An Alberta judge on Tuesday certified a class-action lawsuit alleging that a local school abused Indigenous children in the 1960s and 1970s.

Court of King’s Bench Justice James Neilson certified the lawsuit brought by representative plaintiff Cynthia Youngchief, who is the face of the survivor class of all Aboriginal persons who attended the school. The survivor class alleged that the school, previously known as Notre Dame School, subjected them to blatant physical, sexual, and psychological abuse. Children of the Kehewin Cree Nation were forced to attend the school throughout the 1960s and 1970s.

The lawsuit named four defendants in their suit, including the Alberta government and the federal government. The plaintiffs also named the two school districts involved in the school’s operations, the Diocese of Saint-Paul and the Lakeland Roman Catholic Separate School Division, as defendants. The judge, however, only certified three of them, excluding the Alberta government from the suit. In his reasoning, Justice Neilson stated that for the claim of negligence, the duty of care may apply to the school districts but not to the provincial government because of the relevant statutory provisions.

This action is one of many lawsuits launched against Canadian school boards, provincial governments, and the federal government over claims of abuse of Indigenous children. In 2023, the Canadian government settled a $2.8 billion class action lawsuit brought by 325 Indigenous Canadians affected by the country’s residential school program. Over 150,000 children were forced to attend these schools throughout the program’s duration, during which the children endured considerable abuse and forced cultural assimilation.

The lawyer representing the class, Leighton Grey, maintained his clients’ hope that the case would be resolved shortly and that they remained optimistic the government of Canada would settle the case soon. He estimated that there may be up to 500 individuals eligible to join the lawsuit as class members.