Orphans' hand-out stinks: activist

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by Kristian Gravenor

Many Duplessis Orphans were taken aback by news that they'd accepted a provincial government offer of compensation last week, according to activist Rod Vienneau. The Orphans, approximately 1,500 surviving adults placed in insane asylums in their youth for the financial benefit of the church and province, accepted $10,000 each, plus another $1,000 for each year they were confined to mental institutions. "Rotten," is how Vienneau describes the result taken by a show of 200 hands at a church on Panet last Saturday. "It's a scam. The people got screwed by a committee looking to put money in their own pockets," he says. Vienneau notes that in contrast to the small sum, Orphans' committee lawyer Yves Lauzon will be getting up to $5.5-million for his role in the $37.5-million settlement.

Vienneau also complains that there was no prior warning that a vote would be taken at the meeting and says that he has since been receiving calls from outraged victims who will only get the cash in exchange for signing away their rights for further compensation. "These are people who have been down all their lives. I got a call from one lady who says she'll punch anybody in the face who tries to give her that cheque for $10,000."

Vienneau hopes to reverse the vote result by producing evidence that committee chief Bruno Roy, who has close ties to the church and the sovereignty movement, colluded with the PQ government to try to get the victims, "to accept the lowest, most humiliating offer."