CANADA
Toronto Star
By TANYA TALAGA Staff Reporter
JESSE WINTER Staff Reporter
Tues., April 25, 2017
An Ontario Court has dismissed two claims by St. Anne’s Indian Residential School survivors, saying no judicial probe is needed into the actions of the Canadian government because it did not hide 12,000 documents detailing abuse suffered while at the notorious school.
Survivors of the James Bay residential school have spent years trying to convince authorities that an investigation was needed regarding the access to 12,000 documents that were part of a lengthy criminal probe concerning abuse at the school. Five former church employees were convicted.
Ontario Superior Justice Paul Perell dismissed the claim concerning the 12,000 documents, known as the Cochrane documents, which are transcripts of confidential and privileged examinations for discovery of the testimony of nearly 1,000 St. Anne’s survivors who suffered sexual, physical and emotional abuse while at the school. Perell said Canada has provided a “transparent explanation for why the balance of the Cochrane documents have not been produced. The documents are confidential and privileged,” he wrote in his April 24, 2017 ruling.
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