Ill child’s mom irate over travel scandals
ED MONTON • An Alberta mother says she’s outraged by various politicians and staff who decided to travel abroad over the holidays, while a dream trip to Hawaii for her terminally ill son had to be postponed.
Lia Lousier of Airdrie, a bedroom community just north of Calgary, says nineyear- old Braeden is one of 100 people in the world to be diagnosed with a rare inherited connective tissue disease called Hajdu- Cheney syndrome.
“He has something going on with every major organ in his body,” the mother of three boys explained Monday, while seated next to Braeden at Alberta Children’s Hospital in Calgary as the boy received a blood transfusion.
“He’s been through heart surgeries. He’s been through abdominal surgeries, many other minor surgeries. And on top of that, he’s gone through meningitis. He’s gone through sepsis. He’s gone through strokes, seizures. You name it. This kid has fought it.”
But after years of consistent hospital stays, he was beginning to show enough improvement for a trip to Hawaii — “2020 was going to be our year,” Lousier said.
The Make- A- wish- Foundation, which grants wishes of children who are battling a critical illness, was arranging the trip for the family in the fall.
Next to his love for riding elevators, it was Braeden’s dream to be on a tropical beach, said his mother.
“When Braeden was small, I had taken him out to the West Coast to see family and he was non- verbal at that point and he wasn’t even moving at that point. So I lay him on the sand and he laughed and he laughed. He was so at peace through that, so it was a no- brainer the wish to go to Hawaii.”
But Lousier said when she saw the second- wave of COVID- 19 coming, the family postponed the trip.
Days ago, it was revealed that Alberta’s municipal affairs minister had travelled to Hawaii with her husband and daughter to continue a 17- year family Christmas tradition, despite recommendations against non- essential travel.
“Seeing Tracy Allard going to Hawaii was just that final, last break for me, just unbelievable anger that she felt she had the right to do that and then for her to excuse it,” Lousier said.
Allard apologized and on Monday she resigned her cabinet position. Alberta Premier Jason Kenney also stripped five other legislature members of their duties and asked his chief of staff to step down for their out- ofcountry vacations.
Lousier said she also wants the premier to take responsibility: “I 100 per cent support Kenney resigning.
“I think of the sheer number of people that I know that have elderly parents or aging parents, or have family out of province — did they want to spend Christmas alone? They sure didn’t.”