>> Good evening.
I'm Mark Kelley.
Sometimes we come across people
so compelling, their stories so
powerful that it's best they
tell it all in their own
words.
That's what happened when we
began looking into a law in
Nova Scotia that allows parents
to declare their adult children
mentally incompetent and get
guardianship over them.
That's brought a lot of pain
and conflict to so many
families, as you'll see in
their stories.
>> It's a whole different world
that other people don't have to
imagine because they don't live
in our shoes.
It's not an easy task.
You don't wake up in the
morning and think you'll ever
have a special needs child.
>> Growing up, I didn't have
a huge behavioural issue.
I just wanted to be accepted
and I didn't want to be treated
as an outcast.
>> I'm Brenda Webb.
And I have four sons.
And one of my sons is Landon.
Landon as a baby was a very
beautiful child.
I think pretty well in the
newborn period we knew
something was wrong with
Landon.
Just holding his head up or not
meeting his milestones.
He had diagnosis -- it was
like a heart murmur.
Then that led to his open-heart
surgery.
From there it was developmental
delay that was global.
Behaviour issues, then as he
got older, he developed the
seizures.
I just always told him he could
do whatever he wanted to do and
we would just support him.
He could fly, he could fly as
high as he wanted to, and just
like eagles fly.
>> My name is Landon Webb and
I'm 25 years old and my
mother's name is Brenda Webb.
I was very much active
when I was a kid.
Me and my brothers we'd always
be out there playing and
building things or jumping off
the rooftops when there was
snow.
>> He loved to play, running
through the property, doing
things with his brothers.
I remember him always having a
happy childhood.
>> I remember one day when I
was waiting for my father, come
back from work, and he had
these two bicycles.
And they were the most
crappiest bikes but I loved
them.
I remember him taking them off
the truck and I drove them up
the driveway and drove them
back and I was...
That was a really good
childhood memory for me.
That was a -- that was a really
good one.
>> When you send your child off
to school the first time you're
putting your child in somebody
else's hands.
But with Landon, we had a
little bit more concern because
we knew he had some issues and
problems.
>> I remember that I went to go
down to the bus stop with my
mother.
And it was a special-needs bus.
And I didn't want to get on the
small bus.
I want to be like everyone
else, get on a normal bus.
(♪♪)
>> Landon struggled with school
work, holding his pencil and
being able to do penmanship.
He'd just throw himself on the
floor.
It could come in the way of
tantrums.
People couldn't understand
that.
Thinking that that required
discipline, rather than
recognizing it as part of his
disabilities and disorders.
>> I was mainly struggling with
the math and the reading at
that time and the writing.
Everything else I felt that was
really good.
(♪♪)
>> He liked some of his
teachers, he didn't have a lot
of friends, no.
It always is a struggle for
parents and for a mom to watch
a child work so hard to have to
obtain anything.
>> They were requested by my
mother to have full-time aid in
school and out on the
playground which I really didn't
want because it would
make me feel even more of an
outcast and hard for me to make
friends.
My whole life I felt like an
outcast and I wasn't really
having that much of a
relationship with my friends at
school.
So...
My dog and my pony were really
my best friends so...
And then especially when I got
pulled out of school in grade
2, that's pretty much like they
were my friends.
(♪♪)
>> We took Landon out of school
at the direction of two
psychiatrists.
We did a lot of reading.
We took him to the library.
We did math and we did workbook
activities.
He was doing wonderful.
Yep.
>> She would only teach me my
times tables with cue cards.
She would read with me and
other than that there wouldn't
be much.
I really became really good at
pool too because I would go
down and play pool in the
basement.
I would play pool for like
two hours a day.
(♪♪)
>> A person like Landon who
says things that are inaccurate
or not a fact, it might be just
how he perceives them to be.
It doesn't necessarily mean
that they're true.
Or some of it could be his
memory loss and the way he's
remembering certain parts of
his childhood.
>> She was always saying that I
always had these deficits,
always saying that I had a
handicap.
She would always put it as a
handicap.
Which made me kind of upset
about myself.
So it came to the point where
they would never let me out,
just go to the movies with
people or do anything, so I
came up with my own solution
where I'd wait until they'd go
to bed at night and wait till
around 1 o'clock and I'd get a
cab into town and sneak out of
my window.
I was grasping that...
I would say friendship and
grasping to be able to go out
and explore and be able to get
something that I never got.
(♪♪)
>> My name is Tiffany and I've
been with Landon since
I was 16.
He was 19.
And we met at a party.
And after that, uh, we talked on
Facebook and went to the movies
and we started being with each
other every day.
When I first met him I didn't
really bring him around my
friends because he'd say stuff
that was out of place, like
just -- he just really never
had people skills when he lived
home.
Because he was in his bubble
his whole life, like, he had
to learn like to talk to
people, like to hold a
conversation with people, and
stuff like that.
>> I love being with my
girlfriend.
And I love going to the movies.
I'm good at listening to people.
To what they have to say.
When I go camping, I'm really
good at starting a fire.
[ Laughter ]
>> When he was in the valley,
we went to a campground there.
We got food and cooked on the
fire and, um, he did it all
pretty much because he loves
doing it.
We listened to music.
We laid and just watched stars
and all of that stuff.
Like it was really fun.
>> Landon basically had said
that he was older and he wanted
one day to live out on his own.
And we said one day, yes,
perhaps.
But not at the particular time
he was asking.
(♪♪)
>> I was able to apply for
social assistance so that was
like a big huge change to me,
just living out on my own.
I learned how to put clothes in
the washer and the dryer.
I learned that you can't put
whites with black.
[ Laughter ]
So uh, and uh -- I
learned how to make my own bed.
I had never made a bed until I
was 18 years old.
>> He just decided that he
thought he could be like
everyone else and just go live
on his own and that wasn't
feasibly possible for him.
He didn't have the skills.
He wasn't ready.
(♪♪)
>> I got scored the
intellectual level of a 69.
Mental retardation and I hate
that word.
Of all the assessments I got it
was all on my intellectual
level, of my IQ.
There were no assessments done
on what I can do.
From day to day from getting up
in the morning, preparing his
breakfast to making his bed or
taking his medication.
>> He was contacting us
periodically.
We were often going through the
streets at night making sure
that he was safe.
Often times we didn't know if
he was taking his medication.
We were seeing marks on him,
bruises, scratches.
And at points in times, we'd
even see cigarette burns on
him.
>> The bruises, they were from
-- at times when I used to fool
around with my friends, and
there was one time when I was
out with my buddy and I was
drinking a lot and I fell down,
and kind of roughed myself up
some.
And, uh, the cigarette burns,
they were from myself actually.
I inflicted cigarette burns on
myself so...
>> How come?
That's sounds very painful.
Why did you do it?
>> Just other people were doing
it so I did, yeah.
(♪♪)
>> One day it was 11 o'clock at
night, the police showed up and
his parents, and they came to
the door, and we weren't gonna
answer the door because we were
scared that they were gonna try
to take him.
Landon went and they said,
you're coming with us, and
Landon's like, no, I'm not.
He said "I'm saying here with
Tiffany."
>> They wrestled me to the
floor and then to the bed, and
my father's helping them trying
to contain me and I remember one
of the officers holding me up
like a half a foot off the floor
by my neck eventually cuffed me.
>> And they left and they took
him and she was screaming
outside, this is to help you,
Landon.
And she put him in the back of
the cop car.
>> A new Glasgow family is
making a tearful plea.
>> 25-year-old Landon Webb was
last seen 13 days ago.
They've done everything they
can to help find their son.
>> We don't know if he's alive
or dead.
(♪♪)
>> Mark: It's been a tough and
emotional struggle between
Brenda Webb and her son Landon,
his rights, her
responsibilities.
In Nova Scotia, parents can get
guardianship over their
intellectual disabled adult
children under the incompetent
persons act.
Landon's parents get
guardianship over him in 2010.
>> Maybe she does have good
meanings about what she does,
but she's actually hurting me.
She's got to let me expand and
let my wings fly.
She's smothering me.
(♪♪)
>> We didn't have any options.
The only option that was really
available was the guardianship.
You've fought all your life to
give him as much rights and to
have him be like everybody else
as much as he can be.
It was quite saddening and
heart-wrenching for us.
>> I got served papers for the
guardianship order.
And then I was like, oh, gee,
what's this about?
I remember going on the bus,
and I remember crying.
I remember thinking what am I
going to do?
What am I going to do?
I was more in shock than
anything really.
My motivation was destroyed.
I was restricted in all areas.
(♪♪)
>> I just thought it was all
crazy 'cause I didn't
understand how somebody can
just take somebody's rights
away like that.
Like it's just -- I didn't
understand it.
>> I was really -- felt
hopeless and felt really
stressed out and depressed.
I just needed to drink to just
-- uh -- try to cope.
So I drank and I drank and I
was drunk for weeks at a time.
>> We just never knew if we
were going to find Landon in a
ditch, somebody had beaten him
up, or if we were going to get
that knock and call that
parents dread.
(♪♪)
>> It was suggested by his
psychiatrist.
It was a sigh of relief and we
thought it was on to bigger and
better things for Landon, and
he would finally get the help
that he needed.
>> I've never been in a
facility before in my life.
It's just horrible.
It's just horrible.
Yeah.
It was just hollering and
screaming and banging and
fighting and then you've got
all kinds of different types of
people that have their own
different disability.
Everyone else had more severe
deficits than I did.
(♪♪)
>> The only way I was coping
was eventually starting to
AWOL from the facility, just to
distract myself from what was
all really going on.
I said to myself, well they'd
never think I'd go out west.
I took the Greyhound all the
way out.
>> A new Glasgow family is
making a tearful plea tonight
for any help to find their
missing son.
>> 25-year-old Landon Webb was
last seen 13 days ago when he
left --
They've done everything they
can to help find their son.
>> We don't know if he's alive
or dead.
We're really worried about him.
I want you to call home.
Or call one of your brothers.
(♪♪)
>> I'm Nichele Benn.
I'm 28 years old.
And I love in Dartmouth.
No one deserves to be locked up
and treated like crap where you
live.
You deserve to be in a home.
>> My name is Brenda Hardiman.
I'm Nichele Benn's mother.
I didn't want to go through the
process of getting guardianship
and making decisions for
Nichele.
Because I felt that she would
be open to assisted
decision-making.
She always seeks my advice on
matters.
She was a chubby little baby.
Very good-natured and a pretty
baby.
She was born with the umbilical
cord wrapped around her neck
so it cut off her supply of
oxygen and caused cerebral
palsy.
And she has an organic brain
disorder that causes
periodic episodes of aggressive
behaviour.
>> We live right on the water.
There is a beach and in the
summer and stuff, I'd like to
go swimming.
My parents told me that I'm a
fish under water.
>> They were very good with her
I found in school.
They worked with her and gave
her the confidence.
She always loved to read.
(♪♪)
>> All through school from
grade primary to grade 12 I got
made fun of.
So that was hard.
No one wanted to hang out with
me because I had a disability.
They made fun of me because I
was limping.
My hand wouldn't work.
Like all my left side is better
than my right side.
It's longer, it's bigger.
(♪♪)
>> We had to arrange a tour for
Nichele before she moved in.
And there's this older
gentleman and he didn't have
any clothing on.
And he's pulling himself across
the floor.
Where's the dignity for this man
that's sitting on the floor
with no clothing on.
Why isn't somebody doing
something about that?
>> I lived there for a year
and a half.
Nightmare from heck.
It was very disgusting.
When somebody was acting up,
they pressed this alert button
and the security came and they
either dragged or they picked
up the person and pretty much
thrown that person in a room
and locked them in it.
That happened to me a couple
of times.
But they just put me in there
and locked it.
Sometimes I'd have my cellphone
and I'd call 911.
They just left me in there.
They can leave people in there
for hours.
>> We had written everybody we
could think of, everybody.
Everybody knew we wanted her in
a small options home under the
care of her care providers.
Instead she was stuffed into an
institutional hell hole.
(♪♪)
>> When you hear of somebody
being charged with assault and
assault with a weapon, you
think of a gun.
A knife, that's where my mind
goes.
Not a foam letter and a shoe
and not from somebody that's
supposed to be caring for
somebody in an institutional
environment.
All I could see was another
scenario of Ashley Smith
unfolding.
You know where there's this
young girl that has a health
issue and a piece of that is --
you know, aggressive
behaviours.
That if she goes to jail, she's
going to reoffend in jail.
All I could see was that
unfolding and that really,
really frightened me.
(♪♪)
>> She's not a killer.
She's not out robbing liquor
stores or banks.
She's not a child molester.
>> We are yet again calling on
our federal Justice Minister to
jointly meet with the families
of others in the same
situation.
We are desperate for your
intervention.
(♪♪)
>> My mother did a lot of work
which I appreciate.
Again, thanks mom.
One teaspoon.
She's like my hero in a way.
I came from living, living in a
nightmare to heaven.
Is it on?
Perfect.
(♪♪)
>> I can't be running away from
my problems.
I have to face it head-on, so
that made me want to come back.
>> He told me he wanted to come
back to Nova Scotia so he could
fight his case.
He didn't want to run.
He wanted to stick it out.
And he wanted his life back.
>> So, Landon, we're basically
finished the last draft of this
affidavit.
All of your points made now to
challenge the legislation.
Remember that this is the
evidence --
>> The matters before the court
include determination, whether
the incompetent person's act is
constitutional or not.
We're also hoping that the
courts will review his need for
a guardianship order at all.
(♪♪)
>> It just means basically that
I'm just going in the right
direction.
And it's another step.
It means a lot to prove to
people that I can do it all on
my own.
>> I have laid up a lot of
nights thinking about what I
could have done better.
It's almost like sometimes
you're living on a chess board
and you wonder, should you have
done this first?
Done that secondly, thirdly?
And if I was to do it all over
again, I'd do it all over
again.
Yep.
(♪♪)
>> I think independent living
with supports would be good.
That would give him the option
to be around his kids and be
able to be with them every
day and raise them and be with
his family.
Give daddy a hug.
>> I really want to work a
Monday-to-Friday job, just
living like anybody else,
coming home to my girlfriend,
Tiffany and the kids and
spending time with the kids.
Put them to bed, and watch a
movie with Tiffany at night.
Just doing anything else that
any other normal family does.
And I think I deserve that.
Hey.
>>Hey.
(♪♪)
