By Kurtis Doering

‘Sixties scoop’ survivors file class-action lawsuit

Feb 10, 2015 | 7:12 AM

Lynn Thompson is one of the “no people”.

In the early 70’s, she and her sisters were taken from their family home on the Pine Creek First Nation in Manitoba by child-welfare services. Thompson was three years old. Her sisters were babies.

Between the late 1950’s and late 1980’s, an estimated 20,000 aboriginal children were apprehended, then fostered or adopted out to mostly white, middle-class families in Canada, the U.S., and Europe.

This would later be dubbed the “sixties scoop.” Many consider the adoptions to be an extension of the residential school system; which aimed to “take the Indian out of the child.”

Thompson was shot in one of the 26 foster homes she was moved to; an injury from which she still suffers.

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“Then when we came back home or found our families, we weren’t accepted because we were very, how would you put that, colonialized? Whitenized? We all had educations, we dressed differently, we looked different,” she said.

Thompson said sixties scoop survivors sometimes call themselves the “no people”; having no place, and being known by nobody. Other terms include “the lost generation” or “the stolen generation”.

Now, almost 1,200 of the “no people” in Saskatchewan are suing the federal government for the loss of their culture and emotional trauma.

“We’re starting to get a voice,” Thompson said. “We’re starting to go ‘oh, okay, we can do this.’”

Now a community leader and HIV/AIDS consultant in Saskatoon, Thompson has taken it upon herself to host a gathering of sixties scoop survivors. Their inaugural group meeting, the first of its kind in Canada, is set for Thursday afternoon at the Kap House on Avenue V South.

“I’ve been bombarded with probably about 50-some phone calls. That’s just in my city. That’s not including Regina, Prince Albert, Winnipeg, Calgary, they’re all calling me,” Thompson said.

In addition to being part of the class-action suit in Saskatchewan, Thompson has also filed a personal injury suit for the bullet wound she sustained while in the care of child-welfare services.

Similar class-action suits have also been filed in Ontario and British Columbia. Plaintiffs in Ontario are seeking $85,000 in damages for each class member. That case has been before the courts since 2009, and Thompson said its results will inform the direction that the Saskatchewan suit will take.

“I think an apology would be great … we literally lost everything. Then coming back to our reserves we’re still not accepted. So, we’re just floating around,” she said.

 – With files from the Canadian Press

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