Coalition eyes school settlement
WINNIPEG — A coalition of groups for Indian residential school survivors wants to reopen the $5-billion compensation settlement agreement, its spokespeople said Thursday in Winnipeg.
“The settlement agreement is an out-of-court settlement that has to be monitored by the courts … yet each day, we have survivors complaining about the treatment by (their) lawyers, the role of Canada, lost records, information that is not provided and adjudicators not respecting our culture and languages,” said Ray Mason, chairman of the National Residential Schools Survivors Society. Mechanisms set up within the agreement to handle survivors’ complaints and include their representatives in administrative issues are failing survivors, reporters were told at a news conference called by the coalition.
The settlement was signed by representatives of the federal government, churches and First Nations in 2007. They will have to agree to put the deal back under a microscope, the groups’ spokesperson said.
Survivors’ groups claim the settlement has been plagued with problems since the beginning when $1.9 billion initially was set aside and later boosted to $3.2 billion to cover claims. The latest federal estimate puts the cost of compensation for abuse at residential schools as set to exceed $5 billion. The number of claims exceeded initial projections by tens of thousands. Complaints number in the hundreds and centre on the process itself. Following an extensive consultation in 2007, the National Residential School Survivors Society completed a report that described about 460 concerns related to the settlement agreement. That report was provided to all signatories to the agreement.
Almost five years later, the problems continue, reporters heard.
The coalition is asking for an independent review to help fix those problems.
Groups calling for the review include the National Indian Residential School Survivor Society, the B.C. Indian Residential School Survivor Society and Spirit Wind Manitoba. Together they represent 32,000 survivors of residential schools that operated in Canada for more than a century.