Africville lawsuit heads to Nova Scotia's Supreme Court

Nelson Carvery vows to keep fighting for compensation for land his family lost when Africville residents were relocated more than four decades ago.

Carvery is the proposed lead plaintiff in a lawsuit former residents and descendants launched against the City of Halifax in 1996.

"Well, it will bring closure when it's completed," Carvery said Wednesday. "We weren't properly compensated for our lands."

Nova Scotia Supreme Court in November

Three days have been set aside in November at Nova Scotia's Supreme Court to have the case certified as a class action.

"If the applicants are successful, then they become a class action and then you proceed to trial as a class action versus individual claims," said the municipality's lawyer Karen MacDonald.

Between 30 and 40 plaintiffs are still named in the lawsuit.

The land in the black community was expropriated in the late 1960s in the name of urban renewal.

Land was 'hand-me-down'

Carvery's father, Aaron (Pa) Carvery was the last resident to leave the community in 1970.

On top of buying Pa Carvery's land for $14,000, the city bought a house on Prescott and Robie streets in Halifax that it let him rent, Nelson Carvery said.

The Carvery family was among Africville's original families to settle there in the mid-1800s.

"This land has been in our family for seven generations or more," Carvery said. "It was all hand-me-down. As far as I know, we were Maroons — came from Jamaica to build the [Halifax] Citadel," said Carvery.

2010 settlement

In 2010, Halifax reached a settlement with the residents and descendants of Africville. The settlement included an apology, a hectare of land on the former site to rebuild the community church and $3 million towards the building's cost.

"We were not in agreement with that," Carvery said.

Robert Pineo, the Halifax lawyer representing the plaintiffs, was not available for comment.