Harm caused by Kelowna social worker Robert Riley Saunders ‘far and wide-reaching’ says lawyer – Kelowna News

Following the sentencing of a man who was in the care of a disgraced former Kelowna social worker as a youth, the man’s lawyer says the impact of the social worker’s fraudulent scheme on the community will be far reaching for years to come.

On Friday, the now-30-year-old man was handed a five-year jail sentence for a number of firearms convictions, after he was found by police on two separate occasions in 2022 passed out in his car, with loaded, restricted firearms.

The man, who can’t be named due to a previous publication ban and will be referred to as SO, was taken into foster care at age three, and lived with 24 different foster families during his childhood.

When he aged out of foster care, he was placed under the supervision of Robert Riley Saunders, who has since been convicted of defrauding his employer, the Ministry of Children and Family Development, of $460,000. Those funds were meant to go to the high-risk youth who were in Saunders’ care, many of whom were Indigenous.

During sentencing, Justice Bruce Elwood said the stolen funds were meant to provide youth like SO housing and other basic necessities, but SO suffered from poverty and homelessness as a result of Saunders’ theft.

Following SO’s sentencing Friday, his lawyer Michael Patterson told Castanet that SO’s case is just a “drop in the bucket” when it comes to the harm Saunders inflicted on the community.

“My client in court today represents both the personal effects on [SO] and the effects on society,” Patterson said.

“He was traumatized and he used drugs to deal with his trauma. The effects of using drugs to deal with his trauma lead him to criminality … which affects society. The implications are far and wide-reaching. He’s not the only one who’s in the criminal justice system as a result of the actions of Saunders.”

Involved in early lawsuit

Patterson is very familiar with Saunders’ fraudulent scheme, having been involved with the first civil lawsuits filed against Saunders and the MCFD back in 2018, before criminal charges had ever been laid. The province ended up settling a class-action civil suit in 2020, which was estimated to cost the government upwards of $8 million.

SO was involved in the suit and collected an undisclosed payout from it. But the funds were likely of little help in dealing with the trauma he suffered during his formative years. He told the writer of a pre-sentence report that he used some of the funds to secure housing for himself, his partner and his mother, but he also used the money to support his drug addiction at the time.

“It’s long-term, the effects will go on for a long time. And where they end up in the system, having not received the treatment to deter them from where they are now, it will take some time for people like my client to heal,” Patterson said.

“In the meantime, they will continue to suffer from the effects of the neglect … and the psychological abuse. Just because Saunders has received punishment for it, it doesn’t change the effects overnight and the public is seeing in real time the consequences of Saunders’ actions, not on himself, but on the lives of these young people.”

Tragic childhood

SO was born into a broken home, with both of his parents struggling with addiction, and he suffered abuse at the hands of some of the foster homes he was placed into. Saunders’ theft in SO’s teen years was just one more tragedy in the young man’s life.

“This is a young man who has suffered his entire life from the ravages of drug addiction, physical and psychological abuse, institutional racism and neglect,” Justice Elwood said in his sentencing decision.

“He’s not an offender who’s been motivated by profit or the desire to own luxury goods, rather his motivation appears to be survival and feeding his own addiction.”

But with the relatively recent birth of his son, SO told the court he’s now motivated to turn his life around. He said he’s been sober for 20 months while incarcerated, the longest period of sobriety in his young life.

“This kid has the potential to be a well-functioning member of society. He could have been a well-functioning member of society and the hope is that he will be able to do so now that he has these matters behind him. Even those who are not involved in criminality, they are still suffering psychologically,” Patterson said.

“Finally he has something to live for, so we all hope it will stick, that this child will continue to be motivation for him to continue on the right trajectory.”

Saunders, meanwhile, was released from jail on day parole after serving just 14 months of his five-year sentence behind bars. He’s believed to be living with his sister now while on full parole.