Researcher hopes IAP records can be preserved

Residential schools experience holds vital lessons, academic says

Half of the living survivors of Indian residential schools in Canada experienced physical and sexual abuses so great they have been paid more than $2 billion in compensation through the Independent Assessment Process (IAP).

Those 38,000 stories of the worst part of the residential school history far outnumber the 6,000 who shared their memories at the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) hearings between 2009 and 2015.

Now, 95 per cent of the stories of those stunningly common, extreme abuses are slated to be destroyed by the recent decree of the Supreme Court of Canada.

Social sciences researcher Cindy Hanson hopes at least some of that history can be preserved through community education and support for survivors: they alone have the power to halt the automatic, permanent disappearance of their stories.

“I’m not trying to speak against survivors who want to destroy their records, who consciously want to do that, but I think there needs to be an education process about alternatives,” Hanson said.

“I am shocked that in the name of reconciliation we could be destroying a history and a testimony.”

Hanson is concerned that the IAP was extremely stressful, even traumatic for survivors, many of whom described events they’d spent their lifetimes trying to forget.

Survivors often didn’t have established, trusting relationships with their lawyers and didn’t know the adjudicators.

According to the IAP website, records include applications that required details about the abuse and how it affected their lives; the names of perpetrators; records of their medical, education, corrections, income tax, and employment histories; psychological reports and the adjudicators’ decisions.

Some people undoubtedly want their accounts destroyed, but it’s unclear how well anyone explained the anonymity that was possible if their stories were preserved and the value they could hold for all people in the future, Hanson continued.

Her current research will look into ways communities and families can support survivors who may be open to rescuing their stories.

“I’m looking at the structure of the whole process — the need for the public to have knowledge of this haunting legacy of colonialism in Canada that so few people know about,” she said.

Research into anonymous stories could improve understanding about the institutionalization of children, about how abuse occurs, student on student abuse and cycles of violence, she said.

“I think it needs to be a community based education process where you go out and meet with people and talk about it, share options ... That’s the thing about the IAP, it has not been community based,” she said.

Other countries where human rights atrocities occurred have removed names and identifying information and sealed the records for many decades.

About five per cent of claimants in the IAP (1,900 people) have requested transcripts of their hearings and are free to give them to the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation, which holds the history of residential schools gathered through the TRC.

Most countries that have held reconciliation processes have made them public, like the TRC was.

People from South Africa and European countries where human rights atrocities led to truth and reconciliation exercises have expressed shock that Canada is on the brink of losing such an important part of its history.

“The IAP isn’t only about the settlements to the victims of residential schools but can be a tool that will help reshape Canadian society to foster unity and equal nation building between colonizers and natives,” said Issa Gyimah, a University of Regina graduate student from South Africa in an emailed statement.

IAP chief adjudicator Dan Shapiro has said he is pleased that survivors’ most intimate and painful memories will not be shared without their consent.

“Many claimants told me they would not have participated in the IAP unless they knew that what they said would be kept confidential, even from their families, and even after their death,” he said.

The Government of Canada and Ry Moran, director of the National Research Centre, had argued that the records should not be destroyed.

Saskatchewan had the largest number of claims of any province — 8,850 — and now has the largest number of outstanding claims, 243.