On Monday morning, the federal government announced it will hand over a volume of residential school records to a national archives centre.
The government has been criticized recently for withholding these documents.
Crown-Indigenous Relations Minister Marc Miller blamed legal obligations to some entities under the Catholic Church for the difficulty in getting some of the documents released.
However, Miller says within the next 30 days the government will release reports of key events that happened at residential schools in Western Canada despite the legal obstructions.
Later on Monday afternoon, after the announcement from Ottawa, the Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations put out a media release.
In the release, they applauded the federal government for releasing some of the documents pertaining to residential schools, but they say these are only a “small portion” of the documents they believe need to be released.
“It’s a good start. All IRS records belong in the hands of their rightful owners; our First Nations survivors, their families, and their communities” said FSIN Chief Bobby Cameron in the media release. “We expect the Federal Government to release all of the IRS documents, ensuring that they contain all of the original documents in their entirety. No more legal wrangling to keep them hidden. This is a necessary step for many survivors in their own healing journey. Canadians need to learn the real history. We know what happened. Those records contain proof. They must be released.”
The National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation has said it is missing what’s known as school narratives — reports compiled by Ottawa outlining an individual institution’s history, including reports of abuse.
(With files from the Canadian Press)