'Long road' nears end with $12.5M settlement in class-action suit over abuse at N.L. youth homes

A multimillion-dollar settlement has been reached in a class-action lawsuit launched by people abused at government-operated youth facilities in Newfoundland and Labrador, according to a lawyer whose firm represents those affected.

The agreement impacts more than 70 people who say they were abused at Newfoundland Training Schools in Whitbourne and Pleasantville.

Lawyer Lynn Moore says what happened to them was unimaginable.

"There was horrendous abuse," she said. "Some of the people were raped. We are aware of one person who had a child. We are aware of people who have had lasting bodily injuries from the sexual assaults that they received."

Moore says some of the class members who went to the schools have never recovered from what happened to them in the 1970s and 1980s.

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"Some of them are not well at all," she said. "Deeply broken individuals who are really struggling to get by, from day to day, who are suffering with the impacts of this abuse in their daily living."

Seventy-four people are now members of the class-action group, but Moore says others who were abused at the schools between 1973 and 1989 can still join and receive compensation.

'Trauma-informed process' moving forward

The total settlement amount is $12.5 million. Legal fees and other costs will be deducted from that total.

Lawyers began working on this case in 2014. The class-action lawsuit was certified in 2019. The next step is to set a date for a judge to approve the settlement.

"It's been a long, long road," Moore said. "And we have been just amazed by the strength of our representative plaintiffs."

According to Moore, the province isn't admitting liability as part of the settlement.

She said there will be a "trauma-informed process" to give the class members a choice on how to proceed.

Under the first track, those who don't want to go through the traumatic process of reliving events can say they were at the training schools, and abused there, and fill out a one-page form.

But there is a second track for those who want to make a more significant claim. That more rigorous process may require interviews.

While the overall total is $12.5 million, Moore said it won't be known until the end of the process what individual awards will be.

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