Vancouver schools pay $19 million to end Mount Cashel dispute

CBC News/July 25, 2002

Toronto -- Two Roman Catholic schools in Vancouver reached an out-of-court settlement Thursday that will see them pay $19 million to compensate abuse victims at the Mount Cashel orphanage in Newfoundland and Labrador.

If the court approves the settlement, it will mean the two schools will not have to close in order to compensate those who were abused by clerics at the orphanage in the 1970s and '80s.

The schools, Vancouver College and St. Thomas More Collegiate, and the orphanage were all owned by the Christian Brothers of Ireland in Canada.

The deal will also speed up the process of getting the money to the abuse victims, said a spokesman for Deloitte & Touche, the liquidators in charge of the Brothers' assets.

John Nixon, a spokesperson for the two schools, said the challenge now is to raise the $19-million.

Victims fought for five years

Courts in Ontario and British Columbia all ruled in favour of liquidating the Brothers' assets to pay the compensation.

Supporters of the schools and the liquidators have waged a five-year court battle over compensation and the fate of the schools.

The schools were established in the 1920s and were the biggest assets of the Catholic order. They're estimated to be worth about $40 million.