From 1876 to 2009, Ontario’s care for people with intellectual disabilities was centered in large government-run institutions, beginning with the opening of the Orillia facility—later known as the Huronia Regional Centre. Similar institutions followed, including the Rideau Regional Centre in Smiths Falls and the Southwestern Regional Centre in Cedar Springs. An extension of these institutions was the opening of the Edgar Occupational Institute where many people were sent to learn trades and job related skills to prepare them for work outside of these institutions.  Decades of institutionalization led to widespread reports of neglect and abuse, resulting in class-action lawsuits and, in 2013,  This bibliography highlights this often-overlooked chapter in Ontario’s history,

Based on the true story of Getruda Peters, this poignant, unflinching novel exposes the abuse and neglect she suffered as a resident of a government-run institution in Ontario in the 1980s. After witnessing the brutal murder of her father, followed by her mother abandoning her, young Gerda and her siblings are forced to leave the insular world of their Old Colony Mennonite community. Separated from her brothers and sister, she is shuffled from foster home to foster home and endures bullying and cruelty. She is sent to an institution for intellectually disabled adults, which is meant to nurture her, provide community, and give her life skills. But when a supervisor sexually abuses her and the staff doesn’t believe her, she becomes trapped in the patterns of survival she has endured her whole life.

​Left traumatized and stripped of belonging, Gerda finds fragile peace in a nearby forest, beneath a canopy of whispering leaves and amidst the quiet company of birds and wild creatures. Nature becomes her unlikely teacher, offering gentle lessons in kindness and resilience. This story offers a haunting and lyrical portrait of a young woman’s journey through loss and isolation toward self-discovery and strength. Through the darkness, Gerda forges a future shaped not by her past, but by the courage and compassion she learns to claim as her own.

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