A Saskatchewan chief who signed an out-of-court settlement for residential-school abuse says his members have been cheated.
Bryan McNabb, chief of the Gordon First Nation in Punnichy, Sask., said other First Nations should hold out for more money and not go for the quick buck.
“I don’t think my people are being treated fairly,” he said.
McNabb’s community was the first to sue Ottawa over abuse at the residential schools, but then hastily agreed to deals ranging from $8,000 to $180,000, depending on the severity of the abuse.
McNabb urged other chiefs to fight for bigger payouts in line with the $4 million the Ontario government gave this year to the three surviving Dionne quintuplets for exploiting them as a tourist attraction.
So far, Ottawa has only settled with victims of former residential-school employees who have already been convicted of sexual abuse.
The feds had paid out about $20 million in 200 cases as of last March 1998, and the final tally will easily reach hundreds of millions or billions of dollars. So far, there have been 1,600 claims.
The amounts vary depending on where the abuse took place, because Ottawa has been striking deals based on how much a province’s courts would award.
Most of the payments so far have been made to former students of the Gordon Indian Residential School in Saskatchewan. William Starr, the former director, was convicted in 1993 of sexually abusing the children ending in 1984.
Lawsuits blamed Ottawa for not checking Starr’s background and failing to fire him when allegations first surfaced. The money being paid is far short of what former students sought.
An estimated 105,000 children passed through the system across Canada before the last schools closed.
“We’re opening new files every week,” said Jeff Scott, a Regina lawyer. “The primary reason people are coming forward is because it’s in the news.”
In July, Canadian Press obtained a secret Indian Affairs document that advised bureaucrats on steps to limit how much compensation would have to be paid to abused residential-school students.
The document warned against use of the word “apology,” underlining that it’s better to use “an expression of regret” formulated “in a way not to blame anyone.”
Bureaucrats were also advised that, in the long run, it would be cheaper to make out-of-court settlements with former students, as opposed to letting claims go before a judge.
When Indian Affairs Minister Jane Stewart made her Declaration of Reconciliation last year, many believed she carefully avoided saying anything that would increase Ottawa’s liabilities for the residential schools.
The declaration was accepted by the Assembly of First Nations, but other Native officials said it was insufficient.
