First Nations Indians mistreated while at church-run schools
Thursday, April 27, 2006
Toronto -- In a long-delayed conclusion to a dark chapter of Canadian history, negotiators have reached an agreement to compensate 80,000 Canadian Indians who attended a government-financed school system, where many of them suffered physical and sexual abuse.
The widespread incidence of alcoholism, family violence and incest in many Canadian Indian communities has long been linked to the experiences of generations who attended the so-called residential schools, which were dedicated to forced assimilation and operated for more than a century, until the 1980s.
Typically, government agents forced Inuit, Cree and other children to leave their parents and attend the schools, where they were harshly punished for speaking their own languages or practicing their religions.
Negotiators representing the government, native peoples and several churches that administered the schools agreed that nearly $2 billion would be paid as damages to the survivors of the schools. Payments should begin next year, but will possibly be accelerated for the elderly and the sick.
The agreement, which negotiators called one of the largest damage settlements in Canada's history, still needs final approval by the Cabinet and the courts, but that is considered a formality. Jim Prentice, the Indian affairs and northern development minister, announced the agreement without fanfare on the floor of the House of Commons on Tuesday.
There was no official apology, although the federal government already has admitted that sexual and physical abuse in the schools was widespread.
But Indian leaders reacted with excitement over the culmination of years of painful negotiations and efforts by the government to fight litigation by survivors that cost $80 million.
"We're extremely pleased," said Phil Fontaine, national chief of the Assembly of First Nations and an Ojibwe speaker. He was a negotiator of the agreement and is a survivor of two Manitoba residential schools, where he says he suffered sexual and physical abuse. "It's about symbolic recognition of the loss of languages and cultures."
The agreement allots about $20,000 to surviving students. It will also provide about $120 million for a foundation that will promote traditional Indian healing therapies, as well as a "truth and reconciliation" commission that will hear testimony from victims. Perpetrators also may come forward if they want to confess, but Kathleen Mahoney, one of the negotiators, said they would not be granted amnesty.
The Presbyterian, Anglican, United and Roman Catholic churches have agreed to open their archives so that documents relating to the schools they ran can be included in a national archive devoted to the residential school experience.
About 1,500 residential school victims have received court compensation over the past 12 years, about 1 in 10 who filed claims. The government also has distributed hundreds of small out-of- court settlements.
Canada settles abuse case that spanned generations / First Nations Indians mis
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