Proposed class action seeks damages for intergenerational trauma from residential schools
System impacted lives of children of survivors, statement of claim alleges
Matthew Brandon was six years old when he made his way into Chris and Shannon Gardiner's life.
The boy was non-verbal and had complex needs, and he had already been moved around a lot in the foster care system.
"My wife and I had no training in this. We weren't even licensed foster parents," said Chris Gardiner, who is still Brandon's caregiver and guardian.
Gardiner said he and his wife were originally meant to keep Brandon for a single weekend, as an emergency placement, but that has turned into two and a half decades of caring for and loving Brandon.
Now, the Gardiners are looking for some justice for him, and others. Brandon is the representative claimant in a new proposed class action lawsuit against the federal government seeking damages for the intergenerational trauma caused by residential schools.
The Gardiners, who live in Saskatchewan Beach, about 55 kilometres northwest of Regina, said all they were initially told about Brandon was that his history was complex. They knew he had been apprehended at 18 months old. However, his medical records were sealed.
"We'd been raising a child with autism," Gardiner said. "We sat in countless meetings dealing with autism-related conversations, only to discover in 2012 — after the psychologists had a peek into the social services file — that he had actually endured a brain injury."
Brandon is now 32. But the effects of physical trauma he endured as a toddler remain. He is non-verbal, suffers from intellectual disability, cerebral palsy and other medical conditions, and is unable to care for himself.
The proposed class action, filed by Merchant Law Group LLP, argues that the abuse Brandon's biological parents endured during their time as students at residential school directly influenced the way they parented their children.
Specifically, it argues that Brandon's father, who is now deceased, was "disciplined with violence" while at residential school and carried that with him in the way he treated his own children, resulting in Brandon suffering a severe injury with lifelong damage.
Gardiner said he believes that intergenerational trauma from residential schools is the main reason Brandon has suffered so severely in his life.
"It wasn't just a harm that affected a small group of people," he said. "It actually is intergenerational and has caused calamity and damage to generations of Indigenous people in this country."
Statement of claim filed
The proposed class action was filed Feb. 28 in federal court. It's a national claim to gain compensation for children of residential school survivors.
The statement of claim says that residential schools were part of a policy that the federal government implemented to "take the Indian out of the child," which caused tremendous turmoil in the structure of family dynamics.
More than 150,000 First Nations, Métis and Inuit children were forced to attend church-run, government-funded residential schools between the 1870s and late 1990s.
"Everyone within the Indigenous community, and particularly the leadership, have talked about and been aware of the intergenerational impact of residential schools," lawyer Tony Merchant said in an interview.
Merchant noted that a class action lawsuit for residential school survivors was settled and survivors received compensation through the 2006 Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement.
Since then, there has been mounting evidence of the effects of intergenerational trauma, Merchant said.
The next step for the proposed class action is for it to be certified, and Merchant said his law firm is collecting individual stories of people impacted by intergenerational trauma.
CBC News asked for comment from the Canadian Department of Justice. A response had not been received by the time of publication.
Raising awareness
Gardiner said that the class action lawsuit is not just about compensation.
He said he is hoping to raise awareness about the intergenerational trauma from residential schools that every generation has suffered. He also wants to educate the public about the "colonial system that refused to give them answers" after it apprehended Brandon.
"Even under our watch, we've actually had to endure him not getting all that he needs," Gardiner said. "And that's just been through relentless advocacy and our articulating the issues and debates and endless meetings, endless effort."
Gardiner said he hopes the lawsuit will "break the spell" of the power held by the Canadian institutions that were behind the residential school system and everything that has followed.
"They are so powerful, and they are so networked, and I can confirm that the residential school system is still alive and well," he said. "It has just been repackaged."
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