A cancer stricken single mother and her autistic son will receive no legal aid in their court battle with the Ontario government.
Nora Whitney has been embroiled in a legal battle with the provincial government since 2003, when she went to court to secure government funded autism treatment for her son Lucas. The court ruled in her favour. But the McGuinty government is appealing the decision, and now without legal aid Whitney cannot afford a lawyer to argue on her behalf.
Whitney was informed about the decision in August. She has written to Legal Aid Ontario, but has yet to receive a response. In a letter to Legal Aid Ontario, she wrote: "Not only am I physically not up to taking on the role of being my son's lawyer, I am not one." Nevertheless, she is prepared to act as her own attorney, brushing up on law in between hearings. " I don't want to let the case go," she said in interview.
Lucas requires Intense Behavioral Intervention (IBI) treatment. He was cut off from government funding when he turned six in 2002. Whitney launched a constitutional challenge against the Ontario Government claiming that Lucas was being discriminated against on the basis of his disability. The judge agreed, and Lucas continued to receive IBI.
Treatment for autistic children older than the age of six became an issue in the last election when Dalton McGuinty promised to extend government funding for autism therapy beyond the age of six. But when the courts ordered it to extend funding for Lucas, the government announced it would appeal the decision.
"They've been aggressively fighting us ever since," said Whitney. "They don't seem to have a shortage of money for lawyers."
If the appeal succeeds, Lucas will no longer receive government funding.
Whitney's situation was raised at Queens Park Tuesday, when MPP Shelly Martell of the NDP called on Attorney General Michael Bryant to restore legal assistance. Bryant said it would be up to the courts to decide whether to restore funding.
While all this is going on, Whitney is also undergoing cancer therapy. She will continue with the case as long as her strength holds.
In the meantime, Whitney says that Lucas, now nine, has been doing "extremely well" under IBI treatment, and that it's "all worth it to see him well".
