And now:"S.I.S.I.S." <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
ARE FUNDS FOR RESIDENTIAL SCHOOL SURVIVORS REALLY ABOUT "HEALING"?
1. "Healing funds" heal few
2. "Aboriginal Healing Foundation" Appointment
3. Lawyers clean up from res school claims
"...we must misunderstand Indian Residential School to the extent to which
we think that the pathology in the system lies within the survivors of the
individual survivors of the Residential School experience. The pathology
that you are looking for is not in the pathology of the people who went
through the experience, the pathology is in the system of order that gave
rise to that Residential School, that saw it in operation, that put it in
operation, that thought it was a good thing, that patted itself on the
back occasionally saying: 'aren't we doing well by our brown cousins?; we're
bringing them freedom and we're bringing them into this particular
world; aren't we generous? and all they are paying for it is all of their
land, all of their trees, all of their minerals, all of their water, their
freedom,their language, their religions, every aspect of their form of
life, that's all they're paying....'
"I'll tell you. Give us back all the land, give us back the payment for
everything stolen, meet your obligations under the Treaties and I will see
how many of us are still sick. Even if we are sick, we have the right as
sovereign people to decide what we are going to do about it--not accept
Health and Welfare Canada's pronouncement that 'it's twenty sessions with
a psychologist and you're out the door, that's it, you're cured.'"
- from speech delivered in Edmonton, Alberta, by Dr. Roland
Chrisjohn, Member of Iroquois Confederacy (Oneida), healer
("psychologist"), author of "The Circle Game"
Excerpts of speech at:
http://kafka.uvic.ca/~vipirg/SISIS/resschool/chrisjohn.html
Full text of "The Circle Game" at:
http://www.treaty7.org/document/circle/circlint.htm
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HEALING FUND HEALS FEW RESIDENTIAL SCHOOL VICTIMS IN '98
Canadian Press, December 30, 1998 by Wendy Cox
VANCOUVER (CP) - All the apologies, the money, the court judgments and
the soul-searching came too late to save Darryl Watts from the ghosts of
his torturous days at the Alberni Indian Residential School. Watts either
stumbled or jumped off a pier into Nanaimo harbour last fall. He had just
found out that the case to determine compensation for him and other abused
students was delayed - again - until April.
Watts' family says something in Darryl died long before his plunge into
the harbour. Before this year's apologies from the churches that ran the
schools. Before a judge ruled the churches and the federal government
were responsible for the crimes committed in the institutions they ran.
Before Indian Affairs Minister Jane Stewart offered a $350-million healing
fund and an apology. And before thousands of aboriginal people joined
lawsuits demanding compensation for their experiences in the schools,
ensuring the legal wrangling will stretch into the millennium and the
sharp pain of memory will continue to cut.
By 1998, despite all the developments in the residential school saga,
Watts had slipped into heavy alcoholism. His family blamed it on the
sexual and physical abuse he suffered at the Port Alberni institution,
where he was sent at age four in the 1960s. "He was quite distraught about
the case carrying on," said Marlon Watts, Darryl's brother. "I'm really
concerned about some of the other (victims.) They're feeling quite
unstable themselves."
Stewart opened the door to the torrent of lawsuits when she uttered the
word sorry during a news conference last January to deliver her Statement
of Reconciliation and announce the fund for victims of abuse. Then a B.C.
Supreme Court decision last June kicked the door wide. The judge found the
United Church and the federal government equally responsible for abuses
suffered at the Port Alberni school and must share compensation. All sides
are appealing. The ruling came after Arthur Henry Plint, now 80, pleaded
guilty to dozens of sexual assaults on aboriginal boys. Plint was
described by the judge as a "sexual terrorist."
Students from the more than 80 schools across Canada have retained
lawyers and recounted secrets many choked to tell out loud. "I had a woman
who told me that just preparing (her statement) took two months because
she kept crying, "said Regina lawyer Tony Merchant, who is acting on behalf
of a couple hundred natives launching lawsuits. "She said I'd stopped
thinking about any of those things."
Relief is a long way off. Court attempts to sort out compensation for
victims continue to drag on and the federal government announced this
month it wouldn't begin distributing money from the healing fund until
March. The fund won't compensate individual victims. Instead, it's aimed
at communities and will be awarded to mostly new projects that will help
victims, their families or descendants. The package was endorsed by
Assembly of First Nations Chief Phil Fontaine, but it was decried as too
little, too late by other aboriginal leaders.
The Provincial Residential School Project, a B.C. group backed by the
provinces 219 bands, is demanding $500,000 in compensation for each
student who attended the schools in the province. Simply forcing natives
into the schools was a form of cultural genocide on everyone who attended,
project members argue. Such compensation would push the claims in British
Columbia alone to $8 billion. More than 100,000 Canadians report having
attended a residential school.
Shawn Tupper, who handles the residential school file for the Indian
Affairs Department, described the number of lawsuits as staggering.
Stewart said earlier this year her department is looking at a separate
settlement package for claimants.
In an effort to avoid tedious and expensive court proceedings, the
United Church appointed an adviser to look for alternatives. The church
also apologized formally last October. The statement came one week after
new evidence showed church and federal officials knew about abuse at the
schools as early as 1960, but did nothing about it.
Meanwhile, the court cases - civil and criminal - continue. Last month,
the Roman Catholic Church, the federal government and 10 aboriginal men
who were sexually assaulted at the St. Joseph's residential school near
Williams Lake, B.C., reached a settlement. The agreement includes an
undisclosed financial payout, apologies from the church and the government
and an agreement that all the parties will take part in a healing circle.
Natives who attended the Anglican-run Mohawk Residential School in
Brantford, Ont., launched a $2.4-billion, class-action suit last October.
Many of the claimants never actually attended the school but are claiming
damages because their parents did. In August, a former residential school
supervisor in Inuvik, N.W.T., was sentenced to 10 years in prison for
sexually abusing teenage students in his care at Grollier Hall between
1967 to 1979.
The irony, says Ron Hamilton, a Nuu-Chah-Nulth native living in Port
Alberni, is that the turmoil of today is a result of a system that did
exactly as it was supposed to - force aboriginal people into the
mainstream. "People came home very confused. Most of them left and did not
go back."
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EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR FOR ABORIGINAL HEALING FOUNDATION APPOINTMENT
Khatou News, December 1998
Ottawa, Ontario - George Erasmus, Chair of the Board of the Aboriginal
Healing Foundation is pleased to announce the appointment of Michael
Degagne as Executive Director. Mr. Degagne becomes the first Executive
Director of the newly created Aboriginal Healing Foundation, following ten
successful years with Provincial, Federal and non-governmental
organizations. He held key positions with the Canadian Center on Substance
Abuse, Health Canada, and the Department of Indian and Northern Northern
Affairs.
He also served as Senior Negotiator for the Federal Government in its
negotiations over the Labrador Inuit Association Comprehensive Claim in
1996. Dr Degagne also served as the Chairman, Indigenous Peoples Section,
International Council on Alcohol and Addictions in 1997. Mr Degagne is
Ojibway, he was born in Ontario. He is a graduate of the University of
Toronto, (BSc), and completed Masters degree in Health Administration from
Central Michigan University/California State University. Mr. Degagne is
currently completing his PhD with Michigan State University.
The Aboriginal Healing Foundation is governed by a Board composed of
leaders from First Nations, Metis and Inuit; it has been established to
support healing and wellness initiatives for survivors of residential
schools.
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RESIDENTIAL SCHOOL ABUSE SWAMPS FEDERAL LAWYERS
CBC News Webposted Wed Dec 30 17:48:34 1998
TORONTO - The federal government has tripled the number of lawyers it has
working on lawsuit sllegations of abuse at residential schools. Half of the
2000 lawsuits filed across the country are based in Saskatchewan. So far,
about 225 Saskatchewan cases have been settled.
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SOVEREIGNTY IS THE ANSWER - CANADA IS THE PROBLEM
"Present-day symptomology found in Aboriginal Peoples and societies
does not constitute a distinct psychological condition, but is the
well-known and long studied response of human beings living under
conditions of severe and prolonged oppression. Although there is no doubt
that individuals who attended Residential Schools suffered, and continue
to suffer, from the effects of their experiences, the tactic of
pathologizing these individuals, studying their condition, and offering
'therapy' to them and their communities must be seen as another rhetorical
maneuver designed to obscure (to the world at large, to Aboriginal
Peoples, and to the Canadians themselves) the moral and financial
accountability of Eurocanadian society in a continuing record of Crimes
Against Humanity."
- from speech delivered in Edmonton, Alberta, by Dr. Roland
Chrisjohn, Member of Iroquois Confederacy (Oneida), healer
("psychologist"), author of "The Circle Game"
Excerpts of speech at:
http://kafka.uvic.ca/~vipirg/SISIS/resschool/chrisjohn.html
Full text of "The Circle Game" at:
http://www.treaty7.org/document/circle/circlint.htm
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In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, this material is
distributed without profit or payment to those who have expressed
a prior interest in receiving this information for non-profit
research and educational purposes only.
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S.I.S.I.S. Settlers In Support of Indigenous Sovereignty
P.O. Box 8673, Victoria, "B.C." "Canada" V8X 3S2
EMAIL : <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
WWW: http://kafka.uvic.ca/~vipirg/SISIS/SISmain.html
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