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This week at the SCC - J.W. and REO Law Corporation v. Attorney General of Canada, et al

Civil procedure, class actions: While a student at an Indian residential school, a nun grabbed the appellant J.W.’s penis while he was in line for the shower. Following the establishment of the Independent Assessment Process under the Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement, J.W. filed a claim arguing compensable sexual abuse, which was denied on the basis that he had failed to establish the nun’s act had a “sexual purpose.”

Top court set to hear case involving crotch-grabbing nun s sexual intent

An Indigenous man who was denied compensation on the basis that a nun had no sexual intent when she grabbed his genitals takes his case to Canada's top court this week amid a tense power struggle between a judge overseeing implementation of the Indian residential school class-action settlement and the head of the process that awards payouts to victims.

The man, identified only as J.W., was a residential school student in Manitoba as a boy. In a claim accepted as factual, he said he was in line for a shower when a nun grabbed and squeezed his genitals, causing him distress. J.W. sought compensation under the independent assessment process set up as part of a class-action settlement over the schools.