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Part 3

Report reveals physical, sexual abuse at WoodlandsFormer B.C. ombudsman found a code of silence that bred 'mean, harsh behaviour'William Boei Vancouver Sun <http://www.canada.com/vancouver/vancouversun>Marion Whaley, a former Woodlands resident who suffered physical, mental and sexual abuse, broke down and was comforted by Ken Pook of the Community Living Society on Friday.Disabled residents of Woodlands Institution in New Westminster suffered horrific physical and sexual abuse at the hands of Woodlands employees and were powerless to do anything about it, former B.C. ombudsman Dulcie McCallum has found.

Mentally and physically disabled residents were beaten and kicked, bullied and belittled, shackled and leashed, forced to take very cold showers and skin-burning hot baths, and sexually assaulted, resulting in injuries and pregnancies, says McCallum's report, which was made public Friday, nearly a year after being presented to the provincial government.

The report did not spell out how many residents were abused, or how many employees were involved. Nor did it indicate what proportion of the abuse was physical and how much was sexual.

Community living advocates, who lobbied for institutions like Woodlands to be closed, said they have known for years that abuse was rampant at Woodlands.

McCallum began her review of Woodlands files with three complaints, some of them first made public by Vancouver Sun reporter Kim Pemberton. She ended up finding 50 files with evidence of abuse, some of them involving multiple instances, said Gordon Hogg, minister of children and family development.

Woodlands, opened in 1878 as an insane asylum and finally closed in 1996, practically invited abuse of residents, the report indicates.

The residents, children and adults with various physical and mental handicaps, "had virtually no control over any aspect of their lives," she wrote.

Although by the 1970s Woodlands had formally adopted anti-abuse policies, there was little evidence of any safeguards to prevent abuse.

McCallum found nearly all her evidence in employee personnel and administrative files rather than resident files.

Many of the files were packed in garbage bags and slated for destruction when her inquiry began, and other relevant files may have been destroyed earlier. Her report covered the 1975-1992 period.

"Woodlands presented the opportunity for physical and sexual abuse to take place," the report said.

Complaints of abuse were seldom reported to outside authorities or residents' families.

Many employees maintained a code of silence, and developed "a high level of tolerance for mean, abrasive, harsh and abusive behaviour."

Residents, who were labelled as mentally and physically disabled -- or simply as retarded -- and deemed to be lacking intelligence and communications skills, were easily ignored when they complained.

Woodlands' physical design made visual scrutiny difficult. The place was overcrowded, there were not enough staff and employees were poorly paid, under-supervised and untrained.

Friends and families of residents found Woodlands an uninviting environment, and many residents had little or no contact with anyone outside.

"All was torture and hurt," said Luanne Bradshaw, a resident of Woodlands for 23 years who attended a news conference organized Friday by community-living advocates. "I'm glad to be out of there."

McCallum urged the provincial government to start a second, more thorough investigation to find missing files that may reveal more abuse at Woodlands, to extend the probe to other institutions where abuse may have taken place, and to give the victims an opportunity to come forward and tell their stories.

She also hinted that a deeper investigation may uncover an involuntary-sterilization scandal from a period when British Columbia had eugenics legislation on the books.

"There is some documentation recording the use of admissions to Woodlands as a means by which families and family doctors relied on the facility for a person to be considered for sterilization," her report said.

McCallum said a third phase should be considered to provide reparations and reconciliation for the victims and their families, possibly including a trust fund with money from the sale of the abandoned institution, similar to funds set up for Japanese-Canadians who were interned during the Second World War, and for natives who were abused in residential schools.

And she said the government must prepare to make an elaborate apology to the disabled residents of Woodlands and their families.

Hogg said in an interview that the government does not plan to proceed with a second phase of the investigation.

He cited a recent Nova Scotia government report that had found that "second phases or interviews or compensation packages, some of those things in many ways re-victimize the residents and re-victimize the staff," and could cause more problems than they resolve.

Hogg said the government will "open a dialogue" with families to discuss where to go next.

In the meantime, his ministry said, files containing allegations of abuse will be turned over to B.C.'s public guardian and trustee, Jay Chalke, "who will advise and act for people for whom his office is the legal guardian."

Hogg said he regrets what happened and recognizes the pain residents suffered.

But he added that he had spoken to former staff members at Woodlands, and that "some of them felt they were exercising and utilizing the best knowledge of the day, and I think they were."

Hogg said closed institutions were "absolutely the wrong place" for the disabled, "but we also have to move into the healing process and move forward, and that's why we're working with families."

Thousands of boxes of Woodlands files have been turned into an electronic data base, and former residents and their families will be given access to their files.

Hogg also said the government will quickly close Willow Clinic, a 25-bed facility on the Woodlands grounds that is still used as a short-term assessment centre for adults with severe developmental and behavioural problems.

Fifteen patients have lived there for more than a year.

Hogg said $25 million has been budgeted this year to provide an alternative to Willow Clinic.

The B.C. Government and Service Employees' Union complained that the government has not consulted with the union, however, and said it may have no other place to house those patients.

Hogg said he didn't know of allegations of abuse in other institutions, but said complaints can be made to ministry advocate Jane Holland, or to police.

But, an advocate for the disabled insisted abuse was widespread, and common knowledge.

"We knew it for many years, that children and adults who lived in Woodlands . . . and other institutions for people with developmental disabilities were abused," said Laney Bryenton, executive director of the B.C. Association for Community Living.

"We know that abuse at Woodlands was extensive, it was ongoing, and it was systemic in nature," Bryenton told a news conference. "And it took many forms."

Advocates were happy with the government's actions as an initial step, she said, insisting that in the next phase, residents and their families "must be the ones to determine the most appropriate form of redress for the abuse that they have suffered."

The ombudsman's full report, plus related documents, can be found on the B.C. government's Web site at (http://www.mcf.gov.bc.ca/media_site/woodlands_review.htm)

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WOODLANDS INSTITUTION TIMELINE

Some key dates in the history of Woodlands Institution in New Westminster:

- May 17, 1878: Opens as the Provincial Asylum for the Insane.

1900: Woodlands, now called the Public Hospital for the Insane, has a capacity of 310 patients.

- 1930s: Emphasis changes to the housing of people with developmental disabilities, and training and education become factors.

- 1950: Its name is changed to Woodlands School.

- 1959: Woodlands' resident population peaks at about 1,400.

- 1970s: Woodlands houses about 800 residents, 75 per cent of them described as severely or profoundly retarded. It has about 1,200 staff, including nurses, housekeepers, dietary staff, social workers, psychiatrists and physicians, and vocational instructors.

- 1980s and '90s: Woodlands residents are gradually de-institutionalized and placed in community settings. By January 1996, only 70 residents remain, and later that year it becomes the last institution of its kind in B.C. to be closed permanently.

Source: B.C. ministry of children and family development.