Judge orders search of RCMP documents in residential school case
Superior Court fight relates to allegations of abuse at Moose Factory school in ’60s
A Superior Court judge has ordered that Ottawa perform additional searches for RCMP documents pertaining to allegations of abuse at a residential school at Moose Factory on James Bay in the 1960s.
Ottawa lawyer Fay Brunning is acting on behalf of claimants who say they witnessed events related to the alleged severe beating of a child at the now defunct Bishop Horden Indian Residential School. Some of the claimants say they saw numerous employees or supervisors of the school subsequently fired and or criminally charged.
Brunning had argued in a factum that the Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement called for Ottawa to scour its historical records for documents pertaining to the schools including “at the very least” documents about abuse.
But Brunning argued the federal government didn’t meet its legal obligations to do so. Only records kept by Libraries and Archives Canada and Indian Affairs were searched as part of the compensation process, she argued.
She called for historical documents from the RCMP to be scoured for details relating to abuse at Bishop Horden that led to dismissals and or criminal charges. In its factum Otta- wa says it has searched its records and didn’t find anything to confirm the alleged beatings, or the charges or terminations related to them.
“There is no modicum of evidence before this honourable court that would suggest that the alleged documents exist,” the factum says.
But in his ruling this week, Justice Paul Perell said that under the Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement that “Canada is entitled to resist being asked to do more than it bargained for, but it is not entitled to resist (doing) less than it bargained for . . .”
In ruling that Canada “breached its disclosure obligations” under the residential schools settlement pact, Perell added he does not conclude Canada’s breach was a “manifestation of bad faith.”
The judge noted that after an inquiry from Brunning, Ottawa disclosed that Ernest Constant, a supervisor at Bishop Horden from1965 to 1966 was convicted in 2005 of indecent assault of students at another native residential school — Dauphin (MacKay) school — in Manitoba between 1967 and 1969.
Prior to disclosing those documents Ottawa had said it was “unaware of any convictions for abuse at Bishop Horden or of any convicted abusers present at the school.”
Brunning became suspicious that Ottawa’s disclosure documents were incomplete, Perell noted in his ruling ordering additional searches — but only searches pertaining to the RCMP detachment that policed the region Bishop Horden was located when the school operated.
“Canada is entitled to resist being asked to do more than it bargained for, but it is not entitled to resist (doing) less than it bargained for . . .” JUSTICE PAUL PERELL