200 alleged victims of Vancouver-area Catholic school abuse could share $30M

VANCOUVER — Lawyers say a $30-million class-action settlement over child abuse allegedly committed for decades at two Vancouver-area Catholic schools could be shared by more than 200 ex-students.

Joe Fiorante with Vancouver-based CFM Lawyers said Monday that the estimated number of eligible victims is based on communications over the last few years with former students at Vancouver College and St. Thomas More Collegiate.

The schools and the Archdiocese of Vancouver all confirmed Monday that a settlement had been reached, and it is now awaiting court approval.

The lawsuit alleges that six members of the Christian Brothers with a known history of child abuse were transferred to teaching positions at the two schools, which were named as defendants alongside the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Vancouver.

Fiorante, who is among the attorneys representing the plaintiffs, said the settlement process was complex, with both the monetary amount and the long period of suffering by the victims being major considerations.

“One of the things we had to weigh was the possibility that this litigation could take a really long period of time, if what we’re trying to do is seize the assets of the schools,” he said, noting that some victims have already died while the case was ongoing.

“And we had to weigh that against the amount of money that was on the table. And we came to the conclusion with this size of fund, we can do some real good to people right now.”

The legal action says that the six Christian Brothers transferred to B.C. were all later convicted of sexual or physical abuse at the Mount Cashel Orphanage in Newfoundland and Labrador, with four of them also named personally in the settlement as defendants.

The Christian Brothers order was not a defendant in the B.C. legal action, having declared bankruptcy in 2011.

The hearing for the settlement approval process starts April 30 in B.C. Supreme Court in Vancouver.

Vancouver College said in a letter posted on its website on Friday that the school hopes the development represents “an important step forward.”

“Vancouver College remains committed to a trauma-informed reconciliation process, and we believe in truth and restorative justice,” the statement says.

“We understand and support the importance of ensuring that victims of any abuse have their experiences heard to facilitate healing and understanding.”

The school also said it “has and will continue to condemn abuse in any form, particularly as it may affect children.”

The class-action was launched by former Vancouver College student Darren Liptrot, who said in the original notice of civil claim that he was abused by Brother Edward English from 1980 to 1985 when he attended the school from Grade 8 to 12.

The Canadian Press does not typically name people who say they were sexually abused, but Liptrot had asked to be named.

The lawsuit, certified as a class-action by the B.C. Supreme Court in March 2023, said that English, who was among the six members transferred to B.C. by the Christian Brothers, had confessed to abusing children at Mount Cashel before being transferred.

English was convicted in 1991 of multiple counts of sexual and physical abuse at Mount Cashel and received a 10-year prison sentence.

The class-action lawsuit said abuses took place from 1976 to 2013 at Vancouver College and between 1976 to 1989 at St. Thomas More, and anyone fitting the class description who did not opt out as of Nov. 28, 2024, qualifies as a class member in the case.

“For Darren, it went over 30 years without a response from our legal system to this behaviour by the Christian Brothers. So in that sense, he’s pleased that we’ve got to this stage,” Fiorante said of Liptrot’s response to the settlement, and wanting to make a “meaningful impact” on the lives of fellow victims.

“A settlement of litigation’s a compromise, and you have to measure it against what the alternative is,” Fiorante added. “And here, when we looked at the alternative of proceeding … He just said, look, this is a significant amount of money that’s being offered. We can do some real good by distributing it to survivors now.”

The law firm is now asking anyone who fits the class description in the case to contact them, although the formal claim process will not begin until the court approves the settlement.

Fiorante said the decision on how to distribute the compensation will be made after the firm assesses the number of victims and what they endured.

“If this settlement gets approved, we’ve created a process that really improves on anything that came before it,” Fiorante said. “People will be able to come forward in a confidential, non-adversarial way, tell us what happened and obtain some compensation for it. And that was really important to Darren, because he put himself through the litigation process.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 9, 2026.

Chuck Chiang, The Canadian Press