The federal government says it will pursue negotiated settlements with residential school survivors whose claims of student-on-student abuse were previously dismissed or under-compensated.
Crown-Indigenous Relations Minister Carolyn Bennett says the action could help approximately 240 eligible former students by ensuring they receive fair compensation for abuse suffered at Indian residential schools.
In a release, Bennett calls the Independent Assessment Process established by the Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement “an important tool for bringing about a sense of closure for survivors of this terrible chapter in our history.”
“Tens-of-thousands of survivors have obtained compensation through this process. Its rules and procedures are the product of negotiations with all parties to the agreement and have been repeatedly upheld by the Courts,” Bennett says in the release. “At the same time, the government believes that there are some instances where Indian Residential School survivors who suffered abuse at the hands of fellow students may not have received fair compensation.”
A spokesperson with Bennett’s office says 74 of the 240 cases are from Saskatchewan.
Through the IAP, the government says 98 per cent of the more than 38,000 claims received have been resolved, with more than $3 billion in compensation paid to former students.
In February 2017, the government began a negotiated settlement process with survivors whose IAP claims had been rejected or reduced due to the use of the “Administrative Split” argument.
(PHOTO: Carolyn Bennett. Photo by Chelsea Laskowski.)