66 Horne sex-abuse victims in North get $15M

A second group of victims of convicted sex offender Edward Horne has reached a multimillion-dollar settlement with the governments of Nunavut and the Northwest Territories.

Sixty-six people will share just under $15 million in the latest settlement reached with victims of the former teacher and principal.

Horne worked in numerous communities in what is now Nunavut between 1971 and 1985.

They suffered abuse as children at the hands of Horne, ranging from sexual touching to sodomy.

The abuse occurred when Horne worked as their teacher or principal in communities that include Sanikiluaq, Cape Dorset and Iqaluit, all of which are now in Nunavut.

The governments of Nunavut and the Northwest Territories are assuming responsibility for the payout in a sharing agreement reached before Nunavut was created in 1999. Lawyers for the two territories have been negotiating the agreement out of court for the last two years.

The settlement includes financial payments to each of the plaintiffs and the creation of a fund to provide counselling and treatment to the victims and to their families.

Geoff Budden, a lawyer for the victims, said the money has already been paid out.

"All aspects of the case and the settlement took place over a period of approximately two years, a series of meetings, and all of the funds have been delivered by the government," he said.

Budden said the treatment fund will be administered over the next several years by an independent board.

Horne pleaded guilty in 1987 to eight sex-related charges involving 24 former students. He was convicted in 2000 on 20 more charges.

In 2002, the N.W.T. and Nunavut governments reached its first settlement when a group of 85 men or their estates received $21.5-million.