Lawsuit: Canadian Cathedral Valley Group Home for Boys

The headline of this article is jarring. Gov’t: Group home trauma not our problem [Winnipeg Sun 10/24/11 by Paul Turenne]. Former resident Sam McGillivary and a “handful of former residents, who call themselves The Lost Boys, have filed lawsuits against the government, which approved and funded the home.

McGillivary filed his suit in 2008, claiming his experiences there — including discovering the body of the operator’s wife, who was fatally shot by a fellow resident in 1977 — have caused him to suffer nightmares, depression and other trauma.”

“I’m not about the money. I know what happened to me and I want to show people what happened,” McGillivary said. “I hope it can come to a conclusion in a relatively short period of time. I’m not expecting it to be next month or even next year, but I’d like to be able to say ‘OK, we can move on with our lives.’ ”

“In January 2010, Family Services Minister Gord Mackintosh officially apologized to McGillivary and other former residents of the Grandview-area home after a report by former Manitoba Ombudsman Barry Tuckett concluded some of the boys who lived at the home in the 1970s and ’80s were placed there under questionable circumstances, improperly monitored and emotionally scarred by their experiences there. Tuckett’s report also stated that some residents may have been physically or sexually abused at the home, although no hard evidence was contained in the report.”

Now, “[t]he Manitoba government has decided to formally fight a lawsuit filed by a man who claims abuses he suffered as a boy in a government-funded group home have had lasting effects on his adult life.

In a statement of defence filed by Manitoba Justice legal services last month, the government claims it is not responsible for any trauma Sam McGillivary may have endured at the Cathedral Valley Group Home for Boys in the 1970s, and challenges him to prove he’s suffered any ill effects.”

About 100 Possible Victims

“Norman Rosenbaum, the lawyer representing McGillivary in his lawsuit against the provincial government, confirmed Monday that he’s filed to have the suit certified as a class action, as several former residents of the Cathedral Valley Group Home for Boys have come forward in recent years claiming similar grievances with the government-funded home.

Rosenbaum couldn’t put a firm number on it, but McGillivary estimated about 100 people have come forward.

“We know what happened there and we can all verify it together. Our statements are going to be identical in many, many ways,” McGillivary said.

The former residents come from all over Canada, and McGillivary said they face similar struggles.

“From the ones I’ve met in the past, they’re having a very rough time in life. They’re barely making ends meet,” he said. “Some have passed away, some have committed suicide, some are in the justice system, some are struggling on the streets.”

McGillivary said he hopes the suit can help reform Manitoba’s foster care system.”

REFORM Puzzle Piece

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