Dad pledges hunger strike in fight for autistic children

By ANTONELLA ARTUSO, QUEEN'S PARK BUREAU CHIEF ;

TORONTO -- A father who started a liquids-only hunger strike 10 days ago says he won't give up his protest until his 15-year-old son, and all autistic children, get the treatment needed to live a fuller life.
Stephan Marinoiu said his mortgage payment comes due today and he's $400 short, but he'll move his family onto the front lawn of Queen's Park if necessary to secure Intensive Behavioural Intervention (IBI) for his son Simon.
"Children are our riches; they're our gold," said Marinoiu, a father of three.
NDP MPP Andrea Horwath said record numbers of children are on the waiting list for provincially-funded autism services, despite the assurances of Dalton McGuinty's government more is being done.
"Stephan really is the face of parental anguish and sheer frustration here in Ontario."


Bruce McIntosh of the Ontario Autism Coalition said parents are often put under enormous financial pressure to provide IBI out of pocket -- $20,000 a year for a 20-hour-a-week program and up to $70,000 a year for a full-time program -- and many can't afford it.
Marinoiu said his son has never made it off the waiting list for services and now, without support, he poses an increasing physical threat to his family.
McIntosh said his organization conducted an on-line poll of families with autistic children and found 47 per cent had liquidated assets, 62 per cent had borrowed money, 11 per cent received charity and 4.2 per cent had declared bankruptcy.
"And so this premier and these ministers, who have declared a war on poverty, are driving the families of children with autism into bankruptcy at 21 times the rate of the general population," McIntosh said. "And that, my friend, is failure."
There are more than 1,000 children on the waiting list today compared to fewer than 80 in 2003, McIntosh said
In the legislature yesterday, Horwath challenged Children and Youth Services Minister Deb Matthews to clear the backlog for autism services.
"Why has the McGuinty government driven a desperate parent to stage a hunger strike over the lack of publicly funded treatment for children with autism?" Horwath asked.
Matthews said she has twice met with Marinoiu in the last few days and her ministry staff are working hard to provide his family with appropriate support.
"I will tell you what I told Mr. Marinoiu, and that is this: we are working as hard as we can," Matthews said. "I urge him to stop his hunger strike, to go back to his family."
The minister said her government has more than tripled funding for IBI. The budget has swelled from about $500,000 just 10 years ago to more than $150 million.