Bittersweet Justice: Canada

“A settlement has been reached after court documents alleged a 49-year-old woman suffered decades of abuse at the hands of numerous foster parents when she was a child.

Jane Doe’s biological parents were alcoholics who neglected her, but Doe’s circumstances only got worse in the late 1970s when she was taken from their home and put in foster care.

At just five years old, Doe was beaten and sexually abused at the first home she was placed in. At a second home, she was repeatedly beaten with a belt and thrown down a staircase.

Doe’s lawyer, Lynn Moore, says moving to a third home, where she lived with her biological sister, led to unimaginable trauma.

“It was a viper’s nest of abusers,” said Moore.

“The foster father was an abuser, the foster uncle was an abuser, the foster grandfather was an abuser.”

It was at that third home that a statement of claim filed in 2019 says Doe was forced to bear witness to her sister’s sexual abuse by her foster father and sister’s subsequent death. Moore says Doe overheard her foster father tell her sister she must do as he wanted or Doe would be next.

“Her sister died under very suspicious circumstances and it was never adequately determined whether it was murder or it was suicide. She was found at the bottom of a cliff, face down in the water, with her foster father holding her hand. He was also in the water. His story is that he went in to save her … which begs the question: why was she face down?”

Jane Doe is not her real name. It’s a name she used in court to protect her identity.

Moore says Doe continues to suffers with anxiety, depression and guilt about her sister’s death. Moore says the province didn’t do enough to protect them.

“It was the luck of the draw if you landed with a good family or if you ended up with one where your sister could end up dead, and it was just such a massive failure,” she said.

Jane Doe and the Crown recently reached an out-of-court settlement. The settlement gives Doe financial compensation, but the province does not admit liability.

Moore said she’s not authorized to disclose the amount of the settlement, “but there was a significant payment made to her.”

She said the settlement does not include an apology from the province but if the province chose to offer an apology, it would likely help her client move closer to finding some peace.”

Court case detailing decades of abuse in foster care leads to settlement in N.L.
[CBC 4/12/23 by Mark Quinn]