Court to hear appeal on orphanage abuse

The Supreme Court of Canada will hear an appeal next week on whether the P.E.I. government should pay compensation for abuse at a former orphanage near Charlottetown.

Fifty-seven former residents of the Mt. Herbert Orphanage on the Island are suing the Protestant Children's Trust, which ran the orphanage, and the provincial government. They want compensation for alleged physical and sexual abuse.

The Supreme Court of Canada has scheduled a hearing for Nov. 10 to decide whether the province had a responsibility to supervise the children at the orphanage. Earlier this year a ruling by the P.E.I. Supreme Court determined the government was not responsible.

But former residents of the orphanage appealed to the federal court.

The orphanage closed in 1975 and was demolished in 1998.