Proposed class-action lawsuit targets Marymound

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This article was published 08/02/2024 (616 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A man and woman have filed a proposed class action lawsuit over alleged “extreme” physical and sexual abuse they say they suffered while in the care of the Marymound group home in Winnipeg in the 1990s.

Marymound, which is on Scotia Street, is a group home and school that provides social services and education to youths, the majority of whom are Indigenous. Many of them are wards of child and family services agencies.

Marymound opened as a girls reformatory in 1911.

“For the children living and attending school at Marymound, the experience has been one of persistent, unchanging and unyielding abuse,” the statement of claim alleges.

The lawsuit, filed in 2023 in Manitoba Court of King’s Bench by Toronto law firm Koskie Minsky LLP on behalf of the man and woman, identified as John and Jane Doe in the documents, names Marymound, its parent organization the Réseau Compassion Network and the Manitoba government as defendants.

The plaintiffs issued a media release to notify people who may want to join the proposed class action. That includes people who were at the facility between 1951 and the current day.

“For the children living and attending school at Marymound, the experience has been one of persistent, unchanging and unyielding abuse,” the statement of claim alleges.”

The lawsuit has yet to be certified as a class action. None of the defendants has filed a statement of defence.

The man, born in 1980, attended Marymound as a day student from 1993 to 1995 while he was in his teens and was involved in the criminal system. He alleges he faced “extreme repeated abuse,” including sexual and physical abuse from staff and students.

The woman, who is Metis and was born in 1978, resided at the facility from 1992 and 1995, having been placed there by a CFS agency. She alleges she suffered “extreme repeated abuse,” including sexual assaults on numerous occasions. She has since developed severe drug addictions and began performing sex work, court documents say.

The lawsuit alleges that youths were subjected to excessive physical punishment as a result of poor training and a lack of resources. That includes sexual assault, beatings and the use of solitary confinement for hours or days at a time.

The claim alleges children who lived at the facility were locked in at night and had to defecate without access to toilets, while others were starved.

“Class members who attempted to report their abuse were mocked, denigrated, or ignored, and in many case subjected to increasingly brutal retaliation.”

The claim alleges Marymound did not have policies or systems in place to screen employees or report abuse and that the abuses committed there were done so openly.

“Class members who attempted to report their abuse were mocked, denigrated, or ignored, and in many case subjected to increasingly brutal retaliation,” the claim alleges.

Further, the suit claims the provincial government had direct knowledge of systemic failures and abuses at Marymound. The claim alleges youths, their parents and staff tried to report abuse to higher levels of management at Marymound and to the families department, to no avail.

If certified, the suit seeks a declaration in court that the defendants breached their duty of care to the youths and should be held liable for damages and costs.

A spokeswoman for the Réseau Compassion Network, which oversees various health and social services agencies, including Marymound since 2008, said in a statement Thursday that all abuse, no matter when it took place, is unacceptable.

“There is currently a process in place through the court that will bring clarity and deal with these allegations. Réseau Compassion Network will journey through that process,” said spokeswoman Dominique Philibert, who declined to comment further.

The provincial government doesn’t comment on lawsuits before the courts.

erik.pindera@freepress.mb.ca