The children nobody cared about

The children nobody cared about

February 15, 2012 - 4:33am BY EVA HOARE STAFF REPORTER

At least 63 residents were abused at N.S. Home for Colored Children, former executive director believes

Jane Earle, a former child-care worker, was executive director of the Nova Scotia Home for Colored Children for 10 months in 1980. (TIM KROCHAK / Staff)

They were the government’s children.

And the Halifax-area woman who heard their stories of horrific sexual and physical abuse is coming forward to help former residents of the Nova Scotia Home for Colored Children who are leading a class action against the home and the province.

"These were the children who nobody else would speak for," Jane Earle, former executive director of the home, told The Chronicle Herald on Tuesday.

"They were all alone," victims of "predators," said Earle, who wants to lend her voice to at least 63 former residents who she believes were abused up until the late 1990s.

"This one guy in particular certainly did it all," said Earle, who said she personally knows of about seven people — then young female and male teenagers — who were sexually abused by former staff and a volunteer at the home in Dartmouth.

The former child-care worker, who served in the executive post for 10 months in 1980, said she’s filing an affidavit Friday as part of a mammoth lawsuit led by Wagners law firm.

The proposed class action, which will go to court for certification this fall, has been launched by Aubrey Pelley and Deanna Smith, said Mike Dull, who represents the claimants.

Earle said she was sickened to learn of the abuse after leaving her post, first from one of the foster children she and her husband, former MP Gordon Earle, looked after, and then from another young woman whose story came to her through a worker at the home.

Earle said she met with the second woman for three hours, had no doubts she had been abused, and promised she would go to the board on the woman’s behalf. All the woman wanted was to speak with board members because she didn’t want to tarnish the home’s reputation, Earle said.

"It was pretty horrific sexual abuse. It turned my stomach."

Earle and her husband met with the board about that case in 1996.

"The board refused to meet with her."

Wagners law firm filed 63 individual lawsuits in 2003-04. Earle hoped the cases would prompt investigations but nothing happened, she said.

By the late 2000s, when no acknowledgement of the abuse had come from the government, she decided to act.

"Frankly, I couldn’t wait any longer. Nothing was happening. The province knew all that and let it continue . . . because they were black.

"These were the government’s children. They were legally the government’s children, and the government not only let them down but now they will not settle."

Earle said she was approached years ago by a lawyer for either the province or the home and someone from another government agency, and she told them the abuse was real. No one took any action, she said.

The children are now adults who "struggle" in every way, said Earle, who speaks often with several victims.

"They feel shame, the whole nine yards, and it never stops."

She said the home’s per diem — money paid for the care of each child — was "appalling," the workers had little or no skills, and physical abuse was a fact of life.

Earle has a long history with child welfare in Canada, including serving as director of Manitoba’s Foster Family Association, where she was responsible for about 2,400 foster homes. When she became executive director at the Nova Scotia Home for Colored Children, she said she ordered the physical abuse halted.

"When I went there, I said, ‘No more physical,’ " said Earle, who said she had no idea of sexual abuses at the home.

The per diem for "white children" placed in similar homes was at times almost triple that for a black child.

"It was $3.50 a day per (black) child . . . up until 1976."

By the time Earle left her post, it had risen to about $27 per day, but the payment for children in at least one other provincial home was $55.

The government knew but did nothing, she said.

"These were children that nobody cared about."

( ehoare@herald.ca)