A Quebec Superior Court judge has authorized a class action on behalf of Indigenous people who allege they received a poorer quality education than other Quebecers in schools where abuse was commonplace.
Thousands of First Nations and Inuit children were forced by the provincial or federal government to attend these schools.
“The plaintiffs maintain that the day school system had an avowed goal of cultural assimilation, and that the children who attended them were victims of acculturation, as well as, for many, of psychological, physical and sexual abuse on the part of teachers, administrators, other employees and other children of these schools,” wrote Judge Sylvain Lussier in his December 8 decision.
The lawsuit includes all members of the First Nations who had to attend, between 1951 and 2014, day schools managed by the Quebec government and its school boards in indigenous communities on behalf of the federal government.
It also includes all Inuit who had to attend Quebec public schools in their communities between 1963 and 1978.
Judge Lussier said the plaintiffs allege that the way the schools were managed intentionally violated their rights to integrity, dignity and security, as well as to maintain and advance their cultural life with members of their community, as guaranteed by the Quebec Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms.
Two representative plaintiffs, identified as JJ and A. I. in court documents, claim to have suffered abuse in schools.
A. Je., attended a school on a reserve in Lac-Simon, in Abitibi-Témiscamingue, which was managed by a school board based in the neighboring town, Val-d’Or, on behalf of the federal government.
In court documents, A.I. described the climate in the school she attended between 1972, when she was four, and 1982, as “hell” and “like the residential school within the community.”
“While attending school in Lac-Simon, A. Je. suffered physical, psychological and sexual abuse inflicted by school employees. She also witnessed such abuse inflicted on other students,” according to a summary of the allegations contained in Mr. Lussier’s decision.
Non-Native students attending the school were not subjected to the same violence and were allowed to physically attack Native students, while Native students were severely punished if they attacked a non-Native student, according to the summary.
In 2019, the federal government reached an agreement with federal school survivors for $1.47 billion, but this settlement did not include provincial schools, such as those in Quebec.
The class action seeks at least $20,000 in damages for each person who was forced to attend the schools, as well as their direct family members.
She seeks additional damages for those who suffered specific abuses.