The B.C. Supreme Court has approved a settlement agreement in the class-action lawsuit connected to horrible abuses against former residents of the Woodlands School.
The final approval means about 900 people who endured sexual, physical and psychological abuse at the hands of staff and other former residents can now apply for compensation.
Those who lived at the New Westminster, B.C., institution after August 1974 are allowed to seek compensation ranging from $3,000 to $150,000 depending on the abuse they suffered.
Those who were abused before the 1974 date are not eligible because the government hadn't yet enacted a law that required it to compensate those under its care.
Bill McArthur, a Woodlands abuse survivor, says he's pleased for those who can now apply for compensation, but is heartbroken for those 300 or so former residents who have been excluded.
The group called Woodlands School Survivors' is urging the provincial government to offer compensation to all those harmed at the now-closed institute for the mentally disabled.
