NDP’s Dix to expand Woodlands compensation numbers if his party is elected

VICTORIA – B.C. Opposition leader Adrian Dix says one of the first moves he would make in office if elected next May will be to extend compensation to all survivors of abuse at the notorious Woodlands school in New Westminster.

When the Liberal government offered compensation, it limited claims to those who were at the school after Aug. 1, 1974.

Dix says an NDP government would allow an estimated 300 people who were at the school prior to that date to apply for compensation.

At least 1,000 former Woodlands students are eligible to apply for compensation from the province and they also won the right to launch a class-action lawsuit.

Many former residents of the school have claimed they were the victims of physical and sexual abuse.

Woodlands was run as insane asylum and institution for people with disabilities until it was shut down in 1996.