MPs To Debate Residential Schools Resolution

MPs To Debate Residential Schools Resolution

Thursday, March 31, 2005 at 13:14

Northern Saskatchewan’s Member of Parliament is hoping there will be enough pressure put on the federal government to change the way it deals with residential school abuse victims.

Jeremy Harrison sits on a Commons committee which recently issued a report calling for the government’s Alternative Dispute Resolution process to be scrapped.

The report will be tabled and debated in the House of Commons next week, and Harrison is confident the Opposition will use its majority to approve the report’s recommendations.

If that happens, the Liberals are not legally obligated to make changes, but Harrison believes there’s a chance they will bow to the pressure.

Harrison says the committee’s report echoes recommendations made by the Assembly of First Nations and the Canadian Bar Association.

The report concludes that the ADR process re-victimizes survivors of the residential schools, and is compensating victims with very modest settlements at too slow a pace.