Nunavut court sets Horne lawsuit for February

A lawsuit by 70 former students of Ed Horne, a former Nunavut teacher and convicted sex offender, against the governments of Nunavut and the Northwest Territories is scheduled to proceed in February 2009, according a court decision released late Friday.

Justice Beverly Browne of the Nunavut Court of Justice set the tentative date as part of her written decision on several pre-trial motions related to the civil lawsuit.

"We're delighted that a date has been set," Geoff Budden, the Mount Pearl, N.L., lawyer representing the former students, told CBC News on Friday.

Browne noted that the date is tentative, as schedules have to be co-ordinated on both sides.

"She emphasized and I think quite properly that given the huge commitment of court resources that this will take, that we have to be ready to go to trial," he said.

"We have our work cut out over the next few months to make sure we're ready to have a productive trial in February."

Horne, now 64, was convicted of eight sex-related charges involving former students in 1987, then convicted on 20 more charges in 2000. Earlier this year, he was found not guilty of charges laid by four men who also said they were his former students.

The 70 plaintiffs allege that both the N.W.T. and Nunavut governments failed to protect them from Horne, who taught at a number of eastern Arctic schools in the 1970s and 1980s.

Nunavut was part of the Northwest Territories before becoming its own territory in 1999.

In 2002, both governments reached a $21-million out-of-court settlement with 82 former students.

The latest lawsuit involving the 70 plaintiffs was filed in 2004. The plaintiffs cannot be identified under a publication ban.

In her ruling, Browne wrote that the February trial will proceed with only 10 plaintiffs who will be chosen by both sides in this case.

"From those 10 we will hopefully be able to get the guidance to decide how to settle the rest of the claims," Budden said.

"Nobody suggests that this will necessarily settle everything, but it's a good way forward."

Browne noted in her decision that government witnesses will likely include former N.W.T. premier Joe Handley, who was the territory's deputy education minister around the time Horne was arrested for sex offences.

However, Browne dismissed an application from Budden to further question Handley and other former government bureaucrats as part of the discovery process, saying they can be questioned when they take the stand.

Budden has argued that Handley holds key information backing up the plaintiffs' claims that the governments were negligent.

As for a settlement, Budden said he's prepared to settle, but for no less than the $21 million awarded in the first lawsuit.

"We're not prepared to settle the claim for much less than the earlier claims awarded or really much less than is fair under the circumstances," he said. "If we have to go to trial, as we've said all along, we'll go to trial."

Budden acknowledged that the lawsuit's costs to government could be high, and some information may emerge during the trial that may be unflattering to the governments.

Robert Dewar, the lawyer representing the Nunavut and N.W.T. governments, declined to comment Friday.