Day scholars and excluded schools spark reconciliation debate

The chair of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission warned that if day school scholars aren’t brought into the equation soon, the work accomplished by the TRC could be for naught.

“The issue of day scholar exclusion, and exclusion of certain schools from the settlement agreement or from the class action litigation, still remains to be discussed because I’m not sure it makes any sense for us to be looking at the possibility there may be another class action lawsuit, there may be another settlement agreement and there may be another truth and reconciliation process in the future,” said Justice Murray Sinclair.

Sinclair was part of a forum held Dec. 13 to discuss the Indian Residential School Settlement Agreement process. A group of chiefs and residential school and day school survivors met the day prior to the Assembly of First Nations (AFN) Special Chiefs Assembly gathering in Gatineau.

The agreement that was negotiated does not include day schools or students who attended day schools.

At the AFN’s annual general assembly this summer in Winnipeg, the chiefs passed a resolution directing the AFN to “engage the government of Canada in a reconciliation and compensation package for day scholar students and, failing progress, to seek support for a class action suit on this matter.”

“(What) truly impacts our community is day scholars,” said Shane Gottfriedson, chief of Tk’emlups te Secwepemc First Nations of B.C., who introduced the motion in July. “Our families suffered from the same sort of abuse, if not worse, as day scholars as (did) regular scholars and we’re not even considered for compensation for anything.”

Names of day school students are being gathered for possible class action litigation, said Ray Mason of Peguis First Nation in Manitoba.

“We’re taking names to prove to Canada and the courts that there are day scholars across Canada,” said Mason.
Dan Ish, chief adjudicator for the Independent Assessment Process, confirmed that “some legal action has been brought to include (day school scholars) and so forth, but I’m not included in that because I’m not the decision maker in that.”

Ish said day school students who were abused are only eligible for compensation through the IRSSA and the IAP if they were abused while attending an Indian residential school. If the abuse occurred at a day school, those former students are not included in the agreement.

In figures provided by Indian and Northern Affairs Canada, of the 4.4 per cent of Common Experience Payment applications turned down, eight per cent were claims made by day school scholars (1,749 applications) and 41 per cent were for schools not included in the agreement (8,731 applications).

There were 130 institutions originally deemed eligible for compensation. Six more have been added. However, applications were made on 1,414 schools, with decisions rendered on all but three, said INAC Assistant Deputy Minister Elisabeth Chatillon, in charge of administration and implementation of the IRSSA.

The application process is underway for Stirland Lake and Cristal Lake residential schools in Ontario and Timber Bay residential school in Saskatchewan. Appeals on school decisions are made to the courts supervising the IRS settlement agreement. There are nine courts across the country with supervisor roles.

“In this particular settlement agreement, the agreement was limited to the residential schools as opposed to day scholars. That’s what they’ve adjudicated on, that’s the settlement that’s being implemented here. Unless there’s something before the courts, there’s nothing for them to adjudicate on,” said Ish.

Gottfriedson said it was time for the day school scholars to be included in the process.

Sinclair noted that not including day scholars in the settlement agreement left out a “large segment of the Aboriginal population.”

Said Sinclair, “This whole discussion that we’re having now may end up being fruitless and becoming unfocused. So I think we need to think seriously about whether the reconciliation process that we are going to be engaging in in the next little while needs to also include a reconciliation focus for day scholars and those who are claiming to have attended other schools run by government whose lives have been affected by their experience in those schools.”

The Indian Residential School Settlement Agreement was signed in May 2006 between Canada, representatives from the Catholic Entities, Anglican, United and Presbyterian churches, representatives for the students, Assembly of First Nations and Inuit representatives.

The agreement does not include day schools nor does it include Metis residential schools or residential schools operated solely by religious orders or provincial governments.