Note: You are viewing the unstyled version of CBC.ca because you can not see our css files, or because you do not have a standards-compliant browser or you are a mobile user.
Welcome to CBC.ca
| Story Tools: E-MAIL | PRINT | BOOKMARK PAGE | Text Size: |
His plan: to place sound and motion-activated cameras in the houses of several families and follow them through a period of several months. In recognition of how sensitive the process might be, the families would have the power to turn off the camera or withhold the tapes if they wished.
Unable
to get enough volunteers from the parenting course, Docherty extended
the offer to several families on the waiting list. One couple, Karen and
Mike Desjardins, wanted help and thought that by cooperating they would
get it sooner.
When the tapes started coming in, everyone involved knew
that the Desjardins ' story was so powerfully dramatic that it would illustrate
all of the issues they wanted to explore. Theresa Burke was hired to help
out on the project when Docherty became overwhelmed by the hours of material
arriving each week. Those tapes were showing a young Evan silently enduring
the taunts and threats of his parents. 
"The material was riveting," says Burke. "Sometimes, late at night, you got the feeling you were in someone 's house. There wasn't a sound in the office, just you and whatever was happening onscreen."
Burke remembers long discussions about the effects the story might have on the family, especially whether eleven-year-old Evan would understand the irony implicit in the title - that much of Evan's trouble was Karen and Mike's lack of parenting skills. "There was always a recognition that this wasn't just a story, but people's lives. This wasn't just like watching those reality-based web channels we're so familiar with today. The show was going to be more meaningful than just saying, 'here's a shabby family from Hamilton not treating their son very well.' It was going to make a statement about an aspect of our society that really matters."