Surviving Quints Accept Settlement

Embarrassed by public criticism, the Ontario government said it will pay $2.8 million to the three surviving Dionne quintuplets to compensate for exploitation they endured as child tourist attractions. The sisters, now 63 and living in poverty in Montreal, accepted the offer. The women rejected as an insult the previous proposal: monthly pensions totaling $4,200. Born in 1934 to a mother of six and her impoverished husband, the sisters were the first quintuplets on record to survive more than a few days. They became wards of the province and contend that they were bilked out of money earned while they were put on display at a theme-park-like site called Quintland.