Some former residents of the Southwestern Regional Centre, along with family members and support workers learned more about the compensation process at a workshop on May 14.
Approximately 60 people turned out for the session that was held at the Country View Golf Course.
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The ARCH Disability Law Centre and the Chatham-Kent Legal Clinic are helping people who were harmed at the centre apply for financial compensation.
“People will need support for this; they’ll need to fill out these forms,” said Ivana Petricone, executive director of ARCH. “They’re not simple to fill out and the subject matter is difficult; trying to remember horrible things that happened to you is not an easy process for any of us.”
The Ontario Superior Court approved a settlement agreement that gave access to compensation to former residents at the SRC who suffered harm while living there between 1963 and 2008.
The SRC was a provincial residential facility for people with developmental disabilities. The province closed it in 2008.
In addition to the SRC, settlements were also approved for former residents of the Huronia and Rideau Regional Centres.
The government is setting aside $12 million for people harmed at the SRC, $35 million at Huronia, and close to $21 million for Rideau.
The most compensation someone can qualify for is $42,000.
“We’re trying to make sure anyone who suffered harm in these institutions has access to this compensation,” said Petricone, who expects that a total of 1,000 former residents of SRC and Rideau may apply for compensation.
The number is expected to be higher for Huronia, which was a larger facility and also operated longer than the other two.
The settlement also includes the estates of former residents who lived at the SRC during the period covered by the settlement, but who also died after Dec. 29, 2008.
As the process unfolds, Petricone has learned that applying for a deceased person is more complicated than she first thought.
“There are probably more people than we expected initially that are in that category so we’re going to have to sort that out,” she said. “And the other part of it is the stories that we’re hearing are dreadful – a lot of suffering went on there and, hopefully, this will help some people to feel that it has been acknowledged as having been wrong.”
If money is left over after the class members at each facility have been compensated and legal fees have been paid, Ontario will invest up to $7.7 million in programs that benefit people with a developmental disability.
The applications must be completed by Aug. 5.
Petricone expects it will then take a few months for those who quality to receive the compensation.
For more information, people can call ARCH at 1-866-482-2724 or the Chatham-Kent Legal Clinic at 519-351-6771.
