Extension of Deadlines under the Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement

Wednesday September 19th 2012 was the deadline for submitting applications to the Independent Assessment Process (IAP) which awards compensation for the abuse, harm, and continuing trauma suffered by Aboriginal Peoples at Residential Schools in Canada.

The IAP is a result of the Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement (full settlement text available: http://www.residentialschoolsettlement.ca/IRS%20Settlement%20Agreement-%20ENGLISH.pdf) where the Canadian government, churches and individuals involved agreed to a resolution of the court claim.

Residential Schools were operated in Canada for much of the 19th and 20th centuries; the last school closing in Manitoba in 1996. It has been estimated that at least 150,000 students went to these schools.

Approximately 80,000 survivors did not submit claims by the deadline.

Applications for compensation for the abuse, harm, and trauma these surviving students will not be accepted after September 19th 2012 without permission from a court and these survivors rights to make a claim in the IAP will be FOREVER EXTINGUISHED.

In making an application, people are asked to give explicit details about the type, form, frequency and affects of the abuse they suffered while in Residential Schools. For many these are experiences that they have spent a lifetime repressing and it may take a lifetime for them to come to a place where they are able to speak about what happened and how it has affected them and their families. They were given 5 years.

As Assembly of First Nations National Chief Shawn Atleo also said
“It should be noted that over 30 per cent of First Nations in Canada live in remote and isolated communities, many with minimal to not access to internet or postal services. We are concerned that there are homeless, incarcerated or those living across the border who are similarly disadvantaged … [and that] far too many former students of residential schools have not achieved just resolution of their grievances through the Indian Residential School Settlement Agreement application process.”