Many survivors of indigenous day schools say the multi-billion dollar settlement with Ottawa is causing more pain CBC News has learned One Survivor is appealing the agreement to the Supreme Court Olivia stefanovich is covering this story as she does so many of our indigenous reports this morning tell us
About this the day school survivors Olivia and why they are looking to the highest court in the land now well Heather this case comes from a day school survivor named Jesse Waldren who says she experienced difficulties applying for compensation not only because it resurfaced trauma but she
Says she couldn’t reach anyone from the settlement agreement for help not the Claims Administrator deoe or the law firm hired to represent survivors gowling now there was a hotline set up for survivors through this settlement agreement where they could call to get assistance with filling out their claims
Waldren said she did that multiple times but couldn’t get through so at one point walren says she drove all the way from her home in Grand Prairie Alberta to her first nation of Waterhead Lake in Northern Saskatchewan a 10-hour Drive she was supposed to meet with lawyers from goling who were visiting the
Community but when she arrived Heather she says that the meeting was cancelled so out of frustration and Desperation walren says she applied for the least amount of compensation $10,000 it was only afterwards when she spoke to other survivors did she realize that she could hire her own lawyer so
She did just that and she was given legal advice that she could have applied for up to $150,000 based on on the abuse that she suffered at day school so they tried to resubmit her claim but she was denied I have to say I was felt traumatized again victimized again I
Humiliated I just all good all not a feel the feelings were not good at all I was angry frustrated traumatized victimized again and again now Heather Waldren says that she’s not the only Survivor in this situation there are many other survivors she says who applied for the least amount of compensation because they
Could not get assistance from anyone to fill out their claims walren challenged the settlement in court she went before the federal court and federal court of appeal and in both those decisions the justices showed symp for walren but they essentially said that the rules of the settlement are the rules so she could
Only submit her application once and now she’s turning to Canada’s highest bench to see if they will hear her appeal Olivia this multi-billion dollar settlement was supposed to mean Justice for the survivors clearly it hasn’t in all cases so what is the government’s response to this well we had the chance
To catch up with Canada’s former Justice Minister David lametti who was attorney general at the time that this settlement was approved by the federal court back in 2019 and LTI says that at that time the government had good intentions that it wanted to settle with survivors instead of continuing litigation in
Court and that it tried to create a process that would be as painless as possible so survivors in this case they didn’t have to go through adversarial hearings and be cross-examined by federal lawyers like they did in the Indian uh residential school settlement Heather instead Day School survivors all
They had to do was fill out a form but that’s when the problem started and LTI says there are lessons to be learned here did we get it completely perfectly uh no can we do better next time I hope so uh because that’s certainly what we’re going to have to keep doing these
Kinds of settlements will continue uh and we’re just going to have to keep improving on the process each time now Heather we reached out to deoe and ging for a response for this story a Communications firm uh got back to us denying our interview requests but did
Say uh that they will not comment on third-party views about this court approved deal
A Cree survivor of the federal Indian day school system is asking the Supreme Court to intervene in a multibillion-dollar settlement agreement amid allegations survivors have been shortchanged and retraumatized by the compensation process.
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