The government of the province of Alberta in Canada has agreed to pay compensation to some five hundred people who were sterilised without their consent while they were in institutions for the mentally handicapped.

Under a settlement, Alberta will pay approximately seventy-thousand dollars to each of the victims, most of whom are still in care.

About two hundred and fifty further claims have still to be resolved.

About three thousand people, in total, were sterilised in Alberta under a law aimed at stopping the genetic transmission of mental disabilities.

The policy was in force over a period of forty years but finally abandoned in 1972.