The lawyer for a residential school survivor leading a proposed class-action defamation lawsuit against the Catholic Church over residential schools says court action is a last resort.
Maxime Faille, Sphenia Jones’ lawyer, says the goal is understanding, not money.
“Sphenia is 80 years old. She doesn’t care about money,” Faille said in an interview from Vancouver.
“She wants healing to happen, and this is an opportunity for healing and reconciliation.
“But you need two partners willing to do it. “To me, (the lawsuit) is the pushback if the other party is not willing to come to the table.”
Jones is a Haida elder who spent time at the Edmonton Indian Residential School.
He filed a statement of claim last year alleging that the Rev. Marcin Mironiuk made defamatory comments during a 2021 sermon at Our Lady Queen of Poland Parish in Edmonton by describing evidence of unmarked graves as “lies” and “manipulation.”
The lawsuit argues that the comments are directed at residential school survivors who have spoken publicly about deaths associated with residential schools, including the discovery of graves on the grounds of the Kamloops Indian Residential School.
“This is precisely the group at which the defamatory statements were directed, calling them liars and manipulators in an attempt to discredit them,” the lawsuit says.
“The defamatory statements referred to, and would be understood to refer to, each member of the group,” it says.
The allegations have not been proven in court.
The lawsuit names Mironiuk, the Catholic Archdiocese of Edmonton and the Oblate Fathers of the Province of the Assumption as defendants.
The Archdiocese of Edmonton declined to comment, citing that the matter is before the courts.
The Oblate Fathers, in a statement last week, said they are contesting the lawsuit. They said Mironiuk did not intend to cause harm or make light of the “painful reality” of some who attended residential schools.
“Father Mironiuk was personally committed to continuing to advance truth and reconciliation with Indigenous Canadians and had become even more informed on the issue,” the statement read.
Mironiuk, who is now in Ontario, is listed as an associate pastor at St. Eugene De Mazenod Mission in Brampton. The mission did not respond to a request to confirm that he is still there.
Faille said his client has talked a lot about his experience at the residential school, including witnessing the deaths and burials of classmates.
He said residential school denialism appears to be on the rise and that the priest’s comments were hurtful.
“Those comments were not directed at anyone in particular, but at those people who are telling the truth about what happened,” he said.
“It’s not a good feeling to be called a liar in the public sphere.”
Faille said the idea of a group defamation lawsuit is unusual and challenging, but there is law to support it.
The lawsuit won a victory in Calgary court earlier this week when a judge ruled it can move forward. Lawyers representing the Archdiocese and the religious order had requested its annulment.
Law professor Tony Paisana said the class action lawsuit is simple.
“It’s unusual in the sense that these people don’t know each other and one has never interacted with the other. But that’s more a function of what the tort is than anything else,” said Paisana, an associate professor of law at the University of British Columbia.
Paisana said that in defamation cases, a person can be sued for saying something even if they do not know the people who were allegedly affected.
“It’s not like it’s a class-action lawsuit for assault or sexual assault. It’s something they can do in the context where they don’t know each other,” he said.
Faille said the next step is to get the class action certified at a hearing, which could take up to a year.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 27, 2024.