Federal Crown Offers Unequal Treatment to Aboriginals in Newfoundland and Labrador Residential Schools Class Action

Last week, Justice Robert Fowler of the Supreme Court of Newfoundland and Labrador, granted an order allowing five residential school class actions to proceed by being certified as class actions.  Given that courts in nine other provinces and territories have given certification orders in similar actions based on similar issues, it might have been odd if the Newfoundland and Labrador court had not certified.  However, after some preliminary battling and a year on reserve while the judge worked hard on writing up the decision, finally our clients have certification and can proceed as a class.

In 2007, the federal government agreed to a $2 billion compensation package for aboriginal persons who were forced to attend residential schools here in Canada, but not including Newfoundland and Labrador.  And when the Prime Minister apologized formally to residential school survivors, Newfoundland and Labrador aboriginal residents were not included either.

The reason for this unequal treatment of Newfoundland and Labrador aboriginal persons rests in the fact that when Newfoundland and Labrador entered Confederation in 1949, the schools administered by the Moravians and by the Grenfell Association were already practicing the abuses complained of.  The federal government seems to have the idea that it had no responsibility for these abuses even though they may have continued up to the late 70s.  Mr. Justice Fowler found that it is certainly arguable that Canada did have such responsibilities, and that was all he had to find in order to certify.  But Newfoundlanders and Labradorians may not be surprised to see that once again, our residents are being offered unequal treatment.

The Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement which applies elsewhere in Canada includes an initial payout for each person who attended a residential school of $10,000 in money damages, plus $3,000 per year for each year of attendance.  Further amounts are available depending on proof of injuries, and teams of adjudicators are available to deal with claims for the increased amounts.  About 90,000 people are eligible for compensation, of which about 12,000 have so far decided to claim for the larger amounts through adjudication of their money damages claims.

I did an interview with CBC explaining the ins and outs of the Newfoundland and Labrador class actions in more detail.