Home for Colored Children inquiry releases final report into abuse at orphanage
Posted Nov 28, 2019 05:00:03 AM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
HALIFAX — An inquiry into decades of abuse at a Nova Scotia orphanage for black children is expected to submit its final report today.
For the past four years, the unusual restorative inquiry has been exploring what happened at the infamous Nova Scotia Home for Colored Children in Halifax.
Its report will recount the grim experiences of former residents and recommend ways to deal with systemic racism throughout the province.
Opened in 1921 and closed in the 1980s, the institution has become a symbol of the province’s ongoing struggle with institutional racism and discrimination.
An RCMP investigation was dropped in December 2012 after police said they had difficulties corroborating abuse allegations from 40 complainants in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Quebec, Ontario and Alberta.
But Nova Scotia Premier Stephen McNeil issued a formal apology to former residents in 2014.
“It is one of the great tragedies in our province’s history that your cries for help were greeted with silence for so long,” McNeil said at the time.
“Some of you had said that you felt invisible. Well, I want to say to you today you are invisible no longer. We hear your voices and we grieve your pain and we are sorry.”
A series of class-action lawsuits resulted in settlements worth $34 million, and the inquiry was launched in late 2015 with a $5-million budget.
“We embarked on this journey because we recognized we must do better,” McNeil said in 2017. “We need to understand our past fully so that we can begin to address what to do next to ensure a better future for African Nova Scotian children and their families.”
The inquiry used a collaborative approach that featured information sessions and “sharing circles” with former residents, black youth, community organizations and health-care providers, among others.
An interim report released in January 2018 found that a culture of silence and shame allowed abuse to persist at the home, and said racism in Nova Scotia continues to breed mistrust and fear of public agencies among members of the black community.
Former residents told the inquiry they felt abandoned by the system designed to protect them, which allowed the abuse to go unchecked and unreported for so long.
They described the trauma of entering care, with police and social workers telling them they were “just going for a drive” or “going to the store” before dropping them off without explanation at the orphanage.
The inquiry was told some staff members pitted residents against each other and forced children to fight their friends, damaging bonds they had and increasing their feelings of isolation.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 28, 2019.
Michael MacDonald, The Canadian Press
