Abuse was ‘rampant’ at Ontario training schools, suit alleges

TORONTO — A man who says he was badly abused at one of Ontario’s now-defunct training schools is spearheading a proposed class-action against the province that seeks $600 million on behalf of other children and youth sent to the provincial facilities. In his unproven statement of claim, Kirk Keeping, 64, alleges the schools were festering cesspools of sexual, physical and psychological abuse perpetrated by unsupervised and unqualified staff on hapless kids.

“The training schools contained a toxic environment in which degrading and humiliating treatment of children in the Crown’s care was the norm,” the claim states. “Physical, sexual and psychological abuse was rampant, and residents of training schools were systematically denied their dignity and basic human rights.”

The provincial training schools for boys and girls aged eight to 16 operated between 1931 until they were finally shut down in 1984. Those sentenced to the facilities were children found begging on the streets, runaways, truants, those deemed “incorrigible,” those convicted of petty

offences, or those who, for various reasons, had inadequate adult supervision. Once there, they became wards of the Crown and were cut off from any family support.

While the idea was to provide support, correction and vocational training for troubled youth, the claim alleges the reality was far more sinister — one of “fear intimidation and brutality.”

Staff forced children to beat up other children or meted out physical punishment themselves. Youth were thrown into solitary confinement in shackles, not allowed to go to the washroom, were forced to scrub floors with toothbrushes or sleep on floors, and were forced into sexual acts, according to the claim.

Attempting to report the abuse would lead to retaliation in the form of longer sentences, the claim alleges.

Keeping, of Thunder Bay, was 15 when he was sent to Pine Ridge in Bowmanville in 1968 and spent two years there.

He was sexually abused by a woman in the kitchen where he was given work and later, on a dairy farm, he says, was sexually abused by a man.

He lived in a “constant state of fear” and suffers from nightmares and post-traumatic stress disorder, the claim states.

“I was just a kid,” Keeping said in statement. “What happened to me at Pine Ridge, I have had to live with that for the rest of my life.”

The suit filed last week in Ontario Superior Court in Thunder Bay, has yet to be certified as a class action or proven in any court.

Among other things, the claim states, the provincial government knew or ought to have known what was happening in the schools but failed to do anything about the situation.

It seeks $500 million in general damages and another $100 million in punitive damages, alleging the province was negligent, failed in the expected standard of care, and breached its duty toward its young charges.

“The Crown conducted its affairs with wanton and callous disregard for the class members’ interests, safety and well-being,” the claim states.

The provincial government, which had no immediate response, does not generally comment on matters before the courts.

According to a report from former Quebec judge Fred Kaufman in 2002, Ontario reached settlements with survivors of three schools — St. Joseph’s, St. John’s and Grandview — decades ago.

The new suit seeks to represent those who attended 12 others in places such as Oakville, Cambridge, Lindsay, Port Bolster, Bowmanville, Simcoe, Hagersville, Cobourg and Guelph.