CANADA
The Globe and Mail
GLORIA GALLOWAY
OTTAWA — The Globe and Mail
Published Thursday, Feb. 02, 2017
A lengthy review by Ottawa of people abused as children at Canada’s infamous Indian residential schools has found that fewer than 200 claims were dismissed or reduced after federal lawyers successfully argued that some of the institutions ceased being subject to a massive settlement deal.
But the year-long analysis did not look at how many former students of the church-run schools withdrew their claims after being convinced that the legal argument, known as the administrative split, left them with no chance of receiving an award under the Indian Residential Schools settlement agreement.
Nor has the government explicitly acknowledged that those who were refused money as a result of the administrative-split argument now deserve redress.
The Indigenous Affairs Department sent a letter late last week to members of the committee that administers the agreement – the largest class action in Canadian history – to advise them that the “urgent” review ordered last February by Minister Carolyn Bennett into the administrative split had been completed. That letter said department officials have determined that former students at 22 of the 139 schools listed in the settlement were affected by the argument and that “fewer than 200 claims” were impacted.
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