People who lived at Ontario Training Schools seek closure 8 years after start of class action alleging abuse
CBC
WARNING: This story details allegations of abuse.
More than 50 years and 3,500 kilometres separate Paul Grimston from the Ontario government-operated detention centre where he was forced to live as a child. But the 69-year-old says the memories of the beatings and abuse he suffered there are still "fresh every day."
“The problem is that it never leaves you,” he said in an interview with CBC from the motorhome where he lives on Vancouver Island. “I’ve seen and suffered a lot of horrific things.”
In December 2017, Grimston and others who went to the training schools launched a class-action lawsuit against the province. The court certified it to proceed in December 2018.
Seeking an apology and a settlement, they’re still waiting for closure.
"The training schools contained a toxic environment in which degrading and humiliating treatment of children in the Crown's care was the norm; physical, sexual and psychological abuse was rampant,” says the statement of claim for the class action filed by the law firm Koskie Minsky LLP in Toronto.
The suit seeks $600 million on behalf of the estimated 21,000 children sent to training schools between Jan. 1, 1953, and April 2, 1984.
CBC contacted the Ontario Ministry of the Attorney General with questions about the case. The ministry said it can’t comment on the class action as it is currently before the courts.
However, the ministry's statement of defence said it denies all allegations of liability and wrongdoing.
None of the allegations or arguments in this article have been tested in court.
Thousands of children were sent to training schools after being labelled "unmanageable," struggling in school or being accused of petty crimes like vandalism.
Grimston said a probation officer deemed him "too much" for his single mother to handle after he skipped school once.
“Mom said the Ontario Training Schools basically took me. I have nightmares of the crying fits I suffered the first month, every night."
Grimston said he was 13 years old when he arrived at Brookside School in Cobourg.
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