Lawsuit Filed Over Ile-a-la-Crosse Boarding School

Monday, December 12, 2005 at 15:22

A statement of claim has been filed in Court of Queen’s Bench over what appears to be the federal government’s unwillingness to provide compensation to former students of a boarding in Ile-a-la-Crosse.

The students, most of whom are Metis, were hoping they would be included in a $1.9-billion compensation agreeement signed last month for residential school survivors.

However, federal officials have been saying in recent weeks that the boarding school in Ile-a-la-Crosse does not qualify because it was not a federally-run Indian residential school.

The Merchant Law Group in Regina has filed the class-action lawsuit on behalf of approximately 1,500 former students of the Ile-a-la-Crosse institution.

Former students of other residential schools have been told they will all get a “common experience payment” — a basic sum of $10,000, plus an additional $3,000 for each year they attended the schools.

(with files from The Canadian Press)