Humiliation and abuse were doled out almost daily at an Ontario institution for the developmentally disabled, punishment for infractions as minor as speaking out of turn, former residents allege in a class-action lawsuit against the provincial government.

"If we got caught talking, we had to get up with our pants down and walk around the play room with our pants down," recalled Marie Slark, 59, who spent nine years of her childhood at the Huronia Regional Centre.

In other instances, children whose behaviour earned them a "black mark" were kicked and struck by their peers at staff's insistence, she and another plaintiff, Patricia Seth, said in an interview.

Slark, Seth and thousands of other former residents are alleging systemic neglect and abuse at the Orillia, Ont., facility, which the province operatedprovince also maintains residents were cared for in a manner "consistent with the knowledge, experience and standards of the day" and benefited from living there.

The institution opened its doors in 1876 under the name Orillia Asylum for Idiots and closed in March 2009 — the oldest facility for people with a developmental disability at the time.

It has faced allegations of abuse and neglect in the past, including an 1960s article describing overcrowding so severe that people were sleeping head to head.

The 1970s saw several government-sponsored reports condemn the facility.

Some Huronia advocates have argued the centre had changed drastically in later years, becoming a vibrant community where residents had dances and parties.

For Slark and Seth, however, the experience was akin to imprisonment, they said.

"It was like living in a