HALIFAX, NS – The Nova Scotia Supreme Court has approved the settlement of a class action relating to the former School for the Deaf in Halifax, Nova Scotia and the former Interprovincial School for the Education of the Deaf in Amherst, Nova Scotia. The lawsuit, filed in 2016, alleged negligence and breach of fiduciary duty by the Attorney General of Nova Scotia and the Atlantic Provinces Special Education Authority in connection with the alleged abuse and mistreatment of former students.
Under the historic settlement, approved by Justice Peter Rosinski, the Defendants will pay up to a total of $41,765,702, plus the legal fee and expenses of Wagners, the Halifax-based law firm representing the class. This fund includes up to $36,235,702 in direct compensation for former students who attended and/or boarded at one or both of the Schools, $3,000,000 to fund relevant support services and pay for restorative sharing circles for class members, $2,500,000 to pay for the costs of administering the settlement, and honoraria to the two Representative Plaintiffs. The Defendants have also agreed to deliver a public apology.
The aspects of the settlement that go beyond traditional monetary compensation are intended to provide more holistic and restorative redress than money alone.
The total number of class members is estimated to range between 900 and 1,200.
Richard Martell, one of the two representative plaintiffs, says of the outcome of the hearing on November 28th that he “felt tears in my eyes and a deep sense of relief that this journey was coming to an end.”
Representative plaintiff Mike Perrier says that “nothing can make up for the losses we experienced, including in the education we received, and this has been a long ten years, but it was worth the wait.”
“It has been our true privilege to represent these clients, many of whom we’ve come to know well over the years. We got here because of their strong resolve to seek accountability for what happened to them, and their advocacy on behalf of future generations of Deaf and hard of hearing children,” says Maddy Carter, one of the lawyers representing the class, who works on the matter along with Ray Wagner, KC and Kate Boyle.
More information for class members will be available in mid-March, 2026, when the claims period opens. The settlement website – www.NSDeafSchoolsClassAction.com – contains information videos in sign language.
Further details are also available on Wagners’ website.