Court victory for girls incarcerated at Vancouver-area 'house of horrors'

Girls who were incarcerated at a long-shuttered Vancouver-area schooltime formerly described as a " domiciliate of horrors," feature won a triumph with the certification of a class-action lawsuit alleging systemic sexual, physical and mental abuse at the facility.

The Industrial Home for Girls opened in 1914 on Vancouver’s Cassiar Street, moved to Burnaby and was renamed the Willingdon School for Girls in 1959, before closing in 1973.

According to the certification decision, the facility housed girls who were sentenced under the Juvenile Delinquents Act of the day, including for "offences such as 'incorrigibility,' 'sexual immorality,' and for Indigenous girls, the offence of being intoxicated off a reserve." 

The decision recognizes potential harms experienced by all girls held during the 59-year history of the facility, while also setting out an Indigenous subclass of plaintiffs who experienced specific harms.

The originating lawsuit alleges girls aged six to 18 suffered abuse at the hands of the school's employees, including teachers and medical staff, and sometimes other girls.

It says some of the girls were subjected to forced sterilization, while all, upon entry to the school, had to undergo a complete physical exam, including a genital examination, and two weeks of quarantine in a solitary confinement cell known as "the hole." 

The claim alleges genital exams were also conducted frequently on escapees following their recapture, pursuant to school guidelines.

In May 1956, the Vancouver Sun printed photos of confinement cells at the Cassiar Street facility, described by reporter Simma Holt as a "house of horrors." A caption states that 68 girls had escaped from the school in the previous four months.

Canada, the province of British Columbia and Dr. T.C. MacKenzie, who worked at the facility from 1960 to 1973, are named defendants in the class action. 

The lawsuit was brought on behalf of plaintiff Joanne Wesley, who was 14 when she was held at the school from December 1971 to June 1972. In court documents, Wesley said she experienced "multiple forced genital examinations by Dr. MacKenzie, including following returns after escapes."

The representative claimant for the Indigenous subclass is Paulette Steeves, who was incarcerated at various times from age 13 to 16, between 1968 and 1971. Steeves, who is Cree-Métis, alleges she was confined to "the hole" for six weeks straight at one time.

The subclass emerges from the plaintiffs’ position that Indigenous girls were overrepresented in the school population, with many displaced from communities far away from Vancouver. 

A lawyer for the plaintiffs said the school aimed to "de-Indigenize" girls. 

"So removing Indigenous language, removing Indigenous culture, removing Indigenous faith and replacing those things with Eurocentric culture, language, and faith, respectively," said Patrick Dudding.

The size of the class is bound to number into the many thousands given the six decades the facility was in operation. Dudding said it’s difficult to estimate how many claimants there might be because girls were always being moved in and out.

"I can say that we've been contacted by many of the former residents of the school, but I also know that there's many more out there that we've not been in touch with yet," he said.

"Another complicating factor, of course, is that given the time period it's reasonable to expect that many class members will be deceased."

Started in 2021, the lawsuit is likely many years away from a conclusion.

In her reasons for judgment, Justice Veronica Jackson allowed claims of negligence, breach of fiduciary duty, and misfeasance in public office against Canada. Against Dr. MacKenzie, she allowed claims of battery, negligence and breach of fiduciary duty. 

For the Indigenous subclass, Jackson allowed claims against British Columbia and Canada of breach of fiduciary and constitutional duties and Aboriginal rights. Against the province only, she allowed a claim of vicarious liability for the acts and omissions of Dr. MacKenzie.

The purpose of a class-action lawsuit is to bring together those who experienced similar harms from the same source to sue collectively. Certification of a class action means the lawsuit can proceed, either to trial or a different judicial process.

This isn’t the first time a former detainee of the school has tried to sue the province.

In 2004, Lynda Parrish thought she had retained a lawyer to sue for abuses suffered during her incarceration at the Willingdon School for Girls, only to discover that the man representing her — John Ruiz Dempsey — was a charlatan posing as a lawyer.

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