All of us failed Domenic Ricakby
By Lethbridge Herald on February 28, 2025.
Editor,
On Dec. 26, 2024, the day after Christmas, Domenic Rickaby, a 13-year-old child, was found dead in our City of Lethbridge. As more details emerge, it appears he was denied life saving measures by his birth mother, Blanche Isobel Irene Fick, who has been charged with criminal negligence causing death and failing to provide the necessities of life.
Besides his mother, how many other people and organizations also failed to help Domenic? Lethbridge Police were looking for him on Christmas Day. Paramedics who responded to the 911 call apparently placed by an acquaintance of the mother, left the
house without seeing Domenic who was hidden by the mother. Someone at the school he was attending must have noticed something was wrong with his situation. What about parents of his friends? Social workers?
The bottom line is that no one helped enough and now he is dead. As a community, we cannot let his death be in vain and we must make changes to prevent another child being lost.
We are a group of Lethbridge Citizens who want to make sure there are no more children lost in Lethbridge. Each person reading this letter probably knows of at least one child in a potentially dangerous or neglectful situation. Please reach out as individuals to a Person of Authority who can help to save that child.
We can make a difference in a child’s life. No more lost boys and girls of Lethbridge.
On behalf of Concerned and Caring Citizens of Lethbridge.
Marie Kennedy
Lethbridge
11-10
I came across a story before Christmas, on the internet about a single mother in the U.S. who decided to put her 9 month old son in his playpen, along with a couple of bottles of milk and a couple of bags of potato’s chips and leave on a ten day holiday, that’s how stupid people can be. She was surprised that he was dead when she got home, are you? Some people shouldn’t have kids, should they?
i appreciate your concern. to help shed some more light, i am able to share that if this is the same blanche fick i am aware of, she was likely herself a victim of fasd. she will have have had interventions, systematic care, but none of which can undo or overcome the ravages that are a consequence of fasd.
in a nutshell, imagine the number of parents today, past, and going forward, that are hardly good candidates for parenting. acknowledge the very many dysfunctional households that breed and have bred dysfunction via neglect, abuse, and the consequent trauma that results. the fallout of such cases, trauma, results in the likes of behavioural and emotional acting out, harm to others and self harm scenarios. and, then, imagine fasd and the significant trauma affected, each affected through no fault of their own, having kids. people that cannot do well to take care of themselves getting into a position of needing to be able to take care of another will not likely bring about nice outcomes.
the system spends a very good deal on persons when they are at risk as minors; however, once adult, the system in place does far more to suddenly drop people not able to fend well enough for themselves into the midst, than it does to humanely continue to provide supports that are needed by such individuals. these are the brunt of the people we will see turning to hard core drug and alcohol use, on the fringes, ever looking to escape their pain. indeed, they can use support, and will need it throughout their years; however, it is only the few among them that have the capacity/potential to ever live what we define as productive, independent lives. without ongoing support and mentorship, well, we can see the results.
It’s a tragedy that this young boy slipped thru the cracks and died from a drug overdose. What is also a tragedy is that our justice system allows the drug dealers to continue killing our citizens with only slaps on the wrist. We have to increase the penalties for selling the deadly drugs and manslaughter or attempted manslaughter would be a start. Under the current system the rewards far outweigh the penalty when selling drugs. George