A Note from the Founder

Advocates for Access & Accountability (AAA) was created in response to a simple but urgent reality: families are being excluded from publicly funded care systems, and there is no consistent or transparent mechanism to document, track, or address what happens when care, access and accountability break down.

My belief in community inclusion did not begin in crisis.  It began in trust.

In 1979, my brother Harlan and our father were featured in a public education campaign when residential institutions were closing across Ontario. It was a defining moment in public policy: a partnership between government and community to affirm that people with developmental disabilities belonged in society not hidden away, but valued for their contributions, relationships and humanity.  Families always knew community living was possible, but now,  it was a society embracing acceptance, inclusion and participation. 

Our family believed in that promise.

That belief was forged much earlier. In the 1960s, community supports were not the norm. There were no coordinated services, no respite, and no formal systems of assistance. My parents raised their son alone without institutional placement and without family support at a time when society expected otherwise. They did so with conviction, responsibility and love. 

My father devoted his life to his son’s care. Only when he was 78 years old, and Harlan was 53, did our family explore a group home out of necessity, not convenience. Like many aging parents, my father faced the fear of not being able to care for his child forever. As a sister, I now carry that responsibility. I so with joyful heart. I made the decision to care for Harlan because family is everything.  I think of younger families those with non-verbal teenagers who, within months of leaving the education system, face the reality of having no meaningful transition, no programs and no supports beyond isolation at home.

Families believed community inclusion would protect their loved ones.

 Many are now discovering it does not.

For more than three years, my brother and our father were denied access to one another. I stood outside his group home door that remained closed—hundreds of times. Documentation later confirmed that management directed staff not to open the door to my brother’s father or to me, his legal authority.

During this period, my brother was isolated, harmed, deprived of services, and placed at serious risk. His long-standing community programs programs he had attended for over forty years were denied. His care was compromised. His autonomy was stripped away.

His fixed income was deposited into the group home’s corporate account. He was given approximately $20 per month for personal use. Over time, more than $50,000 of his money was taken without transparency, consent, or accountability. Years later, health records necessary to understand the full scope of abuse and harm remain withheld. My advocacy was respectful, professional and consistent  and yet, Harlan still didn't see anyone for over a year after our day passed away.  Counselling services were denied by the group home, thinking, they were Harlan's voice. They wanted to hide that he was crawling on the floor. 

Despite extensive documentation, inconsistent explanations and the absence of any meaningful service resolution, including after unilateral changes to his neurological medications public funding continued to flow in excess of $600,000 for the last 30 months even with the group home admitting they have not provided services to him since June 2023.  

At the same time, my brother had been residing safely with me since June 2023. Requests to support his care and safety at home were refused. Programs were denied. Services were blocked. Responsibility was deflected. 

This raises a fundamental question: who is the program serving—the individual, or the business contracted to deliver it?

It is important to say this clearly: there are group homes and community support teams in Ontario that do this work with integrity and care and my brother is now supported by such a team. Seeing him live safely, participate fully in community life and experience genuine joy affirms what community inclusion should look like when it is done right.

When a publicly funded group home deposits an individual’s income into its corporate account, accountability does not end at facility management. Accountability rests with government.

When there is a documented paper trail indicating abuse, neglect, financial exploitation and medical harm—why does government continue to do business with that provider? What criteria are used to assess these business partners? Why is this information not transparent to families and to vulnerable Ontarians?

Government is not a passive funder. It is a public service accountable to the people and to the individuals whose lives are directly affected by its decisions.

The suggestion that oversight extends only to buildings and operations and not to the quality of care, safety, dignity and decision-making of the person inside, is not oversight. It is abdication.

My brother is now safe, living with his family, gaining  his quality of life with happiness. That life was nearly cut short by reckless and unilateral decisions made by a group home that excluded legal authority, ignored consent  and acted without medical accountability.

When organizations act with impunity and government remains unresponsive. It exposes not only institutional abuse, but a deeper cultural failure to value the lives of people with disabilities.

AAA exists to document these failures, track systemic abuse and expose discrimination embedded in publicly funded care systems. It exists to bridge lived experience with accountability and to ensure that community inclusion is not a slogan, but a protected reality.

Disabled people are people.

Families are not obstacles.

Public funding demands public accountability.

Harm will not be excused.

Silence will not be accepted.

And accountability is not optional.

— Lori Ann Comeau
Founder & Executive Director, Advocates for Access & Accountability