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Visit the Shingwauk 2006 home page. Oct. 22, 2005. 01:00 AM Supreme Court rejects challenge
to `residential schools'
Shingwauk Alumni Council Endorses Residential Schools Political Agreement but Calls for Immediate Compensation for Elderly and Sick Press Release
The Shingwauk Alumni Council, the executive body of the Children of Shingwauk Alumni Association (CSAA), has given its support to the Political Agreement on Residential Schools signed by Canada and the Assembly of First Nations (AFN) last week. The thirty-member Alumni Council, which represents the Association of former students formed out of the closure of the Shingwauk Indian Residential School in 1970, held its annual meeting at the Shingwauk campus over the weekend. It endorsed in principle the Political Agreement, the appointment of former Supreme Court Justice Frank Iacobucci and welcomed the commitment of the Government of Canada and the AFN to have a comprehensive strategy in place by March 31, 2006. In doing so, however, the Council stressed it is crucial that the compensation needs of the elderly and sick be addressed immediately and that all those eligible as of June 1, 2005 be included in the compensation package. Council members were determined that as so many survivors have already crossed over to the Spirit World without any form of redress that not one more survivor or survivor family be allowed to suffer this indignity. This one element of the Political Agreement must be fast-tracked. The Council views the Political Agreement as an expression of trust and commitment by both Canada and the AFN to work toward a comprehensive multi-faceted long-term agreement that will represent the beginning of the holistic healing, restoration and reconciliation process that needs to take place. The Shingwauk Alumni Council emphasizes that all the elements of the comprehensive strategy are equally important and must be fully developed and fully implemented: a full and formal apology; a settlement package for all former students; a revised ADR process that will address serious abuse; long-term community-based healing programs; resources and means to support survivor-based organizations; a truth and reconciliation process involving all Canadians; a nation-wide education strategy; commemoration; and other identified elements as appropriate. On behalf of the Children of Shingwauk Alumni, the Shingwauk Alumni Council looks forward to participating in the development and implementation of the comprehensive strategy.
Read the Political Accord
(May 12, 2005 CANADIAN PRESS) Hundreds of former students of an Ontario native residential school who say they were abused by instructors out to "Christianize" them can go ahead with a class-action lawsuit against the federal government. "It's been a long time but it's a step in the right direction," said Sylvia DeLeary, who says she was a victim of the shocking abuse at the Mohawk Institute near Brantford in the 1940s. Ottawa's request to appeal a previous court ruling allowing the class-action lawsuit was dismissed today by the Supreme Court of Canada.
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