Autistic woman’s family notifies P.E.I. government of lawsuit in bizarre case

CHARLOTTETOWN – The family of an autistic woman whose father was wrongly accused of sexually assaulting her has served notice they intend to sue the P.E.I. government, saying the “baseless allegations” left the family traumatized and saddled with hefty legal bills.

In a notice of litigation addressed to the province’s Justice Department, the family confirmed this week they intend to file a statement of claim in the Supreme Court of Prince Edward Island after 90 days.

Group home caregivers had said the woman, now 37, had used an unusual technique known as facilitated communication (FC) in January 2015 to accuse her father of sexually abusing her.

The RCMP arrested the father on Feb. 7, 2015, and investigated the allegations for six months, during which time he was barred from seeing his daughter.

No charges were laid, and the Crown dropped the case after a psychologist hired by the family concluded the virtually non-verbal woman had the intellectual capacity of a two-year-old and could not have made the allegations attributed to her.

The Canadian Press is not identifying the family because of the nature of the allegations and the woman’s vulnerable state.

In March 2016, a provincial Supreme Court judge found former health minister Doug Curry treated the family deplorably after he failed to investigate the allegations.

Justice Nancy Key said if Curry had completed an investigation, it would have become clear early on that the daughter couldn’t have made the allegations attributed to her through FC, a widely disputed technique that has fallen out of favour around the world.

Last July, the Island’s Opposition Conservatives called for an inquiry into the case, but the governing Liberals did not respond. Progressive Conservative health critic James Aylward has said the province should issue a directive ordering all government-assisted agencies to stop using facilitated communication.

The provincial government did not respond to a request for an interview Wednesday.

The family’s letter says the lawsuit will address damages stemming from the conduct of a former health minister and his departmental employees.

As well, the letter says the statement of claim will allege breaches of the woman’s charter rights after the allegations first arose while she was living at a Charlottetown group home.

The law firm representing the family issued a statement Wednesday saying the parents are “significantly out of pocket for the expenses they incurred due to the baseless allegations made against them — allegations grounded only in a so-called communication technique which was widely discredited decades ago.”

“The trauma the family experienced due to the acts and omissions of the (former health) minister and others is real and is ongoing,” the statement said.

The P.E.I. Supreme Court decision, released in March 2016, said the Health Department and the group home repeatedly ignored the parents’ attempts to have their daughter’s communication skills independently assessed.

The court awarded the couple $61,000 to cover part of their court costs, which they say have risen beyond $200,000.

First introduced to North America in the early 1990s, facilitated communication (FC) was initially hailed as a breakthrough. The technique involves an aide holding the user’s wrist, finger or arm as the user points to letters or types on a keyboard.

In a series of affidavits filed with the court, three group home staff members, a manager and an adult protection worker all said they believed the woman could communicate through FC.

“I do not point to the letters or symbols myself, rather (the woman) holds my hand and then she points herself to the letter or symbol with her index finger,” says an affidavit from staff member Jennifer Hendricken.

“I believe that (the woman) has the ability to facilitate on her own; however, she has not done so and I believe has grown accustomed to holding someone’s hand. I believe that people with autism generally … find the sensation of pressure to provide a level of control or stabilizes her hand.”

Eastern Michigan University Prof. James Todd, a longtime critic of FC, has said there are no studies using proper scientific standards that show the procedure works.

Still, supporters of FC say the method is effective with some non-verbal people.

The Institute on Communication and Inclusion at Syracuse University in Upstate New York says problems with FC are typically caused by a failure to adhere to best practices, saying facilitators must be taught how to confirm authorship. As well, the institute says that FC is only a training method that should fade as independent communication develops.

— By Michael MacDonald in Halifax.