Florence Girard was so small when she died that she “looked like a child” in her casket, according to her younger sister.
“She deserved so much better,” said Sharon Bursey, who brought a large family photo of Girard to the stand with her on day one of the coroner’s inquest into her sister’s death.
“She was loved. Nobody deserves that torture,” said Bursey.
Girard, who was born with Down syndrome, was 54 years old when starved to death in October 2018 while living in the home of care provider Astrid Dahl.
Bursey told the coroner’s court Girard was kept in a bedroom blocked off with a baby gate located on the top level of a townhome. The room had a mattress on the floor and the movie Titanic playing on repeat.
“It’s like she was thrown in the hole at a prison or concentration camp,” Bursey said. “She couldn’t phone me because she couldn’t get out of her room because of the baby gate.”
Bursay said Dahl either didn’t answer when she called her or ignored her requests to get her sister to phone her back. She said the only time Dahl picked up her calls was when she used someone else’s phone.
Dahl was convicted of failing to provide Girard the necessaries of life. Her initial 12-month conditional sentence was increased to 15 months in jail by the B.C. Court of Appeal in 2023.
Dahl worked for Kinsight Community Society. Kinsight is an accredited agency contracted by Community Living B.C. (CLBC), the provincial Crown corporation that funds services to adults with developmental disabilities under the Ministry of Social Development and Poverty Reduction.
Bursay said her sister was living in a Port Moody group home where Dahl worked as a caretaker until about 2010, when the home was closed.
She said her family wanted Girard to come live with them, but it was impossible to provide the full-time support she needed without financial assistance from Community Living B.C.
“I would have quit my job to have her living with me if I could afford it,” said Bursay. “They wouldn’t give me any support even though I had the perfect home for her.”
Instead, Bursay and Dahl came to a home-share agreement that saw Girard move in with Dahl. Home share has been described as adult foster care for people with developmental disabilities.
Bursay described Girard as funny, social and independent, a Special Olympics swimming competitor who used to take the bus alone from Port Coquitlam to New Westminster, where she had a job shredding government documents.
Bursay said Girard loved to eat and was quite overweight most of her life. The last time she saw her, about six months before her death, she said Girard’s weight loss was noticeable but not alarming.
“She was skinny … probably 80 pounds. But she was only four foot 11,” said Bursay.
Dalh is scheduled to testify Tuesday through Wednesday.
The court heard that the last time Girard had seen her family doctor was in March of 2014.
Bursay said CLBC should take a “family first” approach and make funding available for families who want to act as primary caregivers. In the alternative, she said there should be quarterly meetings between CLBC, the appointed caregiver and the family to ensure care plans are up to date.
“There’s a lot of protocols that don’t get followed,” she said.
Coroner’s inquests are formal court proceedings that publicly review the circumstances of a death to address community concerns or raise awareness of preventable deaths, according to the B.C. Coroners Service website.
Jury members do not seek to find fault but can issue recommendations to prevent similar deaths in the future.
