One man’s cycling journey sparks post-foster care conversation

Cycling from one end of the country to the other is a taxing feat for even the most trained and in-shape professionals.

Therefore, weighing over 300 pounds, living with several debilitating mental health issues, and riding on a cheap mountain bike wouldn’t exactly meet the typical criteria required to complete the cross-Canada trek.

But for Chris Aubichon, a 44-year-old Indigenous man from Moncton, N.B. who biked through Sault Ste. Marie this week, the unconventional journey is well worth the blood, sweat, and tears.

Cycling towards Vancouver, B.C., Aubichon is advocating for the thousands of Canadians he feels are unprepared for the realities of adult life once they age out of the foster care and group home system.

“I’m not necessarily doing this for a sexy cause,” he admits. “It’s for wards of the court who age out and are struggling, and that’s not a romantic, well-talked about subject. But I think it should be.”

Raised in Nanaimo, B.C., Aubichon became a ward of the court when he was placed into foster care at the age of six. He went back and forth between living under the care of foster homes and his mother for several years; unaware he was considered a ward.

“I didn’t find out I was a ward of the court until I was 12,” he says. “That’s when the drug abuse started. I was addicted to meth and crack at 13. Finding out all those years my mother was lying to me really triggered a lot of trouble for me emotionally. We’ve spoken once since I was 19.”

Aubichon estimates he bounced from 30 foster homes and 12 group homes during his childhood and adolescence.

“When I aged out of the system, I was already an addict, already in and out of youth custody, already homeless, and a runaway,” he explains. “I certainly wasn’t ready for school, therapy, or anything like that.”

“There are some non-profit organizations that do great work for kids transitioning, but that support is for kids. They age out of those as well. I’m ready now, but there’s no support.”

Aubichon says within months of turning 18, he was unprepared for the next stage of his life. He was removed from transitional programming and immediately went on welfare.

“What a lot of people don’t talk about are those 2,000 kids who age out each year and the support stops,” he says. “Half of them don’t even graduate.

“All my friends to this day are people I grew up with – they’re all wards of the court. Two of them are still addicts in or out of recovery, one’s in the federal penitentiary system, and one’s dead. I’m the lucky one and still so far detached.

“Facing underemployment, underearning, welfare – I’m a drain on the system. Invest in those kids when they’re ready, and they can be productive.”

Now 25 years later, the father of three who works in property management is leaving everything behind to pursue a proper education in B.C. while advocating for the thousands of former wards like himself.

“I need that diploma,” he says. “I was stuck in an industry for 10 years making $50,000 – I hit a ceiling. What scared me was dying on welfare. I just thought about a big circle. I started this on welfare on the system, and eventually I’m going to end my life on the system. That’s not going to be me.

“My initial reaction was to jump on a plane. But I thought if I fly out to B.C., 12 hours from now, I’m the same man that left. I decided I’d bike on a Wednesday, and on the following Thursday – I was gone.”

Living as a type-2 diabetic with several mental disorders like depression and anxiety, Aubichon says he has learned a lot about himself since beginning his cycling journey on May 11.

“A lot of people cycle across Canada, but not a lot of guys over 300 pounds do it,” he says. “Almost on a daily basis, I’ll be riding down the road crying. My depression is bad, the anxiety attacks – you just have to talk through it. But I’m learning that I’m capable of more than what I’ve done. When I started, I was riding 20 km a day. Now some days, I’m doing 90 km by lunch. The most in a day I did was 120 km. I was around 320 pounds when I left Moncton. Since then, I’ve lost around 50 pounds.

“Some days I have more energy, other days the mental health breaks me, so it depends. But I ride all day, as long and hard as I can go.”

Having biked nearly 2,500 km, Aubichon says he wouldn’t have made it past Ottawa without the support of his sister and the online community backing him along the way.

“My sister Jenn has been my number one supporter all my life,” he says. “She’s always seeing something in me, always wanting more for me, but knew there was a lot of weight on the shoulders. She’s the one who convinced me to share this and hopefully start this conversation about the kids.”

“A lot of people reach out and say I inspire them, but all I’ve done is gone on a bike. For strangers who have no real investment in who I am or what I’m doing – that’s inspiring. That’s what gets me up every morning. I’m truly floored with how people have cared.

Once he reaches B.C. to pursue an education in several weeks, Aubichon says he also wants to work with other former wards in Nanaimo – a moment he calls a full circle act 20 years in the making.

“It’s poetic in a way,” he says. “I’m thinking of starting a ‘Pedalling through Adversity’ group on Saturday mornings where I’d meet wards who are also struggling, and we’d hop on the bikes and go.

“I also want to explore a non-profit to support older wards who have been out of care for a number of years who have no support. The guys who are 40 that are ready but have nowhere to turn to and nobody to help them – that’s who I want to help.”