Chatter

thelabradorian.ca
is reporting that the St. John's Supreme Court is holding the fate of 3,000 former residential school students in the palm of its hand. Three days of submissions have come and gone and the court is left to decide whether the students' claims of abuse and neglect will go forward as a class action suit or must go to court individually. Lawyers say their mostly Inuit and Métis clients do not have the financial clout to go it alone. Newfoundland and Labrador Aboriginal people were shut out of the Indian Residential School Settlement Package, and did not receive the common experience payment awarded to school survivors in other parts of the country.

MÉTIS NATIONAL COUNCIL PRESIDENT
Clément Chartier has called for government action in compensating Métis residential school survivors excluded from the Indian Residential School Settlements Agreement.
He spoke at a special sitting of the Senate of Canada June 11 marking the first anniversary of Prime Minister Stephen Harper's apology for Canada's involvement in the residential school system. Chartier said little progress has been made in addressing the concerns of Métis survivors who've been denied compensation.
"When I participated in that apology ceremony, I pledged the Métis Nation was prepared and willing to do our part in Canada's collective journey towards healing and reconciliation," said Chartier. "I wish I could report a strong beginning to that journey during the past year, but for most Métis survivors this is simply not true."
The majority of Métis survivors attended schools not included in the compensation package. The schools were church-run and government-sanctioned, but for the most part were funded by provincial governments or religious orders and not part of the federally-funded Indian residential school system.
"They were run with the same assimilationist intent and methods, and today neither the federal nor provincial governments are willing to accept responsibility for what happened," said Chartier. He went on to ask both chambers of Parliament to call on the federal government to assert its jurisdictional responsibility for dealing with the Métis Nation, and ensure all Métis survivors get the compensation they deserve.

IN SEPTEMBER 2008, BRIAN SINCLAIR,
a homeless, disabled, Aboriginal man, sought urgent care at a Winnipeg, Man. hospital emergency department. He was told to wait in the waiting room. For 34 hours he was neglected and ignored, and given no food, water or medical attention. As a result, he died.
On June 11, the Sinclair family communicated to four human rights Special Rapporteurs of the United Nations in Geneva its concerns about official violations of the late Brian Sinclair's human rights, and the ongoing marginalization and exclusion of the his family in the context of an upcoming inquest. (The communications to the UN human rights officers can be downloaded at www.eponymedia.com/ignoredtodeathmanitoba
The government of Manitoba is excluding the Sinclair family's full participation in the upcoming inquest, the family says. Government parties will be fully represented by teams of well-paid lawyers for the duration of the inquest, but the government insists the Sinclairs accept discriminatorily inferior and inadequate funding. This may prevent them from participating at all.
"The marginalization and discrimination that likely caused Brian Sinclair's death is continuing," said Robert Sinclair, a spokesperson for the family. "We believe this is unjust and will prevent the inquest from being fair and proper."

FIRST NATIONS THROUGHOUT THE
interior of British Columbia and the Lower Mainland say they are "astonished" by the Campbell government's 'blatant bad faith' in issuing an environmental assessment certificate for the proposed Interior to Lower Mainland Transmission Project. First Nations had been awaiting a proposal from the government on a meaningful consultation process that would address the First Nations' fundamental concerns with the project. Instead the Campbell government simply issued the certificate without any further discussion.
"The Campbell government has not been truthful with us," said Chief Bob Pasco of the Nlaka'pamux Nation Tribal Council. "We were in the middle of a discussion about how the process could work to appropriately address our legitimate concerns, and then as soon as they return from their election campaign, they simply issued the project approval. It is clear that the Campbell government is not serious about working with us."