The Toronto Star http://www.thestar.com/editorial/news/20000826NEW01c_CI-ABUSE26.html August 26, 2000 Churches reaping harvest of residential school abuse Bankruptcies flow from rising tide of aboriginal lawsuits By Scott Simmie Toronto Star Feature Writer It's payback time. Aboriginals who suffered silently during the residential school era are fighting back with an avalanche of lawsuits. A minimum of 6,200 people are seeking billions of dollars in damages for abuse and cultural deprivation. Nine class-action lawsuits have been filed, several dioceses are on the verge of collapse, and at least one national church believes it may go broke. ``We said to the federal government . . . in May that we'll run out of money next year,'' says Archdeacon Jim Boyles, general secretary of the Anglican Church of Canada. On Thursday, the church confirmed it's well on track to fulfilling that prediction. Such is the legacy of the residential school era. An era that began for Charles Baxter Sr. in the late 1950s, when a bush plane touched down near his father's trap line along northern Ontario's Albany River. Two men, an RCMP officer and an Indian agent, emerged from the aircraft uttering words the Ojibway-speaking family did not understand. It wasn't long, however, until they figured it out. ``We knew what this meant,'' he recalls. ``We were being removed.'' The two strangers crammed the boy and his school-age siblings on to the small plane. As it took off, a young Baxter caught a glimpse of his mother and father. ``In my mind, I can still see my parents crying,'' he says. ``And they couldn't do nothing about it.'' Charles Baxter Sr. would spend a decade in those schools. It would scar him forever. ``I still feel the pain.'' ``Even the anger, sometimes,'' he says, choking with emotion. ``How can I deal with that?'' Thousands of aboriginals, Baxter Sr. included, think part of the answer is to sue. At best, the schools operated by the church and federal government could be described as ethnocentric paternalism; a misguided effort to assimilate aboriginals by stripping them of their language and culture, by teaching them the ``right'' way to live. At worst, it was institutionalized child labour, sadism and pedophilia. The Department of Indian and Northern Affairs is projecting that the number of lawsuits could reach 15,000 within the decade. The Anglican and United churches say they could be broke well before then. And, if things proceed apace, they will be. The Anglican Church of Canada spent $1.5 million on legal costs and compensation last year, and is on track to spend at least that much this year. Earlier this month, the church cut eight full-time positions at its national office in Toronto and announced it would reduce the size of its newspaper in an effort to cut costs. ``We estimated at the beginning of this year that we had roughly $10 million in assets. And $3 million to $4 million is in our one piece of property, our national office,'' says Archdeacon Jim Boyles, the church's general secretary. ``So the assets are being drained rapidly.'' And they'll continue to be. The church is currently involved with roughly 350 cases involving 1,600 claimants. And that's not counting the class-action suits, which could yet proceed if a court certifies them. The United Church, which operated 10 schools (the Anglicans were involved with 26), is only slightly better off. Because it's a more centralized church, it has more resources at the national level. And because it was affiliated with fewer schools, it will ultimately face fewer lawsuits. Nonetheless, some 450 claims have been filed and the church is facing potentially serious financial troubles. ``If there's no alternative to litigation case by case, in the long run they'll be very serious,'' says Rev. Brian Thorpe, senior adviser to the United Church on issues involving residential schools. Last year, the church spent about $2.3 million in legal costs and out-of-court settlements. It anticipates spending between $2 million and $3 million annually for the forseeable future, but stresses that the costs are coming out of a reserve fund - not the collection plate. ``We're determined not to use the monies that come in from the general members of the church for the ongoing work of the church. . . . However, if this ongoing litigation continues for several years, we will come to a point where our existing funds will be exhausted. And then we'll be in a fairly serious situation.'' Thorpe says. The Roman Catholics, who operated at least 51 of the schools, are in an entirely different situation, because - unlike the Anglican or United Churches - the Roman Catholic Church of Canada says it does not exist. ``The Catholic church exists in Canada as a community of communities,'' explains Gerry Kelly, native policy adviser to the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops. ``From the legal point of view, it exists as a network primarily of independent episcopal corporations. It exists as a network, if you will, of dioceses. There isn't a legal entity over that network.'' As a result, there's no Canadian ``headquarters'' that plaintiffs can sue, nor major central assets the Catholics say could be claimed. Yet they were involved with more residential schools than any other church - and Catholic dioceses or missionary orders have been named by 3,500 claimants. ``The diocese of Whitehorse now is pretty much existing day-to-day with no reserves,'' says Kelly. ``Further litigation will most definitely place that diocese over the edge. The Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate in Manitoba could be close (to bankruptcy).'' The three churches directly involved with operating most of the residential schools have all expressed tremendous regret. They've all made apologies at a senior level and have established church-funded - and aboriginally run - healing and reconciliation projects. ``The fact that the lawsuits are dominating the news and the public attention is missing some of the good healing work that's going on in quiet and local ways,'' Boyles says. At least 100,000 aboriginals went through Canada's residential school system between 1874 and 1996, the year the final school closed. Some received a solid education and have positive memories of their experience; many others did not. They tell of being removed from their families only to be beaten, molested and raped. In Charles Baxter Sr.'s case, so strictly was assimilation enforced that his name was replaced with a number. ``I was Number Eleven,'' he recalls bitterly. ``I had to know that number, and we had to say our numbers right. If not, we got assaulted, slapped.'' Speaking from Constance Lake First Nation, some 350 kilometres north of Sault Ste. Marie, the 49-year-old's phrases emerge in painful fragments - much like the memories of his childhood. The physical abuse was one factor. But it is when he addresses his other losses that he becomes most emotional. ``I had to relearn my language,'' he says emotionally. ``In 1978 I went home to see my father. And you know what he said to me? He said, `Get out of here. You don't belong here anymore.' I never got to know my grandparents. They (the school) didn't even tell us when they died.'' Baxter is now a plaintiff in a $10 billion class-action lawsuit filed against the churches and the federal government. The statement of claim not only mentions physical and sexual abuse, but - in a litany of allegations - charges that the defendants ``deprived (students) . . . of their languages, as well as their religious and cultural beliefs and practices . . . '' The issue of cultural deprivation is about to become very hot. Some 90 per cent of all lawsuits filed allege that those who attended the schools suffered cultural loss as a result of being separated from their language, their families and their belief systems. Yet it's an issue the federal government doesn't want to touch - at least not in the courts. ``Our view is that it's not a recognized cause of action. It's not something that we're willing to contemplate as part of settlement in the legal process,'' says Shawn Tupper, director of the residential schools unit at Indian and northern affairs. Tupper says the government may pursue other means of addressing such losses - but not through the courts. ``We're not settling claims for loss of language (or culture) at this time.'' This is an issue, say some observers, headed straight for the Supreme Court. ``We firmly believe that the federal government is ultimately responsible for their plan to assimilate the aboriginal people of this country,'' says Craig Brown, a partner in the Toronto law firm Thomson Rogers, which recently filed the $10 billion class-action suit. ``They planned it, they funded it, they chose their partners to execute their plan, they supervised those partners.'' Ottawa's view, however, is that culture is not on the table. The cases are about abuse - no more, no less. ``At the end of the day, what we're dealing with in the court system is the sexual and physical abuse of children,'' says Tupper. ``And in that context, it's not an aboriginal issue. . . . There's nothing unique about this. We've seen it at Mount Cashel (in Newfoundland), we've seen it at the Christian Brothers school here (in Ontario).'' It's a position - and a contentious one - that sidesteps cultural loss. And it doesn't fly with the law firm that's launched that class-action suit. ``We say, `No, no. It's a much bigger problem than that (abuse),' '' Brown explains. ``The cultural deprivation, the deprivation of education and the psychological impact of dislocation was government policy. You (Ottawa) perpetrated it through your partners, the churches. And you're responsible.'' The legal tap dance over cultural loss frustrates Baxter. ``Now they (Ottawa and the churches) are pointing fingers at each other. But I believe it was not the church's fault. I believe it was the government of the day that approached the churches. Those are the people that are to blame,'' he says. The one area where there is consensus between the defendants is that they failed aboriginals miserably. Reconciliation, they agree, must accompany restitution. The federal government, in recognition that adversarial court battles can be traumatic for plaintiffs, is setting up a total of 12 pilot projects known as Alternative Dispute Resolution processes, or ADRs. Nine of these are already running. The concept is to work with all parties toward a mediated settlement in an atmosphere conducive to closure. The approach allows the accuser to directly address the institutional abuser, to have their story heard. While the churches prefer them from a healing perspective, they've found they're nearly as expensive as the courtroom - and not any faster. And the Anglican church says it's already at a stage where it can't afford to financially support the pilot projects. These projects may be appropriate for cases of physical and sexual abuse, but there's still that nagging - and huge - issue of cultural loss. Can this be solved on a case-by-case basis? Or will it require something bigger? The Anglican and United churches favour the latter option, and they're looking to Ottawa for a broader, public-policy solution. But, they say, not for the reasons that might be assumed. ``When the churches talk about their financial stress it could easily be heard as, `We don't want to take responsibility,' '' says Rev. Brian Thorpe of the United Church. ``And that's not the case at all. It's the uncertainty and the unknown that's far more distressing than the fact we actually will have to take responsibility.'' (Ottawa, meanwhile, points to the $350 million it gave to the Aboriginal Healing Foundation, an arm's-length group established specifically to fund healing projects for those affected by the residential school system.) Enter the class-action lawsuits, which lawyers for many plaintiffs insist could prove the solution for all parties. Natives would be spared painful direct testimony (though many wish to have their stories heard and validated), the churches would be spared a never-ending string of future lawsuits, and the government would be able to deal with the issue once and for all. At least that's the theory. ``I believe the class-action vehicle is the only method by which, first of all the government can deal with a claim of this enormity, and secondly, the way . . . that a large number of native people, who are justly entitled to compensation, will obtain it,'' says Richard Courtis, a Thunder Bay lawyer whose many clients led to the $10 billion suit filed by the Thomson Rogers firm. ``I would go as far to say that if this class action, or another class action, is not certified, then the vast majority of native people who are justly entitled to compensation will die uncompensated,'' he adds. Ottawa, however, believes class action is an inappropriate vehicle - both because it denies survivors the chance to tell their stories and because class-action suits assume that all aboriginals suffered in near-identical ways. The government also expresses concern that the lawyers' contingency fees would reduce the compensation received by residential survivors. Charles Baxter Sr., who is Courtis' client, is willing to take that chance. So damaging was his school experience, he says, that he found himself - for much of his life - unable to fit in in either world. He was out of place off the reserve, but did not fit in when he initially tried to return. For years, he soothed this cultural anomie with alcohol. Or he'd lash out, re-enacting the abuse he suffered as a boy. ``Today, I can't even let my wife touch me,'' he says. ``And she asked me, `Why don't you let me touch you, get close?' And I said: `Because of what happened to me in residential school.' '' Baxter says he's on a slow journey of recovery right now. And, as a product of a school system that tried - and failed - to assimilate him, the path he's chosen is appropriate. He's participating both in traditional native healing - and a big-time, white-collar lawsuit. ------------------------------------------------------ RecOzNet2 has a page @ http://www.green.net.au/recoznet2 and is archived at http://www.mail-archive.com/ To unsubscribe from this list, mail [EMAIL PROTECTED], and in the body of the message, include the words: unsubscribe announce or click here mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20announce This posting is provided to the individual members of this group without permission from the copyright owner for purposes of criticism, comment, scholarship and research under the "fair use" provisions of the Federal copyright laws and it may not be distributed further without permission of the copyright owner, except for "fair use." RecOzNet2 is archived for members @ http://www.mail-archive.com/recoznet2%40paradigm4.com.au/
