A lawyer in Regina is imploring survivors of residential schools to file their claims for compensation before it’s too late.
The Federal government has given former students who suffered abuse at the schools until Wednesday night to submit their claims for common experience payments or to make claims under the Independent Assessment process.
Tony Merchant says he worries there are many survivors out there who haven’t had the heart to step forward.
But he cautions it will be too late after tomorrow’s deadline has come and gone
Merchant says he believes the government sorely underestimated the number of people who were abused in residential schools.
He says Ottawa initially expected 70,000 claims to be made for the common experience payment, but that number has ballooned to 104,000.
He says more could be on the way and it speaks to how wide-spread the problems were:
“So the government did not appreciate the gaps of wrong-doing to which First Nations people had been subject because the people took the wrong-doing bravely and kept their mouths shut about it and over time disclosures have come out.”
The deadline for claims to be made is Wednesday night.
Claims will be accepted as long as they are post-marked before 11:59 p.m.