Final arguments heard in Indian school trial

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After three years, thousands of tears, and immeasurable pain suffered by the complainants, final arguments wrapped up in Vancouver for the seven remaining plaintiffs suing the federal government and United Church of Canada for abuses suffered at the Alberni Indian Residential School (AIRS).

B.C. Supreme Court Justice Donald Brenner has already determined that the defendants were vicariously liable for what happened at AIRS, but has yet to rule on the more important issues of direct liability and damages.

"We did final arguments right up to Dec. 20, and I think it went really well, so all be can do now is wait for Brenner's judgment," said lawyer Allan Early. "He hasn't given a judgement on direct liability yet either, so I expect they will come together, and we expect it to come sometime in the early spring, but he might surprise us."

The trial, started in Nanaimo with 31 plaintiffs, is being closely watched across the country as it will set the legal precedent for all future residential school cases.

The only other such cases heard in Canada were in Saskatchewan, which, according to Early, were short trials in a province that is known to provide the lowest compensation awards of any jurisdiction in Canada.

British Columbia, and more specifically Justice Donald Brenner, has a history of offering some of the highest damage awards in sexual assault cases in Canada.

Many of the original plaintiffs in the AIRS case have settled out-of-court for well over $500,000 each, as the federal government and United Church of Canada have shown an eagerness to negotiate rather than litigate future damage awards.

"We're also doing the final arguments in the St. George's Residential School case before Justice Williamson in Vancouver this month," said Early, whose law firm Hutchins, Soroka and Grant are involved in residential school cases across western Canada.

"One of those two cases will be the first judgments in British Columbia and in Canada that has been argued so vigorously," he said. "Thousands of cases have been launched, so there are a lot of people and a lot of lawyers waiting on this judgment."