Lawsuit: Saskatchewan Boys’ School

“The Saskatchewan Boys School opened in 1950 to care for “delinquent” boys or for those who lacked a parent or guardian. In 1975, the facility became a residential treatment centre for boys aged 12 to 15 as well as a remand unit for those before the courts, then became a closed-custody youth facility 10 years later when it was renamed.

The claims allege the former residents sustained physical and sexual abuse by some staff in the 1970s, ’80s and ’90s. To date, claims have named four alleged perpetrators, only one of whom has faced criminal charges. Ronald Anthony Sawa – named in the majority of the allegations – was sentenced in April 2010 to 4 1/2 years in prison after admitting to sexually abusing nine victims.

He worked at the facility from 1973 until 1989 when he was fired because of an abuse allegation. Sawa was charged in 2008 as a result of a lengthy RCMP investigation triggered by the lawsuits, which began trickling into the courts in the early 2000s.

At Sawa’s sentencing, his lawyer told the court “the vast majority of those claims are without foundation.”

“Teenage boys when they were allegedly abused in the Saskatchewan Boys School, later known as the Paul Dojack Youth Centre, many of the claimants led troubled lives and are grown men today in jails and prisons across the country, said Regina lawyer Tony Merchant, who represents them.”

Seventeen of the original one hundred and fifty-eight claims have been dismissed. $296,000 has been paid out on eleven claims. Another claim of seventy-four clients is soon to come. Sixteen claims went to mediation last month and another forty-two are scheduled in the next three months.

More than 150 abuse lawsuits filed against Saskatchewan Boys’ School
[Calgary Herald 2/6/12 by B. Pacholik]

REFORM Puzzle Piece

This is believed to be the biggest abuse scandal in Saskatchewan’s history.