The years Mary Florence Genaille spent inside one of Canada’s so-called “Indian Hospitals” has left her with emotional and physical scars. But soon she, along with thousands of other survivors, could be compensated for the torment they endured.
“It was a nightmare,” Genaille told CTV News. “I know that they did a lot of experimenting on us. They damaged a lot of us.”
The Rolling River First Nation woman was just nine years old when she was first taken to the Brandon Sanatorium in 1954. Her own mother wasn’t told where she was going.
Her stay in the hospital was supposed to be just a few days long. She ended up staying for two years.
“It was worse than jail. At least in jail you have an idea of when you’re going to leave,” she said. “There in the sanatorium… you just had no idea when you were going to get out of there.”
Over those two years, Genaille said she was confined to her bed for months at a time, had to undergo surgeries, and was subjected to shock treatments. She doesn’t like to talk about what she went through within the sanatorium walls.
“It’s just too painful. It’s very painful. A lot of loneliness,” she said. “It was just horrendous.”
She isn’t alone.
Between 1936 and 1981, the federal government operated 33 of these so-called “Indian Hospitals, including six here in Manitoba. They were meant to treat high rates of tuberculosis among Indigenous people.
“The hospitals were run by the federal government in a kind of similar vein as the residential schools,” said Mary Jane McCallum, a history professor at the University of Winnipeg who has been studying these facilities for more than a decade.
“The goal really was assimilation and undermining of Indigenous authority and Indigenous sovereignty.”
But soon, Genaille, along with an estimated 126,000 other survivors, could receive compensation from Ottawa.
On Thursday, the federal government announced a proposed settlement agreement to a class-action lawsuit over the treatment of patients in these medical facilities.
“I believe the resolution to this class action is a very important starting point for Canada to move forward, but also for survivors to recognize that their country acknowledges what happened,” Crown-Indigenous Relations Minister Gary Anandasangaree said in an interview with CTV News.
“We’re hopeful that this will allow us to start a new chapter on our journey of reconciliation.”
The $1.1 billion class action was launched back in 2018 by representative plaintiff Ann Hardy, alleging “widespread and common sexual abuse” by hospital staff at these facilities. She had been taken to the Charles Camsell Hospital in Edmonton, Alta. when she contracted TB in 1969.
Hardy previously told CTV News she was sexually abused by hospital staff and witnessed other patients being abused as well.
“I did not start this class action to get paid. I started it because I needed Canada to acknowledge what it did to us. I’m so glad that has now happened,” Hardy said in a news release.
“Because these hospitals caused so much trauma, it was extremely important to me that the compensation process had to be trauma informed.”
Under the proposed settlement, Anandasangaree said anyone who was at a hospital will be able to apply for a $10,000 compensation. Anyone who suffered abuse – be it physical or sexual – or other harms will be eligible for an additional payment up to $200,000.
Family members of survivors who passed away after 2016 are eligible for compensation.
The total dollar amount of the proposed settlement is unknown at this point as the federal government doesn’t have an exact number of people who will be coming forward with a claim.
Along with the compensation, the federal government is also putting $150 million towards a healing fund, another $150 million towards mental health supports for class members, and $235.5 million towards research, education, commemoration and other ceremonial pieces.
Funds will also support the preservation of the hospitals’ history including locating burial sites connected to them.
The settlement still requires court approval, with a hearing set for June. However, Anandasangaree said the federal government hopes to see the funds flowing to survivors as quickly as possible.
“One of the things I realize is many of them are in their 60s or 70s, or even their 80s,” he told CTV News. “So it’s important that we have a conclusion of this matter before many, many survivors are no longer able to benefit from the compensation as well as recognition of what happened to them.”
For survivors like Genaille, this settlement is a step in the right direction.
“The story needs to be told. There’s hundreds and hundreds of people that are affected, and it just needs to be out there,” she said.
More details about the class action can be found online.
