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The law firm representing Class Members in the Indian Day School class action lawsuit is facing a lawsuit alleging the company failed to pay an Indigenous lawyer who worked on the claim.
The lawyer, Joan Jack, asserts that international law firm Gowling WLG is trying to cut her out of the $1.27 billion settlement. Under the terms of the class action settlement, those who suffered harm while attending a Federal Indian Day School or Federal Day School are eligible to file a claim for a part of the billion-dollar award.
Indigenous Lawyer Initiates Day School Lawsuit
Plaintiff Joan says that she initiated the original Indian Day School class action lawsuit Canada seeking justice for survivors of the system that was rife with abuse. Joan is reportedly a member of the Berens River First Nation in Manitoba. She says she also attended an Indian Day School class action.
The lawsuit was brought on behalf of Aboriginal students forced to attend Indian Day Schools throughout Canada. These students were excluded from an earlier settlement with those who attended Indian Residential Schools.
“I put my whole life into this file for years, and bankrupted my firm pushing it forward,” said Joan in a press release about her lawsuit against Gowling WLG. “I refuse to let them whitewash me out of this settlement, which, ironically, is supposed to be about reconciliation.”
According to Joan, after she initiated the Indian Day School class action lawsuit Canada, and after it gained momentum over the next seven years, Gowling WLG took over; however, they allegedly never compensated Joan for her initial work. Joan claims that she worked for years on the case.
Joan filed her lawsuit against Gowling WLG in a court in Winnipeg.
International Firm Awarded Millions in Legal Fees
The Peterborough Examiner reports that Gowling WLG was awarded $55 million in legal fees under the terms of the 2019 class action settlement.
The settlement came over a decade after Joan says she started working on the class action lawsuit representing Day School survivors. The lead plaintiff, Garry Leslie McLean, reportedly hired Joan in 2008 to start the claim. McLean, now deceased, hoped to represent Day School survivors who were left out of a 2006 settlement with Indian Residential School survivors. According to CBC News, Joan filed the proposed class action lawsuit in 2009 in the Manitoba Court of Queens Bench.
According to the lawsuit filed against Gowling WLG, the class action became Joan’s life work, with her travelling all across Canada to talk to thousands of Indian Day School survivors. Joan alleges that she created a database of information and that the class action settlement would have been impossible without it.
The lawsuit alleges that when Gowling WLG took the class action over from Joan and another lawyer, the international firm agreed to pay the pair $7 million in legal fees. However, Gowling WLG has steadfastly refused to pay, claims Joan.
In addition to the fee, Joan is also seeking aggravated, exemplary and punitive damages.
Reportedly, Gowling WLG has not yet filed a defense statement. For its part, the firm denies the claims.
“The allegations made in the Statement of Claim are without merit and will be vigorously defended,” a representative for the firm reportedly told The Peterborough Examiner via email.
Indian Day School Survivors Entitled to Claims
Under the terms of the Indian Day School class action settlement, nearly 200,000 survivors of the allegedly abusive system are entitled to part of the billion-dollar award. To make a claim, Class Members must submit personal details, such as their name, date of birth, contact information, and the name of the Day Schools they attended, and years attended. Class Members are also required to provide a description of any abuse, physical or verbal, that they suffered while attending a Day School.
Class Members may be entitled to an additional award if they can provide further evidence, such as class photos, attendance records, or letters from teachers, along with medical records, such as treatment for medical, dental problems, or therapy. Those who can not provide records may need to provide a sworn declaration that they attended a Day School.
Are you a Class Member in the Indian Day School class action settlement? We want to hear your thoughts on this lawsuit. Tell us in the comment section below!
The Indian Day School Class Action Lawsuit is Garry Leslie McLean, et al. v. Her Majesty the Queen in Right of Canada as represented by the Attorney General of Canada, Case No. T-2169-16, in Canada Federal Court.
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6 thoughts onIndigenous Lawyer Files Lawsuit Against Firm Representing Indian Day School Survivors
Omg I ha I’ve been paralyzed for a 2years since embarking on my past to provide Gowling class action claim the experience of attending residential Day School. Reset reaction or Resurrection to these requirements are Extraneous to the life I have struggled so hard to recreate a personality that could build and provide a future without memory . To survive this mentod was successful. Unfortunately I’ve become that little girl that I stored away now it seems that I’ve become beside myself with the compensation to identify one’s harm I believe that anybody that’s listed under the residential Day School that attended the residential schedule should not have to relive that nor should we have to be categorized with our harm we should all get the equal $200,000 and we should all be treated with a resource outreach because all of us are being brought back to a place that we ran away from in our heads and another place is nobody around here ever understands and everything human being deals with things differently so not only has it taken me a year and a half to recognize what the hell happened I still have to try and get back to the work to the life that I had maintain barely in the process of forgetting and hiding from that past now today I am feeding the hungry ghost that stole my life as a child and that’s a grown ass woman I can’t wake up and grow from that child the child is now awake inside of me and I don’t know how to take care of her I don’t know how to help her and I don’t know how to exploit the damage that has been put upon me nor do I know how to blame anybody or judge all I know is that I need to learn how to find a reasonable effort of support and acceptance and a way to love myself today I find it very hard to to face that hungry Ghost and also to face that little girl who was left alone and abused all these years that I disassociated myself to to survive and nobody has the answers and I can’t do anything with emotion that is embedded in my soul and my embracing trauma that I can’t seem to learn or accept nor can I justify the person that I become today is the person that I ran away from what what do I do with that how much is that worth who gets to pick that who decides that cuz I know I’m worth more than $200,000 and I know that $200,000 doesn’t take away the trauma that I’m trying to recover from nor does it bring any hope or any pride or any worthiness because today I could die because I don’t have the worthiness that I need to learn how to love what’s worth for me to money is the root to all evil and to live is only a reverse of all of that so does that mean I need a lawyer because I still haven’t gotten no money and I filed and I called and I and I don’t have I don’t even know about the right person but it doesn’t seem like I get any any I can call the support group but nothing worse than having to repeat yourself over and over and over again describing all the stuff that happened to you the 14 different people so what do you do I don’t know but I’m very grateful to read this and I don’t know who is going out to but with that being said it’s nice to know that I’m not the only person who feels this way God bless all us indigenous people who kept her head strong and they’re still walking on the earth and mother nature has provided for us and we all are being able to unite with our cultures I’m very grateful for that I’m very grateful that I can express myself in this manner and not feel shame
It’s taken me almost 2 years to write my story it brought back so many bad memories I tried to bury it made me drink and do drugs again but I’m back I’m wondering if I’d be better of getting a lawyer
Asking a trauma victim to determine what level of harm they suffered is beyond wrong. Statistically we as indigenous people have been deemed uneducated at best yet are asked to report the level of harm exactly as an EDUCATED medical doctor would. How many day school survivors are doctors?
The way the claim is structured is yet another vicious attack on indigenous people requiring applicants to relive MASSIVE trauma in order to be compensated which only served to open wound’s that have caused many of us to be entrenched in the trauma all over again leaving most with no way to deal with it. It almost looks like the goal is to further hurt, divide and conquer first Nations people. When does it stop for us?
Wi was told you can’t apply for any higher level 1 unless they were nuns,,they lie to me 4. ,I m lifted handed and the teacher try her best to make me right handed and I had that in my papers when I sent them in with a lot of other things. , still got level 1
I am looking for a lawyer that can help me of getting my claim I been waiting for 2 years to get my claim. Everything I call I get different answers please help me