Editor’s Note

Since the fifth estate’s Powerless programme was broadcast on 13 February 2009, AARC provided CBC with an affidavit it obtained from one of its clients, Scott Fowkes, stating that he lied to CBC, and made untrue and inaccurate statements about AARC in the programme. CBC has not been able to contact Mr. Fowkes to review his overall position in light of this and the information he provided earlier.

AARC has also sued four female sources, all of whom appeared in the programme. AARC alleges in those lawsuits that some aspects of the Powerless programme were inaccurate, including several of the statements made by former AARC clients, and broadcast by CBC. For legal reasons, AARC has not been able to provide the CBC with details from some of those lawsuits. Each of the sources is defending the actions. Some have filed counterclaims against AARC.

On 15 April 2011, AARC commenced a lawsuit against the CBC. The CBC is defending the action. In that lawsuit, AARC denies the suggestion that it failed to investigate reports of abuse.

After the broadcast, CBC repeated its pre-broadcast offer to interview a representative of AARC, including a commitment to put that interview unedited on this website. That offer was declined.

Given this particular context, the CBC has decided to publish this Editor’s note.

The world of teenaged addiction is a frightening and bewildering place for any parent to navigate. Most rehabilitation programs claim a 30 to 40 per cent success rate. Dean Vause, AARC's founder, says the facility works with “the worst of the worst” among addicted teens – yet it claims an 80 per cent recovery rate of those that come through its doors.

In Powerless, Gillian Findlay of the fifth estate investigates the Centre's claims of their success rate, as well as its controversial treatment program – including confrontational therapies and using teenagers, some still going through the AARC program, to counsel other teens. The roots of this treatment can be found in an American teenage addiction center that has been shut down.

Despite criticisms of the Centre, some former clients claim AARC works miracles. The fifth estate talks to one family that credits AARC with saving their son. That young man, Jordan Remple, says that AARC's tough program was worth what he got from it, sobriety. “…from what I've seen, what it's done for my life, what it's done for my friends' life, what it's done for my family's life, I have no complaints about it whatsoever.”

But, Findlay also speaks with former clients who have another kind of story to tell – experiences that include being held against their will, treatment therapies they describe as abusive and even incidents of sexual abuse.

Former resident, Rachel O'Neill, wants someone to know that for all of AARC's promises of success, bad things do happen there and attention, she believes, must be paid. “If somebody commits a crime they can go to jail for it but you can't randomly incarcerate teenagers just because you want to and it offends my sense of justice and my sense of what it is to be Canadian that AARC is still doing what they do.”