$29M Settlement Reached By N.S., Home for Colored Children Abuse Claimants

This article was last updated on April 16, 2022

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According to an announcement by The Liberal government on Tuesday, it revealed to have reached a $29-million tentative settlement with the abuse victms of the Nova Scotia Home for Colored Children. The deal is first step towards a proposed two-fold process promised by the McNeil government to almost 150 former residents of the Dartmouth home, who had endured decades of severe physical, sexual and psychological abuse while there.

Several reports have confirmed that a vast majority of the victims were black, orphaned or from homes where families could no longer look after them. Their cries for the abuse were largely unheard, until the former residents launched a class action lawsuit against the province and the home itself for failing to protect them. The home has already settled with the residents for $5 million, however the province continued to wage the battle against the lawsuit was certified.

Nova Scotia Supreme Court Justice, Arthur LeBlanc, authenticated the class action last year, after which the newly elected Premier Stephen McNeil started to negotiate with the plaintiffs. The expected settlement is a second attempt at healing, a public inquiry into the heart of the abuse, which the residents and their lawyers, Wagner law firm of Halifax, contend was racism. One of the lead plaintiffs in the class action suit, Harriet Johnson, was heard saying that “right now I feel a sense of relief” because “I’m very happy that all of us, all my brothers and sisters that were suffering with me, we can now start to put this behind us.”