Supreme court boost award for residential school victim

CBC News

      REGINA – Canada's highest court has increased the award for an aboriginal man from Saskatchewan who was sexually abused by a residential school administrator more than a quarter of a century ago.

      The abuse happened on Gordon First Nation in the 1970s when the man, then a teenager, was involved in an after-school program that put him in contact with William Peniston Starr.

      Starr, who ran the student residence on the reserve for the federal government, was a pedophile who was later spent time in prison for sexually assaulting a number of young males.

      The issue before the Supreme Court of Canada was the amount of damages. The victim was awarded $407,000 by a Queen's Bench judge, with about $300,000 of that for lost earnings – also know as pecuniary damages.

      The total amount was later reduced to $86,000 by the Saskatchewan Court of Appeal, which said, among other things, that the man wasn't entitled to lost wages for time he spent in jail.

      However, on Friday, the Supreme Court ruled the man should get a larger share – but not all – of the pecuniary damages he was seeking.

      The judges did not set an exact amount, and said if the two sides can't agree they should go to court to settle on a number.

      The man, whose name cannot be published by court order, wasn't a student at Gordon First Nation, but came into contact with Starr while he was running an after-school boxing program. He said he was subjected to acts of masturbation by Starr on two occasions.

      In later years, the man struggled with alcohol abuse, joblessness and conflicts with the law. He sued the federal government in 1997.

      The man's lawyer, Tony Merchant, hailed the decision, saying it represented justice for his client but will also help other residential school abuse victims receive proper compensation.

      Government lawyer Roslyn Levine agreed that the ruling will give Saskatchewan judges some guidance in setting compensation levels in similar cases. She also said the amount of compensation to be paid is substantially lower than what was being sought by the victim.