Last Woodlands School building facing demolition
CBC News | Posted: October 18, 2011 4:56 PM | Last Updated: October 19, 2011
The last remaining buildings of the Woodlands resident school in New Westminster, B.C., will be demolished on Tuesday,
The school was closed in 1996 and since then it has been described as a house of horrors because of the abuse many suffered there by so many of the children held there.
Fire destroyed much of the complex three years ago, except for the Centre Block, which first opened in 1878 as the Provincial Lunatic Asylum.
In 1950 it was renamed Woodlands residential school and used to house children with developmental disorders, and runaways and wards of the state.
Carol Dauphanie spent two and a half years at the institution, where she says she was force-fed, and suffered other forms of physical and verbal abuse.
"To me, it's a triumphant moment, when they get rid of that place, and do not allow any other places to be built, and just slam abused children anywhere they want," she said.
Last year a group of about 900 people institutionalized at Woodlands reached a settlement agreement with the provincial government for compensation.
But only those who were at the school after August 1, 1974 when the laws were changed, were deemed eligible.
The B.C. NDP is demanding the provincial government include the other 300 former residents of the school in the compensation.