Hundreds of residential school students can sue Ottawa for abuse, court says (fwd)

[phil cash cash]

Hundreds of residential school students can sue Ottawa for abuse, court
says

TARA BRAUTIGAM
http://www.macleans.ca/topstories/news/shownews.jsp?content=n0512113A

TORONTO (CP) - Hundreds of former students of an Ontario native
residential school who say they were abused by instructors out to
"Christianize" them can go ahead with a class-action lawsuit against
the federal government.

"It's been a long time but it's a step in the right direction," said
Sylvia DeLeary, who says she was a victim of the shocking abuse at the
Mohawk Institute near Brantford in the 1940s.

Ottawa's request to appeal a previous court ruling allowing the
class-action lawsuit was dismissed Thursday by the Supreme Court of
Canada.

In December, the Ontario Court of Appeal ruled that 800 former pupils of
the institute and their children could sue as a group. Lower courts had
said they would have to sue individually because their complaints are
different.

DeLeary said the class-action certification was significant because many
of the claimants are aging, live in remote regions and are unable to
finance their own lawsuits.

"We are not rich people, we can't afford to go individually," DeLeary
said.

The lawsuit names the federal government, the Anglican Church of
Canada's General Synod, the incorporated diocese of Huron and an
English charity called the New England Company as defendants.

Calls to Deputy Prime Minister Anne McLellan's office were not
immediately returned.

"We're ecstatic with the decision," Toronto lawyer Darcy Merkur, who
represents the plaintiffs, said in an interview.

"The decision closes the books on certification of the class action. ...
It sets a foundation for other class actions, primarily our proposed
national class action, to move forward quickly."

The suit, which represents 2,000 complainants and claims $2.3 billion in
damages, alleges that the school was rife with fear and brutality, meant
to turn native children into Christians.

They describe an atmosphere of harsh intimidation, beatings, forced
participation in Christian religious activities and excessive
punishment for speaking their native languages.

"These children went to the schools and they were told they were not
allowed to speak their native language," Merkur said.

"If they spoke their native language they were usually hit."

The suit covers students who attended the school from 1922 to 1969. Most
are now in their 60s and older, Merkur said. Some have already died.

"A lot of our people have already gone on to the next world," said
DeLeary, 70, who now lives in Walpole Island, Ont.

"(The federal government) needs to accept responsibility for past
actions and compensate people."

DeLeary said she witnessed horrific neglect and a glaring absence of
adult supervision at the native school.

"We were not fed or clothed adequately," she said.

The judgment Thursday could have ramifications for similar cases,
including a massive national class action being pressed by more than 20
lawyers across Canada.

They're seeking $12.5 billion in compensation from Ottawa for 86,000
former students who attended more than 100 residential schools from
1920 to 1996.

Just last week, officials said the federal government was working out
details on lump-sum payments and new healing programs for all
residential school survivors. The plan is expected to be announced by
the end of this month.

But lawyers for the former students said any proposed settlements should
be supervised by the courts.

Seven years ago, the Liberal government conceded that abuse was rampant
in the once-mandatory network of live-in schools. More than 100,000
aboriginal children over six years of age attended, often against their
will, from 1930 until the last one closed its doors outside Regina in
1996.

"When you separate children from their parents for years ... it's going
to have an impact on how they're going to be able to live a meaningful
life," DeLeary said.

Lawyers will go to the Ontario Superior Court in early June to set a
date for the suit to begin.