Archive - Nov 23, 2005

Agreement IN PRINCIPLE compensation package for residential school victims announced

Government PRESS RELEASE

Government of Canada Announces AGREEMENT IN PRINCIPLE Toward a Fair and Lasting Resolution of the Legacy of Indian Residential Schools

OTTAWA (November 23, 2005) – The Honourable Anne McLellan, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister responsible for Indian Residential Schools Resolution Canada, the Honourable Irwin Cotler, Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada, and the Honourable Andy Scott, Minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development announced today that the parties involved have reached an Agreement in Principle toward a fair and lasting resolution of the legacy of Indian residential schools.

“The Government’s Representative, the Honourable Frank Iacobucci, has reached an Agreement in Principle with the Assembly of First Nations, legal representatives of former students of Indian residential schools and representatives of the Churches involved in running those schools. The parties to Mr. Iacobucci’s discussions are in agreement on the ways to recognize the common Indian residential school experience of former students” said Deputy Prime Minister McLellan.

“The Agreement in Principle proposes a common experience payment to be paid to all former students of Indian residential schools, an improved alternative dispute resolution process for claims of serious abuse, as well as measures to support healing, commemorative activities, and further investigation and education concerning past policies and their continuing impact on Aboriginal Canadians and their families” added the Deputy Prime Minister.

“I would like to thank the Honourable Frank Iacobucci for his extraordinary efforts over the past six months,” said Minister Cotler. “The historic agreement he has reached with former students’ counsel, the Assembly of First Nations, and Church representatives reflects a shared vision of a fair, just and lasting resolution of the Indian residential school legacy.”

“This Agreement in Principle is a landmark agreement,” said Minister Scott, “and as we prepare for the First Minister’s Meeting on Aboriginal issues, today’s announcement reaffirms the Government’s commitment to strengthening relationships with First Nations, Métis, and Inuit people across Canada.”

$1.9 Billion has been set aside for the direct benefit of former Indian residential school students. The Government also announced that eligible former Indian residential school students 65 years of age and older will soon be able to apply for an advance payment of $8000.

For more information on the Agreement in Principle, please refer to the attached background documents.

-30-

For further information, contact:
Alex Swann
Director of Communications
Office of the Deputy Prime Minister
Ph: 613-991-2863

Sarah Mangione
Media Relations and Public Affairs Officer
Indian Residential Schools Resolution Canada
Ph: 613-947-5006

From CBC Online

School abuse victims getting $1.9B

Last Updated Wed, 23 Nov 2005 14:31:14 EST

The Liberal government offered tens of thousands of survivors of abuse at native residential schools up to $30,000 each in a $1.9-billion compensation package announced Wednesday morning.

Grand Chief Phil Fontaine breathes in sweetgrass during a purification ceremony before the announcement Wednesday.

Another $195 million will be spent on a truth and reconciliation process, a commemoration program and other projects designed to promote healing in First Nations communities.

"We have made good on our shared resolve to deliver what I firmly believe will be a fair and lasting resolution of the Indian school legacy," Deputy Prime Minister Anne McLellan said at a news conference in Ottawa.

She was flanked by other federal cabinet ministers and abuse survivors, including Grand Chief Phil Fontaine of the Assembly of First Nations.

"It's a wonderful day," said Fontaine, speaking of the years of negotiations that led to the agreement in principle. "I know that every moment has been worthwhile. Justice has prevailed."

Fontaine said the package covers "decades in time, innumerable events and countless injuries to First Nations individuals and communities."

Justice Minister Irwin Cotler also hailed the package, calling the decision to house young Canadians in church-run native residential schools "the single most harmful, disgraceful and racist act in our history."

The agreement must still be approved by the courts because of the high number of outstanding lawsuits launched over residential school abuse, McLellan said.

She said she hopes the seven courts in different provinces that have been dealing with class-action suits will see that the deal "is fair and just and will bring an end to this complex set of litigation that we have seen for many years."

A federal official said the courts will be approached as early as May to approve the agreement, once it is put into formal language.

Tens of thousands of former students could benefit

As many as 86,000 native Canadians who attended church-run schools across the country may be eligible for payments under the plan.

For decades, they had been fighting to have the government recognize the abuses they suffered in the school system that Ottawa supported financially between the 1870s and 1970s.

Tens of thousands of First Nations young people were taken from their families for months at a time and deprived of their culture, and many were sexually or physically abused by school staff.

The average age of survivors is 60, Fontaine noted Wednesday.

The package includes:

  • A "common experience payment" of up to $10,000 per person, plus $3,000 for every year a victim spent in the schools, at a cost to the federal government of $1.9 billion.
  • Compensation for claims based on sexual and physical abuse, as well as loss of language and culture.
  • A speeded-up process to get an initial $8,000 payment to claimants aged 65 and over while the rest of the program's details are sorted out.
  • Five-year funding for the Aboriginal Healing Foundation, totalling $125 million.
  • $60 million for a truth and reconciliation process.
  • $10 million to commemorate what happened in the schools, to assist in victims' healing.
  • An agreement that victims accepting compensation payments cannot sue the federal government and the churches running the schools except in cases of sexual and serious physical abuse.
  • An alternate dispute-settling process to deal with separate claims for sexual abuse and serious physical abuse.

The federal government's package did not include a national apology for the abuses. McLellan said that was not a part of the negotiations "for this process."

Karen Shaboyer, a former residential school student who works at an aboriginal cultural centre in Toronto, said the agreement is a good start. She hopes it will open the eyes of non-native people, at the very least.

"You see a lot of my people today who may be staggering on the street, and people just call them down, but really, that person is holding a lot of pain and they don't know how to deal with it," said Shaboyer.

Package called 'deathbed conversion'

NDP native affairs critic Pat Martin calls the package a deathbed conversion on the part of the Liberals.

He says the looming federal election likely prompted the announcement, which came a day before Prime Minister Paul Martin attends a first ministers' conference on native affairs in Kelowna, B.C.

"The government is doing the honourable thing, but it does have the stink of desperation to it," the New Democrat MP said.

In May, former Supreme Court justice Frank Iacobucci was appointed to help Ottawa develop a plan to compensate victims and avoid the costly lawsuits facing the courts.

About 12,000 survivors of residential school abuse are now suing Ottawa.

KO wraps up strategic IT planning session with NOSM IT Director

Kevin Pashuk, IT Director at NOSM, spent two days at the Keewaytinook Okimakanak Sioux Lookout office discussing IT development strategies with members of the K-Net team. Tom Terry, NOSM's Aboriginal Community Placement Officer for the Sioux Lookout Zone joined the meeting on Tuesday afternoon and evening. The information sharing and planning sessions resulted in the K-Net team planning to submit a proposal to NOSM's IT unit to facilitate the development and maintenance of connectivity services in the Aborginal communities that are hosting the first year medical students in their first year of studies at NOSM.

Click here to see some pictures from these meetings.

Online Digital Libraries for and with Aboriginal communities workshop - Nov 25

EVERYONE is invited to participate in this online workshop by joining the webcast of the event and sharing your thoughts and questions through the chat feature on the webstreaming server. Click here for more information about participating in this day long workshop web site.

The Faculty of Information Studies (FIS) at the University of Toronto is partnering with Keewaytinook Okimakanak (KO) to organize a day-long workshop on "Digital Libraries for and with Aboriginal communities". The workshop is being held on Friday November 25th, 2005, from 8:00 am to 4:30 pm (EST). The workshop is devoted to discussing the best possible models for providing information resources and services to the communities in the remote areas of Northern Ontario. The aim is to devise a strategy to create a digital library for elementary and secondary school students. Such a digital library would serve all remote and isolated communities in Ontario's far north and even those outside of the membership of KO....

The workshop will be a hybrid of physical and virtual (via video conference) meetings with two main nodes: one at the Faculty of Information Studies at the University of Toronto, and the other in the Keewaytinook Okimakanak (KO) offices . There will be meeting sites in Sudbury, Ottawa and other northern communities. The participants at the various nodes will interact through IP videoconferencing. Everyone else interested in participating in this workshop can watch, listen and share your thoughts, questions and suggestions through the online chat service available on webstreaming server.

Click here for a copy of the agenda.

Click here to test your connections for participating online.

Aboriginal Voices final report recommendations highlight online opportunities

From the introductory letter ... "the Crossing Boundaries National Council presents The Aboriginal Voice Final Report: From Digital Divide to Digital Opportunity. This report is the culmination of a two-year national dialogue on how information and communications technology (ICT) can assist Canada’s First Nations, Métis and Inuit peoples in fully participating in the knowledge economy and information society.
As a result of this engagement process we have come away with a deeper understanding of how ICT can help Aboriginal governments and communities meet critical social, economic and cultural needs. We were also witness to inspiring examples of Aboriginal communities, organizations, and, in particular, youth using this new technology in culturally expressive and creative ways to make a positive difference to their futures and to the national fabric of our country. We hope this report captures, even in a modest way, the spirit and enthusiasm of these path-breakers and the success stories that are emerging on a national scale."
The two references to Industry Canada's First Nations SchoolNet program are under Recommendations 2 and 3 ...
 
It is interesting to note that the third recommendation highlights the Regional Management Organization and K-Net as a viable building model with the following statement ... "Once capacity is in place ICT platforms can be enriched and expanded through pooling of both technical resources and buying power to reduce costs and increase access to and the range of ICT services. The Regional Management Organizations associated with SchoolNet is a case in point. K-Net’s Community Aggregated Network has created a regional video conferencing network that serves as an affordable video conferencing platform for Aboriginal communities and organizations on a national scale. These and initiatives like them require ongoing support. They show that it is possible to create dynamic and powerful Aboriginal ICT networks with capacity to support highly advanced ICT applications that can improve services, connect people and communities, increase productivity and reduce the high costs of travel that confront many Aboriginal governments and organizations. In other words, the business case for investing in sustainable ICT capacity is a good one."

Recommendation 5 is all about e-learning celebrating the successes of the Keewaytinook Internet High School.

The following text contains the summary of all the recommendations from the report ...

Building Sustainable Capacity

Recommendation 1: Aboriginal eGovernment should be a priority on a national agenda of transformation.
Recommendation 2: A national commitment by all governments in Canada is required to bridge the digital divide for Aboriginal communities and institutions within the next fi ve years, and for all Aboriginal peoples within the decade. Achieving these goals entails highspeed broadband Internet access that is affordable to users, coupled with governments investing to create sustainable capacity within Aboriginal communities and organizations to maintain and support ICT systems and applications development.
Recommendation 3: Aboriginal governments and their structures must be the central building blocks for an Aboriginal eGovernment agenda.
Recommendation 4: A Community- and Citizen-centred approach, driven by Aboriginal governments, should be adopted as the primary underpinning of Aboriginal eGovernment.

Aboriginal eLearning
Recommendation 5: Governments should make Aboriginal eLearning a national priority and facilitate and resource the building of a national online Aboriginal eLearning portal that would serve as a focal point for a national eLearning networks tailored to the different needs of the First Nations, Métis, and Inuit peoples. First Nations, Métis and Inuit educational and training organizations, need to be resourced to fully participate in this national initiative. Characteristics of a national eLearning portal and networks would include:
 An open source resource web/network;
 National collaboration, with regard to more advanced communities and users acting as role models and mentors to those who need to build capacity; and,
 Open source information and resources that would be accessible to all Aboriginal learning organizations, while maintaining the ability to allow communities to cater the information and applications to their learning needs.
Recommendation 6: Federal, provincial and territorial governments should commit to providing long term funding and support in order to sustain current Aboriginal eLearning infrastructure and initiatives.
Recommendation 7: Aboriginal organizations, governments, and post-secondary institutions should collaborate on an assessment and action plan on how ICT can be used to increase Aboriginal post-secondary participation and achievement.
Recommendation 8: Working in collaboration with Aboriginal leaders and organizations, federal, provincial and territorial governments should promote and invest in First Nations, Métis and Inuit Centres of Excellence for eLearning with a mandate to advance and share information and knowledge about best practices and facilitate their diffusion into education and training systems and into the community.
Recommendation 9: National and regional research granting agencies should invest dedicated resources to support the advancement and innovation in Aboriginal eLearning.

Preserving, Promoting & Protecting Aboriginal Cultures
Recommendation 10: The Federal Government, in collaboration with national First Nations, Métis, and Inuit organizations, should develop and implement a national policy commitment to promote the preservation and protection of Aboriginal cultures and languages and ensure Aboriginal children, wherever they live, have opportunities to learn their culture and language. A critical component of this commitment is to fully employ, with appropriate safeguards, the potential of ICT to preserve, store, transmit and enable active cultural learning. Having provincial and territorial governments and education institutions and agencies as partners in this national project will be critical to its success.
Recommendation 11: Working with the appropriate Aboriginal authorities, national and provincial archives and museums should accelerate the digitization of Aboriginal historical records and artefacts and make this information available online.
Recommendation 12: Financial and other resources should be made available for Aboriginal communities to collect and digitally preserve their histories and cultural knowledge for the benefi t of the community.
Recommendation 13: Aboriginal governments, organizations and communities should develop protocols to govern the online collection, dissemination and use of cultural information based on customary laws.
Recommendation 14: Aboriginal peoples should develop models for intellectual property protection of traditional knowledge, traditional cultural expressions and folklore. These models should be recognized by governments and protected in law.

Creating Opportunities in the New Economy
Recommendation 15: Aboriginal governments should be supported and encouraged to develop and integrate ICT initiatives into their long term strategic planning in order to:
 Facilitate community economic and business development and entrepreneurship;
 Stimulate and sustain the development of an Aboriginal owned and controlled ICT business sector; and,
 Foster community/private sector partnerships that provide access to necessary expertise and resources to assist and help promote technologbased economic development and growth.
Recommendation 16: Governments should provide assistance and create incentives for the Aboriginal business sector:
 To adopt ICT into their production, business and service processes; and,
 To increase business intelligence gathering and product and service marketing capacity to better identify business opportunities and reach out to regional, national and international markets.
Recommendation 17: Aboriginal governments, organizations, and business associations should plan a facilitative role in developing business capacities by providing information, better aligning programs and resources, and helping entrepreneurs build networks and partnerships. This would include developing online information and services to support business and local capacity development.
Recommendation 18: Aboriginal organizations, governments, community colleges and the private sector should collaborate on a long term strategy to actively support and promote Aboriginal participation in the knowledge economy.
Recommendation 19: Aboriginal training and business organizations, in collaboration with the relevant agencies of government, should undertake an assessment and stocktaking of the potential role of eTraining in developing the Aboriginal workforce and business sector.
Recommendation 20: Aboriginal governments should create an enabling environment that favours innovation and technology-based economic and business development.

Improving Service Delivery
Recommendation 21: Federal, provincial and territorial governments should commit funding and resources to enable First Nations, Métis, and Inuit governments and organizations to substantially improve their service delivery systems and infrastructure over the next five years with particular priority in the areas of health care, social and children’s services and education. These strategies will need to be developed on a partnership basis so that they are appropriately tailored and respond to diverse needs and circumstances.
Recommendation 22: Governments should invest resources to promote, support and facilitate the development of Aboriginal networks, including professional networks and communities of interest.

Treating Information as a Public Resource
Recommendation 23: Federal, provincial and territorial governments should reach agreements on a framework for information governance negotiated directly with each respective national Aboriginal organization that can serve broadly as guidelines for the collection, dissemination and sharing of information and data.
Recommendation 24: Federal, provincial, territorial governments and Aboriginal political leadership should support the creation of information capacity that will allow Aboriginal governments and organizations to be more accountable to both their citizens (constituents) and to have a shared accountability relationship with their government partners. Aboriginal governments and organizations should commit to using ICT to provide information that strengthens accountability and participation of their members and citizens in governance and decision-making
.

Citizen Engagement
Recommendation 25: Governments and Aboriginal leadership need to build the organizational capacity, authority and resources necessary to engage and consult with Aboriginal citizens on policies, programs and services. These consultation resources should include the technological capacity to engage Aboriginal citizens, including recognizing their distinctive cultural and language needs. Governments should encourage pilot projects to assess the best way to engage Aboriginal citizens using online tools and methodologies.

Partnerships & Collaborations
Recommendation 26: Consideration should be given to establishing an Aboriginal-led national multistakeholder vehicle, that includes government and other key stakeholder representatives, with a mandate to champion, sustain and facilitate the implementation of Aboriginal eGovernment.
Recommendation 27: Governments should support a national conference of Aboriginal and government leaders to develop and chart out an action plan to support and achieve the goals of digital equality and opportunity.