I was born in Fort Chipewyan that watch I know for certain because it's on my birth certificate I have no memories or certain knowledge of what transpired over the next few years I was once told by a social worker that my parents were alcoholics and that all of us kids were removed for this reason [Music] dear Chuck if I die tried to understand but did not do this because of you I love you very much even though we don't know each other very well I hope that you can do better in life than I and keep trying things are bound to get better and you know me I quit everything love Richard Stanley Cardinal [Music] but I've cried a lot you know and that was the first time in a long time and a lot of years that I really cried like you know for something like a person but now you know I know I don't really I can't be now wait it's really different cuz I don't have I can't really feel anymore you know [Music] in June 1984 Richard Cardinal was found hanging from a birch tree in the backyard at his last foster home he was 17 years old and he was matey from the age of 4 to 17 he had lived in 28 different placement situations throughout Alberta including 16 foster homes and 12 group homes shelters and locked facilities Richard left a diary which not only described his hardship abuse and neglect during his lifetime but also revealed what an aware sensitive and articulate young man he was I would be returning to grade 2 this year I was not considered an outcast this year I got my first taste of puppy love with a girl named Heather I was halfway through the school year when a social worker came to our home and ours to be moved and asked how soon I would be ready to move I answered one week I should have answered never him and I got along really good we I mean we did a lot of things together we we didn't uh overwork each other that's for sure like I say we built the bridge down there across the creek and we picked a few rocks in the field and we built a few things you know and he really enjoyed it he he was a good worker and he didn't complain him and we just enjoyed herself he was company for me too this is you know you don't like to do things by yourself and he talked but he never did ever talk about his pastor and I never asked him anything about his past I figure it was none of my business and now we worry about the future starting on May 7 Richard met his last foster parents Terry and Leo Crothers at their farm near Sangu do 90 kilometers northwest of Edmonton on the third day after his arrival Richard nailed a board between two birch trees and from it suspended a rope when it was discovered mrs. Carruthers immediately contacted the social worker she was told not to worry that Richard was interested in bodybuilding and would use the board to do chin-ups 39 days later Richard was dead it was June 26th I'll remember that date I might forget every other date but it was 26th of June it was my birthday and we were going to my son's for supper kids next door and all of us and I got home from work at about 4:00 and Rick was supposed to have fed and watered the chickens but he wasn't around and I didn't pay any attention cuz he hung around over with the kids over there so that Lee will come home at about quarter to 5:00 and then we had to go by five and I said well I better go and find the kid so I went over - Jackie I said have you seen Rick she said no was he mentioned I haven't even seen him at all today I'm so that's when I got to thinking I come back and I said to Leigh oil Jesus you know they they haven't seen him he's got to be somewhere the bike was in the art he hadn't gone motorbiking her we're sorry went down to have a look and of course he was dead you know he had been frozen for several hours and whistle you know a very hot day and everything and mmm I didn't touch him I knew by looking at him that there's nothing that I could do so I went back until Tara here to phone the police and while she was funny in a place I wouldn't got my camera I thought you know what this should be observed by other people than me had ever got to the stage where nobody would listen to us it was a little tough to do but I took about ten slides then we just waited for the police to come the next five hours seemed endless for the Crothers Richard's body remained in the trees while they waited for the police and the crime detection unit to do their work no autopsy nor inquiry was ordered into his death at that time well we waited for about a month or five weeks or so when we never heard a word from anybody so that's when I had these slides developed into prints and mailed one to each the minister the opposition leader and Peter Tran she and which is our local MLA and really tore into me over this a bad taste by sending this picture of this dead boy hanging in a tree and I said well certainly did get somebody's attention in it you know I said otherwise it would have been swept on the table and nobody would ever you know thought anything more of it it's just been another dead in there as soon as the media Association lady got these pictures then that's when everything took right off and of course everybody then was on the bandwagon you know everybody who was hidden in the woodwork from the government he got right up and started speaking out how it wasn't their responsibility and wasn't their fault [Music] Richard Cardinal he had been young matey and lost in the shuffle Richard had been a foster child for 14 years he had lived with no fewer than 16 families and in between he had been shuttled from youth emergency shelters to psychiatrists to caseworkers last June he killed himself this week in a courthouse in mayor Thorpe Alberta judicial inquiry is sifting through his life to see what went wrong Steve Andrews iax EVC News Edmonton the inquiry lasted five days it was presided over by Judge Walter White of the provincial court of Alberta a shocked media reported the testimony from 21 witnesses including social workers psychiatrists psychologists foster parents and program administrators the hearing revealed serious inadequacies in the child welfare system as a whole Rich's voice was finally heard one point emerged clearly Richard Cardinal never got what he needed most to go home [Music] I was seven years old and I remember we were staying at the mission at the time and the RCMP came to pick us up and they took us all in and we were taken to Fort McMurray from fortune there was eight of us at time we were all split up and put in different homes so I was put in a home with my second oldest brother and yet my other brother the oldest one Edmund was placed in him by himself and Richard was placed in a different home and the girls are not really sure where they went [Applause] by the age of six Richard had already been separated from his family for two years he was to be moved to his eighth foster home in Lac La Biche where he would live with his brother Charlie for 11 months after leaving Locke Labiche the two brothers were moved together to the town of brunette [Music] the abusing was started and brain it in the foster home there and that home was pretty rough you know like yeah as you know Richard had a a bedwetting problem me and in the mornings when he got up and he had wet his bed both him and I would both get a looking for it and not only that we had to go outside and get her own stick for them to beat us with he I mean that you know where that happened quite often and he used to just hit astern or just for despite of it I think a lot of times you just wanted to see us cry you know and of course all the family would stand around and watch and we'd have to drop our pants you know and they had was four girls of their own and the girls had to stand there and watch us to give us awaken our next home was in the same town just a few miles away this home was good in one way but bad in a lot of ways it seemed that for every good happening there were two bad ones I remember one night we were not fed and there was a bag of raw turnips by our bedroom door so we ate about tree apiece by the age of nine richard was moved to his 11th foster home the Smith family he was accompanied by his brother Charlie and his sister Linda I don't know how to explain they were quite upset and disturbed as you would put it there at first I had to cook quite a bit to get them filled up but then afterwards they they were just like any other children who were contented they were contented afterwards and when we just got them when I used to put food on a table they used to just grab for it they were so scared that there wouldn't be enough to go around I thought this one was really good you know all three of us we really had a lot of fun around URI they only creaked us running by the farm here and kind of shrunk a little bit but there's one certain part where had a rapid net had two rocks and everything falling down there and we go tubing down there with the tubes a few months later his current foster parents had become frustrated with his bedwetting and once again the social worker was asked to move Richard so then I asked their social worker I said help me to get some kind of big rubber to cover the mattress or because I couldn't find anything in the starter for the big and I said is there something to put on him you know so he don't work and they didn't who did all they did think the way we were told that Richard was gonna be taken away and he was supposed to be getting treatments best for treatment for his bedwetting problem and he was supposed to be placed back with us which never happened I had four hours before I would leave my family and friends behind and since Linda and Charlie were at school I went into the bedroom and dug out my old harmonica I went down to the barnyard and sat on the fence I began to play real slow and sad like for the occasion but halfway through the song my lower lip began to quiver and I knew I was going to cry and I was glad so I didn't even try to stop myself I guess that my foster mother heard me must have come down to comfort me when she put her arm around me I pulled away and ran up the roadways [Music] [Music] I didn't want no one to love anymore I had been hurt too many times so I began to learn the art of blocking out all emotions and shut out the rest of the world the door would open to no one Richard left you know this place wasn't the same like both the Linda and I were pretty upset that Richard had to go away and this place does seem to have lost its spirit the social worker arrived to take me away to my new home on the way there she tried to talk to me but I wasn't hearing or trying to hear [Music] when we arrived the social worker wanted to talk to my parents alone so I remained in the car about a half an hour later she came out and called me but I would not move and she came to the car I locked the doors I did not want her to leave me here here I was friendless alone and very scared finally they coaxed me out of the car and I began to cry the social worker told them that I would get over it soon and left but I wouldn't get over it not now not ever I told myself you know for the longest time we never heard anything about Richard and nobody told us how he was doing I was taken into the house and shown where I would sleep their room was in the basement when I walked into the room I could not believe my eyes the floor was covered with water about an inch and a half there were boards on the floor to keep your feet from getting wet the walls had been painted red but had long before began to peel off the bed was no wider than two feet across and about one foot off the floor there was a 40 watt light bulb in the ceiling which was not completely finished and you had to pull a string to turn it on it looked like something you'd see in a horror movie I ran away from here when time Richard for me he was really upset he said you wanted to get out of that place relieve that so I ran away from here and I hitchhiked down to this place but by the time I got there Julie at night so I went into the bales and I built myself a little lean-to another straw another straw bales and I slept there that night and early in the morning I snuck out of there before anybody got up and I went stood in the back of the bush and waited for Richard to wake up so I can go see him and he came out doing his chores Bob joins came out and I was watching all this from the back and I seen him yelling at Richard for building that straw stack Richard was saying that he'd never done it which was true you know it was me that built it and he gave me like he started beating on really bad for building that he and I heard Richard just crying and screaming mind you John wouldn't let him come to our face he just forbid him to come to visit but we did ask social worker that them brothers wanted to see [Music] I kept telling myself that this was all a bad dream that I would wake up soon with Charlie and Linda and the rest of my family in our home in Fort Chipewyan but in reality I knew that I wouldn't wake up and that this was real and not just a bad dream I spend the rest of the winter here feeling lonely and very depressed and I began to seriously think about suicide Richard lived here for years his longest stay with any one family while at this home Richard ran away several times stole a truck shot a cow and was failing all his subjects in school at age 13 Richard met the Kessler's his 13 set of foster parents Richard would once again live with his brother Charlie he was had this bedwetting problem so they decided well maybe they went to the psychologist sale so we were all for it cuz I knew it wasn't medical it was definitely psycho psychologically so we thought it would do him good then we can send her we said sure and he went for I don't know two or three sessions and then we started to see a change in and I think what was happening was he was bringing out everything that he'd buried and no and just I don't think he ever really they should have brought it right out and I think they stopped the therapy too soon because I found a while it was supposed to be a diary he was writing later and in there he said I've got all this anger I don't know what to do with it and yet he didn't display it to us I'd had no idea he had this anger inside when Charlie was about to turn 18 and would soon have to go out on his own Richard's sense of loss was overwhelming his anguish became unbearable when I woke up next I tried to sit up but my arms were strapped down in a sudden burst of pain shot through my neck it hurt so much I ended up yelling pain and then I burst out crying but two or three nurses came running into my room and one nurse and strapped my arms and held me in her arms repeatedly told me everything was ok now it felt strange to be held and yet it also felt suden warm inside I can't remember how long it had been since I had been held by anyone and I know that I missed it very much he attempted suicide twice while he was a kissers once was in school that was the first time he attempted it and the second time he came back from the hospital maybe 3 days later after that he was with us at Kester's and there's myself and a hired hand we were down in barn we were working with building calf pens in the barn and Richard came down you know he looked alright yeah and he said he was gonna go up and makes a cup of coffee he says ok we'll be up about 10 minutes we just had to finish up and we went up to the house and I heard this whining this morning and I thought Richard was singing with the stereo and I went down to see and here he was he was in the dog house and I decided there was Richard who had like blood all over him like need written a note and a note said help me please and was written in blood Charlie drove Richard back to the mere thought Hospital this time the attending physician arranged for Richard to be transferred to the Misericordia Hospital in Edmonton on the way there the ambulance attendant said that Richard nearly died on his arrival at the hospital the doctor reported that Richard was unconscious and smelling of alcohol no referral information was provided on his previous attempt two days before and Richard was released the following afternoon we went and picked him up brought him back to Kessler's and that's when kisses you know they said they couldn't keep him anymore and so social services they sent him to Grand Prairie to lockup in Grand Prairie he was supposed to be getting psycho psychiatric help busy caller and I don't think he really got any psychiatric help over there after Charlie's departure Richard ran away repeatedly his search for his identity and his family had haunted him all his life he would aim for the north he once made it as far as Fort McMurray a town he had been first moved to at the age of four it was summer 82 Richard was almost 16 years old he was charged with shoplifting and was put on probation for six months the following year Richard was in and out of shelters and group homes in Edmonton he was found sitting on a bench at a 7-eleven store having cut his wrists and was bleeding onto the sidewalk Richard had lost the will to live I'm skipping the rest of the years because it continues to be the same I want to say to people involved in my life don't take this personally I just can't take any more yeah I took Richard back to for chip and he was always talking about going back to fortune so I felt it was only right to you know bury him in the for chip of death the graveyard and for chipped and he always wanted to see the family car family well he was always talking about seeing our brothers and sisters richard was about to receive the best attention from the social welfare services in all his time with the department arrangements were made for his family members to come to his funeral including all his brothers and sisters some of whom he really did not know it was really good to see all my family you know because I haven't seen him for all that many years you know they could have at least brought the family together once during all them years for how a family being separated for so long what a way for other brothers just to see you know our younger brother love can be gentle as a lamb ferocious as a lion just something to be welcomed it is something to be afraid of it is good and bad yet people live fight die for this somehow people can't cope with it I don't know I think I would not be happy with it yet I am depressed and sad without it love is very strange [Music]