A talented author who used his gifts to draw attention to the intergenerational trauma faced by his family and many others as a result of the Residential Schools in Canada. Such a loss at only 61 years old. Our deepest sympathies to his family and friends.
Here is a link to the CBC article about his passing.
Recently released, here is the executive summary on residential schools, the survivors’ stories, and the call to action from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada. There has also been extensive news coverage in Canada surrounding the release of the report.
Executive Summary (pdf, 388 pages)
The Survivors Speak (pdf, 260 pages)
Calls to Action (pdf, 20 pages)
Thanks to Treena for sending them our way.
I tend to tweet most articles about Canada and First Nations issues we follow, but here’s a post for Concurring Opinions collecting some of them together as an introduction for readers who are may be unfamiliar with the stories.
Here.
St. Anne’s Residential School survivors are before the Ontario Superior Court today in a bid to get the federal government to release documents the former students say would help corroborate their claims of abuse.
The documents they want are from a five-year Ontario Provincial Police investigation in the 1990s, as well as files from the subsequent trials that resulted in several convictions against school staff and supervisors.
Stirland Lake and Cristal Lake have been added to the already 130+ number of schools that have been identified and listed under Schedules “E” or “F” of Canada’s Residential Schools Settlement Agreement. Here’s the decision, Fontaine v. Canada (Attorney General).
Recently, the Merchant Law Group, a law firm which was a major player in the Residential Schools Settlement Agreement, was in the Saskatchewan Court of Queen’s Bench, arguing that a $3000 unpaid assignment of debt from one of its clients (a former residential school student) should not be entered against the law firm.
The assignment was provided to the client by Saskatchewan Government Insurance (SGI) which argued that Merchant Law Group is now liable to pay it because of its failure to honor the Assignment of Proceeds when the firm issued money to the client. The decision is here.
Here’s a few gems from the decision:
Turtle Talk 