Final ruling issued in fight between survivors of St. Anne's residential school and Canada over disclosure

Judge says Canada has met its obligation to survivors who have concluded the claims process

Kate Rutherford · CBC News · Posted: Apr 10, 2025 6:00 AM EDT | Last Updated: 6 hours ago

Catholic nuns ran St. Anne's Residential School in Fort Albany between 1902 and 1976. Cree children were seized from their families and forced to attend. (Algoma University/Edmund Metatawabin Collection)

Warning: This story includes details of abuse at residential schools

A decades-long court fight between survivors of abuse at a notorious Catholic-run residential school in Fort Albany, and Canada, over disclosure of evidence, appears to have ended with a March 20, 2025 decision in Ontario Superior Court.

Led by former student and Fort Albany Chief, Edmund Metatawabin, the survivors of St. Anne's had been seeking access to documents from criminal and civil trials connected to abuse allegations at the school, in order to consider reopening compensation claims.

They were also looking for a review of the government's conduct in response to a 2014 court decision ordering the government to disclose those documents.

Federal lawyers asked the court to dismiss the survivors' request on mainly technical terms, arguing Canada had met its obligations of disclosure.

Justice Benjamin T. Glustein wrote in his decision that Canada was not required to deliver updated reports or disclosure in concluded claims and that the survivors all had concluded claims, and had run out of time.

Between 1992 and 1997, Ontario Provincial Police, in response to abuse allegations, interviewed hundreds of witnesses and seized thousands of documents from church entities.

Survivors claimed they had been physically, psychologically and sexually assaulted, and punished with a cat-o-nine tails whip and a makeshift electric chair.

Seven former school officials were charged and five were convicted

The survivors argued the claims they had negotiated through an independent assessment process may not have been based on all pertinent information — including that covered in the OPP probe, and that the information may substantiate and support their claims.

That's because Canada argued between 2006 and 2014, that it did not have documents on sexual abuse at St. Anne's.

In 2014, the survivors won a court decision confirming Canada breached its disclosure obligations by failing to produce the transcripts, notes and other details of the criminal and civil proceedings.

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