A first step was taken by victims of sexual assault, deprivation and physical violence in youth centers in Quebec as early as 1950 in order to obtain compensation.
Posted at 7:00 a.m.
In mid-August, the Superior Court authorized the filing of a class action on behalf of the representative of a group of victims, Eleanor Lindsay, whose tragic story had been told by our columnist Rima Elkouri in November 2019.
The number of people who could qualify for this class action is “difficult to say”, but could amount to tens, even hundreds of thousands of Quebecers, estimates the lawyer responsible for the file, Mr.e Lev Alexeev, of the firm Novalex.
Indeed, about 5,000 children were placed in reception centers for “socially maladjusted”, according to what had been established by a commission of inquiry set up in 1975 to shed light on this abuse and which gave birth to the Batshaw report. .
With its 166 recommendations, the Batshaw report, tabled in 1976, led to a major restructuring of services for children and the establishment of the Youth Protection Actwhich entered into force in 1979.
The case was then revealed by a young journalist from the English daily The GazetteGillian Cosgrove, who was hired as an educator in one of these centers to observe the abuse inflicted on children.
PHOTO PROVIDED BY THE GAZETTE
Journalist Gillian Cosgrove in 1975
Gillian Cosgrove had seen girls there sent to solitary confinement without anything justifying such punishment. “They were strapped to a dirty mattress, with leather straps over the hips and upper chest. They were left there in their urine, stools and sometimes their menstrual blood for several days,” she said in 2019.
Forced to take drugs
Facts that match the testimony of representative Eleanor Lindsay before the Superior Court to have the class action authorized.
PHOTO PETER POWER, THE CANADIAN PRESS ARCHIVES
Eleanor Lindsay
Born in Scotland, she was 7 years old when her family moved to Montreal. Sexually abused by her father, she was placed under the supervision of youth protective services as a teenager.
[…] Confined to the common area for up to 23 hours a day or to a cell or bedroom for long periods. She says she was forced to take medication. She witnessed a sexual assault and was sexually touched.
Excerpt from the judgment of magistrate Christian Immer
No less than six integrated university health and social services centers (CIUSSS) and ten integrated health and social services centers (CISSS) are targeted by the class action in addition to the Government of Quebec, through the Attorney General .
A sum of $500,000 per victim is claimed in addition to punitive damages which have not yet been determined. Members of the First Nations, Inuit and Métis are excluded from this class action, as are people who have received financial assistance and who have signed a release under the National Reconciliation Program with Orphans and Orphans of Duplessis, between others.
With Rima Elkouri, The Press