At a recent screening of The Freedom Tour, hosted at Community Living Dufferin we celebrated the closures of the last 3 institutions which housed people with developmental disabilities on Ontario.
The Freedom Tour is an informative and very emotional film. It details the movement speerheaded by a growing group of people on a misison to have our Canadian government close once and for all the remaining institutions in the Prairie provinces.
With an intimate group of about 50 guests we welcomed Richard Beaudoin who led us in both prayer and remembrance as we honoured those people who lived and died in institutions. We also welcomed Barry Thachuk who spent a majority of his life in the Huronia Regional Centre (HRC) before coming to live in Orangeville.
Below is the speech which Barry prepared. Barry was very proud to share his thoughts with the guests and was grateful for the opportunity to honour those friends that he met and lost while he lived in the Huronia Regional Centre.
It is just a small account of his experiences and thoughts on life in an institution and the rights he enjoys now as a member of our community.
"Hello, my name is Barry Thachuk.
When I lived at HRC, one of the nurses forced me to eat when I was just a little boy.
Now, I don’t have to eat anything I don’t want to eat.
When I lived at HRC, sometimes I got locked up.
Now, nobody ever locks me up.
When I lived at HRC, I slept in a big dormitory.
Now I have my own bedroom.
The most important thing to remember about HRC is that “it’s an easy place to get into, but a hard place to get out of”.
Thank you!"
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