RESIDENTIAL SCHOOL SURVIVOR PAYMENTS TO TOP $3 BILLION
More than half of 33,712 claims made by Saskatchewan residents
Payments to residential school survivors will soon top the $3-billion mark, but some say money will never replace all that was lost.
“How much is the life of your child worth? We lost so many of our people,” said Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations (FSIN) Chief Bobby Cameron.
Payments to 33,712 former students have totalled $2.935 billion since the process began eight years ago, according to the latest figures of the Indian Residential Schools Adjudication Secretariat. The payments are made following hearings of the Independent Assessment Process (IAP). More than 89 per cent of IAP claims have been resolved.
Saskatchewan had more claims made (8,801), resolved (7,506) and in progress (1,295).
IAP payments are distinct from the more than $1 billion awarded earlier through the more general Common Experience Payment (CEP).
North Battleford lawyer Eleanore Sunchild, who has represented scores of survivors through the IAP, said those who think the payments are excessive need to educate themselves about this dark chapter in Canadian history. The amounts given to those who suffered chronic sexual abuse didn’t even receive enough money to buy their own home.
“Some claimants were raped for 10 years. They should get (only) $100,000?” Sunchild said.
Controversy has surrounded use of the term “cultural genocide” to describe the schools, but Sunchild said it’s accurate.
“It was a systematic attack on a people. There was abuse, torture and death,” she said.
Sunchild said the IAP process “has been a learning experience for a lot of people.” Sunchild, Cameron and Winnipeg lawyer Ken Young, who helped draft the initial agreement, said it’s been good overall but there have been significant flaws.
Sunchild said the process was supposed to be non-confrontational and student-centred. However, some claimants were re-traumatized or rejected based on the sometimes “inflexible position” of the Canadian government.
Young said some individual adjudicators went outside their mandate and rejected students from certain schools everyone agreed to include.
Young noted the initial class action lawsuit was for $12-billion, and the IAP was a bargain. Students would likely receive less money, but would not be dragged through a lengthy court case as they aged and died off, he said.
“We needed to do something. We negotiated a compromise,” Young said.
Cameron said the payments are only one element of the healing process. All parties must now heed the recommendation of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. That means more education on residential schools at all levels. That also means finally funding on-reserve schools at the same level as those in the rest of the country, Cameron said. New Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has promised to address all of these issues.
“It’s good to hear words. Now we need action,” Cameron said.
Chief adjudicator and Saskatoon lawyer Dan Shapiro was not available for comment.
It was a systematic attack on a people. There was abuse, torture and death