An Ontario Superior Court judge has certified a class-action lawsuit seeking $600 million in damages against the Ontario government on behalf of former residents of the province’s training schools.The certification order, signed by Justice Danial Newton in Thunder Bay and released Tuesday, defines the class as all individuals who resided at 13 of the province’s training school facilities between Jan. 1, 1953, and April 2, 1984.“This is an important milestone for the boys and girls from the training schools,” said lead plaintiff Kirk Keeping in a statement issued by Koskie Minsky, the law firm representing him and other class members. Keeping alleges he was sexually, physically and psychologically abused while attending Pine Ridge Training School in Bowmanville in 1968 when he was 15.“We have all lived with this for years and we are glad this case is moving forward,” he said.Training schools were institutions set up and operated by the provincial government to house and educate thousands of children between the ages of 8 and 16 who were deemed by the courts to be “incorrible” or “unmanageable.” Children sent to training school need not have committed any crimes; transgressions such as petty theft, truancy, or running away from home could land a child in training school. Many children sent to the institutions came from abusive or poverty-stricken homes.A Star investigation published last year revealed that the provincial government has secretly settled more than 200 individual lawsuits launched by former training school residents who alleged horrifying treatment at the hands of school employees. Former students interviewed by the Star alleged they were raped, beaten and put in solitary confinement by staff members, among other abuses they say they suffered.The Star’s investigation also revealed that provincial officials warned the government — in one case as early as the late 1960s — tha ...
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