AARC website

[Rachael]

Some people were legally incarcerated in AARC. Those sent by court order (usually care of dear Cook Stanhope) were there legally. The majority however were not.

I have never had any trouble with the police. I've never even been given a transit ticket. The closest thing would be some library fines I got for books not returned as I was in AARC.

I knew that I had the right not to be imprisoned arbitrarily and to consult with a lawyer, but I was denied those rights. When I stated my rights and asked for a lawyer, I was told "druggies don't have rights" and made fun of.

I was illegally imprisoned and I have the right to contest that. That alone is grounds for a lawsuit, not to mention everything that occured while forcibly detained there.


Rachael

[Anonymous]

Rachael:
Is AARC an accredited treatment centre under the Child, Youth and Family Entrapment Act?

Or, Is it an accredited secure custody facility under the Youth Criminal Justice Act or any of the legislation or regulations dealing with Youth Detention.  

Specifically, do you know of instances where the Solicitor General's Department -- those responsible for administering detention facilities and probation -- have compelled a person into AARC .

Whether or not the courts or SolGen have ordered it it still may not be legal and/or is done in breach of Charter rights regarding cruel and unusual punishment.  

The case of Amy is also interesting.  She would still be under her conditional treatment order, or it should be coming to an end.  It would be interesting to find out how she is doing.

[Anonymous]

My comment goes to the AARC believers:

I am very happy to hear that what happened to me in AARC does not happen to everyone. To those of you out there whose lives have been changed for the better because of your time in AARC I applaud your recovery and am glad you are happy.
I was hurt in AARC. This site offers solace. It is proof that I am not alone and I get hope from stories, like Racheal's, that show there is life , love and joy after such an event.

If I can show the self restraint and maturity not to come to open meeting and talk down the people who hurt me then I would hope those of you out there living AARC-ful lives could do the same.

Maybe you like this forum because it offers you anonymity. You can attack anyone you like with little or no consequences.  If that is the case I seriously doubt that your new life is as happy as you claim.
"Me thinks she dost protest too much."
If you have to come on here and tell us all how good you are doing and defend AARC then you may need to do more reading and less writing. Your story may be closer to the many on here than you are comfortable admitting.

The people on this site are recovering in their own way, why can you not just let us be? Wave AARC's flag somewhere else.

If you would like to critique my sentence structure, grammar or spelling please feel free, but you are just proving my point. Please get another hobby and try to move on with your life.

We will not always agree, but we can live together.

Take care all of you

[ajax13]

AARC has official approval because early in it's founding a concerted effort was made to sell the program in the Provincial Legislature.  In order to do this, AARC used testimonials from people who were either unqualified to assess an adolescent drug treatment program, such as Mr. Doctorlewisandrews, or who praised the ideological conept of using corporate and user funds to pay for it, such as Dr. Ray Baker.  Since this time, in spite of ongoing abuse of children and evaporating money, AARC consistently trots out false misleading statistics to justify the abuses.  AARC is a sales campaign almost as much as it is a self-perpetuating abuse factory.  A small group of people whose interests are in direct conflict with those of the clients perpetuate the false success story and increase the flow of money in and the output of propanda.  Now as far as libel, let's see what you can find that is false.  Would it be the 9.5 million AARC has raised?  Would it be the Ph.D. obtained by the leader without writing a dissertation?  Would it be the fact that the testimonials on AARC's website are made in several cases by people, specifially affilliated with the "Union Institute",who are in a conflict of interest?  Would it be that the leader's training in adolescent drug intervention came at the knee of V.M. Newton at Kids?  Would it be that the leader left New Jersey and brought victims from Kids to Calgary and used them to counsel at the brand new AARC?  Would it be that kids are forced to sign a consent?  Would it be that the methods used in AARC are not scientifically proven?  Would it be that assaults have taken place in the recovery homes which AARC covered up?  Would it be the independent evaluation that was authored by at least three people from AARC, thus rendering it entirely not independent?  Interesting tactic, alluding to AARC's favored position with law enforcement and the courts and then challenging folks to take action.  That response fits right in with the pattern of threats, the cultivation of powerful friends and the reliance on fear and ignorance to feed AARC.  The insults referring to drooling and howling at the moon added a lot to the already dignified nature of the AARC propagandists.  I'm not a 15-year old girl with an unstable family and a history of drug abuse, so I don't cow that easily.

[Anonymous]

I came across this site and noticed mostly negative comment so I tried to do some investigation into your allegations of AARC's criminal misconduct ajax. I am not for or against just looking for healthy debate of which you do not seem to be prepared to engage in. You seem to have a lot of consuming anger so good luck with that. Your final comments indicate the last vestiges of someone without a strength-based argument...name calling. Won't be back...almost all here aren't interested in making change just venting.

[ajax13]

Once again, a complete absence of facts contrary to those raised about AARC.   Curiously another random stranger who happens to come across this site and attempts to criticize someone pointing to the problem of AARC, but without addressing any facts.  Thanks random stranger for the great investigative work!  If a judge sends a kid to AARC, then it must be safe to put children in the homes of other child drug-abusers and to put the new-comers at the mercy of old-comers.  Problem solved!  And also, if a judge sends a child to AARC, then it doesn't matter that Mr. Doctorvause's training in adolescent drug-intervention came from V.M. Newton at Kids, and that he brought children from Kids into AARC to peer counsel.  And it doesn't matter that AARC takes in millions of dollars to run a day facility staffed by ex-inmates and a guy who took phys. ed. and history in university.  As long as somebody has convinced a judge to send kids there, it must be a-ok.  I have always depended on the kindness of random strangers who do not have any interest in AARC.

[Hamiltonf]

I came across this site and noticed mostly negative comment so I tried to do some investigation into your allegations of AARC's criminal misconduct ajax. I am not for or against just looking for healthy debate of which you do not seem to be prepared to engage in. You seem to have a lot of consuming anger so good luck with that. Your final comments indicate the last vestiges of someone without a strength-based argument...name calling. Won't be back...almost all here aren't interested in making change just venting.

Don't worry Ajax, this post is typical of the sort of thing supporters of AARC will say having "just come across" this site for the umpteenth time.  The condescending tone is evident, They're not going to bother coming back to this site because (they say) it's not worth the bother.  Yet they keep coming back and saying the same thing hoping that their "spin" will discourage critics.  

But hey, " you can fool some of the people ....."etc.  

That they are attempting to spread their pernicious influence into BC is not likely to be very successful.  BC ers are much too smart for their crap.

[ajax13]

Just to clarify for the next random stranger who happens to come across this forum (but has nothing to do with AARC) and makes a rather pathetic threat about libel, there is not much room to debate.  I don't see the pros of an institution run by an unqualified person, staffed by unqualified people, using discredited methods derived from a defamed church to treat children in an unsafe setting and acquiring millions of dollars from private and public sources that disappear, and which produces a  bunch of badly damaged kids.  But then maybe there is an upside to those facts that I just can't appreciate.  
P.S. Can anybody explain how Mr. Doctorvause, who calls drug abuse a brain disease and is not a medical doctor, feels qualified, with the assistance of course of the emminent non-physicians Lirenman, Campbell and Brown, to treat this disease?

[sick of child torture girl]

ajax, the nice thing about cult member is that when they have to deal with educated, inteligent, non-broken children like yourself who have access to information they  cant handle it. They have very little they can say.

Their abuse, their lack of any qualifications while practicing "medcine", is something they manage to get away with only by sheer gall, bribery, complacency, and brutality. In fact, the intensitiy of that evil actually helps them onward. That unthinkable quality of cruelty was the reason no one beleived the Nazis were slaughtering of the Jews for so long.
 If you scrtinize their absurd claims they falls away like cards.-and they know it. .
thank you for coming  helping out with your freind. We need more people like you.

[Anonymous]

Miller Newton made numerous claims of success utilizing his treatment methods.  The claims were simply made up. They were all lies.  There is nothing to indicate that any program on which aarc's methods are based had any history of success so the claims of success by aarc, particularly anecdotal claims from former patients, must be viewed with skepticism.  A real study- that focuses on what was actually going on in the lives of patients before they were placed in aarc- and follows everyone who entered aarc for many years is needed.

[hanzomon4]

Yeah ajax, I think you're doing some good work supporting your friend and other AARC survivors. I wish I could give you a hand but words of encouragement will have to do for now...

God bless ya..........

[ajax13]

One of the principal tools AARC uses is bullying.This may be just an internet forum but it's one situation where their bullying will not fly.  The people who survive AARC have the truth on their side, whereas AARC relies on lying, threats and other forms of manipulation.  The farther removed from AARC the survivors are, the easier to see that AARC is built on the ego of a weak but ambitious man preying on the fears of others.  Not much of a foundation.

[Anne Bonney]

I looked at AARC's website, and noticed some odd things.  The website has links to media coverage of AARC.  As AARC purports to be a health resource, I cannot quite understand why it would have these links, which have nothing at all to do with treatment.  Another thing I noticed was that Vause is listed as someone who evaluated his own program.  Bizarre.  Part of the problem here is that for all it's riches, Calgary is a lil' backwater.  A legitimate health resource would not have to post references from the local society page to lend an air of legitimacy.  The website features testimonials in the manner of an old fashioned snake oil sale.  So much of it does not add up, but this city is fertile ground for scammers.   As to the board and staff, there is a real dirth of advanced training in medicine.  No pharmacologist, no psychiatrist.  One professor of medicine on the board [this Goresky person also being listed as an evaluator of the program] and a lot of people involved in oil and gas or finance.  Another curious fact is that the majority of "endorsements" came in the year 1993.  Since AARC was new at that time, it would appear that there is no basis whatsoever for any of their claims.  The endorsements seem more to be attempts to get provincial money in this early stage of AARC's development.  There is nothing about AARC that withstands scrutiny.  
From the top:
Founded by a man who worked under the discredited Miller Newton.  Newton's facilities have been successfully sued, and criminal investigations have resulted from actions taken in these facilities.
This man has attempted to pass himself off as a psychologist when he is not. This person also calls himself "Doctor", although he did not earn a PhD at an accredited institution and did not write a dissertation.
Thousands of dollars in fees have been charged to each family although these same families provide the residences for "clients".
Hundreds of thousands of dollars provided by charity, although institution still housed in industrial park location occupied in early nineties.
No psychiatrist or other medical doctor on staff.

 :wave:

[Anonymous]

In addition, of the folks independently evaluating AARC, Imbach is a staffer, and Patton is on the board of... you guessed it, "The Union Institute".  Another triumph for ethics.

and that would be a "triumph for ethics" because . . . . . .   a highly recognized international expert in evaluation research and alcohol and drug treatment research designed and implemented a study on AARC . . .  and he happens to be a faculty member at Union .  LOLOLOLOL, what a big gotcha there big boy!!!!  YA, call up your favourite journalists on that, they will be all over that one with cameras!!  

now if you had any kind of education yourself you would know how completely ridiculous your assertion is (this is JUST one among MANY) . . . pa-leezz let us know if you are alumni at some university cuz we need to question THEIR credentials  ROFLMAO