Firm pushes ahead with class action for deaf students allegedly abused at schools
Author: THE CANADIAN PRESS
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EDMONTON — A Saskatchewan-based law firm that specializes in class actions is moving ahead with a claim on behalf of deaf students who say they were physically and sexually abused at boarding schools across Canada over four decades beginning in the mid-1950s.

The first of what lawyer Tony Merchant promises will be several claims against provincial governments was filed Tuesday in Edmonton on behalf of students who stayed at the Alberta School for the Deaf between 1955 and 1996.

The claim, which contains allegations not proven in court, alleges repeated abuse on the part of teachers, house parents and fellow students during that time. The alleged victims were easy prey for their abusers, Merchant said, because they were only able to communicate using sign language, a skill that was discouraged at the school during that time.

“We believe that the problem of non-speaking students made them perfect targets for sexual abuse and that is why it existed in all of the schools,” said Merchant, whose firm was one of the primary ones behind a similar suit related to Indian residential schools.

“We’ve been contacted by a series of people in various provinces over abuse in schools in their provinces and we intend to launch proceedings province by province based on the wrongdoing to which students were subjected.”

Merchant estimates that more than 61,000 deaf students went through 12 different schools in eight of the 10 provinces during the time in question. Prince Edward Island and New Brunswick did not have a school for the deaf during that time, he said.

The Alberta claim uses three former students — one male and two females — as representatives for the class.

The male student, who attended the school from 1972 to 1982, claims he was subjected to repeated physical abuse including being strapped, slapped, caned, choked and hit with various objects.

Both female students say they were raped — one by a house parent and the other by an older student. The latter student claims that after one of the attacks, she became pregnant and had an abortion against her will.

Two of the alleged victims named in the claim could not be reached for comment. A third did not return a message seeking an interview.

Merchant said the physical abuse stemmed from the children not being allowed to use sign language at the school.

“The schools were trying to get them to learn to speak even though they couldn’t hear their own words,” he said. “They didn’t like to do that. It was hard for them to do that and they were punished, often severely.”

The claim alleges that the provincial government breached its duties both to care for the children and to provide them with an appropriate education.

“The employees and agents, and through them, the government, acted in bad faith with careless disregard for the safety of the non-hearing and communication-restricted children in their care,” the claim says.

A spokeswoman with Alberta’s Learning Department said the government had not yet been served with the claim and declined to comment because it is a matter before the courts. A call to the Alberta School for the Deaf seeking comment was not returned.

This is not the first time a class-action lawsuit has been launched on behalf of deaf students.

In 2004, the British Columbia government reached a $15-million settlement with students of the Jericho Hill School who made similar claims of abuse. Those abuse claims were looked into in the early 1990s by the B.C. ombudsman and by former Supreme Court justice Thomas Berger.

Both reviews found the claims had merit and little was done to stop the abuse. Berger found that the abusers were initially staff members and that created a dysfunctional order in the school that led to older students abusing younger kids.

Merchant acknowledged the similarities with the Indian residential schools case.

“It’s very similar in that it didn’t accomplish what it was designed to do with a very low, abysmally low, graduation rate,” Merchant said. “You have students there for the purpose of getting their Grade 12 and very few did because of all these problems in the schools.”

But Henry Vlug, a lawyer who has acted on behalf of the Canadian Association of the Deaf and former president of the group, said schools dedicated solely to the deaf do a lot of good.

“Personally I think that class actions are a bad way to deal with this, but that government resistance often makes it the only option,” Vlug said in an e-mail exchange with The Canadian Press.

“Despite all this, many of us who went to schools for the deaf treasure our experience there — I do, and so do many of my friends.”

— By Tim Cook in Regina.

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