise to fund treatment, York resident says
By: Michael Power
Premier Dalton McGuinty has yet to fulfill a promise to provide autism treatment to every child in Ontario who needs it, says York Simcoe riding NDP candidate Nancy Morrison.
Ms Morrison, whose eight-year-old son, Sean, has autism, and provincial NDP leader Howard Hampton visited Richmond Hill Tuesday. The pair spoke about autism issues while visiting Leaps and Bounds, a centre that provides services for autistic children.
Mr. Hampton chastised the premier for not ensuring more children received treatment for their autism.
“He denied (children with autism) services he said he would deliver,†Mr. Hampton said in a release. “The McGuinty Liberals have disgraced themselves by breaking their promises to Ontario’s most vulnerable citizens and families.â€
More than 1,000 remain on a waiting list to receive funding for autism treatment known as Intensive Behavioural Intervention.
Families who pay for treatment by themselves often spend more than $50,000 a year per child.
But the Liberal government has tripled spending for autism services since gaining office in 2003, Vaughan Liberal MPP Greg Sorbara said in an interview.
“I don’t think there’s any program in government where we’ve increased support by 300 per cent,†Mr. Sorbara said.
Mr. Sorbara couldn’t say how long it would take to clear the wait list for IBI, but noted his party would work hard to ensure more children received treatment.
Ms Morrison received a letter from Mr. McGuinty before the last election stating his commitment to help autistic children get government-funded IBI treatment.
Although her son now receives partial funding for IBI, Ms Morrison had to re-mortgage her home four times to pay for treatment in the past.
“Families in Ontario shouldn’t have to live like this,†said Ms Morrison, who is running for office for the first time during this election. “My story isn’t any different than any family who has a child with autism.â€
Although the Liberal government has increased funding for treatment, that funding hasn’t kept up with the need for programs, Ms Morrison said.
Vaughan hospital still years away
MORE STORIES
* McGuinty kicks off campaign visiting school in York Region
* McGuinty meets with Vaughan students
Vaughan
Sep 12, 2007 11:20 PM
By: Michael Power
Greg Sorbara smiles and shrugs when asked about his sandwich.
“It’s campaign food,†says the finance minister and incumbent MPP running for re-election in the Vaughan riding.
He’s sitting in a Vaughan sandwich shop this week for an interview, one stop of many during what he calls a “brutal†30-day campaign schedule. The campaign itself is only two days old.
“But if feels very good,†said Mr. Sorbara, who is also the chairperson of the Liberals’ provincial campaign. “(The campaign) is a listening exercise to help you evaluate if the government is on the right track.â€
It’s also an exercise in getting a message across to voters and to do that Mr. Sorbara is focusing on what his government has done over the past four years.
High up on that list is planning to improve the transit system servicing Vaughan — and the GTA’s — growing population, Mr. Sorbara said.
He pointed to the province’s MoveOntario 2020 program, a $17.5 billion plan to, among other commitments, build more than 900 kilometres of new or improved rapid transit, extend the Yonge Street subway to Hwy. 7 and extend express bus service across Highway 407.
The plan, Mr. Sorbara said, is designed to transform public transit in the GTA. But does completing the plan depend on the Liberals remaining in office?
“We’re determined to be in power and we’re determined to implement this plan,†he said. “If the worst happened, would (Progressive Conservative leader) John Tory pull the plan? I hope not.â€
His party will deal with the province’s shortage of doctors by expanding enrollment in medical schools (such as at the Northern Ontario School of Medicine in Thunder Bay and Sudbury ) and ensuring more doctors trained overseas get accreditation here, Mr. Sorbara said.
The Liberals have also tripled spending for autism services. But Mr. Sorbara said the funds weren’t available to speed up access to services over the last four years because the money simply wasn’t available.
Autism advocates have pushed the province to clear a list of roughly 1,000 children waiting for funding.
Parents still waiting for that funding must pay for the treatment out-of-pocket, which remains a pricey option.
Mr. Sorbara wouldn’t say how long getting children off the list would take, although he did say the Liberals planned to work towards funding treatment for more children with autism.
“I wouldn’t want to speculate as to how quickly we’ll be able to do that, but if we continue to make the same progress we’ve made over the past four years, you will see a reduction in the wait list,†Mr. Sorbara said.
Because of the amount of planning involved in the project, Vaughan residents will likely have to wait between three and four years before construction begins on a new hospital here, he said.
Municipalities can expect to hear discussion of the province taking over responsibility for more services, he said.
Premier Dalton McGuinty announced at a conference of the Association of Municipalities of Ontario last month his government would upload responsibility for the province’s disability and drug benefit program, starting Jan.1. The cost of doing so would be $935 million.
Both the NDP and Conservatives have also promised to upload more costs to the province if elected Oct. 10.
Other services, such as ambulance and social housing services, remain on the table for possible return to provincial responsibility, Mr. Sorbara said.
Although municipalities have been asking for several years that downloaded responsibilities be shifted back on Queen’s Park’s shoulders, such a move hasn’t been possible until recently, he said.
He stressed Liberal candidates in York region plan to campaign aggressively over the next several weeks.
“I’m a baseball fan and the rule is in baseball you’ve got to play all nine innings and you’ve got to play them well,†he said.
From a listmate
Mom. daughter team jewel of charity's eye
Susan Zaidlin and her daughter, Hope Katz, holds a teddy bearing the image of her son Joshua, who died of leukemia in 1992. Joshua was the major inspiration behind Ms Zaidlin’s fundraising business, Packaged Dreams.
MORE STORIES
* Mom. daughter team jewel of charity's eye
* Election signs sprout too early
* Thornhill native makes career of celebrity gossip
* Tory pushes faith school funding during Thornhill campaign stop
* Thornhill has NDP candidate
* Parrott to run for NDP in Thornhill
Thornhill
Sep 12, 2007 10:56 PM
By: Jennifer Brooks
Susan Zaidlin has channelled her creativity and love of craft making into what has become a fundraising phenomenon.
The Thornhill resident’s company, Packaged Dreams, which she runs with her daughter, Hope Katz, is a fundraising program that works for any cause that needs these services. She says it works for everything from hockey leagues to autism awareness events.
“I have been doing fundraising for about 16 years,†Ms Zaidlin says. “My 14-year-old son, Joshua, died from Lukemia in 1992. That’s what strengthened me to help others. The cancer society is the biggest fundraiser I do and I would do anything for them, but I will also do anything for any (other cause).â€
Sadly, her son’s death was not the only tragic event to serve as inspiration for her. A few years ago Ms Zaidlin’s sister-in-law died of breast cancer. Ms Zaidlin decided to use her creativity and passion to help women who are sick and suffering with the disease feel better about themselves, while raising money for the cause.
“The girls that have cancer and begin to lose their hair and feel sick want to have something that will make them feel pretty,†Ms Zaidlin says. “I make Swarovski bracelets and crystal bracelets.†Ms Zaidlin also uses her talent to craft awareness ribbons, key chains and good luck baby pins.
All for others
Ms Zaidlin explains that it started out fairly small. With an interest in baking, a friend of Ms Zaidlin’s suggested that she make chocolate to raise funds for breast cancer research. So, 8,000 chocolate-shaped breasts later, Susan sucessfully raised money and awareness for the breast cancer cause.
Her fundraising career had begun.
“I started making jewelry for breast cancer, then I got involved with multiple sclerosis and then I decided I would do fundraising for everybody,†she says. “Whoever needed money, I would come and set up and make them money.â€
Ms Zaidlin and her daughter have raised money for hockey leagues, nursery schools, St. Johns Ambulance, autism and MS events, to name a few.
However, this is not a lucrative money-making enterprise for her. Ms Zaidlin explains she negotiates the amount of money a charity will receive in advance and she only asks to cover her costs so she can afford to purchase more materials to keep the fundraisers going. Most often, she says, 80 per cent of the money generated goes directly to the charity.
For more information, call Ms Zaidlin at 905-731-6697.
This from Nancy Morrison:
Well, the Provincial Election Campaign is officially under way. Many of you have asked how you can help me out during the campaign, so I want to address that to everyone on this e-mail list via this personal mailout.
www.nancymorrison.ca
My website is up and going, it will be updated continually throughout the campaign. You can visit the website, read all about the campaign and the riding, utilize the website to help out the campaign via
1. putting up a sign on your property (if living in the York Simcoe Riding),
2. donating some time to help out with door knocking, etc,
3. doing some virtual office work, or
4. donating to help pay for the expenses of running this campaign.
5. The OAC have graciously offered to plan a day for autism families in Ontario to assist in my campaign on Saturday, September 22nd. I sure hope you can all help out. To get more details, please contact the OAC via e-mail at splitter2@rogers.com
Tuesday, September 11th - Leaps and Bounds, Richmond Hill
You may have read in the papers about Tuesday's event regarding autism issues. It was a Leaders Stop by our Party Leader Howard Hampton, at Leaps and Bounds in Richmond Hill . I have attached to this mailing some of the media coverage from that event. Rest assured that myself and the NDP will keep the autism issues paramount throughout this election campaign and during the next 4 years. We have some excellent candidates that are involved in autism issues, any one of us are ready to take on the Autism Portfolio once in office.
Best regards everyone!!!
Nancy Morrison
NDP Provincial Candidate
York Simcoe Riding
-------------------------------------------
Here are some of the articles from Tuesday's event, but by no means is it inclusive of all the coverage.... it was covered in papers across the province, and I was advised it even hit into the US media. CTV and CBC were there and covered it on their newscasts on Tuesday as well.
The NDP Media Release for the event:
September 11, 2007
Hampton challenges McGuinty betrayals of working families
Richmond Hill – NDP Leader Howard Hampton says this election gives Ontarians the chance to choose between McGuinty Liberal betrayals and the NDP’s plan for a fair deal for today’s working families.
"Dalton McGuinty’s priorities are wrong. He put himself and his friends ahead of working families," Hampton said while speaking at Leaps and Bounds, a centre that provides treatment for children with autism.
"Mr. McGuinty gave himself a $40,000 raise and handed out millions of slush fund dollars to his friends. But he broke promises to working families, like children with autism and their families. He denied them services he said he would deliver. That’s someone who will do or say anything to win your vote but won’t keep his promises after the election," the NDP Leader said.
Joining Hampton at today’s press conference was NDP York Simcoe Candidate Nancy Morrison. Her son has autism. During the last election, McGuinty wrote Morrison a letter that promised autism services for every child who needs them. But after the election, McGuinty broke that promise. He even gave lawyers $2.4 million to fight parents in court so he could break his promise.
As of March 31, 2007, 1,100 children were languishing on waiting lists for autism services. That's an increase of 1,200 per cent from when the McGuinty Liberals took office. That includes Burak Aslanboga. His parents Cemil and Nazile Aslanboga had to sell their home because that’s the only way they could raise the money they need to pay the $5,000-a-month bill for their son’s autism services. Hampton says that’s unacceptable – and a clear sign that McGuinty is out of touch with working families.
"McGuinty Liberals have disgraced themselves by breaking their promises to Ontario ’s most vulnerable citizens and their families. You can’t count on Liberals," Hampton said. "Ontarians want a provincial government that puts people first, that guarantees opportunities for all our young people, including children with autism. To make that happen, Ontario needs more NDP MPPs standing up for working families."
– 30 –
Media Inquiries: Jon Weier (416) 591-5455 x290 / Kaj Hasselriis x 271
--------------------------------------------
Globe and Mail:
Autistic children have been betrayed, says NDP
JEFF GRAY
Globe and Mail Update
September 11, 2007 at 12:45 PM EDT
RICHMOND HILL, Ont. — Dalton McGuinty has betrayed children with autism, NDP Leader Howard Hampton charged Tuesday morning at a campaign stop flanked by parents of children with the condition.
But Mr. Hampton refused to outline or cost out his proposals to help autistic children, saying the details would be revealed in the coming days.
Mr. Hampton opened his second day of campaigning at a centre that offers programs for autistic children north of Toronto, and read from a letter Mr. McGuinty wrote to an autistic child's parent — Nancy Morrison, now an NDP candidate in York-Simcoe — in which the Liberal Leader promised before winning the 2003 election to extend funding for treatment for children over the age of six.
“After the election, what we saw from Dalton McGuinty was a complete about face,” Mr. Hampton said, saying that the Liberals not only broke their promise but spent $2.4-million — an amount the government tried to keep secret — fighting the parents of autistic children in court.
The province's fight with parents of autistic children began in April, 2003, when 29 families sued the then Progressive Conservative government for denying their autistic children special therapy after age six.
Despite his campaign promise, Mr. McGuinty did not increase funding for autism treatment until mid 2005, after the courts ruled that the province was violating the children's constitutional rights by denying them treatment. The province then successfully appealed that ruling last year.
The Liberals hit back on Tuesday, with campaign chair Greg Sorbara saying Mr. Hampton and the NDP were putting politics ahead of principle.
“The McGuinty Liberals ended the unfair age cutoff, more than tripled investments for children with autism and more than doubled the number of kids receiving IBI therapy. The NDP voted against those investments,” Mr. Sorbara said in a press release.
“It's beyond cynical to use these families as the NDP have.”
Mr. Hampton and his wife, MPP Shelley Martel have raised the autism issue repeatedly in recent years, and the NDP campaign has drawn a number of advocates for children with autism, including Ms. Morrison. “He let us all down,” said Ms. Morrison, 48.
She said her fight for treatment for her eight-year-old son, Sean, drove her into politics. While she wouldn't say what the NDP would promise to do for parents like her, she said she was confident the party's platform would address her concerns.
Treatment for autism, which can severely impair a child's ability to communicate, can cost as much as $5,000 a month without government help, and the NDP says that as of March of this year, 1,100 children were on a waiting list for autism treatment, an increase of 1,200 per cent over the Liberals' term.
At Tuesday's press conference, in a basement gymnasium decorated with animal murals and with a toddler-sized tricycle in the corner, Mr. Hampton was joined by Nazile Aslanboga and her husband Cemil, a couple who said they had to their sell their home in Toronto west end and move to an apartment in Etobicoke to afford treatment for their 11-year-old autistic son, Burak.
Ms. Aslanboga said her son, one of three children with a fourth on the way, had to wait two years for treatment, but then lost access to it when he turned six. She said new alternative therapies were starting to help him.
“His seizures get less [frequent] and he's less aggressive with his sisters, and his behaviour gets better,” she told reporters in halting English.
She was going to bring her son to the press conference, but a seizure prevented him from attending, an NDP official said.
Questioned repeatedly, Mr. Hampton said he would lay out the NDP's detailed plans on autism funding and other issues in the next few days.
Mr. Hampton's campaign tour was to head Sudbury and Thunder Bay for the rest of the day, to attend events with local NDP candidates.
---------------------
The Globe and Mail:
Autistic children have been betrayed, says NDP
JEFF GRAY
Globe and Mail Update
September 11, 2007 at 12:45 PM EDT
RICHMOND HILL, Ont. — Dalton McGuinty has betrayed children with autism, NDP Leader Howard Hampton charged Tuesday morning at a campaign stop flanked by parents of children with the condition.
But Mr. Hampton refused to outline or cost out his proposals to help autistic children, saying the details would be revealed in the coming days.
Mr. Hampton opened his second day of campaigning at a centre that offers programs for autistic children north of Toronto, and read from a letter Mr. McGuinty wrote to an autistic child's parent — Nancy Morrison, now an NDP candidate in York-Simcoe — in which the Liberal Leader promised before winning the 2003 election to extend funding for treatment for children over the age of six.
“After the election, what we saw from Dalton McGuinty was a complete about face,” Mr. Hampton said, saying that the Liberals not only broke their promise but spent $2.4-million — an amount the government tried to keep secret — fighting the parents of autistic children in court.
The province's fight with parents of autistic children began in April, 2003, when 29 families sued the then Progressive Conservative government for denying their autistic children special therapy after age six.
Despite his campaign promise, Mr. McGuinty did not increase funding for autism treatment until mid 2005, after the courts ruled that the province was violating the children's constitutional rights by denying them treatment. The province then successfully appealed that ruling last year.
The Liberals hit back on Tuesday, with campaign chair Greg Sorbara saying Mr. Hampton and the NDP were putting politics ahead of principle.
“The McGuinty Liberals ended the unfair age cutoff, more than tripled investments for children with autism and more than doubled the number of kids receiving IBI therapy. The NDP voted against those investments,” Mr. Sorbara said in a press release.
“It's beyond cynical to use these families as the NDP have.”
Mr. Hampton and his wife, MPP Shelley Martel have raised the autism issue repeatedly in recent years, and the NDP campaign has drawn a number of advocates for children with autism, including Ms. Morrison. “He let us all down,” said Ms. Morrison, 48.
She said her fight for treatment for her eight-year-old son, Sean, drove her into politics. While she wouldn't say what the NDP would promise to do for parents like her, she said she was confident the party's platform would address her concerns.
Treatment for autism, which can severely impair a child's ability to communicate, can cost as much as $5,000 a month without government help, and the NDP says that as of March of this year, 1,100 children were on a waiting list for autism treatment, an increase of 1,200 per cent over the Liberals' term.
At Tuesday's press conference, in a basement gymnasium decorated with animal murals and with a toddler-sized tricycle in the corner, Mr. Hampton was joined by Nazile Aslanboga and her husband Cemil, a couple who said they had to their sell their home in Toronto west end and move to an apartment in Etobicoke to afford treatment for their 11-year-old autistic son, Burak.
Ms. Aslanboga said her son, one of three children with a fourth on the way, had to wait two years for treatment, but then lost access to it when he turned six. She said new alternative therapies were starting to help him.
“His seizures get less [frequent] and he's less aggressive with his sisters, and his behaviour gets better,” she told reporters in halting English.
She was going to bring her son to the press conference, but a seizure prevented him from attending, an NDP official said.
Questioned repeatedly, Mr. Hampton said he would lay out the NDP's detailed plans on autism funding and other issues in the next few days.
Mr. Hampton's campaign tour was to head Sudbury and Thunder Bay for the rest of the day, to attend events with local NDP candidates.
---------------------
The Toronto Star:
Parents of autistic kids plan to protest TheStar.com - Ontario Election - Parents of autistic kids plan to protest
Costly treatment set to be campaign issue
September 12, 2007
Kerry Gillespie
Queen's Park Bureau
Burak Aslanboga used to live in a nice house with a backyard to play in, but his parents had to sell their home to pay for his autism therapy.
Now, 11-year-old Burak, his two sisters and his parents are crammed into a much smaller apartment in Etobicoke.
"What we need is so expensive. That's why we're asking for help," his mother Nazile Aslanboga said yesterday.
On just Day 2 of the provincial election campaign, the issue of services for autistic children was thrust into the spotlight.
Parents angry about insufficient government-funded autism services attended an NDP event in Richmond Hill yesterday morning and others plan to hold a protest at Liberal Premier Dalton McGuinty's office in Ottawa on Saturday.
"It's hard to live with a child with autism, especially if there's no support (from) the government," Aslanboga said.
NDP Leader Howard Hampton lashed out at McGuinty for leaving children with autism "languishing on waiting lists" for treatment and forcing desperate parents to sell their homes to get the money they need to help their children.
"That is completely unacceptable. No parent should have to do that ... after the premier of the province gave them, and all other parents, a written promise that this was not going to happen," Hampton told reporters.
Right now, there are about 1,000 children on the waiting list for intensive behaviour intervention (IBI) therapy that can cost $50,000 a year per child.
In the 2003 election, McGuinty promised – in a letter to a mother of an autistic child – to end the previous Conservative government's "unfair and discriminatory" practice of cutting off IBI funding when children turned 6.
Once elected, he delayed doing it until 2005 and continued to fight parents in an existing court case.
Even though the Liberals have since tripled annual funding for autism to $140 million and more than doubled the number of children receiving the intensive therapy to some 1,200 children, the broken promise has dogged the party.
"We were not able to do it as quickly as we wanted because of a lack of therapists," Finance Minister and Liberal campaign co-chair Greg Sorbara said, adding that autism services was the only area that experienced a tripling of funding.
Hampton said parents would hear in "a couple of days" what his party would do for autistic children if elected.
Bruce McIntosh will be listening closely. He remembers the day in 2005 he got a call telling him his son Cliff had finally made it to the top of the waiting list for therapy.
Three days earlier, he and his wife had talked to a real estate agent about selling their home. For more than two years they had been paying some $20,000 a year to provide Cliff with part-time therapy.
IBI therapy, parents say, can change the world for some autistic children.
Sharon Gabison still remembers the first time her son, Eric Segal, asked a question.
"I had a son who didn't speak and one month after he started (intensive treatment) he came out with a question," Gabison said.
They were standing in a KFC fast food restaurant.
"What's the name of this place?" she recalls her son, then 5, asking.
"It was one of those oh-my-god moments in life," she said.
When her son turned 6 and was cut off the treatment that had made such a difference in his life, Gabison paid more than $50,000 to keep it going and joined with other families in a court case.
"You do anything you can for your kids," she said, adding too many families can't afford to go it alone.
She's a member of the Ontario Autism Coalition, which is trying to make autism funding a prominent election issue. "We're not necessarily targeting the Liberals. We're trying to make the issues known to everyone," she said.
Gabison attended Hampton 's event yesterday with the coalition's glass fish bowl. If every Ontarian put $7.50 in the bowl, the waiting list for services for autistic children could be eliminated, she said.
The coalition plans to give the money they collect throughout the election campaign to whichever party forms the next government and ask them to fix the system.
--------------------
Toronto Star:
Autistic kids let down, Hampton charges TheStar.com - News - Autistic kids let down, Hampton charges
September 11, 2007
Kerry Gillespie
Queen's Park Bureau
If every Ontario resident put $7.50 into Sharon Gabison's fishbowl, the waiting list for services for autistic children could be eliminated, she says.
Gabison and other parents of autistic children were at a press conference in Richmond Hill this morning in support of NDP Leader Howard Hampton.
Hampton had no problem putting his $7.50 in Gabison's bowl but he wasn't willing to say exactly what his party would do for autistic children if elected.
Parents will have to wait "a couple of days" to hear his plans, he said.
But he did have plenty to say about how badly the Liberals have handled the autism file, starting with breaking a 2003 election promise to provide intensive autism therapy to kids who need it regardless of age.
The "McGuinty Liberals have disgraced themselves by breaking their promise to Ontario 's most vulnerable citizens and their families," Hampton said.
More than 1,000 children are on the list for Intensive Behavioural Intervention (IBI) in Ontario , which can cost more than $50,000 annually per child.
During the 2003 election campaign, McGuinty promised to end the previous Conservative government's "unfair and discriminatory" practice of cutting off IBI funding when children turned 6. But he then delayed doing it and continued to fight parents in an existing messy court case.
The government spent $2.4 million — enough to provide treatment to 50 children — on legal bills fighting parents in court, Hampton said.
Even though the Liberals have doubled annual funding for autism over the past two years to $115 million, the issue of the broken promise has dogged them and many parents of autistic children have gotten involved with other parties.
Nancy Morrison - who received the promise letter from McGuinty in the last election — is now the NDP candidate in York Simcoe.
Parents will like what they hear from Hampton on autism, she said.
---------------------
from the York Region papers;
Premier hasn't kept promise to fund treatment, York resident says
By: Michael Power
Premier Dalton McGuinty has yet to fulfill a promise to provide autism treatment to every child in Ontario who needs it, says York Simcoe riding NDP candidate Nancy Morrison.
Ms Morrison, whose eight-year-old son, Sean, has autism, and provincial NDP leader Howard Hampton visited Richmond Hill Tuesday. The pair spoke about autism issues while visiting Leaps and Bounds, a centre that provides services for autistic children.
Mr. Hampton chastised the premier for not ensuring more children received treatment for their autism.
He denied (children with autism) services he said he would deliver, Mr. Hampton said in a release. The McGuinty Liberals have disgraced themselves by breaking their promises to Ontario 's most vulnerable citizens and families.
More than 1,000 remain on a waiting list to receive funding for autism treatment known as Intensive Behavioural Intervention.
Families who pay for treatment by themselves often spend more than $50,000 a year per child.
But the Liberal government has tripled spending for autism services since gaining office in 2003, Vaughan Liberal MPP Greg Sorbara said in an interview.
I don't think there is any program in government where we've increased support by 300 per cent, Mr. Sorbara said.
Mr. Sorbara couldn't say how long it would take to clear the wait list for IBI, but noted his party would work hard to ensure more children received treatment.
Ms Morrison received a letter from Mr. McGuinty before the last election stating his commitment to help autistic children get government-funded IBI treatment.
Although her son now receives partial funding for IBI, Ms Morrison had to re-mortgage her home four times to pay for treatment in the past.
Families in Ontario shouldn't have to live like this, said Ms Morrison, who is running for office for the first time during this election. My story isn't any different than any family who has a child with autism.
Although the Liberal government has increased funding for treatment, that funding hasn't kept up with the need for programs, Ms Morrison said.
---------------------
From National Post:
Wednesday » September 12 » 2007
Opposition leaders attack McGuinty's credibility
Lee Greenberg
CanWest News Service
Tuesday, September 11, 2007
OTTAWA - Ontario 's opposition leaders maintained their attack on Dalton McGuinty's credibility Tuesday - the same day the Liberal premier literally sidestepped the faith-based school's issue by ignoring his Catholic alma mater in favour of a secular public school.
Asked about the decision, which comes during a campaign centred on the school funding issue, McGuinty downplayed his choice.
"I've visited many Catholic schools during my (mandate)," he said in French, adding that the campaign "has just started."
McGuinty recently called faith-based schools segregationist and suggested they could have a negative impact on social cohesion, despite being a product of a faith-based school himself.
In campaign stops around the Greater Toronto Area Progressive Conservative Leader John Tory hammered the premier over his ill-fated promise not to hike taxes if elected. NDP_Leader Howard Hampton also accused McGuinty of failing to help children with autism, while also challenging his counterparts to debate him on northern Ontario issues, in a northern Ontario community.
Proponents of religious school funding saw McGuinty's choice on Tuesday to visit Charles H. Hulse Public School as significant.
The school is within spitting distance of McGuinty's Catholic high school, St. Patrick's.
"We note with interest that two doors down, there's a Catholic school that is fully supported by the government of Ontario ," Bernie Farber, chief executive officer of the Canadian Jewish Congress said.
"St. Patrick's High school serves as a model of how we can integrate other faith based schools into our public education system."
Farber and others have labelled McGuinty a hypocrite for excluding Catholic facilities from his attack on faith-based schools.
McGuinty, his wife Terri and the couple's four kids all attended schools in the Catholic system. Terri still teaches part-time in a Catholic board.
His opponents complain the premier's position focuses only on other religious schools and not those run by the Catholic board.
"He's said in not so many words that the Catholic community can be trusted not to cause social unrest and not to be segregationist while all other faith communities cannot," Farber last week.
Public school funding is a focal point for election interest in Ontario , where voters will go to the polls Oct. 10.
Ontario has long-funded only Catholic schools and none of any other religions, an arrangement that dates back to Confederation.
Tory reignited a long-simmering debate when he promised to extend full funding to all religious schools. The policy corrects what he believes is an unfair system.
McGuinty, who as opposition leader held much the same position as Tory but has since changed course, on Tuesday dismissed any thought of dismantling the current arrangement.
Tuesday also marked the fourth anniversary of McGuinty signing a pledge drafted by the Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF) stating he would "not raise taxes or implement new taxes without the explicit consent of Ontario voters."
After he was elected, his Liberal government introduced the Ontario health premium, which costs middle-class residents an average of $750 annually.
"Dalton McGuinty not only broke his promise not to raise taxes, he shattered it beyond any recognition," Tory told reporters at a Toronto press conference on Tuesday morning.
Tory noted the Liberal leader also pledged not to run a deficit, but government did just that during their first two years in office.
"If you held a competition and invited all the best screenwriters, conspiracy theorists, filmmakers - everybody - and asked them to dream up the stereotypical scandal of a politician breaking his promises and eroding the public trust, you would be hard pressed to come up with something worse than the McGuinty health tax," Tory said.
John Williamson, CTF president, on Monday presented Tory with a framed original copy of Mr. McGuinty's pledge.
"I think a lot of people - our group included - have branded the premier a liar," Williamson said.
Tory himself has refused to refer to his Liberal rival as a "liar," instead saying McGuinty "broke many, many promises" and "failed to keep his word."
But Liberals were quick to condemn Williamson's choice of words. Greg Sorbara, the finance minister and liberal campaign's chairman, said he was "saddened by the quality of the rhetoric."
"When a party and a campaign go exclusively negative, it usually means they're in a freefall," Sorbara said in an interview.
But Tory remained focused on the health tax throughout the day, devoting a substantial portion of a speech to business people in Oakville to the same issue.
Tory's message is being reinforced in attack ads the Conservatives began airing on Tuesday on television stations across the province.
Built around the theme "Promises made, promises broken," the four 30-second ads focus on commitments McGuinty has failed to keep in relation to crime, the environment, taxes and the treatment of autistic children.
New Democratic Partly Leader Howard Hampton picked up on the issues of services for children with autism on Tuesday.
But Hampton remained vague about the Ontario NDP's own financial plans for helping the needy group.
"We'll be laying out exactly how we're going to approach this issue in some detail in a couple days," Hampton said. "I'll be happy to lay it out in a couple days. Along with some other educational services that are interlinked and interwoven."
Hampton made the comments at a Richmond Hill , Ont. centre for children with autism and special needs called Leaps and Bounds.
The parents of autistic children took the McGuinty government to court in 2003 over a broken election promise to fund what is known as intensive behaviour intervention (IBI) for autistic children over six years of age. They won that initial decision, but the province appealed, arguing the intensive one-on-one process works best for children under age six and that other forms of treatment work better for older children.
In July 2006, the government won the appeal, and earlier this year the Supreme Court of Canada announced it would not hear their appeal case.
Although the McGuinty government has since eliminated the age cutoff, Hampton said the Ontario NDP has discovered - after much trouble - that it cost the government $2.4 million in legal fees to fight the families in court.
"We want to quantify that for you. $2.4 million would've provided IBI treatment for 50 children," said Hampton .
At a later campaign stop in Sudbury he challenged his counterparts to a debate on northern issues.
"Let's give them a chance," said Hampton standing outside the Club Age D'Or centre for seniors in Sudbury on Tuesday afternoon. "I'm going to continue to raise the issues of northern Ontario . If Mr. McGuinty and Mr. Tory aren't up to it, I think what it indicates is they don't take the challenges that Northern Ontario faces very seriously."
Hampton, a native of the northwestern Ontario community of Fort Frances , said that throwing down the gauntlet was necessary due to the severity of the problems faced by northern Ontario such as doctor shortages, lack of long-term care, an inadequate level of children's services, major job losses and the migration of workers elsewhere.
- with files from Dalson Chen ( Windsor Star) and James Cowan ( National Post)
© Ottawa Citizen 2007
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From the Windsor Star
Wednesday » September 12 » 2007
Autistic children ignored by McGuinty: Hampton
Dalson Chen
Windsor Star
Tuesday, September 11, 2007
Provincial New Democrat leader Howard Hampton held a press conference Tuesday morning to hammer the McGuinty government for its "trail of deception" regarding services for children with autism.
But Hampton remained vague about the Ontario NDP's own financial plans for helping the needy group.
"We'll be laying out exactly how we're going to approach this issue in some detail in a couple days," Hampton said. "I'll be happy to lay it out in a couple days. Along with some other educational services that are interlinked and interwoven."
Pressed for hard figures, Hampton replied: "This is a 30-day election campaign, and in the next couple of days, we'll be laying out a detailed plan on the kinds of fiscal arrangements that need to be made to pay for these services. For right now, this is about who the election is about."
Hampton made the comments at a Richmond Hill centre for children with autism and special needs called Leaps and Bounds.
Flanked by York-Simcoe NDP candidate Nancy Morrison and York South-Weston MPP Paul Ferreira, Hampton criticized Ontario Liberal leader Dalton McGuinty for allowing the list of children waiting for autism services to reach 1,100 names - 12 times higher than when the Liberals took office.
"This has been a terrible game by Dalton McGuinty and his government at the expense of some of the most vulnerable children in Ontario today," Hampton said.
Also standing with Hampton were Cemil and Nazile Aslanboga, a family of five whose eldest son has autism. The boy was unable to attend the press conference due to suffering a seizure.
According to Hampton , the Aslanbogas had to sell their Toronto home to cover the $5,000-per-month services required to help 11-year-old Burak.
"What we need is so expensive financially," said Nazile Aslanboga, Burak's mother.
Nazile - who emigrated from Turkey in 1992 - said the family now lives in a small apartment in Etobicoke. Her husband works in construction. She is currently pregnant with their fourth child.
According to Nazile, Burak has spent two years on a waiting list for the special treatment known as intensive behaviour intervention (IBI).
"It's very hard to live with a child with autism, especially when there's no help from the government," Nazile said.
In 2003, a group of families with autistic children took the McGuinty government to court for reneging on an election promise and not funding IBI treatment for kids over the age of six.
The case went to the Supreme Court, with the government eventually winning an appeal.
Although the McGuinty government has since eliminated the age cutoff, Hampton said the Ontario NDP has discovered - after much trouble - that it cost the government $2.4 million in legal fees to fight the families in court.
"We want to quantify that for you. $2.4 million would've provided IBI treatment for 50 children," Hampton said.
Morrison, herself a parent of an 8-year-old child with autism, said she decided to run for MPP because she wanted to hold Dalton McGuinty accountable for not fulfilling the promises he made in a personal letter he wrote to her.
Read aloud by Hampton at the press conference, the letter pledges to extend autism treatment, including IBI.
"That was before the election," Hampton said. "After the election, what we saw from Mr. McGuinty was a complete about-face. Instead of keeping the promises he made to Nancy Morrison ... Mr. McGuinty fought these parents and their children with every tactic at his disposal."
Despite Hampton 's lack of elaboration on how the Ontario NDP will serve children with autism better than the Liberals, Morrison said she has full confidence in Hampton and the party.
"I have been in discussion with him about what they will be doing, and I want the party to be able to release their stuff when they choose to release it," Morrison said.
Asked how other parents with autistic children can trust the party when they don't know what's planned, Morrison replied: "They will know what the party plans to do in the next two days ... I am very reassured. I have no worries at all about what the platform will be with the NDP."
© The Windsor Star 2007
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My media release in response to Mr. Sorbara's comments, I think he thinks we should all be Stepford Wives:
From NDP Provincial Candidate Nancy Morrison, York Simcoe Riding:
POLITICS BEFORE PRINCIPLE™: A McGuinty Trademark
NDP Candidate Nancy Morrison, the woman to whom Dalton McGuinty directly promised IBI autism services for her son, says "politics before principle" should be a McGuinty trademark.
"If there’s anyone who knows politics before principle, it’s Dalton McGuinty", said Morrison. "It’s beyond cynical to suggest somehow that the McGuinty Liberals – who have done nothing but fight families of children with autism every step of the way – are somehow the antidote to threats to autism services. They are the threat," said the York Simcoe candidate. "Dalton McGuinty will say anything and do anything to get elected. I’m running for politics to step up my advocacy and show Ontario ’s hardworking families can stand up for ourselves, our communities, and our children."
On September 17, 2003 Dalton McGuinty wrote to Morrison personally and made this promise: "I believe that the lack of government-funded Intensive Behavioural Intervention (IBI) treatment for autistic children over six is unfair and discriminatory. The Ontario Liberals support extending autism treatment beyond the age of six."
He broke that promise. Then he wasted $2.4 million fighting families of children with autism in court instead of providing the services they need.
Nancy Morrison’s family has mortgaged their home four times in order to pay for the IBI therapy her son Sean requires to help overcome the challenges of living with autism. It’s just not fair.
As a direct result of McGuinty’s promise and the hard work of the NDP to ensure children with autism are no longer ignored, Morrison decided to run for politics: for the NDP.
- 30 -
Media Inquiries: Jon Weier (416) 591-5455 x 290
From a listmate
From The Sunday Times
September 9, 2007
Quest for a miracle cure
http://www.horseboymovie.com/
These parents believe horses and shamans can unlock their son’s autistic mind. This is their journey of discovery
Tim Rayment
A child is born, and the child seems blessed. He lives in the richest nation on Earth, at a time of greater wealth and understanding than any in history. The infant even has interesting parents: one British, one American, each a little famous in their own right.
But then something disquieting happens. Perhaps this was your child, too.
He starts to go backwards. First he loses his language, then he enters a solitary hell. He turns away when touched and arches his back when held. He lines up his toys in rows, and seems afraid of things that should hold no fear. He appears not to notice you, and his indifference makes you feel snubbed.
Soon the real heartache starts. You see other children play together in a sandpit while yours is to one side, obsessively pouring and repouring sand through his fingers. Sudden firestorms run through his nervous system, making him scream in panic and pain. Later, in the calmer years when he is four or five, other children’s attempts at friendship are rebuffed. This is not because your child wants no companions: the truth might be that he yearns for them. But he is mystified by social interaction, and conversation makes him nervous, as he has no idea how to respond. So he turns away with a distant expression, seeming cold and weird. This is autism. Your lovely offspring looks condemned to what, in 1943, Leo Kanner first described as "extreme autistic loneliness", and many readers of this magazine will know a family that is affected. In the UK , 1 in 100 children is on the autistic spectrum.
It is a mystifying disorder. But on a farm in Texas , a British father thinks he has found a way into the mind of his autistic son. The boy has learnt to talk thanks to his relationship with a horse. He can quell his tantrums, express his feelings, even do maths and spelling — all because of a horse. He is the Horse Boy, and the loss of his symptoms is a challenge to conventional thought on how to handle his condition.
Can you love a child out of autism? Can you at least save your child from its worst effects, without destroying your marriage and yourself? All parents long to be good parents. The question is: how? Can the answer possibly be a horse?
If any family is equipped to combat the mysteries of this agonising disorder, it is this one. Kristin Neff, the mother, is a developmental psychologist with easy access to other experts because they are on the same corridor at Texas University . Rupert Isaacson, the father, is a campaigning writer and former horse trainer whose life has been spent drawing attention to injustice. For the past five years, their talents have been focused on Rowan, their autistic son. "You’ve got to put yourself inside his mind," says Rupert, who learnt patience and empathy in his earlier career as a horse whisperer, hired to bring manic animals under control.
To start with, Rowan seemed normal. He talked quite early, and at 12 months he had five words starting with B. Then he lost them. When he failed to pass certain milestones at 18 months, his mother knew something was up. But such are the misunderstandings around his condition that even she, an associate professor of human development, would joke that at least it wasn’t autism, because he made such good eye contact. Only now does she appreciate that the clichés of autism are not supported by proper research. How many autistic children are as loving as this one? How many can look a parent straight in the eye? We don’t know: the work has not been done.
Kristin asked an early childhood intervention team to assess her son. It offered no diagnosis, perhaps to delay the day when meeting his needs would dent its budget. In the end, she diagnosed him herself by looking up "early warning signs of autism" on the internet. He had every signal listed. For a condition in which early intervention is crucial, the family had lost six months.
We don’t know what causes autism, although the interaction of genes with toxins is suspected. (Rowan lacks a gene to produce glutathione, an antioxidant that combats toxins; a report on the possible role of plastics and pharmaceuticals in autism is due next year.) At least we now understand what autism is. Put simply, the brain is wired differently. Scans suggest that the white matter in the frontal cortex, the brain’s "computer cables", is overgrown. Instead of connecting all the parts of the brain, there might be a mass of cables leading to one area, so part of the brain has more wiring than it needs, while another part is poorly served. The only normal areas are the visual cortex and those at the back of the brain that store memories.
As a result, many autistic people don’t think in words but in pictures, patterns or symbols. "When I read, I translate written words into colour movies or I simply store a photo of the written page to be read later," says Temple Grandin, one of those who, in the past 20 years, have opened up the autistic world to us by learning how to describe it in verbal language. We still don’t know what life is like for those at the most afflicted end of the spectrum, but
it is likely that sights, sounds and touches mix together. "It must be like seeing the world through a kaleidoscope and trying to listen to a radio station that is jammed with static at the same time," says Grandin. That’s not all. Some report a broken volume control that causes sounds — a speech therapist’s voice, say — to jump erratically from a loud boom to inaudible, plus a nervous system in regular fear or panic.
The extra brain cabling gives a minority of autists dazzling "savant" skills, such as the ability of Kim Peek, who inspired the film Rain Man, to read two pages simultaneously, one with each eye, or that of Daniel Tammet, a maths genius in Kent , to recall pi to 22,514 decimal places. For others, ordinary experience is intolerable. They say they can hear the blood whooshing through their veins, or every sound in a school building. Fluorescent lighting can cause an entire room to pulsate on and off, 50 times a second. Meanwhile, missing wires can mean no flexibility or common sense. A child at a birthday party who is surrounded by peers licking ice cream may stare at his cone in bewilderment because, although he loves ice cream, he has always eaten it with a spoon.
For Rowan, autism takes a form called PDD-NOS, which means his social and communication skills are severely impaired but he does not fit the classic definitions. He began to flap his arms and babble, and to retreat into himself for hours at a time. For two years he suffered neurological firestorms in which he would flail around on the ground. "It could be because a breath of wind touches his cheek, and it feels like he’s being brushed with a flame-thrower," Rupert says.
"He can’t communicate what’s wrong." Looking through old notes, Rupert says he wondered if his son would ever be able to ask a question, or hold a parent’s hand and go for a walk.
The diagnosis was in April 2004, when Rowan was 2½. His parents tried the usual prescription: speech and occupational therapy, applied behavioural analysis, chelation to get rid of toxins, supplements to adjust the child’s chemistry this way or that. But there was a problem. Much of the evidence favours applied behavioural analysis, which uses strict routine and a system of rewards and subtle punishment to foster basic skills and inhibit unwanted behaviour. But this has been in vogue for a while, so nothing else has been tested to the same degree. And these parents, who live in the hippie belt near Austin in Texas — equivalent to Devon’s Totnes or Yorkshire’s Hebden Bridge — were always going to find it difficult.
Kristin is Buddhist, and Rupert, in the words of his friend Rian Malan, is open-hearted, optimistic "and vulnerable to enchantment". After meeting African healers to research The Healing Land, his book about the Kalahari Bushmen, he is open to communion with the spirit world. Strict routine is not their thing, and neither is pretending not to notice a child’s distress ("ignoring negative behaviour" as therapists put it). Their instinct is to cuddle and reassure, and to put Rowan first. "We’re his slaves," Rupert says. They also have an intellectual objection to the accepted wisdom. Life throws our children curve balls. Shouldn’t we throw curve balls too? If structure helps autistic children in the short term, does it reinforce the rigidities of the disorder in the long term? When you start to think like this, of course, you are on your own.Then came an accidental discovery. Like many autistic boys, Rowan has energy; one day he escaped through a fence and got among a neighbour’s horses. A quarter horse called Betsy started displaying submissive body language to the child. This was odd. Despite her gentle eyes, Betsy is a grumpy alpha-mare who would not think twice about putting two hooves in the face of a horse that annoyed her, or taking an incompetent rider straight back to the barn.
Yet here she was with her head on the ground, submitting to a babbling two-year-old boy. For years, Rupert had been a professional horse trainer, and his first reaction was to cry. Here was evidence that his son might share his passionate connection with horses. But if autism gave Rowan an eerie direct line to the horse, it also meant he could not learn to ride. He had little control over his body, and if distracted he would fall off. As father and son, they could take this no further. Rupert broke down.
Then came a second chance event. Commissioned to write an article on Honduras , Rupert went into the hills — and came across all these dads on horseback with their children. He could teach Rowan to ride after all, he realised: they could share the same horse. On his return, he put a saddle on Betsy and said to Rowan: Do you want to get up? And the boy gave him a direct answer for the first time. "Up! Up!" he said, and suddenly this father-son experiment was not about learning to ride. It was about finding a route into the mind of an autistic child.
As they went riding in the days that followed, they talked. The father said: Do you want to go fast or slow? Do you want to go to the water or do you want to go to the trees? Oh look, a crow! A crow is black. How do you spell crow? Give Betsy a hug. Thank you, Betsy! And Rowan responded. In place of his usual babble and empty repetitions were some meaningful words. At first the new skill came only on the horse, vanishing like a dream when he was on the ground. Then it extended into his wider world, too. After six months, when Rowan was 3½, he could tell Betsy spontaneously that he loved her. "We really owe the bulk of Rowan’s cognitive speech to Betsy," says Rupert today. "I’ve never been as grateful to a living being as I am to that horse."
Just as significant was the effect on Rowan’s tantrums. He was still having firestorms — the screaming, the writhing, the passers-by asking to call an ambulance. But although he might be a jerking ball of random energy until being put in the saddle, and spasm again as soon as he got off, on Betsy he was calm.
He had also responded to healers. Just after the diagnosis, Rupert brought a party of African hunter-gatherers to America to publicise the loss of their land to diamond mining. The bushmen became part of a 10-day event in California , and some took Rowan into their ceremonies, praying over him and going into trance. His symptoms seemed to reverse: he even showed people his toys. Afterwards, he regressed. But not as far back as before.
By now speech therapists were giving up on Rowan: he could talk either on Betsy or off her, but not with therapists — not in their closed rooms. The professionals were saying that they could help no further. What did seem to work was a grumpy horse and an encounter with an ancient culture. Like any good writer, Rupert decided to take his discoveries to an extreme. Where in the world, he wondered, do horses and healers combine?
We are in a landscape that could be Montana in the United States , or Britain ’s north Pennines . The light is shifting in that magical way all Britons take for granted, as the sun diffuses through cloud and rain. This is not Britain ; it’s Mongolia . There are eight of us with Rowan: his parents, a guide, a writer and a photographer for this magazine, and a small film crew. The child is in distress again. He is refusing to go near a horse.
Two days earlier he has been subjected to what looks to an outsider like child abuse. He has been whipped by a shaman — an intermediary between the natural and spirit worlds — and force-fed milk, then held under a noisy drum. He recovered to become peaceful, sociable, even giggly. But the refusal to go near a horse is deeply inconvenient.
If you go to www.horseboymovie.com, you will find a version of this story, as told by Rupert. He explains that Mongolia is where the horse evolved and humankind learnt to ride, and where the word shaman, meaning "he who knows", originates. So Rupert’s idea is to ride with Rowan on horseback from healer to healer in Mongolia , and to wash him in sacred waters. The journey is to end in one of the most remote regions on Earth, where the shamans are particularly powerful.
The website does not report that Kristin thought the plan was mad. She went along with it on a "Yes, dear" basis, believing it would never happen. Not only did it happen, but publishers have bought the unwritten book of this trip for sums so high that in some countries it has broken records. There is to be a film, The Horse Boy, and Viking Penguin, the British publisher, is already excited about the "online viral marketing of the story" and trailers on YouTube and MySpace. Eighteen countries will publish the book, even if eastern Europe was not that interested and an editor claimed that in Greece there is no autism. That means they are hidden away in institutions, says Rupert, instantly determined to start a campaign there.
And so we find ourselves on the Mongolian steppe, among nomads who have never hosted tourists, ready to mount the half-wild horses they have lassoed for our journey. Until now Rowan has never spent more than three hours on horseback, but this trip is to last days. His parents express their hopes. Kristin’s secret wish is that one day he’ll find a charming woman who will let him live in eccentricity, as it’s hard to imagine him independent — although easy to think of him making a living with animals. Rupert would love him to tell a lie, revealing a leap in his faculties. For now, each parent has the same desire: he is five and not potty-trained. If the shamans can get him to use a toilet, that would justify everything.
The venture is not as unhinged as it sounds. After being with Rupert for 12 years, Kristin is coming to trust his judgment; sure enough, it turns out there is a theoretical basis for Rowan’s breakthroughs on horseback. The rocking motion, and the constant finding and refinding of balance, is thought to stimulate new brain connections. Leading researchers into autism are following this journey with interest. But the case for these parents is best made by their son. He’s a sweet child, tactile and affectionate, and he is not hard to know. When upset he has the endearing, autistic habit of pulling words out of his memory that might correspond with what he feels, but not with what he’s trying to say. So he’ll scream "giraffe!" at the top of his lungs, or "immigration!" or "Smith!", the name of his old teacher, Miss Smith, when actually he wants to convey that he’s anxious, or has lost a favourite toy. It takes just a day from meeting him to get him giggling in a game. Most impressive of all is his interest in the world — the opposite of the classic idea of autism.
But he’s not giggling now. In fact, the trip starts badly and gets worse. The horses are fit and responsive. But Rowan is nowhere near one. For the first few days, most of the party travels on horseback while the boy, tired and upset, spends his time in the 4x4 support van. Soon his father contemplates having to change the book to The Van Boy. Days later, Rowan is still circumspect about horses: he has come to see them as something his father wants him to do.
Rupert is close to despair. Is he doing this for Rowan or himself? It is a question he has been asking himself throughout the trip. Now he has a fever blister on his lip, a reaction to stress. The lip splits painfully all the way across, attracting flies. But the stress can only deepen. There is a lot at stake, and not just the welfare of his son. The seven-figure book advance has paid for the filming of The Horse Boy, a trust fund for Rowan, and a school in Texas to offer Rowan’s education to others. The school, Big Sky, is to have four or more Betsys as mobile classrooms, each with a felt blanket on her back to use as a blackboard. It will take between nine and 15 children with Rowan’s form of autism, and up to 25 siblings. It is due to open next year, and the plan is to foster replicas around the world, including in Britain . But, after the story of The Horse Boy, will any parent want their child there?
Big Sky is being run by the fourth star in Rowan’s universe: if the first three are his parents, Betsy and ancient healers, then the fourth is his school tutor, Katherine Sainz, whose son has autism similar to Rowan’s. At an old hippie commune in 200 acres of woods, she fits Rowan’s day around his needs. He spends four hours touring the woods with his "shadow", Kamilo, who keeps him safe and uses chance discoveries as an educational tool. When he has run off enough energy to be calm, he goes into the classroom, where Sainz is assisted in lessons by two pigs, two cats and a python. After school, he goes riding with Rupert. Rowan’s reading is at the level of a seven-year-old. His imaginative play might have arrived late, but it is rich.
According to Kristin, this liberal approach means it might take three times as long to change a child’s behaviour. But because the changes come from inside, not outside, they have power. Rupert makes an analogy: if you don’t train a horse to think for itself, you won’t have a champion. You have a horse that can function under certain conditions in a predictable way.
Their son is a happy and adaptable child. But there are limits. Sainz is thousands of miles away. Rowan’s grandparents are thousands of miles away. Everything familiar is far away — except the film crew, the parents, and the unwanted horse.
Rowan suffers an appalling regression and begins behaving in ways not seen since he was 18 months old. He loses his language and starts to babble. He screams uncontrollably at the sound of a cow, assaults a little Mongolian girl, and bites his father. Getting the distressed child to the sacred waters — the "brain spring" — means wrestling him there. And it’s all being recorded on film for The Horse Boy. As the water is dropped onto his head he screams again. But then he starts to laugh, and washing in the spring turns into a game. Suddenly he’s all sweetness.
It’s not all bad. There has been a breakthrough so significant that at the time, before all this distress, Rupert and Kristin felt that perhaps the trip was justified: for the first time in his life, Rowan has a friend. In the past he has managed parallel play, where a child plays next to another of the same age. This is different. Our guide has brought his six-year-old son, Bodibilguun, and — helped by the equality of having no common language for Rowan to fail in — they are playing with swords, hugging, riding together briefly and generally acting like friends. And now that he has recovered, Rowan is obviously happy. He makes up a story about his imaginary friend Buster and a little girl rabbit and Blackie the hippo having an adventure in Mongolia , and it is clear that he is reflecting on the events of the past few days. Such storytelling is new for him. The trip is not a disaster, then. But until now the horses have had little to do with it, and then the journey takes another turn downhill.
With everyone, including Rowan, on horseback to see a shaman no 4x4 can reach, Michel Orion Scott, the film director, falls behind. He has food poisoning. Soon he is on the ground, vomiting and defecating, and while he is prostrate, his horse escapes. Surely this cannot get worse.
For 40 appalling years, medical dogma held that autists had no inner life; or if they did, it could never find expression. One mother changed that. Eustacia Cutler taught her daughter to read, worked with teachers to bring her repeatedly out of her own universe, and searched ceaselessly for the keys to a meaningful future. The girl seemed destined for an institution: even her father expected it. But the daughter, Temple Grandin , is now a professor of animal sciences and a star on the autism circuit. She has used her visual powers, and a rapport with cows, to design a third of all the livestock-handling facilities in the US, reducing the anxiety of cattle — and thus helping the meat industry — with innovations that to her seem obvious. Perhaps Rowan’s future is similar.
There was no single breakthrough in Grandin’s life; she grew through a series of incremental improvements. "There was no magic; there was just doing the best I could," says her mother. "That’s the point; that’s the talisman."
It’s the same story here. Autism is not really a spectrum: it’s a constellation of individuals, and what works for one might have no effect on another. "The experts don’t know what to tell you," says Kristin, who is one herself. "The best you can hope for is to find another parent with a kid with some features similar to your kid, and try everything." In the end, many parental decisions are instinct, and you do the best you can.
Somewhere out in cyberspace, the website for The Horse Boy, written before we set off, has a bolder, more reckless prediction. Under the heading What Results Do We Expect?, it says: "Rowan has already reacted radically well to exposure to horses and shamanistic ceremony" With the prolonged exposure to both, we can expect to see radical improvement and recovery on camera of an autistic child’s mind opening up to consciousness. For an audience to go on this miraculous journey will make for a rare and truly magical experience of film-viewing."
This looks unlikely. But then it happens. Michel, the horseless film director, comes staggering into camp, and resumes his vomiting so loudly that Rowan is arrested in his play. The five-year-old stands up and asks the first "why" question of his life. Michel, why are you spitting on it? Knowing the significance, Michel croaks heroically for someone to get a camera. Then Rupert makes a fire, and Rowan asks his first "how" question. Daddy, how do you make fire? Two more horses disappear, making three horses gone, but nobody cares. Within days of making his first friend, and hours after getting onto a horse, Rowan is making verbal breakthroughs.
That just leaves his parents’ dearest wish: an end to their days of scrubbing underwear. Rowan does not use nappies: he dumps straight into his pants, either standing on his toes or lying down. Rupert and Kristin then wash and change him.
I have promised not to describe the encounter with the final shaman; for that, you must wait for the film. But I can tell you this. The following evening, on a sandbank, Rowan makes the funny little movements that indicate a poo, but this time there is something new: he is holding it. And his father says: "Go on Rowan, take a squat." The entire group calls encouragement. Even Bodibilguun, the six-year-old, gets down to show him what to do. Rowan looks at everyone, ignores them, goes to a further sandbank, then bends his knees and delivers as if he were potty-trained, before scooping up water and cleaning himself. Rupert and Kristin are ecstatic. For the first time in their lives, they have a continent son.
Rowan’s meeting with Betsy was chance, and it was chance that Rupert knew how to take advantage. The father used Betsy for everything: language, maths, social scripts such as thanking the horse afterwards. "I had the time," Rupert says. "I wasn’t trying to push him to one side because I was trying to get a bit of work done,
or because I didn’t want to read him that f***ing story about Mr Men for the 400th time. I was enjoying myself with him; instead of being upset I had this autistic child that I couldn’t reach. I could reach him. And so I felt very fulfilled as a dad."
My last sight of his son is at a house in Berkshire where he is staying with family friends. I say my goodbyes. "Rowan, give Tim a hug," say his parents. I’m nothing to him, really; just a background observer who talks a lot to his parents. But he turns his back on the television without protest, puts his head over my shoulder and his cheek next to mine, and with his hands around my neck and back, we squeeze. For one who faces a life of "extreme autistic loneliness", the touch of those 10 tender fingers are a cause for hope. Would language have come to him anyway? Was he always going to learn how to make a friend? Who can say? All you can know is that, for this child, a liberal, eccentric, deeply loving regime centred on horses seems to be the best therapy possible. We have escaped the dark ages of the 1950s, when autism was blamed on the rejections of a "refrigerator mother" and the child simply hidden away. But we still understand so little. One day we will come out of autism’s medieval period; perhaps the story of The Horse Boy will be a milestone on our way.
From ASO.
>From: "Margaret Spoelstra"
>To:
>Subject: Deadline extension of Summer Camp Support Fund
>Date: Thu, 13 Sep 2007 12:14:47 -0400
>
>
>
>
>
>Please note - the deadline for submitting documentation for Autism
> Ontario 's 2007 Summer Camp Support Fund has been extended until the
end
>of September. We hope that an additional two weeks will reduce anxiety
>about getting paperwork together by the original deadline. If you have
>any questions please contact Ginny Kontosic at 416-246-9592 x225 or by
>email ginny@autismontario.com
>
>
>
>If the above image does not appear in your email - go to the main page
>of the Autism Ontario website www.autismontario.com
>
>
>
>
>Kindly forward this note to any interested parents or professionals.
>
>
>
>Thank
you.
>
>
>
>Marg
>
>
And from
Ontario Autism Coalition
The Autism Election Issue #1
September 13, 2007
Please Distribute To All Lists
Contents:
1. Changes and Updates to Day of Action Activities
2. Video and Press Coverage of OAC Election Activities
3. Day of Action Times and Locations
1. Changes and Updates to Day of Action Activities
Note the following changes since our last mailing:
* A change in the time of the Windsor and Essex events to 10:00am due to popular requests.
* A change in the contact phone number for the hosts of the Sarnia event to Susan Fentie (519)466-2288 or Dan Fentie (519)670-4608.
* A change in the location for the Sarnia event to Minister Caroline DiCocco's campaign office at London Road & Afton Drive (behind the Starbucks).
* The addition of an event in Hamilton at MPP Judy Marsales office at 1070 Main Street West .
Please see below for a complete list of locations and times.
2. Video and Press Coverage of OAC Election Activities
The OAC has been actively participating in the Ontario Election by attending events, educating the public and political figures, and helping to ensure that Autism issues stay top of mind generally. Here is some of what we have been up to:
* OAC at Minister of Education, Kathleen Wynne's campaign kick-off on September 9th in Toronto
* OAC at the NDP campaign kick-off on September 10th in Toronto :
o The campaign Kickoff event
o Media Interviews in French and English given immediately prior to the event
* NDP visit to an Autism Therapy Centre in Richmond Hill on September 11, 2007, and the OAC presentation of the "fishbowl" to Mr. Howard Hampton, Leader of the Ontario NDP:
o Toronto Star Coverage
o Video Footage of NDP Autism Centre Event
* Learn more about the Coalition "fishbowl" fund
* Learn more about the OAC Ask
3. Updated Times and Locations for the Autism Day of Action
The Ontario Autism Coalition (OAC) is declaring Saturday, September 15th 2007 as a Day of Action for Autism and is inviting you to join us at one of the several elected MPP riding offices in Ottawa, North Toronto, Toronto, Windsor, Essex, and Sarnia where events will be taking place throughout the day to bring awareness to the autism crisis in Ontario.
Each of us know the challenges we face in attempting to secure appropriate publicly funded programs and services for our children with autism. If we want this situation to change, we must be the change. Make an effort to join us at one of the riding offices listed below. Our message will be stronger when our voices unite. This is our opportunity to bring attention to the autism issues and this opportunity will only return four years from now in the next election campaign. Now is the time for action.
Let's believe that together we can make the necessary change for appropriate publicly funded autism programs and services in Ontario . Please join us at one of the following locations:
Ottawa
Premier Dalton McGuinty's office
1795 Kilborn Av
Ottawa ON K1H 6N1
Tel :613-736-9573
Fax :613-736-7374
dmcguinty.mpp.co@liberal.ola.org
Time: 11:00am to 1:00pm
Contact OAC Executive Member, Sam Yassine for more information:
613-841-3886
Sam_yassine@rogers.com
North Toronto
Greg Sorbara's office (Minister of Finance)
Unit AU8- 140 Woodbridge Ave
Woodbridge ON L4L 4K9
Tel :905-851-0440
Fax :905-851-0210
gsorbara.mpp.co@liberal.ola.org
Time: 1:00 - 3:00 PM
Contact OAC Executive Member, Sharon Gabison for more information:
647-892-4418
shar.gabison@utoronto.ca
Toronto
Kathleen Wynne's office (Minister of Education)
146 Laird Dr, Suite 101
Toronto ON M4G 3V7
Tel :416-425-6777
Fax :416-425-0350
kwynne.mpp.co@liberal.ola.org
Time: 11:00 AM - 1:00 PM
Contact OAC Executive Member, Malcolm Stanley for more information:
416-275-3562
amstanley@rogers.com
Windsor
Sandra Pupatello's office (Minister of Economic Development and Trade)
1483 Ouellette Ave
Windsor ON N8X 1K1
Tel : 519-977-7191
Fax :519-977-7029
spupatello.mpp@liberal.ola.org
Time: 10:00 AM
Contact OAC Executive Member, Mary Beth Rocheleau for more information:
519-734-6387
grocheleau6@hotmail.com
Essex
Bruce Crozier (Deputy Speaker)
78 Talbot St N
Essex ON N8M 1A2
Tel :519-776-6420
Fax :519-776-5763
bcrozier.mpp.co@liberal.ola.org
Time: 10:00AM
Contact OAC Executive Member, Mary Beth Rocheleau for more information:
519-734-6387
grocheleau6@hotmail.com
Sarnia
Caroline DiCocco (Minister of Culture)
Campaign Office
London Road & Afton Drive
(behind the Starbucks)
Tel :519-337-0051
Fax :519-337-3246
cdicocco.mpp.co@liberal.ola.org
Time: 11:00 AM - 1:00 PM
Contact OAC Executive Members Susan Fentie (519)466-2288 or Dan Fentie (519)670-4608 for more information
autism@coolgoose.com
Hamilton
Judy Marsales MPP
1070 Main Street West
Hamilton , On
Time: 10 Am
Contact OAC Member Rosalynn Knecht for more information:
289-396-0773
knecht.r@hotmail.com
From Autism Ontario
>
>
>
>New at www.autismontario.com
>
>The Summer Camp Section has been updated to reflect the extension in
>deadline. Additionally, the FAQs have been revised.
>
>Also, stay tuned for a special section of election information. This
>section will be added in the next few
days.
>
>
>
>
>
>Multi-Party Debate on Poverty and Disability
>
>In an effort to provide a forum for persons with disabilities to raise
>their issues in the Ontario election campaign, ARCH Disability Law
Centre
>is co-sponsoring a multi-party debate on POVERTY AND DISABILITY.
>
>
>
>The debate will be held
on:
>
>
>
>Tuesday, September 18, 2007
>
>7:00 to 9:00 p.m. (Doors open at 6:00 p.m.)
>
> Old Victoria College , University of Toronto
>
>
>
>Further details are contained in the attached flyers. Please
distribute
>widely.
>
>
>
>See you there!
>
>Theresa Sciberras
>Program Assistant
>ARCH Disability Law Centre
> 425 Bloor St. E. Ste. 110
> Toronto , Ontario M4W 3R5
>Tel.: 416-482-8255 Toll-free: 1-866-482-2724
>Fax: 416-482-2981 Toll-free: 1-866-881-2723
>TTY: 416-482-1254 Toll-free:
1-866-482-2728
>E-mail: scibert@lao.on.ca
>Website: www.archdisabilitylaw.ca
>
>
>
>News about respiteservices.com
>
>
>
>
>
>FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
>
>
>
>September
6, 2007
>
>
>
>Ontario Communities Launch respiteservices.com
>
>
>
>
> Toronto - What was initially a service feature offered only in one
city is
>now being replicated across the province so families in Ontario can
have
>better access to respite services through respiteservices.com
>
>
>
>
>
>
>Representatives from communities across Ontario are gathering at
Courtyard
>Marriott in downtown Toronto today, starting at 11am until 2pm, to
launch
>respiteservices.com.
>
>
>
>
>
>respiteservices.com provincial website (www.respiteservices.com) helps
>families, caring for individuals with a disability, to easily access
>respite workers and services within their local community. "I think
it is
>very helpful to have a central resource to find out about respite
options
>in my community and have the option to use a respite worker bank
should I
>need to hire my own worker", says a parent caring for a child with
special
>needs.
>
>
>
>
>
>respiteservices.com is hosted by Geneva Centre for Autism
>
collaborative
>project involving representatives from the Developmental and
Children's
>Service Systems in Toronto . The program has evolved into a provincial
>initiative.
>
>
>
>
>
>"respiteservices.com is an excellent example of a local service
feature
>that is a result of an active and ongoing collaborative process that
is now
>being shared by many communities across Ontario ", says Tatjana
Smrekar,
>Project Manager of respiteservices.com. "respiteservices.com
allows
>families to access respite in the place they live in and in any place
>within Ontario that they go to for reasons such as vacation or
relocation",
>she adds.
>
>
>
>
>This launch has been a result of local communities and organizations
>working together, with the support of the Ministry of Finance,
Ministry of
>Community and Social Services and the Ministry of Children and Youth
>Services, to improve local respite services
by making them more
accessible,
>better coordinated and more responsive to families caring for
individuals
>with developmental disabilities.
>
>-30-
>
>Contact:
>
>Tatjana Smrekar
>
>Project Manager, respiteservices.com
>
> Geneva Centre for Autism
>
>416 322 7877 ext. 292 or cell at
416-540-2455
>
>tsmrekar@respiteservices.com
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>Deadline Extension - Public Review of the Initial Proposed
Accessibility
>Transportation Standard
>Date-limite de participation à l'examen public de la proposition
de
norme
>initiale d'accessibilité pour le transport
>~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>The following are English and French versions of a letter.
>For inquiries please contact us at accessibility.css@ontario.ca
>
call:
> - Toll Free: 1-888-520-5828
> - Toll Free TTY: 1-888-335-6611
>
>Le présent message comprend les versions en français et en anglais
d'une
>lettre.
>Pour obtenir des renseignements veillez communiquer avec nous à :
>accessibility.css@ontario.ca
>composer l'un des numéros suivants :
> - numéro sans frais : 1 888 520-5828
> - numéro ATS sans frais : 1 888
335-6611
>
>~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>
>During the course of the Public Review period for the Initial Proposed
>Transportation Standard the Accessibility Directorate of Ontario
received a
>number of requests to extend the public review comment period on the
>Initial Proposed Standard. In addition, a number of groups have
suggested
>that a Reading Guide be developed to help support public review of the
>proposed standard.
>
>This notice is to inform you that the deadline to review and make
comments
>on the Initial Proposed Transportation Standard has been extended to
>September 28, 2007. In addition a Reading Guide will be made available
>shortly to assist readers in understanding how the SDC's Initial
Proposed
>Standard is organized.
>
>To review the new Reading Guide (once posted), the Initial Proposed
>Transportation Standard, and to provide feedback, visit the Ministry
of
>Community and Social Services' website at:
>
>English:
>http://www.mcss.gov.on.ca/mcss/english/pillars/accessibilityOntario/accesson/business/transportation/standard/index.htm
>
>
>French:
>http://www.mcss.gov.on.ca/mcss/french/pillars/accessibilityOntario/accesson/business/transportation/standard/index
>
>
>As mentioned in our notice on August 8, 2007, the public
review
process has
>been simplified by providing you with four options on submitting
feedback.
>Input from stakeholders will be of great value when the committee
finalizes
>this proposed standard.
>
>For additional information or to find out about alternate methods of
>providing feedback, please call 1-888-789-4199 or toll-free TTY
>1-888-335-6611.
>
>If you require assistance to participate in this activity, please do
not
>hesitate to
call.
>
>Thank You.
>
>~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>
>Au cours de la période du processus de l'examen public de la
proposition de
>norme initiale d'accessibilité pour le transport, la Direction
générale de
>l'accessibilité pour l'Ontario a reçu un nombre de demandes pour
prolonger
>cette période d'examen
public. En outre, bon nombre de groupes ont
suggéré
>que le Guide de lecture soit élaboré dans le but d'aider à prendre
>connaissance de la proposition de norme initiale pour la comprendre.
>
>Ce courriel sert à vous rappeler que la date limite pour réviser et
nous
>faire part de vos commentaires sur la proposition de norme initiale
>d'accessibilité pour le transport a été prolongé jusqu'au 28
septembre
>2007. De plus, le guide de lecture sera disponible très bientôt pour
aider
>les lecteurs à comprendre comment le Comité d'élaboration des normes
>initiales d'accessibilité est structuré.
>
>Pour prendre connaissance du Guide de lecture de la proposition de
norme
>initiale d'accessibilité pour le transport (lorsqu'il sera publié sur
>l'Internet), et nous dire ce que vous en pensez, veuillez visiter le
site
>du ministère des Services sociaux et communautaires à l'une des
adresses
>suivantes :
>
>Site français :
>http://www.mcss.gov.on.ca/mcss/french/pillars/accessibilityOntario/accesson/business/transportation/standard/index
>
>
>Site anglais :
>http://www.mcss.gov.on.ca/mcss/english/pillars/accessibilityOntario/accesson/business/transportation/standard/index.htm
>
>
>Tel qu'indiqué dans notre note du 8 août 2007, le processus d'examen
public
>a été
simplifié en vous fournissant quatre façons de nous faire part
de vos
>commentaires. Les commentaires des personnes intéressées seront d'une
>grande utilité au Comité d'élaboration des normes d'accessibilité pour
le
>transport lorsqu'il finalisera sa proposition de norme.
>
>Pour de plus amples renseignements, et notamment pour connaître les
autres
>moyens de nous
faire part de vos commentaires, veuillez appeler le 1
888
>789-4199 ou, par ATS sans frais, le 1 888 335-6611.
>
>Si vous avez besoin d'aide pour participer à cet examen, n'hésitez pas
à
>communiquer avec nous.
>
>Merci bien.
>
>
>
>Fifteen things about
me
>
>This is a letter to your child's teacher. It will help your child
adjust
>to a new classroom and make the teacher's life easy too. Download and
>print this free document now.
>
>http://www.nlconcepts.com/autism-teacherletter.htm
>
>
>
>*We wish your child a successful year, surrounded by people who
believe and
>who
care!*
>
>
>
>Natural Learning Concepts
>
>http://www.nlconcepts.com
>
>
>
>
>
>Autism Today Conference Information
>
>A versatile man in the research and treatment of autism spectrum
disorder,
>he has published landmark studies with regard to the role of
mercury
>
> Jeffrey Bradstreet , MD , FAAFP, has treated more kids with autism than
any
>other doctor!!!!! (1 of speakers)
>
>Dr. Bradstreet, MD, FAAFP is founder of and a treating physician at
the
> International Child Development Resource Center in Florida , adjunct
>professor of
nutritional neuroscience and child development at
Southwest
> College of Naturopathic Medicine , adjunct professor of neurosciences
at
> Stetson University , and a clinical consultant to the University of
>California Davis MIND Institute.
>
>Measles virus in autism, such as A Case Control Study of Mercury
Burden in
>Children with Autistic Spectrum Disorders, published in the Journal of
>American Physicians and Surgeons, as well as speaking before Congress
and
>the Institute of Medicine . His 11-year old son, Matthew, is recovering
from
>autism. Dr. Bradstreet is the founder of a special school for children
with
>autism that encompasses biological, behavioral, sensory, and auditory
and
>speech therapies into a combined program.
>
>
>
>Thank
you
>
>Susan Ryan
>
>autismtoday.com
>
>1-877-482-1555
>
>
>
>
>
>Picture Exchange Communication System ( PECS ) Training
>
>Date: November 7 & 8, 2007
>
>Location: St. Catharines , ON (Holiday Inn, 2 North Service Road )
>
>Description: This intense two-day training is designed to teach
>participants to appropriately implement the Picture Exchange
Communication
>System. Participants will learn how to implement the six Phases of
PECS ,
>including attributes, through presenter demonstrations, video examples
and
>role-play opportunities. Participants will leave the workshop with a
>fundamental understanding of how to implement PECS with individuals
with
>autism, related developmental disabilities, and/or limited
communication
>skills.
>
>For more information contact: 416-546-PECS (7327);
pyramid@pecs-canada.com;
>www.pecs-canada.com
>
>
>
>I've attached the Workshop Brochure and Registration Form to be linked
to
>the above
description.
>
>
>
>Thanks for all your help.
>
>
>Julie Koudys, M.A.
>Corporate Director
>Pyramid Educational Consultants of Canada, Inc.
> 2274-B Lawrence Ave. W
> Etobicoke , ON M9P 2A6
>Phone: 416-546-PECS (7327)
>Fax: 416-546-PEC1
(7321)
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>Disclaimer: It is important to do your own research and make your own
>informed decisions. Please note Autism Ontario does not endorse any
>specific therapy, product, treatment, strategy, opinions, service, or
>individual. We do, however, endorse your right to information.
>
>
From a listmate.
OAC prepares for their Day of Action
Friday, September 14, 2007 -- Jason Thompson
As the provincial elections campaign heats up, the Ontario Autism Coalition (OAC) is hosting a Day of Action Sept. 15 to ensure candidates of all political stripes are aware of the needs of children with autism.
Day of Action events are being held at Liberal Party candidate campaign headquarters in seven ridings including Premier Dalton McGuinty’s office in Ottawa . Sam Yassine, an executive member with the OAC says he has extended Day of Action invitations to candidates of every political party.
The OAC has tabled three issues they would like to see all political parties commit to:
- Allow Intensive Behavioural Intervention (IBI) instructor therapists currently working within the Autism Intervention Program (AIP) entry into the school system so that scientifically valid, supervised Applied Behaviour Analysis (ABA) can be implemented. The OAC says children receiving intensive ABA through the AIP and students attending school should receive the same quality of ABA services.
- Eliminate the waitlist in the AIP and fully fund services for all children with autism regardless of the severity of their condition
- Develop a formal credentialing system and a proper training and recruitment system for the implementation of ABA to ensure accountability and capacity within the system
“We’re looking for a government with a leader we can count on,” Yassine says. “It’s very important to us that all political leaders and any future government whether it is NDP, PC or Liberal to learn that there is consequences for breaking promises to parents of children with autism and they cannot get away with it
“The way Dalton McGuinty handled the autism file over the past four years was a disgrace,” he says.
Yassine says McGuinty’s actions have made him wary of hasty pre-election promises that could end up being broken.
According to an OAC news release, the current provincial government has failed children with autism by denying them full and immediate access to ABA/IBI within the school system.
The OAC says this has resulted in a growing waitlist that is now in excess of 1,000 children meaning parents have no option but to go into financial hardship in order to provide this necessary therapy for their children.
“It’s not against the Liberal Party, it’s all about accountability,” Yassine says. “We’re going to hold you accountable so whatever you’re committing today, you have to do once you win the election.”
Here’s a list of Day of Action events scheduled for Sept. 15:
- Ottawa , Premier Dalton McGuinty's office 1795 Kilborn Ave. , 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Contact OAC executive member, Sam Yassine for more information at 613-841-3886 or sam_yassine@rogers.com
- North Toronto, Greg Sorbara's office (Minister of Finance) Unit AU8- 140 Woodbridge Ave.,
1 p.m. to 3 p.m.
Contact OAC executive member Sharon Gabison for more information at 647-892-4418 or shar.gabison@utoronto.ca
- Toronto , Kathleen Wynne's office (Minister of Education) 146 Laird Dr. Suite 101, 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Contact OAC executive member Malcolm Stanley for more information at 416-275-3562 or amstanley@rogers.com
- Windsor , Sandra Pupatello's office (Minister of Economic Development and Trade) 1483 Ouellette Ave., 10 a.m.
Contact OAC executive member Mary Beth Rocheleau for more information at 519-734-6387 or grocheleau6@hotmail.com
- Essex, Bruce Crozier (Deputy Speaker) 78 Talbot St N. Essex ON N8M 1A2 , 10 a.m.
Contact OAC executive member Mary Beth Rocheleau for more information at 519-734-6387 or grocheleau6@hotmail.com
- Sarnia , Caroline DiCocco (Minister of Culture) London Rd. & Afton Dr. (behind the Starbucks)
11 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Contact OAC executive members Susan Fentie at 519-466-2288 or Dan Fentie at 519-670-4608, autism@coolgoose.com
- Hamilton, Judy Marsales MPP 1070 Main Street West , 10 a.m.
Contact OAC member Rosalynn Knecht for more information at 289-396-0773 or knecht.r@hotmail.com
From Autism CANADA
Visit www.autismcanada.org to register for
Autism: A Medical Condition
Saturday, September 29, 2007
University of Ottawa
51 Smyth Road
Roger Guindon Building
Featuring Dr. Martha Herbert, Dr. Derrick MacFabe and Dr. Wendy Edwards
Autism Canada Foundation invites you to discover why and how biomedical issues may have an impact on the physical, behavioural and cognitive health of children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD).
Attendees will learn about current promising research and what the next steps are in the new autism paradigm.
Presentations are geared towards parents, medical professionals, basic research scientists, agencies, school personnel and others dedicated to improving the quality of life for those on the Autism Spectrum.
If you are in need of financial assistance to attend please contact Laurie Mawlam (519)695-5858
All attendees will receive a free copy of the DVD documentary Autism - There's Hope Out There
Dr Martha HerbertDr. Martha Herbert, MD, PhD
Dr. Martha Herbert is currently an Assistant Professor in Neurology at Harvard Medical School and an Assistant in Neurology (Pediatrics) at McLean Hospital in Belmont Massachusetts . She has published more than 25 peer reviewed journal articles in such prestigious medical journals as American Journal of Psychiatry, Brain, Biological Psychiatry, and Annals of Neurology. Dr. Herbert has also been invited to give numerous presentations concerning the Neurobiology of Autism. She can be considered one of the current stars in the field of Autism Research.
Dr Derrick F MacFabe MDDr. Derrick MacFabe, MD
Dr. Derrick MacFabe is Assistant Professor and Director of the Kilee Patchell- Evans Autism Research Group, Depts. of Psychology (Neuroscience) & Psychiatry (Division of Developmental Disabilities) at the Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry, University of Western Ontario , London , Ontario . He is examining the role of genetics, biochemistry and environment on the identification and possible treatments of autism spectrum disorders. Dr. MacFabe's research has recently been awarded one of the "Top 50 Scientific Discoveries in Canada " by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada .
Dr. Wendy Edwards, MD
Dr. Edwards is a Consulting Pediatrician working in Chatham-Kent , Ontario . She completed her pediatric residency in Toronto , at the Hospital for Sick Children, where she was chosen to act as chief resident in her final year. Dr. Edwards' own son was diagnosed with autism at the age of three. He is now fully verbal, with a wonderful sense of humor and lots of friends. He graduated last June from Grade One at the top of his class with no Educational Assistant or special curriculum.
Please forward the following notice to anyone who might be interested in attending.
For workshop details click here: http://www.afase.com/Workshop.html
Click here to register: http://www.afase.com/Workshop_Registration.html
AFASE at school
Presents
Advocating For Appropriate Special Education 113
Saturday, September 22, 2007
10:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m.
This full-day workshop is designed to empower you by providing current special education
information, strategies, and skills that will enable you to advocate for appropriate special education
programs and services in a way that is both assertive and collaborative
Audience: Parents, Students, Teachers, Educational Assistants, and Community Organizations
Lindsay Moir who is retired from the Ministry of Education is considered to be an expert in special
education issues. He will present an interactive, discussion-based workshop on Current Issues in
Special Education.
Karen Robinson the owner of AFASE at School will present Special Education Advocacy:
Everything you Should Know. Topics include: The Rules of Advocacy, The Special Education
Program, IPRC's and the Appeal Process, The good IEP, Writing Measurable Goals and Expectations,
and Writing Needs Statements.
Each presentation will allow time for Q & A
Coffee and pastries, and a light lunch will be provided
Vaughan Police Station
Community Meeting Room
2700 Rutherford Rd.
Vaughan, Ontario
General area: North of Hwy 407, East of Hwy 400
N/W corner of Rutherford Rd. and Melville Ave.
SPACE IS LIMITED - REGISTER EARLY TO RESERVE YOUR SPOT
*Early bird rate: $80.00
*At the door: $100.00
To register use the registration form using this link
http://www.afase.com/Workshop_Registration.html
or e-mail: karen.robinson@afase.com
or phone: 905-427-7524
*Fee includes refreshments and handouts for each presentation
From a listmate
“These powerful heart-rending stories are
filled with honesty, humor, hope and offer
inspiration to parents, teachers, and anyone
else who cares for children with special needs.”
Gerald G. Jompalsky, M.D.
Offering encouragement and insight to anyone whose child faces
extraordinary challenges.
September 6, 2007. Lynn Skotnitsky of Vancouver , BC (formerly of Toronto and
Winnipeg) wrote an original short story that has been published in the newly
released Chicken Soup for the Soul: Children with Special Needs, one of the
most anticipated books in the #1 NY Times best selling Chicken Soup for the
Soul® series. This book contains truly remarkable, inspiring stories of support,
understanding and triumph that tug at the heartstrings of anyone who reads
them.
In “Ace of Hearts” one disheartened, frustrated mom receives a very large, longterm
dose of encouragement from her son Eric, who has autism. The bond they
share inspires her every single day as she continues to advocate and to educate
others to see past the labels to each person’s gifts and uniqueness.
It was selected from thousands of other potential stories to be included in
Chicken Soup for the Soul: Children with Special Needs because of its ability to
touch hearts.
Chicken Soup for the Soul: Children with Special Needs is perfect for every
parent, teacher, caregiver or professional who is participating in watching these
Chicken Soup for the Soul:
Children with Special Needs
Stories of Love and Understanding for
Those Who Care for Children with Disabilities
Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen, Heather McNamara,
Karen Simmons
An inspiration for families, teachers and
professionals everywhere!
Featuring
“Ace of Hearts”
by local author
Lynn Skotnitsky
children grow. This book should be shared with any person to remind them of the
profound role they will forever play in their child's life.
Lynn Skotnitsky, M.A., F.M.B. is a client-centered coach and consultant with
twenty years' experience facilitating planning and development for individuals,
organizations, and communities. She has volunteered on various nonprofit
boards and is an advocate for diversity, licensed childcare and inclusive
education. Eric, whom experts said would likely never talk, is now in Grade 6
French Immersion, and makes public presentations, most recently at York
University. An inclusive child-care center where Eric had early opportunities to
develop social skills with peers made the most significant difference for his
outcomes. Contact them at lynn.skotnitsky@rogers.com or 778-327-9641.
To purchase a copy please go to http://www.amazon.com/Chicken-Soup-Soul-
Understanding-Disabilities/dp/0757306209/
# # #
Copyright 1996-2007 Health Communications, Inc. ® • Deerfield Beach , Florida • All Rights Reserved.
Google alert
Opposition leaders attack McGuinty's credibility
Lee Greenberg
CanWest News Service
Tuesday, September 11, 2007
OTTAWA - Ontario 's opposition leaders maintained their attack on Dalton McGuinty's credibility Tuesday - the same day the Liberal premier literally sidestepped the faith-based school's issue by ignoring his Catholic alma mater in favour of a secular public school.
Asked about the decision, which comes during a campaign centred on the school funding issue, McGuinty downplayed his choice.
"I've visited many Catholic schools during my (mandate)," he said in French, adding that the campaign "has just started."
McGuinty recently called faith-based schools segregationist and suggested they could have a negative impact on social cohesion, despite being a product of a faith-based school himself.
In campaign stops around the Greater Toronto Area Progressive Conservative Leader John Tory hammered the premier over his ill-fated promise not to hike taxes if elected. NDP_Leader Howard Hampton also accused McGuinty of failing to help children with autism, while also challenging his counterparts to debate him on northern Ontario issues, in a northern Ontario community.
Proponents of religious school funding saw McGuinty's choice on Tuesday to visit Charles H. Hulse Public School as significant.
The school is within spitting distance of McGuinty's Catholic high school, St. Patrick's.
"We note with interest that two doors down, there's a Catholic school that is fully supported by the government of Ontario ," Bernie Farber, chief executive officer of the Canadian Jewish Congress said.
"St. Patrick's High school serves as a model of how we can integrate other faith based schools into our public education system."
Farber and others have labelled McGuinty a hypocrite for excluding Catholic facilities from his attack on faith-based schools.
McGuinty, his wife Terri and the couple's four kids all attended schools in the Catholic system. Terri still teaches part-time in a Catholic board.
His opponents complain the premier's position focuses only on other religious schools and not those run by the Catholic board.
"He's said in not so many words that the Catholic community can be trusted not to cause social unrest and not to be segregationist while all other faith communities cannot," Farber last week.
Public school funding is a focal point for election interest in Ontario , where voters will go to the polls Oct. 10.
Ontario has long-funded only Catholic schools and none of any other religions, an arrangement that dates back to Confederation.
Tory reignited a long-simmering debate when he promised to extend full funding to all religious schools. The policy corrects what he believes is an unfair system.
McGuinty, who as opposition leader held much the same position as Tory but has since changed course, on Tuesday dismissed any thought of dismantling the current arrangement.
Tuesday also marked the fourth anniversary of McGuinty signing a pledge drafted by the Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF) stating he would "not raise taxes or implement new taxes without the explicit consent of Ontario voters."
After he was elected, his Liberal government introduced the Ontario health premium, which costs middle-class residents an average of $750 annually.
"Dalton McGuinty not only broke his promise not to raise taxes, he shattered it beyond any recognition," Tory told reporters at a Toronto press conference on Tuesday morning.
Tory noted the Liberal leader also pledged not to run a deficit, but government did just that during their first two years in office.
"If you held a competition and invited all the best screenwriters, conspiracy theorists, filmmakers - everybody - and asked them to dream up the stereotypical scandal of a politician breaking his promises and eroding the public trust, you would be hard pressed to come up with something worse than the McGuinty health tax," Tory said.
John Williamson, CTF president, on Monday presented Tory with a framed original copy of Mr. McGuinty's pledge.
"I think a lot of people - our group included - have branded the premier a liar," Williamson said.
Tory himself has refused to refer to his Liberal rival as a "liar," instead saying McGuinty "broke many, many promises" and "failed to keep his word."
But Liberals were quick to condemn Williamson's choice of words. Greg Sorbara, the finance minister and liberal campaign's chairman, said he was "saddened by the quality of the rhetoric."
"When a party and a campaign go exclusively negative, it usually means they're in a freefall," Sorbara said in an interview.
But Tory remained focused on the health tax throughout the day, devoting a substantial portion of a speech to business people in Oakville to the same issue.
Tory's message is being reinforced in attack ads the Conservatives began airing on Tuesday on television stations across the province.
Built around the theme "Promises made, promises broken," the four 30-second ads focus on commitments McGuinty has failed to keep in relation to crime, the environment, taxes and the treatment of autistic children.
New Democratic Partly Leader Howard Hampton picked up on the issues of services for children with autism on Tuesday.
But Hampton remained vague about the Ontario NDP's own financial plans for helping the needy group.
"We'll be laying out exactly how we're going to approach this issue in some detail in a couple days," Hampton said. "I'll be happy to lay it out in a couple days. Along with some other educational services that are interlinked and interwoven."
Hampton made the comments at a Richmond Hill , Ont. centre for children with autism and special needs called Leaps and Bounds.
The parents of autistic children took the McGuinty government to court in 2003 over a broken election promise to fund what is known as intensive behaviour intervention (IBI) for autistic children over six years of age. They won that initial decision, but the province appealed, arguing the intensive one-on-one process works best for children under age six and that other forms of treatment work better for older children.
In July 2006, the government won the appeal, and earlier this year the Supreme Court of Canada announced it would not hear their appeal case.
Although the McGuinty government has since eliminated the age cutoff, Hampton said the Ontario NDP has discovered - after much trouble - that it cost the government $2.4 million in legal fees to fight the families in court.
"We want to quantify that for you. $2.4 million would've provided IBI treatment for 50 children," said Hampton .
At a later campaign stop in Sudbury he challenged his counterparts to a debate on northern issues.
"Let's give them a chance," said Hampton standing outside the Club Age D'Or centre for seniors in Sudbury on Tuesday afternoon. "I'm going to continue to raise the issues of northern Ontario . If Mr. McGuinty and Mr. Tory aren't up to it, I think what it indicates is they don't take the challenges that Northern Ontario faces very seriously."
Hampton, a native of the northwestern Ontario community of Fort Frances , said that throwing down the gauntlet was necessary due to the severity of the problems faced by northern Ontario such as doctor shortages, lack of long-term care, an inadequate level of children's services, major job losses and the migration of workers elsewhere.
- with files from Dalson Chen ( Windsor Star) and James Cowan ( National Post)
Google Alert
Tory sounds like a broken record
Broken promises, in general, do not endear political parties to voters. In fact, they are quite rightly considered to be bad policy, but they do not necessarily lose elections. Progressive Conservative Leader John Tory would do well to heed that.
Tory is trying to make Premier Dalton McGuinty's record of broken promises - and it is an impressive record - the centrepiece of his campaign. While the PCs would do well to make McGuinty's record well known during the campaign, voters have had four years to make up their minds about McGuinty, and Tory's constant blathering about it won't change much. He's been harping on it for some time, but the polls haven't bounced his way.
- Sudbury Star
Google alert
The star.com
TV election ads feature all Dalton , all the time TheStar.com - Ontario Election - TV election ads feature all Dalton, all the time
In the campaign, there are three men leading the main parties. But in the partisan ad world, so far, there is only one face front and centre – McGuinty
September 15, 2007
Robert Benzie
Queen's Park Bureau Chief
All three major political parties agree on one thing: Liberal Premier Dalton McGuinty is the advertising face of the Oct. 10 election campaign. In an unusual coincidence, the first campaign commercials by the Liberals, Progressive Conservatives, and New Democrats are dominated by McGuinty's mug.
That the Liberals would want to highlight their leader is not surprising – they unveiled a hagiographic website, dalton.ca, months ago and all of their campaign material is centred around him.
But his starring role in Progressive Conservative and New Democratic Party ads – where he is unflatteringly depicted either grimacing or grinning – prove the opposition parties believe he is as much a liability as Liberals think he's an asset.
"Poll numbers have always suggested that the premier lags his party in popularity and this is another reflection of that," says April Lindgren, a Ryerson University associate professor of journalism.
Lindgren, a former Queen's Park reporter who covered the 1999 and 2003 campaigns, says the parties are focusing on McGuinty for their own self-interested reasons.
"It shows you that all three of them think that the campaign is about leadership and personality – more than about issues," she says, stressing these are just the opening salvos.
"You could see this as the first phase of advertising and as they move along, the plan (from the Tories and NDP) may be to introduce their leaders and emphasize their leaders. They get out there and brand McGuinty (now) and then say here's what we're offering as the alternative."
The current Liberal ads boast McGuinty, sporting his trademark red tie, standing at the bottom of what appears to be a school stairway and speaking directly to the camera.
"You know what I love about Ontario 's public schools? They're public! Whatever the race or creed of our kids they attend the same schools together. They learn, play, laugh, and sing together," enthuses the upbeat Liberal leader.
"I believe that taking half-a-billion much-needed dollars from those schools to give to private religious schools is a mistake," he says, referring to Progressive Conservative Leader John Tory's plan to extend funding to other faith-based schools beyond just Catholics.
Given how controversial that policy is – especially to voters demanding one public system with no funding for any religions, including Catholics – the Tories are shifting attention in their ads.
The four commercials now airing province-wide feature a black and white photograph of a pained-looking McGuinty flanked by one of the following slogans: "promised not to raise taxes; promised to close coal burning plants by 2007; promised to support autistic kids; promised responsible spending."
As each "broken promise" scrolls across the screen, a male announcer, speaking over sombre music, intones that McGuinty made campaign pledges in 2003 then quickly abandoned them.
To the sound of shattering glass, each passing broken promise disappears in shards.
Finally, the grim portrait of McGuinty shatters like a mirror and a colour picture of a smiling Tory appears.
" Dalton McGuinty – promises made, promises broken. Ontario doesn't need more broken promises, it needs John Tory because leadership does matter," the announcer concludes.
Thematically identical, but less apocalyptic, the NDP ads sport a colour photo of a smirking McGuinty gradually being covered up by yellow Post-It Notes, each one featuring a broken promise.
"175,000 jobs lost; $450 average health tax; hydro rates up 45 per cent; nine-hour ER wait; 40,000 kids waiting for special education; no standards in nursing homes; 36 per cent tuition fee increase; children with autism denied services; $40,000 pay hike!" read the notes.
Underscoring this, a female announcer points out that "when Dalton McGuinty's Liberals were elected, it didn't take them long to forget the voters who put them in office."
"They forgot working families, they forgot our children, they forgot students and seniors, but they remembered to give themselves a big pay increase," she continues, as downbeat music plays.
" Dalton was hoping his record wouldn't stick to him. You can tell him he's wrong. Don't get mad, get orange. Howard Hampton and Ontario 's NDP."
University of Toronto political science professor Nelson Wiseman notes "for the most part negative ads do work and that's why the parties use them."
"What ads do is they reinforce your pre-existing biases. So if you're a Conservative and you see an add that's attacking McGuinty, you say, `oh yeah, that's good.' And if you're a Liberal, you say, `oh yeah, well, they don't have anything to offer, they're attacking us,'" he says.
But in a tight election, such as the Oct. 10 vote is shaping up to be, an effective advertising blitz can make an impact.
"All we're talking about at the end of the day are four or five percentage points, so that's all you're talking about swinging and that's the difference between a Conservative and a Liberal government," says Wiseman.
Still, he warns that negative ads can sometimes backfire and points to the most notorious example in recent Canadian political history – the federal Tories' attack on then Liberal leader Jean Chrétien's facial deformity.
Then prime minister Kim Campbell's campaign – run, coincidentally, by John Tory – quickly yanked the mocking ads, which showed close-up photos of Chrétien, and inadvertently drove sympathetic voters to the Liberals.
"So they don't always work," says Wiseman.
As might be expected, all three provincial parties take some liberties with the truth in their first spots.
McGuinty's assertion that money would be funnelled from public education to "private religious schools" is dubious. The new faith-based schools would, after all, become part of the public system – just like the Catholic schools McGuinty, his wife, and their four children attended.
The Tories' attack on the Liberals for raising taxes ignores the hidden $5.6 billion deficit that McGuinty inherited from former PC premier Ernie Eves in 2003.
Nor is the NDP exempt from such hypocrisy.
Yes, the NDP caucus opposed the hefty MPP raises McGuinty and Tory together rammed through before Christmas, but all New Democrats received the pay hike; some are donating their newfound largesse to charities in their ridings.So, along with plenty of face-time for McGuinty, viewers may be getting the truth, but not quite the whole truth, in this first round of election advertisements.
From a listmate
Autism coalition plans demonstrations tomorrow
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* Which one is the real Dalton McGuinty?
Regional News
Sep 14, 2007 10:26 AM
By: Michael Power, Staff Writer
The Ontario Autism Coalition is marking tomorrow as a day of action across Ontario to remind the province's political parties of the issue in the run up to the Oct.10 election.
Demonstrations will take place at MPP riding offices across the province, including the GTA.
"In Ontario, the current government has failed children with autism by denying them full and immediate access to (treatment) within the school system," Laura Kirby-McIntosh a member of the coalition's executive, said in a news release, adding there are now more than 1,000 on the waiting list for treatment.
The coalition wants political parties to commit to:
• allowing IBI (intensive Behavioural Intervention) therapists entry into the school system;
• eliminating the wait list and fund services for all children with autism;
• developing a system of credentials and training and recruitment system for those who administer autism therapy.
In York Region, the coalition will hold an event in front of Greg Sorbara's office at Unit AU8-140 Woodbridge Ave. in Woodbridge from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m.
From a listmate
From a listmate
Getting to know your candidates - York-Simcoe riding
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Newmarket
Sep 14, 2007 09:42 PM
JULIA MUNRO
PC
www.juliamunro.com1-866-706-8676 info@juliamunro.com
Julia Munro doesn’t make a lot of promises, as people have come to expect from politicians.
She makes just one: “To work hard and be accessible.
“Because, at the end of the day, the issues that crop up — you (the resident) have no control over.
“So you are depending on the strength of the individual who represents you,” she said.
Ms Munro, the York-Simcoe PC candidate, said she is not prepared to make promises or tell people something they want to hear to get elected, then fail to follow through.
“It just seems unconscionable you would promise something and not deliver,” she said.
“People vote for what they want to hear,” she said.
“If you can convince the electorate that you can do something faster, that’s what they want to hear and then they become cynical,” when it doesn’t come to fruition.
A member of provincial parliament since 1995, Ms Munro is counting on her experience to help her win.
She has served as a parliamentary assistant to the premier, the ministries of transportation and culture and management board.
She has also been chairperson of the government agencies committee and PC critic for culture and community and social services.
End of mailing.
THE ALLIANCE FOR FAMILIES WITH AUTISM (AFA)
Please contact us at autismafa@yahoo.ca
Please forward articles & information to ktchmeifucan2002@yahoo.ca
Check out the news article BLOG sent out with each mailing.
http://autismnewsarticles.blogspot.com
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