is pleased to invite you to attend a

Celebration of the Life of Les Horne

 6:00 pm on November 17, 2011 at the City of Toronto Archives 255 Spadina Rd., Toronto

So many are grieving the recent loss of Les Horne, first Child Advocate in Ontario, founding member of DCI-Canada and true champion for children. Several of those who knew him well will reminisce about his life and the contributions he made to the lives of those he touched.

There will also be an opportunity for guests to speak of their own encounters with him, and celebrate his wit, his kind generosity, his wisdom, as well as the breadth of his knowledge and the skill with which he negotiated and often reshaped Ontario’s system of services for children.

Light refreshments will be served.

This year’s Lowery Lecturer is Kim Pate, Executive Director of the Canadian Association of Elizabeth Fry Societies (CAEFS) and part time professor at the University of Ottawa Faculty of Law. She is an advocate for the rights of women and girls caught in the criminal justice system, for example, Ashley Smith, the young woman whose life ended tragically in prison after long months in solitary confinement.

 Kim will discuss trends towards the increased criminalization of women, especially poor and indigenous women and girls and those who have mental health issues. She has seen first hand the brutal effect of our prison system on girls and women.

 The 12th  annual Grant Lowery Lecture will be held on Tuesday, April 26th, 2011 at the George Ignatieff Theatre, Trinity College, U of T 15 Devonshire Place, south of Bloor St. just below Varsity Stadium. (easily reached by the St. George subway station)

Doors open at 6 pm. Lecture starts at 7:00 pm. with a reception following the lecture.

Admission to the lecture is free but all donations are welcome.

A silent auction will be held, so prepare to find some bargains! (cash or personal cheques only)

Kim Pate

The natural agency for the development and training of children and youth is the family.   The UN.Convention on the Rights of the Child was a heroic effort to provide a framework for the healthy development of young people in every culture.  The present initiatives of the Canadian Government are heretical and unfortunate attempts to re-impose the punitive and brutal system.  They demonstrate a poverty of imagination which is frightening in the face of such a wealth of experience as that which we possess as a consequence of the past few decades since we abandoned capital punishment for children.  There are huge files of evidence that repression and institutionalization are massive failures that result in further harm to young people.

We can look back over our years of experience at example after example of successful interventions that establish the truth about the need to treat young people with respect for their dignity and worth.  It is time to speak out and keep speaking until the policy makers take notice.   We are serving notice at the meeting tonight.

Why did we close the traditional training schools?  Was it just to let the old brigade back in? We feel sad for Roy McMurtry and we’d be happy to tell him that his memory is being betrayed.  Look through the litter of the past few years.  Look at the pictures of brutal battalions trampling on the rights of caring people, listen to the screams of children being tasered,  read the story of James Lonnee and his body being dragged out of the cell at Guelph where he was battered to death while the staff stood by, and then tell us the story of the girl called  Ashley Smith.  We think that swearing is the symptom of an inadequate vocabulary but we have insufficient words to express what we feel about the way the story happens over and over.

We are tabling this document at the meeting tonight [of the Youth Justice Group on Dec. 15th, 2010] because we know that many people share our view and we welcome every voice that will speak with us.  We can be contacted at   les.horne@dci-canada.org  

We apologize that we are unable to attend tonight but will commit ourselves to future activity.

                                            Yours sincerely,

                                          Agnes Samler, President

                                               Les Horne,  Executive Director