Lawer compares P.E.I. orphanage to Mt. Cashel
Last Updated: Thursday, January 17, 2002 | 7:03 PM AT
CBC News
Clint Docken believes that Prince Edward Island's Mount Herbert Orphanage belongs on the same list as Newfoundland's notorious Mount Cashel Orphanage. He is the lawyer representing 14 former Mount Herbert residents who are alleging physical and sexual abuse.
"Mount Herbert doesn't appear from what we're hearing to be much different an institution than any of the others that we've been involved in. Unfortunately, institutional abuse has been there for some time," he said.
Docken's firm also represented clients at Mount Cashel, and at New Brunswick's Kingsclear Reform School and Nova Scotia's Shelburne School for Boys.
In all cases, staff members were accused of sexually assaulting the children in their charge.
"Prince Edward Island hasn't had to deal with this issue to this point. Certainly when you look at the Maritimes, Newfoundland had Mount Cashel, Nova Scotia had Shelburne, New Brunswick had Kingsclear. Virtually all the other provinces in Canada have been through this issue.
The Mount Herbert Orphanage was home to thousands of children from the 1920's to the mid-1970's. It was torn down in 1998.
The $1.4-million lawsuit names the P.E.I. government and the Protestant Children's Trust. However the government has said it was never involved in running the orphanage, and the trust said it was set up two years after the orphanage closed to manage the assets of the board of trustees who had operated the facility.
Officials of the Protestant Children's Trust are scheduled to meet Monday to consider their next move.
Other former residents of Mount Herbert are expected to add their names to the lawsuit.
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