HALIFAX -- A Nova Scotia Supreme Court judge has ruled that the majority of information contained in affidavits from alleged abuse victims at a Halifax orphanage is admissible as the plaintiffs push forward with a proposed class-action lawsuit against the province.
The government had asked Judge Arthur LeBlanc to strike portions of selected affidavits from former residents at the Nova Scotia Home for Colored Children because it said they contained speculation, hearsay or information from unidentified sources.
But a lawyer for the former residents argued that the affidavits were fair and honest accounts of decades-old memories.
LeBlanc agreed yesterday that both arguments have their merits, but he sided primarily with the plaintiffs.
In his decision, LeBlanc says evidence contained in the affidavits doesn't need to be proven as fact at the certification stage of the lawsuit.
The lawsuit alleges former residents at the home suffered years of sexual, physical and psychological abuse by staff at the home over a 50-year period up until the 1980s.
LeBlanc's ruling on the affidavits clears the way for arguments to begin today on whether to certify the lawsuit as a class action.
