Apology ‘long overdue’ say former students
Valerie G. Barnes Connell Jordan
Daily Herald
Members of the Ile-a-la-Crosse Boarding School Survivors Committee have reached an agreement in principle with the provincial government and an official apology after the school was not included on the list of Residential Schools under the Indian Residential School Settlement Agreement (IRSS).
This agreement comes after the survivors have fought for many years to have the situation rectified. The agreement also follows an Agreement in Principle reached with the Government of Canada earlier this year.
“This is part of recognizing our past,” Premier Scott Moe said on Monday. “Now we continue to take steps to build that stronger future working alongside one another, so that … wherever you live, you might be Indigenous, Métis or otherwise, we’re working towards more opportunity and a stronger future for our children and ultimately for our grandchildren.”
Elders Louis Gardiner and Margaret Aubichon welcomed the signing of the agreement and spoke hopefully to those gathered for the signing.
Métis Nation Saskatchewan President Glen McCallum also spoke at the gathering. He spoke of children being sent to school “at a very young age” and how the Residential School experience has hurt students and the generational impact.
He spoke of the importance of being able to talk about the impacts and have the ear of the Provincial Government and the Federal Government.
“It takes special people to recognize that they’ve done damage,” he said.
“But history has to change. It has to look in regards to what damage it has done.”
He referred to “the rates of incarceration, mostly our people, welfare, mostly our people, drugs, mostly our people, alcohol, mostly our people,” and he called for “outside the box thinking,” and “outside the box” action to make the changes needed.
Athabasca MLA Leroy Laliberte, Shadow Minister for Indigenous Affairs, said he welcomed the apology.
“It’s something that matters greatly to the survivors of the Ile-a-la-Crosse residential school,” he said in a news release.
“The provincial government needs to ensure that it works in true partnership with the survivors and meets all of its obligations under the terms of today’s settlement.”
According to the United4 Survivors news release, the “unjust” exclusion of Ile-a-la-Crosse students was described by the Saskatchewan Court of King’s Bench as one of the Indian Residential School Agreement’s “more significant imperfections” of 2006.
“Resolving this class action lawsuit is an overdue but vital step in the Survivor’s decades-long struggle for acknowledgement of their experiences of cultural and linguistic harms, as well as physical and sexual abuse at the Ile-a-la-Crosse School,” reads the news release.
In addition to promises to “promote reconciliation, healing, wellness, education, language, culture and commemoration in the community,” under the Agreement in Principle, the Saskatchewan Government will pay $42.2 million “to provide restitution to former Ile-a-la-Crosse students and their families.
“It’s a relief to reach this agreement with Saskatchewan,” plaintiff, committee member, and elder Margaret Aubichon said in a press release. “It’s been a very long battle, and we’ve lost a lot of Survivors on the way here. Finally, we’re close to having some closure for the remaining Survivors of Ile-a-la-Crosse School, and recognition and compensation for all the harm that we experienced as children.”
editorial@paherald.sk.ca
