Turn over residential school files: court

Truth and Reconciliation Commission wins legal battle with Tories

TORONTO • The federal government is obliged to turn over its archival records on Indian residential schools to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, an Ontario court decided Wednesday.

In his decision, Justice Stephen Goudge said the obligation to provide the materials is clear from the settlement agreement that established the commission.

“The plain meaning of the language is straightforward,” Goudge said.

“It is to provide all relevant documents to the TRC.”

The decision comes in an increasingly acrimonious dispute between the federal government and the commission over millions of government documents the commission says it needs to fulfil its core mandate.

The government maintained it had no obligation to provide the records in Library and Archives Canada.

The commission, under Justice Murray Sinclair, argued the government’s intransigence would make it impossible to complete its work on budget as required by July 1, 2014.

“We’re grateful to be able to continue the commission’s work of gathering and protecting for future generations documents that are relevant to the history of the Indian residential schools,” Sinclair said in a statement.

“We especially acknowledge the clarity of Justice Goudge’s decision.”

Part of the commission’s mandate is to help in a process of reconciliation, while yet another is the “creation of a legacy” that includes collection of records, taking statements from those involved and classifying and preserving the materials.

“Canada’s documents, wherever they were held, would have been understood as a very important historical resource for this purpose,” Goudge said.

The residential school system, which ran from the 1870s until the 1990s, saw about 150,000 native children taken from their families and sent to church-run schools under a deliberate policy of “civilizing” First Nations.

Many students were physically, mentally and sexually abused. Some committed suicide.

Mortality rates reached 50 per cent at some schools.

In the 1990s, thousands of victims sued the churches that ran the schools and the Canadian government.

The $1.9-billion settlement of that suit in 2007 prompted an apology from Prime Minister Stephen Harper and the creation of the commission.

In its submissions to the court, the commission argued the Canadian government was trying to renege on its legal deal with aboriginal peoples because sticking to the terms would cost too much.

Lawyer Julian Falconer, who represented the commission, called it a “truly landmark” judgment.

“The court’s answers to the commission’s reference will ensure that the dark chapter in Canadian history that is the residential school story will never be forgotten,” Falconer said.

In opposing the court application, the federal government argued the commission had no legal standing to take the matter to court.