Freedom of Information

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I finally decided to make an application to the Archives of Ontario, under the Freedom of Information Act, to get any documentation existing on my grandmother, Florence Peters. It was surprizingly easy.

I filled out a very simple form, giving very brief information about GG (Gramma Gallson), why I wanted the documents and who I was, submitted and waited.

What I received was no surprize, as it confirmed what the Archives of Ontario supplied to me decades ago, but with the actual documents they used to get the information: the population change on the day GG died - proof that GG, in the end, was just an administrative entry and a statistic.



The Archivist explained that:

It is unfortunate that I could not locate a casefile. I did do some extra research into the administration of the records. It appears that Lakeshore did not regularly send their case files to the Archives of Ontario and ultimately a large amount of case files were destroyed. I did search the remaining casefiles, but they are mostly from the early 1900s. As for St. Thomas, case files from 1945 to 1976 were destroyed.

Astoria Felix
Information & Privacy Analyst
Archives of Ontario | Archives Division
November 2023 Email

I then sent the Archivist the letters that Carol received from St. Thomas Hospital in 1976 and 1980. This is her response:

Since this letter is from 1976/1980, it would make sense that they still had some information in the file at that time. The destruction of St. Thomas’s case files was done in 2001, in the same year that it was divested to St. Joseph’s Health Care in London. The records that were sent to the Archives of Ontario was the St. Thomas Psychiatric Hospital index and the St. Thomas Patient Registers. The rest of our records are administrative and unfortunately doesn’t include patient health records.

You may try to contact a current hospital to see if they hold historical records, but I will say that it may be unlikely. As mentioned above, St. Thomas was divested to St. Joseph's Health Care in London in 2001. Upon its divestment, the Hospital was renamed Regional Mental Health Care, St. Thomas, which appears to be permanently closed now. Since the hospital (and the divested hospital) closed down, I’m not sure what the correct institution is to contact. I did find St. Joseph’s Health Care London, which is a St. Joseph’s hospital that appears to treat St. Thomas patients, the link on how to request records is here: Health Records | St. Joseph's Health Care London

As for Lakeshore, unfortunately the hospital permanently closed in 1979.

Ibid

So, as per the archivist’s suggestion, I emailed , and just received this response:

Good Morning,

We have received your request for a medical record of your grandmother dated November 23, 2023.

After reviewing your request, we are informing you that the medical record pertaining to Flora Gallson, D.O.B., November 12 (or 21), 1897, is no longer available as per the hospital Record Retention and Destruction Policy.

Should you have any questions or concerns about the above, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Please accept our sincere apologies for any disappointment or inconvenience this may have caused.

Thank you for your understanding, and we appreciate the opportunity to assist you with your inquiry.

Wishing You a Wonderful Day 😊

Kind Regards,

Email, December 11, 2023

I guess I should admit to myself, that the records are gone.

Now what I’m holding out hope for is a positive response from the reference library, also suggested by the Ontario Archives Archivist, about the warrant that I’m very much hoping is NOT part of the medical records that were destroyed. Two people (a lawyer/prosecutor and a child of mother who was committed) said that Gramma must have done something “really bad” for there to be a warrant.

UPDATE: Today (January 23, 2024) I applied for more information from Ontario under the FOI (Freedom of Information Act) regarding Gramma Gallson.

UPDATE: February 15, 2024, I received an email from Ontario and again only received information that I had already. They included these documents:

The warrant number and the year of commitment.

I think I'm definitely at the end of the rope here. The only extra information I have now is the warrant number: 10948, and I'm not sure what good that will do me. It's not a police warrant or a criminal warrant. I believe the Ontario Department of Health had their own warrant system.

I'm nothing but tenacious and in saying that, I've filled out yet another FOI form for any documents from Children and Social Services from 1929 to 1943 for Widdifield Township and Papineau Township. There must be a file on the Gallson family. Mom remembered the teacher at school calling social services who came and checked out the Gallson children. She remembered Grampa Gallson telling Mary to ease up on beating the children or they'd be taken away.

February 16, 2024 - Ministry of Social Services call me this morning to say they wouldn't have anything on this, that it would be the local Children's Aid Society, and that I need to connect with them. Many moons ago, when Mom was still living on Main St. W. in North Bay, Mom took a letter to the Nipissing Children's Aid Society asking for information. Many months later, they said that all these records would be stored off-site and next to impossible to go through. We never heard from them again. The CAS is private, not a government body, so I think the FOI wouldn't apply to them. Sigh! I'll call them.

March 17, 2024 - My battle continues. I received a call from a woman who said that the Children's Aid Society is a private organization so I would be unable to access documents through the Freedom of Information Act. In the meantime, I received an email from the IPC (Information & Privacy Commissioner of Ontario) saying to fill out the form to receive information. Now I'm confused, so a filed a "complaint" with the IPC to get a correct answer on how I can access the Children's Aid Society data and/or the Foster Children's data and/or Social Services of Nipissing District.

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