BishopAccountability.org
	Residential Schools Helped Raise Generations of US Wawatay News [Canada] April 26, 2005 Government needs new approach to compensation The words are beguiling. "Please call the Help Desk … if you or someone you know is triggered while reading the content on this website." The Indian Residential Schools Resolution Canada website is filled with flowery phrases that have the same effect as patting a child's head, while cooing "I understand." Understand what? The destruction of cultures and languages. The murders of children who are buried in unmarked graves. The walking wounded who drink too much alcohol and beat their loved ones because a supervisor, minister or priest decided a five-year-old was a consenting adult. When the Canadian government first launched its alternative dispute resolution plan, in 2003, it did so against the better judgement of those it was intended for – former residential school students. The voluntary process is meant to settle out-of-court claims of physical and sexual abuse and wrongful confinement at Indian residential schools. "I have vague recollections of school," my mother said to me recently. "I remember this large room and all the students were there. In the front there were students lined up. All of a sudden they were standing there naked, holding their clothes, which were neatly folded. "They were then strapped with this thick wide black belt on their bare butts. And then lined up to have their hair shaved off. "They were standing there naked and bald, holding their neatly folded clothes. "Those are the kinds of memories I have of Pelican Lake (Indian Residential School)." My mother, now in her fifties, is conceivably one of more than 70,000 that have chosen not to pursue compensation from either the government or the church. Why? She believes financial compensation can never address the deep-seeded pain she carries as a result of going to residential school. Since the government began receiving applications for its laughable ADR process in early 2004, a handful of cases have been settled through adjudicators, with compensation ranging from a maximum of $166,000 for sexual abuse to a paltry $500 for claims of wrongful confinement and/or physical abuse. Out of nearly 12,000 legal claims, more than 1,200 decided to go with the ADR process. Out of 161 claims submitted for adjudication, 72 decisions have been issued since early 2004. That's 72 settlements out of 1,200. That's 72 former students who received no more than $166,000 for their abuse and no less than $500. So, if we were to apply the ADRs compensation formula to the students who were stripped naked and shaved bald in front of their peers as my mother described, what is their pain and suffering worth? The whole process makes me sick. And I am glad the government is finally realizing what a joke the ADR process truly is. The Standing Committee on Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development released its fourth report on the effectiveness of the ADR process last week, calling for the program to be abolished. Citing fiscal mismanagement and absence of administrative control, the committee also criticized Minister Anne MacLellan for her "apparent disconnectedness" from people her department is supposed to be helping. The committee found the minister's evidence "unapologetic and self-congratulatory with respect to both the underlying framework and the results of the ADR process." The report is by no means a shock. The Assembly of First Nations has continually condemned the ADR process. In its most recent analysis released Nov. 17, 2004, the AFN found the process treated survivors unequally by compensating some 100 per cent and others 70 per cent. The November report also states the process "fails to address or compensate for emotional abuse, loss of family life, forced labour, and loss of language and culture." In addition, the AFN report found the process took too long and its administrative costs are higher than what's actually flowing out to former students. What people fail to understand is the far-reaching consequences of residential schools. Its effects have spread, not only by infecting former students, but generations thereafter. As a child, I thought it was normal for parents to hit/slap/shove/kick and scream. It wasn't until much later, when I had my first child, that something struck me about the way I was raised. It's not right to demean a child. It's not right to strip a child of their dignity. It's not right to physically abuse a child. It's not right to de-humanize a child. It's right to love a child. It's right for a child to feel safe. It's right for a child to feel cherished. It's right for a child to speak. It's right for a child to laugh. Of her experiences at residential school, she said, "I was raised by concrete walls. The school's walls were my parents." And in turn my parents were akin to concrete walls, strong but cold. I implore people to understand Canada's history and part of that history is Indian residential schools. So, when the government tackles the issue of compensation again, do so with the understanding that it's part of a much bigger process. Do it knowing the process is part of helping entire nations re-build their identities.