Learning the Truth on Aboriginal Residential Schools Hampered by Slow Work of Harper Government
By Mark Kennedy
The federal government appears to be dragging its feet on a court-ordered obligation to provide millions of documents from Library and Archives Canada to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) that is examining the residential schools scandal. The records are needed by the commission to learn the truth of the decades-long saga, such as piecing together the role played by the federal government — including former cabinet ministers and senior bureaucrats. Between the 1870s and 1996, about 150,000 aboriginal children were pulled from their homes by the federal government and sent to the church-run schools, where many suffered physical and sexual abuse and at least 4,000 died. Postmedia News has learned that Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s government, a full year after being ordered by a court to produce the records to the commission, hasn’t even issued a request for proposal (RFP) for outside firms to bid on a contract to sort through the documents at federal archives so they can be passed along. Meanwhile, time is ticking for the commission, which recently had its mandate extended, but must nonetheless submit its report by June of 2015. In reality, it must finish the writing of its multi-volume report months earlier than that so it can be translated and prepared for release. Already, the commission’s executive director says the government’s slowness means that the TRC won’t get access to all of the internal documents it needs to write its report. “All along, we have been expressing our concern about the delay,” Kimberly Murray said in an interview Thursday. “I think it’s very unfortunate. We are really trying to get what we need for the writing of the report. But there’s no way all these documents will make their way to the TRC before the end of the mandate.” Murray said she has been told by officials in Aboriginal Affairs that the RFP has been delayed because the department does not yet have approval from Treasury Board to spend the money. Aboriginal Affairs says there is no “definitive cost projection” for the work, but the estimated cost for the research contract is $14 million. Murray said the department hopes to get the RFP issued in March and have a research firm chosen to begin the work by June — a timeline she worries will come and go without any action. As a stopgap measure, the government has given the commission $1.6 million since last summer to hire researchers to pore through archival documents, but that money is due to expire March 31. “What they’re basically doing is paying us to do what they’re supposed to do,” said Murray. “They’re going to have to flow more money to us, but they haven’t confirmed they are. So the project will come to a complete halt if they don’t find money to flow to us on April 1.” NDP aboriginal affairs critic Jean Crowder said Thursday that the delay is unacceptable and raises questions about whether the government is deliberating trying to hide records. “It does make you wonder why they’re dragging their feet,” she said. “You can’t help but wonder what’s in those documents that the government doesn’t want the commission to have.” Ultimately, she said, it will harm the credibility of the commission’s report because it lacks access to all the necessary documents. “It will lead people like me and others to question what this government is trying to hide.” The residential schools saga, which scarred the lives of thousands of aboriginal children and their families, is considered by many to be Canada’s greatest historical shame. A lawsuit against the federal government and churches resulted in a settlement that included payments to those affected and the creation in 2008 of the commission. Its job is to hold public hearings so people can tell their stories, collect records and establish a National Research Centre. At the time, Harper issued a heartfelt apology to aboriginals in the House of Commons for the residential schools. The problem is that the commission found itself in a conflict with Harper’s government, which was transferring some documents but not all of the material in Library and Archives Canada (LAC) that was deemed “relevant” to the residential schools saga. The dispute ended up in court, where a judge ruled in the commission’s favour on Jan. 30, 2013. Documents obtained by Postmedia News through the Access to Information Act reveal that in the weeks following that court ruling, senior officials at the archives and Canadian Heritage were warning then-heritage minister James Moore that the cost of retrieving the documents for the commission would be significant. “LAC is of the view that this work far exceeds its operational and financial capacities,” said one briefing note. “It is estimated that millions of school-related documents in the archives could occupy 6.5 kilometres of shelf space, and finding them could cost as much as $100 million,” said another background document. Ultimately, it fell to the Aboriginal Affairs Department to lead an internal government effort on how to compile the records and transfer them to the commission. This week, the department confirmed that an RFP has not yet been issued to find a private firm to do the job. It said there are about 70,000 boxes which must be searched at the archives for “relevant documents.” Officials at the department declined requests to answer questions — such as why the RFP has not yet been posted — through an interview. Instead, Aboriginal Affairs Minister Bernard Valcourt’s office issued a four-paragraph statement by email. “Our Government remains committed to achieving a fair and lasting resolution to the legacy of Indian Residential Schools,” said the statement. “That is why the Prime Minister made a historic apology on behalf of all Canadians in 2008 and why we have disclosed over 4.1 million documents to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.” Contact: mkennedy@postmedia.com
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