CAMPAIGN UPDATE:

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On Friday, June 22nd, 2018 Charlie Angus issued a press release calling for an end to the legal battle waged by the government and the Catholic Church. The Government of Canada also continues to pursue costs against St. Anne’s survivors’ lawyer, Fay Brunning.

 

At a meeting earlier in the spring, Angus and St. Anne's survivors met with Minister Bennett where they were told these issues would end. They need to, immediately. This bad faith has gone on long enough.

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Angela Shisheesh, a St. Anne's survivor, was in Ontario Superior Court on June 22nd, arguing that her civil proceeding over abuse committed at St. Anne’s, which took place before the Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement (IRSSA) was concluded in 2006, was never subject to settlement privilege that would allow the Catholic Church or the government the right to disallow its submission to the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation. Shisheesh’s case was one of 18,000 filed at the time the IRSSA was concluded.

 

This is about recognizing that survivors’ stories belong to them, and allow them to lend them to the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation. Canada needs these stories in our common historical record.

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Establishing a right for survivors whose legal proceedings for redress began before the IRSSA have a right to have their testimony be part of the historical record if they so choose. One of the components of the IRSSA was the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and recognized the need for Canadians to have a full picture of the residential school system. If survivors want their stories to be part of the record, they have that right.