No one opts outs of $29M settlement over abuse allegations at orphanage

Opening of the Nova Scotia Home for Colored Children, Preston, N.S., June 6, 1921. (Photo courtesy: Helen Creighton)

HALIFAX -- A lawyer for people covered by a $29-million class-action settlement over abuse allegations at a Halifax orphanage says no one has opted out of the deal.

Ray Wagner says nearly 250 people are eligible and his law firm has received no written or verbal objections as of a midnight Monday deadline.

Under the terms of the agreement, the provincial government can pull out of the deal at its discretion if five or more former residents withdrew.

Former residents at the Nova Scotia Home for Colored Children allege physical, psychological and sexual abuse over several decades at the orphanage that opened in 1921.

None of the allegations have been tested in court.

Wagner says people eligible for the deal are those who lived at the home between Jan. 1, 1921, and Dec. 31, 1989.

He says there is a second phase to the settlement process that will address additional harms including sexual abuse for residents who lived at the home after Nov. 1, 1951.