Lawyers’ and counselling fees related to residential schools problems have already cost the church over $129,000 this year and the church’s treasurer expects it will cost at least that again next year. The church had budgeted $20,000 for 1998.
The figures were revealed when director of financial management Jim Cullen presented a 1998 financial statement and 1999 budget to the Council of General Synod which met Nov. 16-18 outside Toronto.
The church will also raise its contribution to a healing fund for abuse victims to $113,000 in 1999 from $38,000 in 1998.No money has been set aside to pay for any damages that might be awarded. Damages are not covered by insurance, either.Some legal fees are covered by liability insurance, Mr. Cullen said, but “it was never designed to cover this type of thing.”The question is complicated by the fact that the more than 100 outstanding claims cover a variety of issues. Some relate to specific incidences of physical and sexual abuse. Others are more general and talk about loss of culture, language and the like.
Insurance also depends on what the church carried when an incident happened and may provide as little as $10,000 over three years. Legal fees can eat that amount up quickly, Mr. Cullen noted. And three class actions received to date cover periods of as long as a century and a half, further complicating the situation.”It is costing us more than we ever budgeted,” said Mr. Cullen.Here are excerpts from a selection of claims that have been launched against the church:
The school operated in Brantford, Ont., from 1834 to 1969. The claim alleges children were physically abused for speaking their Native languages, were forced to participate in religious Christian education, were given inadequate amounts of food, which was sometimes contaminated, were given only two sets of clothing and were regularly humiliated. For example, it is alleged children who wet their beds were strapped or required to wear the urine-stained sheets over their heads or to go to breakfast with their genitals exposed, carrying a tin can. Females were given rags for use during menstruation.
The claim alleges some students were sexually molested by staff.
The churches are accused of allowing the cultural genocide of the children under their care. The claim says the schooling eroded their way of life and led to a loss of the Saulteaux language and identity along with community dysfunction and alienation.
It says the band and individuals have suffered permanent injuries including alienation of culture, nervous shock, anxiety, depression, emotional trauma, personality change, drug and alcohol addiction, sexual abuse, incest in the aboriginal community, diminished health and loss of language.