Nova Scotia apologized to Home for Colored Children, 2014

Nova Scotia Premier Stephen McNeil apologized in the legislature on Oct. 10, 2014, to former residents of the Nova Scotia Home for Colored Children, calling the story “one of institutional and systemic failure to provide care, a failure to meet human needs,” the Canadian Press reported.

The apology closed one chapter in the history of a Halifax-area institution that opened in 1921 and ceased operations in 2015, according to the province and the public inquiry that later examined it.

The inquiry’s history document said the Home was needed because mainstream institutions “generally did not welcome Black children.” It described a private child-caring institution for orphaned and other African Nova Scotian children, supported by members of African Nova Scotian communities, the provincial government and donations. The inquiry said the original building closed in 1978 and a smaller “New Home” opened that year.

The inquiry’s history document said some former residents began disclosing neglect and physical, sexual and emotional abuse in 1998. It said many had “suffered in silence” and felt silenced as adults. A January 2018 inquiry report cited by the Canadian Press said a “culture of silence and shame” allowed the abuse to persist.

Court action followed. Global News reported in 2014 that the Home agreed in April 2013 to pay $5 million to about 140 plaintiffs in an earlier class action. A second class action was certified by the Nova Scotia Supreme Court in December 2013, and Global News reported a tentative $29-million settlement on June 3, 2014. The Canadian Press later described the settlement as worth $34 million. Canada News Media could not reconcile the two figures from the sources reviewed, and the court approval date for the larger deal was not confirmed.

The province then turned to a different process. The Nova Scotia Home for Colored Children Restorative Inquiry, established under the Public Inquiries Act in 2015, was described in a Nov. 28, 2019, provincial news release as the first in Canada to design and model a restorative approach to a public inquiry. It examined institutionalized abuse, the experiences of children and youth in care, and the effects of systemic racism on African Nova Scotians.

The province said the final report, presented at a closing ceremony in Halifax on Nov. 28, 2019, was a road map for shifting toward human-centred systems. Its recommendations included school-based and professional learning modules, a public exhibit at the Black Cultural Centre, a children and youth commission, family-led decision-making and a commitment to restorative responses to future institutional failures of care.

“There are no shortcuts or checklists in this work,” said Chief Judge Pam Williams, a co-chair of the inquiry, in the release. Tony Smith, the other co-chair and a former resident of the Home, said in the same release: “For former residents of the Nova Scotia Home for Colored Children, breaking the silence was very painful.”

Progress was uneven. When the interim report was tabled on April 5, 2019, Tony Ince, then minister of African Nova Scotian Affairs, said, “I apologize for the delay,” and added that “we must continue to address inequity, systemic racism and discrimination in all institutions,” the Canadian Press reported. The same report said a restorative initiatives unit had been set up in the Justice Department and the Office of African Nova Scotian Affairs expanded.

The sources do not agree on every date. The inquiry’s history document places the apology in 2015, while the province and the Canadian Press both date it to 2014, and the Canadian Press said the Home closed in the 1980s, which conflicts with the inquiry’s 1978 and 2015 dates. This article uses the provincial and Canadian Press dates for the apology and the inquiry’s dates for the Home’s operations.

The Home’s story sits alongside other Nova Scotia redress efforts covered by Canada News Media, including Halifax’s 2010 apology for Africville and the closing of the province’s last Black-only school in 1983.

If you find reporting like this useful, consider supporting Canada News Media, an independent Canadian newsroom with no corporate parent.

Sources: Nova Scotia government news release, Nov. 28, 2019; Nova Scotia Home for Colored Children Restorative Inquiry, history and context document; The Canadian Press via CBC, April 5, 2019; Global News, June 3, 2014.