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Challenge to Indian day school settlement in Quebec court could stall deal

A recently filed court challenge of Ottawa's Indian day school settlement agreement could stall the deal, according to one of the lawyers behind the legal filing.

The filing, with the Quebec Superior Court, argues, among several issues, that the settlement agreement ignored the needs of francophone day school survivors by providing limited and inadequately translated documents.

Indian Day School survivor suggests reaching out for healing to begin

Speaking in Cree, a large group of Indian Day School survivors attended the North Bay Indigenous Friendship Centre to discuss details of the McLean Day School Class-Action Settlement.

George Hughie and Janie Kataquapit presented the public information session on May 13 for Mushkegowuk Cree. They heard many personal stories from attendees.

Former Kivalliq Hall students can now apply for compensation

Former students of Kivalliq Hall in Rankin Inlet are now eligible to apply for residential school settlements.

Until recently, the school’s former students weren’t able to file a claim through the federal Independent Assessment Process, which was established in 2007 under the Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement to resolve claims of serious sexual, emotional or physical abuse that former students suffered while attending residential schools.

That application process wrapped up in 2012 for most residential school survivors, though Kivalliq Hall wasn’t added to the list of eligible schools until last year.

Former Kivalliq Hall students can now apply for compensation

Former students of Kivalliq Hall in Rankin Inlet are now eligible to apply for residential school settlements.

Following a July 2018 decision from the Nunavut Court of Appeal, which upheld a lower court decision, the court issued an order to implement the process as of April 25, 2019.

Former students of Kivalliq Hall who plan to file claims now have until Jan. 25, 2020, to do so.

Supreme Court Aboriginal and Indigenous Law - Practice and Procedure

Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement settled class actions by former students and provided Independent Assessment Process (IAP) to claim compensation for harms suffered at residential schools. Adjudicator denied claimant's claim and his appeals within IAP were dismissed on review and re-review. Claimant requested directions from Supervising Judge tasked with overseeing implementation of Agreement.

Former students of Kivalliq Hall eligible for residential school settlement

Former students of an Indian residential school in the Arctic are now eligible for compensation under the Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement (IRSSA).

Approximately 225 students lived at Kivalliq Hall in Rankin Inlet, NU between 1985 and 1997.

They can apply for a Common Experience Payment (CEP) of $10,000 for the first year and $3,000 for each additional year, and the Independent Assessment Process (IAP) which provides further compensation for physical and sexual abuse.

Indian Day Schools settlement hearing wrapping up in Winnipeg

A three-day hearing into a proposed settlement for survivors of Indian Day Schools was scheduled to wrap up Wednesday in Winnipeg.

Federal Court Justice Michael Phelan is deciding whether to approve the settlement for a nation-wide class action lawsuit to compensate survivors for harms they suffered while attending the schools

About 200,000 Indigenous children attended the federally-funded schools across Canada, beginning in the 1920s.

Proposed Indian day school settlement to leave out lawyer who filed lawsuit

First Nations lawyers who object to the proposed federal Indian day school settlement held a rally Wednesday outside the Winnipeg courthouse where the third and final day of settlement approval hearings was underway.

"It is a big fight and there are many people objecting because they want [the settlement] improved," said Joan Jack

Canada announces Indian Day Schools settlement

Victims and survivors of Indian day schools will receive compensation from the Canadian government for the abuses and harms perpetrated against them.

On Tuesday Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Minister Carolyn Bennett announced Canada would settle out of court with litigants and members of a $15 billion class-action lawsuit initiated in 2009.

Why the former chair of the TRC is worried about the Indian day school settlement

The former chair of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission says he is concerned that Indian day school survivors are doing "all of the work themselves" to seek compensation for the alleged abuse they suffered.

"They have to find the documents; they have to prove they went to the school; they have to match the records that the department provides to the law firm, I assume to justify that they in fact are the same person whose name might be spelled four or five different ways according to school records, and who may not have had an English name," Sen. Murray Sinclair told The Current's Anna Maria Tremonti.

Opponents of Indian day schools settlement have their say in court

Growing up in the western Saskatchewan Cree community of Onion Lake, Beatrice Macdonald endured 11 years in the federal and provincial institutions known as Indian day schools.

She says she's still dealing with the trauma.

"We were not allowed to speak our Cree language in the school. We were made to do stuff we were not supposed to be doing at that age," Macdonald said Tuesday in Winnipeg, outside a federal courtroom where hearings are being held this week into a proposed settlement for day school survivors. 

Day school survivors deserve more than $10,000, judge hears

Nearly 30 people said the Indian day school settlement agreement needs changing Tuesday, starting with paying former students more money.

“I object to $10,000,” said former student Clarence Sumner of Pinaymootang First Nation in Manitoba.

“That’s a slap in the face.”

Just get it done: Indian day school survivors divided over proposed settlement

For more than a decade, Ray Mason has been fighting for compensation for the time he and thousands of other Indigenous people were forced to attend federally operated Indian day schools.

He hopes that battle will soon be over.

Mason, 72, hopes a proposed settlement agreement announced in March will be approved by a federal court in Winnipeg this week. With an estimated 2,000 survivors dying every year, time is of the essence.

Watch Live: Winnipeg court to hear Indian day school settlement case

It’s the first day of a hearing to settle the Indian day school class-action lawsuit.

The matter will be heard in federal court in Winnipeg.

A judge will listen to three days of arguments, a schedule shows.

Day school survivors urge judge to accept settlement

Three major changes proposed to the Indian day school settlement agreement Monday go a long way towards silencing the critics, says an Indigenous lawyer.

“That’s what I wanted,” Ken Young said as he heard plaintiffs’ lawyer Mary Thomson rhyme off the amendments in Winnipeg’s federal court.

Young was prepared to speak against the multi-billion-dollar agreement Ottawa is offering an estimated 140,000 former Indian day school students.

Council Clarifies Indian Day School Deadline

Today’s May 3 deadline is only for those wanting to forward their support or objection to the claim, and does not effect anyone’s desire to apply for compensation for abuses suffered under any Indian Day School. (Courtesy Mohawk Council of Kahnawake)

“The May 3 deadline (today) relates to whether individuals want to send in a statement of support or objection to the settlement of this Indian Day School issue,” said Diabo. “People are getting the wrong information.”

OPINION: Federal Court Judge tells Canada to walk the walk

In a remarkable court judgment recently released, a Federal Court Judge has blasted Canada for its approach to the Day Scholars Class Action. 

While the Day Scholars were unsuccessful in their attempt to get a rare and difficult to obtain advanced costs order, Justice Harrington was unsparing in his criticism of Canada’s chosen litigation strategy noting that “the Plaintiffs are dying” and asking rhetorically: “Is it [Canada’s] intention to grind [the Plaintiffs] into poverty and bankruptcy before this matter ever proceeds to trial?”