By Chelsea Laskowski

Class action still option for past Timber Bay school students

Sep 25, 2014 | 6:33 PM

People who attended a Montreal Lake school can still apply for class action after a provincial Court of Appeals reversal, and a lawyer is considering suing the churches that ran it.

Timber Bay Children’s Home and School operated from 1952 to early 1992, with Metis students attending the day school and residence in the Montreal Lake area.

“Many of these students were sexually abused, they were sexually abused by staff, they were sexually abused by older students, they weren’t protected from other students. They were physically abused, their culture was denigrated. They were really psychologically impacted and almost destroyed,” said Tony Merchant, a Regina lawyer with Merchant Law Group.

The home was operated by numerous religious institutions, first by the Northern Canada Evangelical Mission (NCEM) and later the Brethren in Christ Conference (BCC). Staff was hired by the board of these institutions.

The school and home were funded in part, but not exclusively by the federal and provincial governments. Those governments were the only institutions named as defendants in the class action application that had been struck down by a judge in 2013.

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This year, a Saskatchewan Court of Appeals justice, J.A. Ottenbreit ruled against the 2013 refusal to certify the class action. This means Merchant can re-apply for class action certification on behalf of the more than 2,000 people who attended Timber Bay school and home during its run.

Both governments had taken the stance that as funders, they did not have responsibility for the actions of those who received the money to operate the home.

“It strikes me as ridiculous,” Merchant said to that.

The 2013 application rejection agreed that governments are not liable based solely on financing.

However, Justice Ottenbreit’s recent ruling stated in some instances children were not placed in the home voluntarily. In part, the decision to grant leave for an application was because there is evidence some students were forcefully placed there by social services, and because funding did entail responsibility.

Justice Ottenbreit’s ruling read the previous judge’s conclusion that government funding was the only role played “appears to be at odds with the clear acknowledgement by him in at least two places in his decision that some children were placed in the Home by the Province as wards of the Province.”

As for why the NCEM and BCC were not named as defendants, Merchant said as a “leader” in Indian Residential School Settlement Agreements (IRSSA) his law group decided early on to not name religious groups “which almost invariably” ran the schools.

“We found all that did was slow the process and it was very difficult to get money from church groups, they didn’t have money.”

Although Ottenbreit defended the class action application for not choosing to sue the churches, Merchant said he’s reconsidering bringing in the Mennonite Brethren because of the role they played in Timber Bay.

That process started around 1995, but Timber Bay’s school and home was not included in the classification as a residential school.

Legal action for Timber Bay, starting in the form of the failure to classify its school and home as a residential school and progressing to a class action suit, dates back 13 years. The current class action through Merchant has undergone three revisions.

Through separate action, the Lac La Ronge Indian Band was unsuccessful with securing IRSSA compensation in 2013. They are currently appealing that decision.

Compensation for the cultural suppression and abuse at Timber Bay or any other school shouldn’t be restricted to only status Indians, he said.

“This school, Timber Bay, Montreal Lake, is different because mostly it was Metis and non-status Indians who attended the school. And they’re the same, they speak Cree, they have the same, similar backgrounds. And the battle, in part, is to get compensation for them that’s the same as First Nations students who were sexually and physically abused in their schools, just as the people who attended Timber Bay, Montreal Lake,” Merchant said.

Despite the positive news they can reapply, the road for those named in the class action suit is far from over.

“We’re only back on the trail so a lot of struggles are ahead yet but for those who were wronged it gives us hope again that we’ll be able to achieve closure and compensation for them,” he said.

claskowski@panow.com

On Twitter: @chelsealaskowsk