Ile-a-la-Crosse boarding school. Photo courtesy of Facebook.
Indigenous Affairs Canada says a settlement in the Ile-a-la-Crosse boarding school compensation fight is being held up because of legal issues.
In a letter, posted on the school’s Facebook page, Senior Deputy Minister, Jeff Moore, writes: “There are two competing class actions before the courts creating complications in moving the case forward.”
Moore encourages the survivors to contact their lawyers and the Government of Saskatchewan, in an effort to move the case forward. The letter was sent to the daughter of a former resident of the school, who has since passed away.
The chair of a local committee representing the survivors, Jim Durocher, is not discouraged. He met last fall with the Indigenous Affairs Minister Carolyn Bennett in Ile-a-la-Crosse, and he is confident it’s just a matter of a couple of more months before the case can be settled.
“I know that people are anxious and are upset over the length of time it has taken,” he said. “I would say within the next couple of months, we should be well on the way to get a table to start negotiating.”
Bennett has said she would rather negotiate than litigate.
The Ile-a-la-Crosse school was not included in the residential school settlement because it was considered a boarding school, not a residential school and because it was being run by the church, rather than the government.
Former residents have been fighting for more than 10 years for compensation. The school, which operated from 1860 until the 1980’s was demolished in February of this year.
Bennett visited the school and met with Durocher last September.