Average payment of $100,000 to $150,000 for serious sexual, physical abuse at residential school
Nunatsiaq Online
11 August 2011
SARAH ROGERS
Former residential school student Jack Anawak, pictured here at Nunavut Sivuniksavut last spring, says former residential school students don’t know enough about the compensation they’re entitled to, such as the Indepent Assessment Process, which compensates students who suffered physical and sexual abuse. “I think people just need a nudge,” he said. (PHOTO BY SARAH ROGERS)
The Independent Assessment Program, which has paid out over 20,000 claims to former residential school students so far across Canada, seems to have hit a roadblock in Nunavut, said Steve Cooper, an Edmonton-based lawyer who has represented former residential school students for nearly two decades. (PHOTO BY JANE GEORGE)
Fewer former residential school students from Nunavut who suffered physical and sexual abuse as children have applied to a federal compensation program than have other former residential school students.
That federal program, called the Independent Assessment Process, is one element of the Indian Residential School Settlement Agreement, which Canadian courts approved in 2007.
But, unlike the Common Experience Payment, or CEP, which is available to anyone who attended an aboriginal residential school, you have to apply separately for the Independent Assessment Process, or IAP.
The IAP is aimed at those former students who suffered sexual or serious physical abuse, and provides them with compensation on top of the CEP.
The program, which has paid out over 20,000 claims so far across Canada, seems to have hit a roadblock in Nunavut, said Steve Cooper, an Edmonton-based lawyer who has represented former residential school students for nearly two decades.
“Uptake in the North seems to be far worse than in the rest of the country,” Cooper said. “There appears to be a problem.”
As of July 1, only 126 Nunavut claims for IAP had been admitted.
However, it’s difficult to put that number into context, because no one’s sure exactly how many eligible residential school survivors there are in Nunavut, and how many are eligible for the IAP.
When the residential school settlement was launched, it was estimated that at least 3,000 Nunavummiut had attended residential schools.
To date, 2,451 Nunavut students have received Common Experience Payments.
But, that means less than one per cent of the territory’s CEP recipients have also applied to IAP, too, while 11 per cent of the CEP recipients in the Northwest Territories also applied to the IAP.
Cooper believes low numbers of applications for the IAP is an issue among Inuit across the country — not just those in Nunavut.
“I think there’s a fear of having to tell their story,” said Cooper.
“One of the biggest obstacles is that the IAP is not as culturally adept as it could be,” he said. “You don’t talk about bad things [in the Inuit culture]. You forget, adapt and move in.”
But even those who are not eligible for IAP compensation in the end come out feeling satisfied, Cooper said.
“The healing power of this – monetary aside – is very important,” he said. “Everyone that finished this process came out of it feeling satisfied.”
Cooper said Nunavummiut should look to leaders like Jack Anawak, Peter Irniq and Paul Quassa, the first group of Inuit residential school survivors to go public with their experiences from school.
“They gave their generation license to come forward,” he said. “But people need to get over their fear of initiating the process.”
Inuit residential school survivors aren’t so much scared, but lack the information they need to apply for the IAP, Anawak told Nunatsiaq News.
“When students got CEP I think most people felt compensated,” he said. “They didn’t realize they could also go through this other process.”
Anawak, who went through the IAP as a test case led by Cooper in the 1990s, believes there are hundreds more Inuit students in Nunavut who are eligible.
“I would encourage anyone who thinks they have a case to apply,” he said. “It’s going to keep impacting you and your families. I think people just need a nudge.”
In additional to the money claimants may receive, they can also access counseling through the process.
But the Indian Residential Schools Adjudication Secretariat must do better at getting the word out, Anawak said.
The federal agency that administers the IAP, said in its 2010 report that it would do more to reach former residential students across the North.
The secretariat plans to hold information sessions in the Kivalliq this September, followed by visits to the Kitikmeot, Qikiqtani and Nunavik regions.
Sandra Omik, a lawyer with Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. said the sessions should be “very helpful.”
Although Omik can’t serve as legal counsel to Nunavummiut who wish to apply to the IAP, she does help refer former students to southern law firms.
NTI launched its own information campaign on the residential school settlement in 2007, but many have lost touch with the process, she said.
Today, NTI provides pamphlets outlining the IAP.
The organization also encourages law firms to offer Inuktitut translation to their clients, while lobbying the federal government to cover the cost of that service.
“It’s a bit more difficult [for former students in Nunavut] because we have a lack of lawyers,” Omik said. “That’s why NTI has been trying to bridge the gap.”
But with the help of legal counsel, the IAP is a very straightforward and confidential process.
Former students fill out an application, which is admitted to the secretariat as their claim.
Then a collection of all the students’ former documents begins in preparation of a hearing.
The hearing, which can be held in the claimant’s community or a southern city, is a private meeting between the claimant, their lawyer, an IAP representative and a representative of the federal government.
The process is non-adversarial, meaning no one is there to challenge a claim.
The average compensation for successful IAP claimants falls between $100,000 to $150,000.
Legal and travel fees are subsidized and the entire process should take between 12 and 18 months.
Survivors of residential school who have not previously opted out of the settlement have until September 2012 to apply for the IAP.
Application forms and other information are available on the secretariat’s website at http://www.iap-pei.ca/index-eng.asp.
And NTI offers an information section on the residential schools agreement on website at http://www.tunngavik.com/residential-school-section/.
(14) Comments:
#1. Posted by sid on August 11, 2011Come on, all you former Residential Students – we support you and want you to come forward and apply for this assistance.
You have all been through so much, you have suffered alot and you have a right to use this IAP process.
Yes, some of the public out there is ignorant, but do not be afraid of them, step up, find out how to fill out the forms and do it, before the deadline.
As you can see from this article, people will help you along.
You and your family have suffered for many years from what was done to you. The time is right for you to move forward on this, so don’t stay quiet and then regret after the deadline passes, that you didn’t bother to do it.
The terrible chapters of your life before the silence on this issue was finally broken must have been very difficult.
Everyone wants a better life to look forward to, doing things differently, feeling healthier, valuable and free of this burden. You, telling your story really matters!
Don’t be afraid to tell it like it was.
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#2. Posted by Nunavummiut on August 11, 2011
Reasons why.
In many cases the records are missing or wrong.
Many Inuit don’t have the patience to deal with government.
Money does not make the pain go away.
Money creates more problems, when many family members each want a piece of it and all the pieces are more than all the money.
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#3. Posted by helpless on August 11, 2011
it’s funny how many inuit complain about not having the resources available for help, but here it is again being offered. don’t get me wrong, i am inuit, i’m just tired of hearing people complain that help isn’t being offered. i tip my hat to those who have come forward and asked for it.
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#4. Posted by Clean Bean on August 12, 2011
Canadian Citizens who get sent over seas by our government to be tortured for a few months get tens of millions of dollars, wrongfully convicted Canadian Citizens who spend years behind bars get millions in compensation.
Inuit, Canadian Citizens who were kidnapped from their homes as children and sent off to be assimulated and tourtured in many more ways than one for years on in to have their government deny the facts for decades while many people stuffered with pain that none of us can even begin to understand. Many died while waiting for an apology get pocket change.
Talk about a two tier system.
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#5. Posted by Tiriraniaq on August 12, 2011
Maybe not very many Inuit suffered from sexual abuse or physical abuse. I went to residential school in Inuvik but I don’t recall seeing these abuses. Just leaving my family was traumatic enough but I honestly don’t remember anyone being abused physically or sexually. I think some of the stories are made up to get money unfortunately.
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#6. Posted by I don’t even know where to start on August 12, 2011
Let’s try this first: Was abuse by drunken teacher and hit with a yard stick in front of all my classmates, was pulled hard in my ear and send out in hall for something I didn’t do. Was sexually abuse by a teacher from GREC, who finally got caught and committee suicide as result, but my witness passed away as a result of being shot by a f**k** asshole who is still running around town. Just because I wasn’t from out of town, I never got any common experience settlement. Never will probably get IAP because I was “DAY” student. So what the hell you talking about getting help if you got abused. Even before there was such thing a residential school settlement, I have been too sexual abuse counselling, had counselling many many times to get rid of it, so i don’t need to see the counselors again, I have dealt with it already, so if started apply would they help me even though I wasn’t from out of town? Tell me more…
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#7. Posted by Hunter on August 12, 2011
Tirianiaq you are probably a person who could not even believe their own child if they told him/her they were suffering from those atrocities.
Ever wonder why there is a serious addiction problem amoung Inuit? Yah drugs and alcohol are problems but gambling is just a problem as drugs and alcohol.
People need their fix weather it is toking on the stove, getting the biggest buzz off of a $100 pint of alcohol or winning a couple hundred dollar pot playibng pattik…..they are all the same highs and lows.
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#8. Posted by I was there. . . . on August 12, 2011
If like myself, you were at Ukkivik, there were cases of abuse from students on the younger students. I for one have applied for the IAP process, back in 2007, I have yet to have a hearing, and like many did not want to disclose my abuse even though I was the victim. I am a victim no more, and have accepted the fact that I cannot change my past, but I can take care of myself now, and my own future.
The biggest concern I have is that if the family of the perpetrators find out, that I would be yet again re-traumatized for speaking out. As some people do not like to take responsibility for their actions, or live in denial that their family members could commit abuse.
It has taken longer than I anticipated, but unless the person wants to take part in this, they cannot be forced to. It is much easier to just push aside the terrible memories than relive them, as I have had to through the IAP process.
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#9. Posted by Hold On A Minute on August 12, 2011
“I don’t even know where to start” thinks that getting hit by a ruler, or pulled by the ear is physical abuse. Give me a break.
I went to public school outside of Toronto in the 60’s and yes we were hit with a pointer for not answering quick enough in math, and sometimes it was a yardstick. It really helped us to memorize our times tables.
The “strap” was a common punishment administered by the principal. The school was probably 95% white.
And you know what, generally the punishment was supported by the parents.Face it you can’t judge events 60 years ago by today’s standards.
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#10. Posted by Jobie Weetaluktuk on August 12, 2011
It is a lot more complicated than any of the posts or the news report can say. There was a policy of assimilation by one society upon another society. The cohersions on parents were under illegal duress. There were rapes of minors. Some individuals are barely or not literate, so reading the documents and filling them out is a great challenge. Many individuals have past away. Sometimes the records are lost. Some individuals are so destroyed that they cannot bring themselves to relive the memory by retelling, writing, or going through the healing process. Also the “day” students are on their own. They have to pursue their case on their own, even if it includes sexual offenses.
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#11. Posted by Hunter on August 12, 2011
Inuit never physically hurt their children and would never support others doing so.
Hold On A Minute, would you mind if I came into your house took your grand children from you without an explaination and placed them in an Inuk Ammsimilation school and preceeded to beat them for speaking english, speaking the only language they know how to communicate?
Would you mine if I then sent them to the Catholic Preist for a course how to sexually abuse those in volnerable positions?
Children died at school from the abuse, their soles were stolen. Then the children were returned to their communities and families very different people.
Trying to diminish the atrocities because they happened 60-80 years ago does nothing for anyone.
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#12. Posted by I was there . . . on August 12, 2011
Hold on a Minute, and where did you go each night? Home each day to mom amd dad or a hostel where the older kids were re-creating the abuse they encountered onto the younger more vulnerable students?
Unless, you were in this type of institution, then you will probably never fully understand the impacts it has had on many many students and families. The effects of being yanked from their parents and loved ones and herded up and sent away. Some, sadly never to be seen again.
It is more than just a ruler that they were hit with, and most times the emotional trauma takes much longer than the physical trauma to heal. I am not looking for pity, or judgement, just the option to say, that I was abused and it was not right then, it surely is not right now.
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#13. Posted by getting hit to memorize your math on August 12, 2011
Of course, getting hit by a ruler is abuse, where the hell are you from? Another planet where it it OK to get hit? I even felt like hitting you for a minute, but I can’t do that, it’s abusive. Give you a break, as you think it was a right thing to do to get hit so you can be smart. I even feel sorry for the stuff that happened back in the 60’s with you. Any kind of abuse is wrong and you know, you should at least find a way to understand it’s not right to get any kind of abuse. The world have to open up to the crazy things that has happened in the past so it won’t be repeated is the way to share and talk. If you think that is wrong, I don’t have much to say to you anymore. Hope some day you will see that. Hopefully…
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#14. Posted by La-la Land on August 12, 2011
“Inuit never physically hurt their children and would never support others doing so.”
Are you f—-‘ing kidding me?????!!!!!!
All of you people from Nunavut and those with contact to people who attended residential schools in Nunavut please pass on the information and links in the above article to those who might qualify for IAP.