Tootoo takes up cause of disabled child

Iqaluit Centre MLA Hunter Tootoo tried to find out this week what the Government of Nunavut is doing to help a young, disabled constituent whose family is struggling to give him the help he needs.

On Feb. 10 Justice Earl Johnson of the Nunavut Court of Justice issued an “interlocutory injunction,” a type of temporary court order, on behalf of the child and his family, after the GN cut off all funding for the child’s therapy and treatment, including a life-giving nutritional supplement, in December 2004.

The injunction was the latest step in a legal battle that began this past November, when the family went to court to seek a permanent order granting their disabled son “protection from the Nunavut Government” and funding to have their child educated at a special school for the blind in Brantford, Ont.

In his temporary injunction, Johnson ordered the GN to pay for a treatment plan covering the child until July 2006, when the case is likely to be decided, and to resume financial support payments.

“I am not aware of the status of that file,” Leona Aglukkaq, the minister of health and social services, told Tootoo in the Legislature on Monday. “From what I do understand of that particular situation, the matter is still before the court, so I cannot speak to the specifics as to what is being done.”

The next day, Aglukkaq told Tootoo that a “service arrangement” was in the works with the family, and that when it was approved, the GN would comply with its terms as an interim measure.

Tootoo also questioned Ed Picco, the minister of education, in his effort to learn more about the GN’s compliance with the injunction.

Tootoo noted that the injunction had come down over a month ago. He said, as of last week, the family still had not received “a single penny” from the GN.

“If the minister would give a date; is it going to be another month? Is it going to be another week? Is it going to be another year? Or another two years before this family can expect to see some aid, finally, that the court ordered from the government?”

Picco told Tootoo that the legislature wasn’t the right venue to ask about the case.

“This public forum is not the place to get into legal decisions and legal judgments made by a judge,” Picco said.

Picco did say it was “his understanding” that the injunction was “being implemented based on the best available information that the government has.”

Tootoo tabled an article printed in the Feb. 17 edition of the Nunatsiaq News, called “Treat disabled child properly, judge orders GN.” This article becomes part of the official proceedings of the legislature’s current session.

Tootoo is concerned about the child, known as “J.S.”, who was born prematurely in 1997, and his family. Though his most serious disability is blindness, the child needs occupational therapy, speech therapy, physiotherapy, vision therapy, a five-day-a-week school program and a special needs educator to help his parents work with him at home.

He also needs a nutritional supplement called Pediasure, because of his difficulties in swallowing food. Without it, he becomes undernourished and loses weight rapidly.

The case will resume May 27 and 28, in Iqaluit.

Tootoo told the Legislature on Tuesday that the GN should look at the injunction as a “wake up call” to change its ways.