'Culture of silence': New class action alleges sexual abuse at Manitoba youth facility
CTV
A proposed class action lawsuit alleges acts of sexual, mental and sexual abuse against Manitoba youth by an organization tasked with helping them.
A proposed class action lawsuit alleges acts of sexual, mental and sexual abuse against Manitoba youth by an organization tasked with helping them.
The details of the case are outlined in a statement of claim filed in May 2023, outlining two plaintiffs' experiences at Marymound, a group home care facility for children and school near Kildonan Park.
"For the children living and attending school at Marymound, the experience has been one of persistent, unchanging, and unyielding abuse," reads the statement of claim, filed on May 12, 2023.
The Province of Manitoba, Marymound Inc., and the Reseau Compassion Network, the umbrella organization that oversees Marymound, as defendants in the case.
According to the plaintiffs in the case, both of whom were said to have attended Marymound for years in the mid-1990s, the staff at the children's group home often resorted to "arbitrary, excessive, and coercive forms of physical punishment," that included acts of sexual assault, forced starvation, and lack of access to toilets.
"And that nothing was done about it," said Alec Angle, one of the lawyers representing the plaintiffs in the case, "That (the plaintiffs) repeatedly raised these concerns with staff from Marymound, with staff from the Department of Child and Family Services, and no steps were taken to protect them."
The suit also alleges there was a "culture of silence" at Marymound, with children discouraged from coming forward with allegations of abuse or were ignored entirely.
