OTTAWA (CNS) -- The Oblates of Mary Immaculate of Manitoba are seeking bankruptcy protection because of litigation costs in residential schools abuse cases.
"It isn't a happy day," said Father James Fiori, provincial superior.
Filing for bankruptcy protection under the Companies' Creditors Arrangement Act would "allow us to exist," he said in a telephone interview from Winnipeg April 9.
"I've got 39 men who would be out on the street" if the application is denied and the order was forced into bankruptcy, Father Fiori said.
"Bankruptcy means liquidation, and that would mean we would be on the street and wards of the state, because as religious who make a vow of poverty, everything we had has gone into the community," he said.
Father Fiori said the order had few financial options: either seek bankruptcy protection or file for bankruptcy.
Seeking the bankruptcy protection would allow the order to keep its assets but still continue to pay a portion of the litigation and compensation costs.
"According to our auditor, at the current rate of spending, we will fully deplete our resources by 2006 and be unable to meet existing obligations if certain protective measures are not taken," he said.
Litigation payments for the foreseeable future are estimated at more than $600,000 a year, not including compensation payments, the order said. It has paid more than $1 million in legal fees since 1999.
The Oblates of Manitoba province operated 12 Indian residential schools until the early 1970s and expect to be named in about 2,500 of the estimated 9,000 residential school lawsuits filed across Canada.
Father Fiori said the order has not had any reply to a letter it wrote on February 15 to Deputy Prime Minister John Manley asking for a meeting to discuss the situation.
"They (the government) know how to find us to sue us and put our names on litigation, but when it comes to looking for money, they want the whole Church to get involved, and that's not a likely possibility," he said. The federal government has argued the Catholic Church as a whole -- not individual religious congregations or organizations --should be involved.
However, a Canadian appeals court in September ruled in favour of the Church's long-held position that the Church cannot be sued for Indian residential school abuses because the Church is not a legal entity.
The Oblates of Manitoba were part of the Catholic Organizations' Task Group on Indian Residential Schools created in June 2000 by more than 30 separate dioceses and religious orders of men and women.
The task group, along with representatives of the Anglican, Presbyterian and United Churches, were involved in discussions with the federal government for more than a year on how to handle the abuse lawsuits filed by former residential school students.
Talks broke down in October [2001].