And now:Ish <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
Date: Thu, 01 Apr 1999 09:39:44 -0500
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
From: Lynne Moss-Sharman <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
CANADIAN CHURCHES + RESIDENTIAL SCHOOL LAWSUITS = FINANCIAL RUIN
Thursday 1 April 1999
Churches fear financial ruin from lawsuits
Alleged abuse at native schools spawns
millions in claims
Bob Harvey
The Ottawa Citizen
Canada's three largest Christian churches say they
could be financially crippled by residential-school lawsuits.
"The scenario of buildings being sold or dioceses going
bankrupt is not unrealistic. It's very serious," said Gerry Kelly,
co-ordinator of the Canadian Catholic bishops' council for reconciliation
with First Nations people.
In some cases, aboriginal people are seeking damages in
the millions of dollars for sexual and physical abuse suffered at the
schools.
Mr. Kelly's 12-million-member church faces at least 700
civil suits, the lion's share of more than 1,800 launched to date
against the Roman Catholic, Anglican and United churches and the federal
government by former students.
Mr. Kelly said the churches are awaiting several key
court decisions, and it is impossible to say what damages could some day
be assessed against Catholic dioceses and religious orders.
The majority of the suits against the Catholic church
involve the Oblate Fathers.
Some of the lawsuits, like that by Micmacs in
Shubenacadie, N.S., or by Ojibway in Saugeen, Man., involve hundreds of people
each.
Mr. Kelly's comments were echoed by leaders of Canada's two
largest Protestant churches.
The Venerable Jim Boyles, the Anglican Church of
Canada's general
secretary, said the number of lawsuits is soaring.
Eight months ago, the number of legal claims against the Anglican Church was
only 72. Today there are more than 200.
Last week alone, the church received three new lawsuits from
southern Alberta, one of them involving more than 300 people.
Last fall, the first class-action lawsuit was filed on
behalf of up to 1,000 former students at the Mohawk Institute
Residential School near Brantford, Ont. It was run by Anglicans, and lawyers
are seeking $2.4 billion on behalf of students and their families.
Archdeacon Boyles said there is no way of knowing the
total dollar value of claims lodged against the churches because
some provinces allow dollar values to be included in the claims, while
others don't.
Also, the actual compensation awarded in successful
lawsuits often bears little resemblance to the amounts initially
claimed.
Archdeacon Boyles said most of the property owned by
his church is in the hands of parishes or dioceses. "The complexity
of church structures is one of the factors involved in working
out what assets would be available for any settlement," he said.
"We don't want to raise severe alarm bells at the
moment, but anything is possible," he said.
The national Anglican church has only one piece of
property, its office in Toronto, while most of the dioceses being sued are
in remote areas. "Those dioceses are quite small, and their resources,
even property resources, are quite limited," said Archdeacon Boyles.
Last year the Anglican church budgeted $20,000 to cover
legal
expenses for residential school lawsuits, but spent more than $200,000.
The lawsuits will affect the church for many years to come, said
Archdeacon Boyles.
The Rt. Rev. Bill Phipps, moderator of the United
Church of Canada,
said members of his denomination frequently ask him if they will have
to sell their church buildings to pay the damages from residential
school lawsuits.
Mr. Phipps, who has a law degree, says there is no easy
answer to the question because it involves complex legal questions,
including the liability of the national church versus the liability
of local congregations, and the issue of who actually owns local church
property.
"Our financial division is in the process of looking at
various scenarios, but there is no doubt the costs will be in the millions
of dollars," he said. "Whether that's in the single digits or the double
digits, who knows?"
The United Church is currently facing about 60
lawsuits, and its yearbook values the denomination's assets at $4 billion.
The Presbyterian Church of Canada was a minor player in the
residential schools and is facing only four lawsuits, the largest of which
involves 25 former students.
J.R. Miller, a professor at the University of Saskatchewan,
documented much of the abuse in residential schools in
a 1996 book, Shingwauk's Vision. He says the reason for the explosion of
litigation
on residential schools is that "government and churches have left
native claimants with no other avenue of redress.
Former students, for the most part, would have preferred a negotiated,
conciliatory process that would not have put them into an adversarial
situation."
Mr. Miller said the 1996 Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples
called only for a public inquiry that would have delayed a solution and
compensation for another five or 10 years. And the federal government's
1998 offer of a $350 million "healing fund" provided collective help
through aboriginal organizations, butnothing for
individual victims.
The churches and the federal government both claim the
other side bears the major responsibility for physicial and sexual
abuse at more than 80 residential schools that operated between the
early 1800s and the late 1960s. The schools were set up by the federal
government to help aboriginals assimilate into European culture, but
were operated under contract by the churches.
Both sides are awaiting a decision from the Supreme
Court of Canada on an appeal by the United Church, which is contesting
a decision by B.C. Supreme Court Justice William Brenner. He found
the federal government and the church equally "vicariously" liable
for a dormitory supervisor's abuse of dozens of aboriginal boys at a
residential school in Port Alberni, B.C. The actual amount of damages has
not yet been settled in that case.
Native groups, the federal government and the churches are also
seeking alternative means of resolving the disputes in
seven informal conferences across the country. The Law Commission of
Canada is also looking into alternative ways to resolve
residential school disputes.
One of the models being considered is the $19-million
reconciliation agreement that provided counselling, vocational
rehabilitation, cash settlements and other benefits to about 800 victims of
abuse at schools run by the Christian Brothers in Alfred, east of
Ottawa, and Uxbridge, northeast of Toronto. The 1992 settlement is believed
to be the largest sexual abuse settlement in history.
Mr. Kelly said the Law Commission is examining the
settlement, but any reconciliation agreement with First Nations people
would also have to include some role for native communities as well.
Copyright 1999 Ottawa Citizen
"Let Us Consider The Human Brain As
A Very Complex Photographic Plate"
1957 G.H. Estabrooks, Creator
of the Manchurian Candidate
born New Brunswick
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