[1][2][3][4][5] After the closing of the school, and prompted by a class-action lawsuit, the government apologized for decades of neglectful abuse of the facility's residents and paid a settlement to surviving victims.

[7]: 28 When Toronto Star columnist Pierre Berton visited the Ontario Hospital School in 1960, he reported dilapidation and gross overcrowding—2808 residents occupying spaces that could hardly contain a thousand fewer, with sleeping quarters installed in repurposed classrooms, playrooms and therapy rooms.

[1] Despite these glaring flaws, Berton also noted that "[i]n many respects it [was] an up-to-date institution with a dedicated staff fighting an uphill battle against despairing conditions.

[1] The new branch of the Ontario Hospital School at Cedar Springs in Chatham-Kent (later known as the Southwestern Regional Centre) was unable to keep up with that demand, much less house the entire population for long enough to repair and renovate the Orillia complex.

[13] In 2010, several former residents of the Centre, together with litigation guardians Marilyn and Jim Dolmage, sued the government of Ontario, alleging that the hospital staff perpetrated systemic physical, sexual and emotional abuse against the children between 1945 and 2009.

[3][4][14][15][16][17] Marilyn Dolmage's affidavit "described residents being kept in caged cots, having all their teeth removed for safety reasons and being held upside down with their heads under running water as punishment for not eating.

[17] On December 9, 2013, Premier of Ontario Kathleen Wynne publicly apologized on the floor of the legislature, saying "I am sorry for what you and your loved ones experienced, and for the pain that you carry to this day", noting that "some residents suffered neglect and abuse within the very system that was meant to provide them care".

[17] Minority party leaders Tim Hudak and Andrea Horwath also apologized; some former Huronia residents considered this important because abuse took place while Liberal, PC and NDP governments were in power.

[17] In 2022, filmmaker Barri Cohen, who had two older brothers die at the institution in childhood, released the documentary film Unloved: Huronia's Forgotten Children.