"'Mush-Hole' survivors launch $900 million suit"

A $900 million law suit filed on behalf of a group of "Mushhole Survivors" Monday is one of the largest law suits ever filed in Canada on behalf of former aboriginal residential school students.

A London, Ontario law firm filed the $900,000,000 statement of claim with Ontario Court, General Division, on behalf of survivors of the Mohawk Institute Residential School that was located at Six Nations.

In addition, a $600,000,000 suit has been filed on behalf of the parents, siblings, children and relatives of the students.

The suit also seeks individual assessments of damages for students who were sexually abused and aggravated damages in the amount of $150,000,000.

The suit seeks damages from the Attorney General of Canada, The Anglican Church of Canada and Incorporated Synod of the Diocese of Huron for allegations of the mistreatment of aboriginal children, mostly from Six Nations, who attended the Mohawk Institute Residential School on Six Nations lands adjacent to Brantford.

The school, operated from 1834 to 1969, now houses the Woodland Cultural Centre and Museum.

Russell Raikes, of the London firm of Cohen, Highley, Vogel & Dawson, said the suit was filed Monday afternoon and says as many as 1,000 former students may be involved.

The suit alleges students were physically, spiritually, emotionally and psychologically abused. It seeks compensation for breach of fiduciary duty, negligence, assault, battery and breach of Aboriginal and Treaty Rights.

The suit claims the federal government and church breached their fiduciary obligations to the children as a result of their conduct and that of their servants, agents or employees in the operation of the school.

"Essentially, they were there as children and they should have been treated better," Raikes said.

The suit alleges the children were physically or sexually abused resulting in the children, as adults, earning lower incomes and suffering self esteem problems.

"Part of the claim alleges that because of the abuse and what the kids the went through, they didn't go on in school, and that affected their earning income."

The suit alleges "one of reasons for the whole school and its curriculum was to promote assimilation and to christianize, rather than respecting differences."

He said so far more than 300 for­mer students or survivors families have joined the suit, that actually represents all survivors. "What we are doing is launching a class action suit on behalf of anyone who was there and on behalf of their families."

That number of students he said could reach more than a 1,000 and affects aboriginal people from across Ontario.

He said so far word of the suit has spread strictly by word of mouth. "But we are hoping more students or relatives will come forward," he said.

Raikes warned the filing of the suit is just the beginning. "The next step is to deliver it to the defendants and give them an opportunity to file a defense and then a hearing or certification motion is held. The judge then determines if it is an appropriate case to proceed by way of class action."

Once the class action is certified and allowed to go ahead the case proceeds through litigation. Raikes said he doesn't expect to see any resolution for at least a "few years. This is a long road. We've been working on it now for 15 months."

He said the judge could turn the class action suit down and decide the suit should proceed on an individual case by case basis.

He said while the law firm has handled several aboriginal law cases this is its first residential school claims case.

"There are a series of cases such as this out west but only a couple in Ontario."

Raikes said there is always hope of a settlement. "Everyone hopes the government will settle instead of going through the courts, we would welcome any initiative to settle to avoid the trauma of a trial."

Raikes said any former students or relatives of students can contact his law firm if they are interested in providing information or learning about the suit.

"If people hear about this we want to here from them. There is an opportunity to opt out ( of the suit) later on if (they) choose to."

Raikes said there is a growing number of lawyers across Canada handling similar suits.

"There is a group of lawyers that sit down and talk about what cases are going on and share information that we can, while maintaining our client's confidentiality, we share papers. The law cases out west are further along in the system than we are in Ontario."

Raikes said handling the case hasn't been easy.

"It's not easy. I've got four boys myself and I look at them and think how could this have happened. We didn't do to this to Polish people or Italians or French Canadians. This needs to be rectified. I can't wave a magic wand and give them back their childhood. The best the court can do is hold institutions responsible and award damages. It can't take away memories, but can help give a measure of healing and enable them to have the funds to live out the rest of their lives with greater comfort than they have now."