Form 39.

08
2011 Hfx. No. 343.53<?
SUPREME COURT OF NOVA
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BETWEEN: \ rEB 1 7 2G'I'L
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AUBREY PELLEY and DEANNA SMITH \
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PLAINTIFFS
-AND-
THE NOVA SCOTIA HOME FOR COLORED CHILDREN, a body
corporate and THE ATTORNEY GENERAL OF NOVA SCOTIA,
representing Her Majesty the Queen in right of the Province of Nova
Scotia
DEFENDANTS
Proceeding under the Class Proceedings Act, S.N.S 2007, c. 28
Affidavit of Shirley Melanson
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I, Shirley Melanson of the city of Digby in the Province of Nova Scotia, MAKE
OATH AND SAY THAT:
1. I have knowledge deposed to below. Where my knowledge is based on
information obtained from others, I have so stated below, and I believe that information
to be true.
2. I am providing this affidavit in support of the Plaintiffs' motion to have the within
proposed class proceeding certified as a class proceeding.
3. I was born in Nova Scotia on July 26, 1939. I have five sisters and two brothers.
One of my brothers is now deceased.
4. In 1947, three of my sisters and my two brothers and I were removed from our
family home in Lequille, Annapolis County by a social worker named Eric Woods. At
the time, I did not understand why we were being taken from our home. I was later told
that it was because we were not being cared for properly.
5. I recall Mr. Woods drove up to our home and took me and my siblings away. I
and my siblings were crying because we did not know what was happening to us.
6. I recall being very scared when I arrived at the Nova Scotia Home for Colored
Children. The boys were put in one dormitory and the girls in another and the older
siblings were separated from the younger ones. During my stay at the Nova Scotia
Home for Colored Children, I was rarely allowed to see my older sister Pauline. I was
only able to see her at mealtimes except at mealtimes because Pauline was made to
work in the kitchen.
7. I witnessed my siblings being physically abused at the Nova Scotia Home for
Colored Children.
8. My younger sister Kathleen used to wet the bed when she was at the Home. This
would make the staff angry.
9. My sister got beaten with a strap every time that she wet the bed which
happened on an almost daily basis. She was then made to sleep in the urine soaked
sheets.
10. On one occasion, a staff member named Mrs. Martin beat Kathleen with a belt. I
was so upset about my sister being beaten that I bit Mrs. Martin on the back of the leg.
As a result of the bite, the staff member threw me down a set of cement steps. My left
arm was broken or sprained as a result of being thrown down the steps. I recall having
my arm in a sling for a long time, but I do not remember being taken to see a doctor for
this injury.
11. My sister Elizabeth was only two years old when she arrived at the Home. She
was terrified of the staff. I recall almost every time a staff member came near her she
would wet her pants.
12. On one occasion, a staff member put her in a tub of hot water that burned her.
recall that she screamed and cried to get out of the tub, but the staff member would not
allow her to get out and would not let me help her. Betty's skin was the color of cooked
lobster shells when she got out of the tub.
13. I recall staff members, Mrs. Martin in particular, beating other residents on a daily
basis. Staff members would also regularly tell residents that they were "stupid" and
would berate them with other insults which I cannot recall.
14. There was never enough food to eat at the Home. Some of the residents use to
steal food, but I never did as I was too afraid of the beatings that I would receive if I was
caught stealing.
15. My brothers tried to steal some food from a delivery truck that came to the Home.
They got caught by staff members. I witnessed one of my brothers receive a severe
beating with a belt and the buckle of the belt. I recall blood was running down his back
after this particular beating.
16. I recall staff member Mr. Bundy took one of my brothers down to the basement of
the Home, tie him to a post, and whipped him with a whip like an ox whip. I did not
witness the beating, but afterwards I saw that he had welts all over his body.
17. In the mornings after we ate our breakfast, we were put outside in an open-air
arena without proper clothing and made to stay outside until the next meal. We were
very cold and sometimes forced to remain outside in sub-zero weather with very little
clothing.
18. I do not recall being visited by social workers for the Children's Aid Society
except for one occasion. The one time that Eric Woods came to visit me during my stay
at the Home, he asked me why her arm was in a sling. I replied that I had been thrown
down a set of steps. The staff person present denied that I had been thrown down the
stairs and said that I fell down the stairs.
19. I do not recall ever attending any school while I was a resident at the Home. I left
the Home in approximately 1948.
SWORN TO at Halifax in the )
Province of Nova Scotia, this )
'3- day of February, )

MICHAEL DULL
A Barrister of the Suprema
Court of Nova Scotia

MLANSON