From CBC.ca

Residential school survivors face 'adversarial' government

Lawyers say government attitude has 'shifted' since 2006 as survivors wait for information

By Angela Sterritt - Posted: Feb 04, 2014

The Independent Assessment Secretariat says it expected about 12,500 claims this year from former students claiming physical or sexual abuse. It has instead received almost 38,000 claims. (CBC)

A number of lawyers from Northern Canada say the federal government's attitude towards residential school abuse claims has changed.  

Many lawyers say they are seeing more delays and are processing more appeals since the process started in 2006.

Steven Cooper has represented hundreds of survivors who are filing claims of physical and sexual abuse.  

He says delays are beginning to take a toll on his clients.

"My clients are phoning in saying 'I'm going to hang myself, I am going to kill myself, I can't stand this anymore," he says. "We are getting e-mails daily from a couple of clients saying 'where is the decision?'"

Lawyer Steven Cooper says survivors of residential schools are exasperated with delays and a lack of information.

Cooper says the way Ottawa is handling residential school Independent assessment claims is no longer being done in the spirit of truth and reconciliation or collaboration.

"I have one [client] where we have waited 18 months for a decision. We were told that it was sent to the secretariat for review, then sent to the adjudicator, we don't know what's going on internally, all we know is that our clients are going through hell".

'We don't know what's going on internally, all we know is that our clients are going through hell'- Steven Cooper, lawyer working with residential school survivors

The Indian Residential School Settlement Agreement was established to right historical wrongs against Canada's aboriginal people. The Independent Assessment Process orIAP is a way for former students who were abused to settle out of court.

Cooper says the Independent Assessment process has never been easy, but his frustration these days is multiplying. 

"It just seems to be that the whole approach by the government now is very mean spirited and very adversarial."

Whitehorse based IAP lawyer Laura Cabot says over the last year and a half she has also seen a change in how Ottawa handles survivors' cases.

She says the residential school survivors she represents are also confused.

 "It seems to be a shift with the federal government with how they are presenting and processing claims, it seems like if there's an opportunity to deny a claim or bring forward issues that would make a claim unsuccessful they are readily doing that," she says.

'It seems to be a shift with the federal government with how they are presenting and processing claims. (...) if there's an opportunity to deny a claim or bring forward issues that would make a claim unsuccessful, they are readily doing that'- Laura Cabot, lawyer working with residential school survivors

Cabot points to a case where one person was compensated, but their family member who attended the same school was not. She says it's baffling and has made a number of her clients feel re-victimized and have lost trust in the system.  
Aboriginal Affairs told the CBC they had no one available to comment.

But for his part the Chief Adjudicator for the Independent Assessment Secretariat, Dan Shapiro, says they are doing everything they can. 

"We are conscious of the fact that there some frustrations but it really has to be viewed as in terms of the context and the sheer volume of applications we received".

Shapiro says the secretariat expected about 12,500 but has instead received almost 38,000 applications.

He adds that almost 10,000 claims were filed very close to the government's deadline.

Cooper says if the department is understaffed it's a federal responsibility to add more personnel.  

"I just think that's an excuse, it's a standard government excuse, 'shucks we're understaffed, God we are burnt out', well my clients are burned out and are sick and tired of being treated different than their colleagues, their fellow students, their family members from a few years ago," he said.

The Secretariat says they expect to process 4200 claims this year.