Dans les médias

Library and Archives finally releases 98-year-old document on sick First Nations children

A little over a week after CBC News first reported on the case, Library and Archives informed Sadowski it had reconsidered the case and decided to release the document without restrictions.

"After a more in-depth review of this Access to Information request Library and Archives Canada has decided to apply discretion to open this document which is protected by solicitor client privilege," wrote Julie Gingras, a senior analyst, in a Feb. 9 letter to Sadowski.

Sadowski said he is still befuddled by the issue.

"I don't know why there was restrictions on it at all," he said.....

...Sadowski was requesting the document as part of research to support a failed court application to include the Fort William Indian Hospital Sanatorium School, where First Nation students who contacted tuberculosis were sent for treatment, as part of the Indian Residential School Settlement Agreement.

Kivalliq Hall doesn t qualify as a residential school, Canada argues in Nunavut appeal court

The federal government is appealing a 2016 decision by a Nunavut judge that classifies Kivalliq Hall, a residence for students in Rankin Inlet, as a residential school under the 2007 Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement.

Per that decision, students who were boarded at Kivalliq Hall during its 10 years of operation are allowed to claim compensation from the federal government under the agreement. The hall's hostel operated from 1985 to 1995.

Tuesday in the Nunavut Court of Appeal, Crown lawyer Cynthia Dickins argued Canada is not responsible for the hostel's operations or the children who stayed there, so it does not meet the criteria necessary to be included under the residential schools settlement agreement.

La Cour suprême du Canada accepte de se pencher sur le mécanisme indépendant qui décide des indemnités versées aux survivants des pensionnats fédéraux pour Autochtones.

Le plus haut tribunal du pays a accepté d'entendre l'appel d'un Autochtone, appelé simplement « J.W. », pour protéger son identité, qui dit avoir été agressé sexuellement par une religieuse dans un pensionnat fédéral au Manitoba.

« J.W. » soutient que la religieuse a touché son pénis pendant qu'il faisait la file aux douches du pensionnat.

Or, l'adjudicateur au dossier a rejeté sa réclamation parce que « J.W. » n'avait pu prouver que le geste de la religieuse était « de nature sexuelle ». L'homme n'a pas réussi ensuite à faire infirmer cette décision à l'étape de l'adjudication.

Par contre, un tribunal manitobain a critiqué le mécanisme d'appel au Secrétariat d'adjudication, et il a ordonné la réouverture du dossier.

Supreme Court to examine process for deciding residential school compensation

OTTAWA — The Supreme Court of Canada will look at the process used to determine compensation for former residential school students.

The high court has agreed to hear the appeal of an Indigenous man — known only as J.W. due to privacy considerations — who claims he was sexually assaulted by a nun while attending a residential school in Manitoba.

At issue is whether the decisions of adjudicators in such cases can be reviewed by the courts.

For over a century, tens of thousands of Indigenous children were required to attend residential schools, primarily run by religious institutions and funded by the federal government.

Students were not allowed to use their languages or cultural practices.

Former pupils provided accounts of physical, sexual and emotional abuse as part of an independent assessment process to determine compensation — a program that flowed from a major 2006 settlement agreement aimed at ensuring a lasting resolution of the residential schools legacy.

Supreme Court to hear abuse case involving nun

OTTAWA - The Supreme Court has decided to hear a case of a residential school survivor who feels Manitoba courts wrongly denied him compensation because he couldn't prove a nun intended to molest him.

The man, identified as J.W. in court filings, told an adjudicator the nun grabbed his penis while the then-student was showering.

He said when he pushed her hand away, she grabbed his left ear and tried to slam his head against the wall.

The adjudicator believed his account, but said there was a need to prove the nun had acted with a "sexual purpose."

In August 2016, Manitoba's Court of Queen's Bench sided with J.W.'s lawyers, who argued the compensation process is based on a survivor's lived harms and not the intent of the perpetrator.

They said the proof demanded by the court was more than required in most sexual-assault cases.

...

Data from the Indian Residential School Adjudication Secretariat show 98 per cent of claims filed from September 2007 to the end of 2017 have been resolved.

Ontario law society investigating firm's handling of dying residential school survivor's claim

Ontario's legal profession watchdog is investigating a complaint against a northern Ontario law firm over allegations it mishandled a compensation claim from a dying St. Anne's residential school survivor.

The Law Society of Ontario's enforcement department began investigating the complaint filed against Wallbridge, Wallbridge, headquartered in Timmins, Ont., last October, according to a copy of a letter from the law society provided to CBC News.

The letter from the law society identifies Peter James Wallbridge, one of the co-founders of the firm, as one of the subjects of the investigation.

The complaint was filed by Sophia Kleywegt, one of the daughters of Bert William Solomon who attended St. Anne's Indian Residential School from 1930 to 1935.

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Died before telling his story

Solomon died at 82 in December 2007 at the Timmins, Ont., hospital before getting the opportunity to tell his story to the tribunal created to award compensation for abuse suffered at residential schools, known as the Independent Assessment Process (IAP).

Solicitor-client privilege' keeping 98-year-old document on sick First Nations children under wraps

The federal information watchdog is investigating Library and Archives Canada's decision to invoke "solicitor-client privilege" in its refusal to release a nearly 100-year-old document on the federal government's treatment of sick First Nations children.

Library and Archives Canada, responding to a request filed under the Access to Information Act, released only the document's cover page which is on Department of Justice letterhead and includes an entry noting the file came from "Indian Aff."

The document's subject line reads: "Compulsory removal to hospitals of sick children."

The rest of the March 1920 document remains a mystery. ...

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NDP MP Charlie Angus said the move to withhold the nearly century-old document seems to reveal a pattern. 

The information watchdog is investigating a separate complaint from Angus over Justice Canada's near-total redaction of documents related to Ottawa's decision to suppress thousands of police files from St. Anne's Indian Residential School compensation hearings.