More residential school compensation announced

OTTAWA — More than 200 former residential school students who suffered abuse at the hands of other students will receive compensation from the federal government.

Crown-Indigenous Affairs Minister Carolyn Bennett said Tuesday that the government is embarking on a settlement with 240 students who she says might not have received fair compensation under the previous process.

Under the Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement in 2005, the government agreed to compensation of more than $3 billion for about 38,000 former students who were victims of abuse.

However, the process imposed a higher bar for claims of student-on-student abuse and many of those victims were denied compensation for never having reported the abuse to a teacher at the time — a condition that was not required of survivors who were abused by religious staff or teachers.

Truth and Reconciliation Commissioner Murray Sinclair said the student-on-student abuse was one of the untold stories of the residential school tragedy, with many victims afraid to come forward even during the commission hearings because they were often still living in the same community as their abuser.