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Survivors of the Alberni Indian Residential School (AIRS) marked the second anniversary of their fight against the United Church and the government of Canada with a silent remembrance ceremony outside the Vancouver courthouse on Feb. 2.
Having successfully completed vicarious liability proceedings, and still awaiting a decision on subsequent direct liability hearings, the remaining plaintiffs are now involved in the damages phase of the trial, which began in November of last year and is expected to last throughout this year and perhaps into 2001.
"This could easily stretch into January or February of next year," said lawyer Alan Early. "There is a large number of people who will be providing evidence on the damages suffered by these people while they were at the school."
Since the court requires hard evidence to back up the claims of the former students concerning the damages they say they suffered as a result of their experiences at the school, Early said each plaintiff was given a psychological assessment, either by a psychologist or a psychiatrist. Then they went to a vocational consultant who tried to determine their academic capacity and their vocational inclinations. That evidence was then assessed by an economist who tried to calculate the income losses of the past and future.
"We're a long ways from finishing," said Early.
American psychologist Dr. Maria Root testified throughout January, saying the environment of the residential school was similar to a prisoner of war camp. Tests used by international organizations to judge whether or not a situation is "torturous," were applied to the system. Results show the schools qualify as torturous internment camps.
"We continue to argue that the circumstances at the school, the method of taking the children to the school and the conduct of all the staff - not only the perpetrators - while these people were at the school, as well as the very way the institution was set, led to a racist and punitive regime," said Early. "That exacerbated the damages suffered as a result of the physical and sexual assaults of Plint and other perpetrators, and we're arguing that the entire environment was damaging."
Of the original 28 plaintiffs who launched the case against AIRS, only half remain as 14 people have settled out-of-court.
The trial continues at the Vancouver Law Courts.
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