A prominent former resident of the Nova Scotia Home for Colored Children was expected to defend his claims of abuse before a Supreme Court judge today as the group that ran the home argues Tony Smith took too long to come forward.The court date has been pushed back to Dec. 18.

The Children’s Aid Society of Halifax is named as one of the defendants in a number of individual lawsuits filed by former residents of the home and it has filed a motion to dismiss Smith’s claim.

“Nova Scotia is one of the peculiar provinces, there are three in the country, that has a statute which imposes upon the victim that they could not have brought the case forward earlier, and that they were able to make the connection between the abuse and their dysfunctional life,” lawyer Ray Wagner told News 95.7.

Wagner said the motion is relying on the Limitation of Actions Act, instead of merits or facts of the case.

He said in most other provinces this wouldn’t be a factor.

“If you did the act, then you cannot escape the law,” he said. In Nova Scotia, it imposes upon the victim to show the negative, that they were not able to bring the case forward. It’s a heavy burden on the person who’s already been abused.”

The allegations of physical, sexual and emotional abuse date back to the 1960s and 1970s.

Wagner has been on the case since 2001 and said he has 57 trial dates set, starting in 2014. Recently, more than a dozen new victims came forward alleging they had also been abused at the home after recent media attention surrounding the case.