Court grants class action status for lawsuit against Sask. school for the deaf

A Court of King’s Bench judge has certified a class action lawsuit alleging historic abuse at the Saskatchewan School for the Deaf.

The litigation was brought forward by three former students who attended the school between 1955 and 1991. They have filed an action against the provincial government.

According to court documents, the plaintiffs “allege that they were physically, sexually and emotionally abused by their teachers, the staff and other students and that these wrongful acts were caused by the defendant’s negligence and/or that of its agents for whom it is vicariously liable.”

The court decision means that any student who attended the school, which is also known as the R.J.D. Williams Provincial School for the Deaf, that claims to have suffered physical, sexual or psychological abuse can be included in the lawsuit.

In the decision, the judge characterized the plaintiffs as those who may be “vulnerable and disadvantaged.”

By certifying the class action lawsuit, the judge said it could spare other plaintiffs the stress and expense that individual trials can bring.

Court documents show that the judge found some of the criteria for a class action lawsuit, but that some of the criteria needed adjusting. A revised litigation plan was to be presented to the defendant within 60 days.

“That additional material shall be filed and brought to the attention of the Court so the Court can confirm that the conditional satisfaction of the representative plaintiff criterion has, indeed, been satisfied,” the judge wrote in the decision.