The B.C. government is offering compensation to all former residents of the Woodlands School, the site of widespread physical and sexual abuse.
The previous Liberal government had offered compensation, but a legal technicality limited claims to those who were at the school after Aug. 1, 1974.
On Saturday, Health Minister Adrian Dix said payments of $10,000 will be offered to people who resided at the facility prior to 1974.
“Today is a bittersweet day,” Disability Alliance of BC Executive Director Jane Dyson said.
“It’s bitter because it’s taken so many years of fighting for justice for the Woodlands survivors, but also sweet because finally, after all these years, B.C.’s new government has changed the conversation and is doing the right thing.
“It is recognizing that all former residents of Woodlands suffered from systemic abuse at the institution and that all of the survivors have an equal right to justice.”
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The imposing school facility sat on the banks of the Fraser River in New Westminster and was in operation for more than 100 years before being closed in 1996. Thousands of children deemed to have mental disorders passed through its doors.
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In 2001, B.C.’s former ombudsman Dulcie McCallum submitted a disturbing report to the provincial government outlining the abuses endured by residents, some of whom were mentally challenged, some mentally ill and some simply children in care who had nowhere else to go.
“The sexual abuse included assault, intercourse and in the result, injuries and in a few cases, a pregnancy.”
The report found “there were insufficient safeguards or mechanisms in place to prevent or manage abusive conduct by employees in relation to residents.”
Dix said he hopes Saturday’s announcement will help give “residents the sense of closure they deserve.”
— With files from The Canadian Press
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