Fight over secret St. Anne’s residential school documents back in court
TORONTO — Survivors of the notorious St. Anne’s residential school square off against the federal government this week in another round of a convoluted legal battle over document secrecy.
Among other things, the plaintiffs want Ontario’s top court to order a review of all St. Anne’s compensation claims adjudicated before the government disclosed thousands of documents from a 1990s criminal investigation by provincial police.
They also want the court to set aside a decision allowing Canada to keep secret civil-litigation materials — despite an initial ruling to turn them over. The documents were generated during 62 lawsuits related to horrific physical and sexual abuse 154 Indigenous people had suffered at St. Anne’s in Fort Albany, Ont.
Those lawsuits were all resolved without a trial but before the government settled a broader class action brought by Indian residential school survivors in 2007. As part of the class-action settlement, the government set up a compensation scheme for survivors known as the independent assessment process.