A prominent addiction recovery facility in Surrey has decided not to appeal a shutdown order following numerous allegations of misconduct.
The Ministry of Health, via the Assisted Living Registry, ordered the John Volken Academy to close last year, for non-compliance with the Community Care and Assisted Living Act.
The ministry stayed the closure until March 7, so the academy could find accommodations for its 19 residents.
Meanwhile, its founder John Volken sought to reverse the decision in an appeal hearing next month before the Community Care and Assisted Living Appeal Board.
But on Tuesday Volken held a press conference and told BIV that he felt his efforts would prove fruitless.
“I feel like we are fighting an uphill battle,” said Volken, adding, “the ministry is going to close us down no matter what.”
Volken, 83, was an East German refugee who came to Canada and created a North American retail furniture empire with United Furniture Warehouse.
Some of the proceeds of UFW’s sale went into the John Volken Academy Society and the John Volken Foundation, which operates addiction recovery services in Canada and the United States.
A Mormon businessman-turned-philanthropist, Volken states on the academy’s website that God had “given him the opportunity to be part of changing lives.”
But others shared a different experience.
Regulatory trouble began at the academy after staff and residents lodged complaints to the registry, which oversees licensing for operators — be they public or private non-profit entities — that provide hospitality and assisted living services to more than two people.
In Surrey, the academy routinely housed about 20 residents who would participate in a two-year, sobriety-focused program while working at a grocery store, moving company and farm that were all owned and operated by the society.
A chief concern was how the academy controlled the lives of residents but also how the program entailed unpaid labour at the businesses six days per week and eight hours per day.
Because the labour was deemed volunteer work, the program did not follow the Employment Standards Act.
Volken said the addiction recovery aspect of the academy will close but he hopes to maintain a “work-life skills program” that will comply with labour standards, including paid wages.
“Work by itself is therapeutic,” said Volken.
When asked to comment on the abuse allegations, Volken said, “in these cases it’s a lie” and “some don’t like it, they rebel.
“There is half-truths to it,” he said, and “what we call learning experience, they call it punishment.”
Volken said he was offered $37 million for his main property and that such assets belong to the foundation, which could provide donations to other charities.
