Court increases compensation for abuse

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A Saskatchewan man who has sued the federal government for compensation for abuses suffered at the hands of a residential school employee has had his case heard by the Supreme Court of Canada.

In a decision announced April 29, the Supreme Court ruled that the man, referred to only as H.L. in court documents, should receive more compensation than awarded him by the Saskatchewan Court of Appeal.

H.L. has seen his case go through three levels of the court system since he first launched his lawsuit. The case was tried in the Saskatchewan Court of Queen's Bench, with the trial judge awarding him $407,000, including $300,000 for lost wages. That decision was overturned by the Saskatchewan Court of Appeal, which ruled that the evidence presented in the original trial failed to prove the wage loss and, based on that finding, reduced the award to $86,000.

In its decision, the Supreme Court restored the compensation to the amount originally awarded by the Court of Queen's Bench, but agreed with the Court of Appeal's contention that the man should not receive compensation for wages lost during the time he has spent in prison, and that the amount of money he has received through social assistance should further reduce the compensation amount.

H.L. was sexually abused in the 1970s, one of the victims of pedophile William Starr. At the time the abuse took place, Starr was employed as residence administrator of the Gordon student residence on Gordon First Nation. While H.L. wasn't a student at the school, he came into contact with Starr when Starr, with the approval of the department of Indian Affairs, organized after-school activities for children on the reserve. It was during this involvement that the sexual abuse took place.

Expert witnesses who gave testimony at the original trial said the trauma of the abuse H.L.

suffered caused him to drop out of school and contributed to his developing alcoholism, emotional difficulties, and getting involved in criminal behaviour. These in turn adversely affected his ability to find and retain meaningful employment. The court accepted this testimony and granted H.L. damages both due to the suffering caused by the abuse, but also for loss of income, which could also be linked to the abuse.

The final amount of the award has yet to be determined. The parties involved must agree on a sum; if they can't, either party can move to have that sum determined in trial court. But Merchant Law Group, which has been representing H.L. in his suit against the federal government, issued a statement calling the damages awarded "the highest court awarded compensation to a residential school survivor in Canadian history."