Three Surviving Dionne Quints Reject Ontario’s Compensation Deal

The three surviving Dionne quintuplets on Thursday rejected an offer from Ontario’s government for monthly pensions in compensation for being exploited as a tourist attraction in the 1930s.

The government, while insisting it has no legal obligation to compensate the sisters, offered a monthly pension of $1,400 to each of them until their death.

The three Dionnes, now 63, live in Montreal on a single pension of $490 a month.

The sisters, along with their lawyer, held a news conference at the Ontario legislature to explain why they were rejecting the offer and insisting instead on a share of the millions of dollars collected from tourists who observed them during their childhood.

“They don’t seem to be dealing in good faith,” said Cecile Dionne. “We keep asking for restitution, for money improperly taken by the government and instead they offer us a small pension.”

Cecile and her sisters Yvonne and Annette renewed their request for an independent audit to determine how much the provincial government owed them.

But Premier Mike Harris said his government won’t bargain any further.

“We offered what I considered was a generous offer. It also was a final offer,” Harris said.

Born during the Depression to a mother of six and her impoverished husband in a Northern Ontario farmhouse, the sisters were the first quintuplets on record to survive more than a few days. They say were bilked out of money earned while they were put on display as children at a theme-park-like site called Quintland.

“The issue here is the restitution of stolen funds, not even compensation. And certainly not charity,” said Clayton Ruby, the sisters’ lawyer.

Ontario’s attorney general, Charles Harnick, said the sisters were living in “appalling circumstances” and expressed regret that they had rejected the compensation.

One sister, Emilie, died in 1954; another, Marie, died in 1970.