Ex-students sue over alleged abuse

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This article was published 27/06/2023 (845 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Two men who allege they were physically and sexually abused at a former day school in Norway House Cree Nation more than 50 years ago have filed a lawsuit against the province, federal government and the school division that ran the facility.

The men, who the Free Press are not naming due to the nature of the allegations, are seeking to have their lawsuit certified as a class action. It would allow them to act as representative plaintiffs on behalf of all people who attended Jack River School between September 1968 and June 1973 and claim to have suffered damages due to abuse.

The lawsuit, filed June 22 in the Court of King’s Bench by Winnipeg-based law firm Tapper Cuddy LLP, names Frontier School Division, the federal attorney general on behalf of Indigenous Services Canada, the Manitoba provincial government, a dead Catholic priest’s estate, and four individuals as defendants.

None of the defendants have filed statements of defence and none offered comment on the lawsuit Monday.

The school had previously been run by the Roman Catholic Church via the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate as part of the residential school system on behalf of the federal government. The Oblates took over in 1960 and operated the residential facility until 1967, when it closed.

The federal government rented classrooms from the Oblates from 1960-63, until it built a new day school on Crown land it operated until 1967. At that point, the provincial government took over, rolling the school into Manitoba’s public school system, according to the court papers.

Frontier, which covers most schools in the province’s North, operated the school from 1967 until 1973, when it was destroyed by fire.

Another facility, also called Jack River School, replaced it and remains open in Norway House, on the northern tip of Lake Winnipeg, about 800 kilometres north of the provincial capital.

The court documents allege the province and school division retained most, if not all, the employees who had worked for the Oblates and the federal government at the day school and residential facility. Those employees are alleged to have abused the two men, now 63 and 59, respectively, when they were children, the lawsuit says.

The 63-year-old claims while he was a child he was regularly brought by nuns who worked at the school to the home of an ordained priest, ostensibly for the rite of confession.

“Invariably, (the plaintiff) would be sexually assaulted by the priest… (He) also observed other students being led to the priest’s house by the nuns for ‘confession,’” the court papers allege.

The man claims the abuse, both sexual and physical, continued after the province took over the school’s operation. He attended the school from 1964 to 1972.

The 59-year-old’s allegations are similar. He attended the school from 1968 to 1972.

The court papers claim the school division, province and Ottawa were either aware or ought reasonably to have been aware school employees who had committed alleged abuses while working for the Oblates and the federal government would continue to do so if working for the division.

It is further alleged the division, province and federal government ought to have known the consequences of the alleged abuse would significantly harm the victims, their families and communities.

The court documents say the governments and division owed a duty of care to protect the students.

The plaintiffs and other students suffered losses including of income, culture, identity and self-worth, the court papers say. “The plaintiffs state they were physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually traumatized by their experiences arising from their attendance at the school and the assaults perpetrated on them.”

The lawsuit is seeking general, special and punitive damages, as well as court costs and pre- and post-judgment interest.

None of the allegations have been proven in court.

erik.pindera@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @erik_pindera