In 1945, when Bernard was 9 years old, her mother was told that if she did not sign the consent forms to send her children to a residential school, the child welfare system would take her children into "protective custody". As a result, Bernard attended the Shubenacadie Indian Residential School for five years.
She was directly responsible for what became the largest class-action lawsuit in Canadian history, representing an estimated 79,000 survivors. The Canadian government settled the lawsuit in 2005 for upwards of 5 billion dollars. In 1995, Bernard began an organization to represent survivors of the Shubenacadie school.
She subsequently convinced Halifax lawyer John McKiggan to represent the Shubenacadie survivors in a class-action suit.
After the Shubenacadie suit became public knowledge, many other survivors" associations across Canada filed similar suits. These were eventually amalgamated into one national lawsuit.
In McKiggan"s words, "() if it wasn"t for Nora"s efforts, and other survivors like her across Canada, this national settlement never would have happened. () After we filed our lawsuit, a number of other students from other schools filed similar class actions."
In 2005, she testified before the Canadian House of Commons about the abuse children suffered in residential schools:
She had been stabbed to death.
On January 23, 2009, Gloade was convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to 15 years in prison.
