A judge was wrong to deny a seven-year-old girl state funding
for her autism, the child’s mother charges.
Joyce Dassonville of Dartmouth says authorities should have to
pay for a $60,000-per-year home treatment, called early intensive
behavioural intervention.
Dassonville, a lawyer, sued the province and Halifax Regional
School Board to get them to take over the payments. The family has
paid for the behaviour program since September 2000.
She and her husband, Yves Trudel, also wanted the government to
continue providing about $1,000 per month for other special needs.
They got cut off in August for making too much money.
Nova Scotia Supreme Court Justice Richard Coughlan said no to
those requests May 14. Dassonville says Coughlan erred on 13
grounds, misapplying the facts and the law.
In other news...
Crown drops charge
An East Preston man accused of sexually assaulting a teenage
girl is free to go.
A Nova Scotia Supreme Court jury couldn’t reach a verdict
against Anton Quincy (Benny) Simmonds.
The Crown had planned to retry him, but then withdrew the
charge Thursday
