Claims are now being accepted from people who qualify for the Sixties Scoop settlement recently approved by the federal government.
The settlement covers status Indians and Inuit people taken from their families during a 40-year period from 1951 to 1991. The settlement will see about $750 million directed to survivors, $50 million earmarked for an Indigenous healing foundation and $75 million for legal fees.
University of Regina social work professor, Dr Raven Sinclair, was part of the Sixties Scoop and says the forms can be downloaded from the website of Collectiva Class Action Services.
“The interesting thing is that the settlement doesn’t require anyone to have a lawyer or sign any papers with any law firm at all,” she said. “The claim form is available and people can just simply fill it out and you don’t have to have the child welfare records.”
Sinclair says claimants must have a status number, but most people should be able to fill out their own forms, or they could get help from a social worker or possibly someone at a band office.
Settlement payments of $25,000 to $50,000 are expected to be sent out late next year or early 2020.
Claim forms and more information are available online at the Collectiva Class Action website or at sixtiesscoopsettlement.info.
Claims must be submitted by August 31, 2019.
(PHOTO: People carry signs in support of Sixties Scoop survivors at a rally in Saskatoon. File photo.)