Supreme Court of Canada Allows Residential School Lawsuit to Proceed, Study notes of Law

Download Supreme Court of Canada Allows Residential School Lawsuit to Proceed and more Study notes Law in PDF only on Docsity! Top court gives residential school lawsuit the green light The Supreme Court of Canada on Thursday gave the green light to proceed to a massive certified class action by about 1,400 ex- students and their families for alleged abuses at a residential school on the Six Nations reserve near Brantford, Ont. between 1922 and 1969. The development ramps up pressure on Ottawa to take steps that would settle the claims for loss of aboriginal language and culture in the Cloud class action, and other similar lawsuits across Canada, said lawyer Christopher Devlin, vice-chair of the Canadian Bar Association's national aboriginal law section. "I think it does give the government an incentive to take the Canadian Bar Association and Assembly of First Nations proposal for reconciliation payments seriously." Implementing the associations' proposal last February that the government make lump-sum "reconciliation payments" of $10,000, plus $3,000 for each year spent at a school, to all 90,000 former residential school students would decrease the huge downside risk that the government faces from several multi- billion-dollar class actions, Devlin suggested. On Thursday the top court also refused to hear an appeal from the Attorney General of Canada regarding a decision of the Ontario Court of Appeal to certify the Cloud case as the first class action law suit for damages for negligence, assault, and breaches of aboriginal and treaty rights, and loss of aboriginal culture and language. Docsity.com