Court approves $17M settlement over alleged abuse at Manitoba Developmental Centre

Former residents alleging decades of abuse at a Manitoba home for people with intellectual disabilities can soon receive compensation, after the provincial court approved a $17 million class-action settlement agreement on Tuesday.

"For decades, members of the class endured physical and sexual abuse, and other harm, at MDC [Manitoba Developmental Centre]," Manitoba Court of King's Bench Justice Candace Grammond wrote in a Tuesday ruling.

"I am satisfied that the settlement is fair and reasonable and in the best interests of the class."

The province and the plaintiffs reached asettlement agreement last March, which was approved by the court Tuesday.

David Weremy, who lived at the Portage la Prairie facility in the 1950s, '60s and '70s, filed the lawsuit in 2018.

The claim sought $50 million in damages and alleged staff beat residents, allowed resident-on-resident rape, deprived residents of food and used nudity as punishment.

The government denied the allegations in a 2019 statement of defence, saying the centre was run according to the standards of care at the time.

The suit was certified as a class action in May 2020. Settlement discussions began in September 2022, and amotion to approve the settlement was filed in April 2023.

The province will use $1 million out of the $17 million settlement to create an endowment fund with the Winnipeg Foundation, Grammond said in her statement.

Thatfund can be used by community organizations for projects that support community inclusion for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

Grammond said the province must also create a memorial at theMDC cemetery, located about three kilometres north of the centre off Highway 240,and "make reasonable efforts to designate it as a site of historical significance."

"These initiatives will benefit all of the class members, whether or not they make a claim, and will help them to achieve some closure after the traumatizing events they endured at MDC," she wrote.

MDC opened in 1890 andhoused about 1,200 people at its peak in the 1970s. The province stopped accepting new residents in 1996, except for short-term and court-ordered placements.

In January 2021, the province announced a three-year plan to close the facility's doors and transition its remaining residents to other supported living arrangements by March 2024.As of March 2023, fewer than 160 people lived in MDC.

Weremy, who was the representative plaintiff for the residents, had told CBC Newsin January 2021 he was happy to hear about its upcoming closure.

As part of Tuesday's judgment, Weremy will receive a $15,000 honorarium, paid out ofthe settlement fund.

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David Weremy says he experienced years of trauma at the Manitoba Developmental Centre in Portage la Prairie, Man., which included sexual abuse, physical assault and being confined naked in a room.

"Mr. Weremy has acted as a champion of this cause," Grammondsaid.

"He devoted dozens of hours to this litigation on behalf of the class, without compensation."

There are about 1,362 class action members, including anyone who lived at MDC between July 1, 1951 and May 29, 2020, and who were alive as of Oct. 31, 2016.

Individuals can receive compensation ranging from $3,000 to $85,000. The ruling says the claims process must be paper-based and user-friendly, and will be administered byRicePoint Administration Inc.