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From the Winnipeg Sun ...

Survivors paid huge price
By LAURIE MUSTARD - Wed, October 10, 2007

A gift of insight and understanding from Sandra S., the daughter of residential school survivors:

"Hi Laurie. I just wanted to share a personal story with you. I'm a young woman living in the city whose parents both attended residential schools. Both my parents had raised me and my two brothers up until we were ready to leave home.

"Though I was close to my parents, I never really got to know the true people who lay dormant in them all these years until recently. You see, many people simply do not understand how tragic the residential school experience was. I find comfort in knowing some sincerely do.

"I asked my dad one day if he could share a memory with me of when I was a child. With a child-like smile of anticipation on my face, as though he would tell me that I wore silly little dresses and made mud pies till nightfall, he replied with a dazed look, 'You know, I don't really remember any of you when you were children.'

'EXTREME LOSS' 

"I was shocked when he revealed this to me, but now I understand why. People who attended these schools carried many negative memories of extreme loss, memories of me and my brothers were lost as well among those memories.

"Although my brothers and I missed out on a lot of opportunities in our childhood due to the lack of many things, we had the main things -- love, happiness and care. I consider us as one of the lucky ones.

"Within the last couple of weeks, one of my parents received their compensation money. They helped my brothers and I, and our families to pay some of our debts, which was awesome. I was so happy to see my mom finally shop for the extras she could never afford in the past.

"However, aside from things that can be bought with money, it helped me see that what we need most as parents/children of the residential school legacy is something priceless; closer relationships with one another. Slowly, we are bridging those gaps with understanding.

"Recently, one of my brother's co-workers asked him, 'What do you think about the residential school payout that's been given out?'

"My brother replied, 'What do you think about it?' My brother's co-worker replied, 'I think it's stupid. What a waste of money. They're all gonna drink it up anyway.'

'THEY LOVED US'

"My brother was not angry at the remark, but responded by saying, 'Well you know, both my parents worked all their lives and raised us in a good home. They also attended residential schools in the past and they do not drink, they loved us, supported and cared for us the best they knew how.'

"You see Laurie, I just wanted to let people know we could not possibly hold our parents accountable for any shortfalls in our upbringing, considering what was taken away from them. How could they give us what they did not have? What truly matters is what we have now. We as children whose parents attended these types of schools are survivors, too. Thank you so much for reading my story. God bless you, Sandra."

Thanks for letting us walk in your shoes for a bit, Sandra, to see life through your experience. Judging from the wisdom and compassion in your letter, your parents, despite their challenges, did a great job of raising you and your brothers.

Hopefully, the healing has begun.

+++++++++

The debate around appropriate compensation is creating some interesting discussions ...

----- Original Message -----
From: Chief Terrance Nelson
To: Marilyn Buffalo
Subject: RE: Frank Magazine article on the AFN Residential Schools Settlement

To Marilyn Buffalo.
 
My thoughts on the subject you raised.
 
My cousin hired a lawyer to pursue her residential school claim. Two weeks ago she received her settlement, which was over $70,000 before legal fees. Gloria is a very hard worker but has been poor for most of her life. She has been sober for many years and is spending her settlement money on her children and grandchildren.

I have seen her driving the used van she purchased. I've seen a brand new computer in her home and I have seen Gloria smiling. Her lawyer recieved over 15% on top of her settlement for his work, but Gloria is not complaining. For her, that percentage was well worth it for the work he did. How many other clients did this lawyer have? And how many fees did he
collect?

I don't really care whether or not the lawyers made money on the residential school issue. Lawyer Tony Merchant in Saskatchewan's fees of over $30 million sounds like a lot, but he took on clients on contingency and gambled on winning. Imagine if no lawyers took the chance of suing for clients who could not afford legal services. Tony Merchant spent years and thousands of hours to win significant cases that forced the government to settle.

The reality is that if all the residential school survivors had lawyers willing to act on contingency to sue the government, the settlements would have been over $20 billion. The government and the churches got off at less than 25% for the out of court process.

In the US, in cases similar to residential school lawsuits in Canada, the settlements were over $1 million per person. Is justice about the amount of money one recieves from the courts based on the color of a person's skin? Do we wait for a proper amount of settlement dollars before we do something about the healing?

If you ask Gloria, she would tell you that she started her healing long ago - long before she got her settlement money. The community of Roseau River is not waiting for some government or church to apologize before we begin the process of healing. We began that process a long time ago. There is only one Christian church left in Roseau River and the poor Catholic priest who does mass on Sunday rarely gets more than five people attending. Almost every funeral in Roseau River for the last 20 years has been a Mediwiwin ceremony. No white conductors are needed to guide our dearly departed to the spirit world.

What we teach our children is that God was not a boat person. God did not reach our shores in 1492. God was already here. If you look at the northern communities that have high suicide rates amongst their youth, the first thing you will notice is the amount of churches in the community. In one community, where there is the highest suicide rates in the world, there are 11 different Christian churches. Each is a separate denomination and each is preaching that they, and they alone, know God and that they are the chosen.

In Roseau River we don't pretend to own God and we don't have suicides amongst our youth. If I had my way, I would begin the residential school healing process by throwing out the priests and preachers from every First Nation community. But of course, I can't do that. I can only wish for our youth to hear that God created them and God created them exactly as they are. God didn't make a mistake, God did not appear to only one group of people. We are all human beings and we all know a little about the Creator.

If the editors at Frank Magazine really care about First Nation issues and want to write about something meaningful, they should raise awareness about the suicides amongst First nation youth and tell how "Christians" are still preaching the "chosen" mentality. So what if Phil Fontaine makes some money on this issue. Phil suffered abuses in residential school. He was brave enough to publicly admit that he was a victim of sexual abuse. To do this meant great public humiliation and public scrutiny. He is a leader that will be remembered for his courage. He had the courage to do what is right despite great personal sacrifice.

I know that my mother, who died on June 26, 2007, appreciated him. My mother got an $8,000 cheque and a $3,000 cheque before she died. My father, who also was a residential school survivor, died in 1995 but he didn't recieve anything because there was no process at that time. Do we condemn the people who started the process of fighting for the victims? Or do we move on? I say, let's move on. Let's focus on our children and our grandchildren. Let's say "Never again". Never again are we going to let our children be taken from us by force.

For me, I say, thank you Tony Merchant and thank you to all the lawyers who made a difference by going to school, and who have sacrificed their time in the hope that someday they can fight the one case that brings justice to people like Gloria and my mother.

I don't care who got paid more than Gloria or my mom. All I care about is the smile on my mother's face when she got her cheque. It is the same smile that will be on many of my people's faces when they finally get their money.
 
How many people have done as much good as Phil Fontaine has done? How many billions of dollars have the rest of us forced the government to send to the people? How many billions of dollars did Frank Magazine get for First Nations people? This Frank Magazine article was a pretty nasty article written under the guise of humour or sarcism. So what is their goal? To get the Indians fighting amongst ourselves or what? They certainly got us circulating their article. I see lots of emails on this.
 
Now, about those priests and throwing them off Reserve lands...Can we talk?
 
Chief Terrance Nelson.
 
-----Original Message-----
From: Marilyn Buffalo [mailto:marilynbuffalo@msn.com]
Sent: Friday, October 05, 2007 2:22 PM
Subject: FW: Frank Magazine article on the AFN Residential Schools Settlement

Everyone,
 
It is good to know that someone is benefiting financially from these new agreements, because the individual Survivors and Canada's First Nations clearly are not. 
 
Yes, everyone wants to put closure to this issue, but the moneys given to individual survivors is not enough to buy a good used car!!!!!!  The money will be spent, then what?
 
I want to know who negotiated these agreements and what criteria was used to arrive at these settlement amounts.
 
After the dust has settled from this recent agreement and moneys are spent Canada's First Nations are still underfunded! 
 
We know from previous settlements initiatives like the Aboriginal Healing Foundations that these measly dollars did not bring healing to the Nations.  It was like putting a band aid on a cancerous open sore.  The funding dollars were spent by so called healers and the problems remained.
 
At the first nations community level our Educators, and in particular our Elders are still left struggling with no resources for language immersion and teach cultural studies to the young people in schools at the community level. 
 
We do not need any more studies to tell us that the poverty situation is worsening.  Our grand children are still being recruited by gang leaders and scooped up by the provincial school systems in record numbers.
 
Let us remind ourselves of the words of my grandfather John Tootoosis and our ancestors.  We must not stay quiet because Silence is consent! 
 
We need to educate general public and direct action is needed to address the funding discrepancies of education services, tuition agreements and social development, child welfare on reserve and off reserve.
 
Leaders, we cannot maintain the present status quo!
 
We know Canada's position, they voted against the United Nations Declaration on Indigenous Peoples. 
 
Prime Minister Stephan Harper government time wasting tactics discussing the shortcomings of Canada's Human Rights legislation on reserve is totally unacceptable.  If Canada is so anxious to bring Human Rights Legislation on reserve, then each First Nation should take action first by challenge Canada by filing formal complaints before the Canadian Human rights Commission on the funding discrepancies by the Department of Indian Affairs on education, housing, cultural program, health, social development, child welfare, tuition agreement funding etc.
 
Also, we need to bring this matter to the international arena. We must not be ashamed to talk about the intergenerational trauma caused by Canada's genocide and assimilationist residential schools.
 
We need to bring attention to our poverty situation, our children being jail in record numbers, lack of housing, lack of youth training and employment, and the language and cultural loss suffered by our children and grandchildren. 
 
First and foremost, Canada's First Nations must be given necessary resources to restore identity, languages and cultural loss for many generations to come!  Canada's Auditor General on Education gave a report on the shortcomings of INAC funding shortages.
 
Canada should stop playing the mind games and once and for all give a Full Apology for the legacy of Residential School system.  Provide some real dollars and then, maybe some real healing will begin.
 
I will not apologize for my rant!  As a treaty person, grandmother and soon to be great grandmother, I have right to express my views.
 
Yours in Treaty Rights Recognition,
Morning Sun Woman,
Marilyn Buffalo
Former President of Native Women Association of Canada (1997 - 2000)

Email: marilynbuffalo@msn.com
Telephone 1.780.637.1868

++++++++++++

Subject: Frank Magazine

House of Wax - $7-mil for AFN Chief’s Legalist/Legover?
 
A delight to see Assembly of First Nations supremo Phil Fontaine circulating among showbiz bleedin’ heartthrobs like Matt Damon and Richard Gere at the One X One Gala in T.O.

At his side as he picked up an award for conspicuous caring about First Nations poverty was his longtime live-in legover, crusading U of Calgary law prof Kathleen Mahoney.

Hard to believe it’s been nigh on ten years since Frank broke the happy news of their courtship, noticing Phil’s increasing tendency to show up in Calgary on Fridays along with his pal, Chief Roy Whitney, to see who was minding the store at the Stoney Nation and keep tabs on the investigation of the Mountie shooting on the Tsuu T'ina Nation.

Turned out there was another motive for Phil's Phrequent Phlites. The urgent matters of TGIF gave him an excuse to stay over the weekend with the then much-married Mahoney, before jetting back to Ottawa, first class, bien sur.

The resilience of the union has caused no end of surprise who knew the AFN Grand Chief as a strenuous heterosexualist notorious for his willingness to Phil the ol’ Fontaine.

The AFN offices are still heavily staffed with “Phil’s Angels,” comely young office girls serving up coffee and tumescence for fat, tax-free salaries.

But Phil’s smartest hire was Kathleen herself, who served with distinction as the AFN’s chief negotiator on the residential schools compensation file. The first of $2.9 billion in sorry money is supposed to start flowing this month.

Perhaps to avoid the predictable and churlish suggestions of nepotism, Phil and Kathleen find it politic to keep their dalliance on the down-low. Phil’s AFN bio makes no mention of his fair Kathleen, noting only that he is “the proud father of two children and Mishoom to five grandchildren. “ (Reasonable estimates which Frank has little reason to doubt.)

Mahoney scored the residential schools gig without the inconvenience of a competition, and of course the billings for such a top-flight legalist on such an involved file were hefty indeed, although the exact numbers are none of anyone’s business.

"I have no instructions from my client to talk to anybody about our relationship," she huffed at a Canadian Press hack with the poor manners to ask, leaving it unclear as to whether she meant the AFN or Phil, and whether there’s any difference any which way.

The AFN, even though its $30-million budget comes almost entirely from the federal government, feels no burning need to disclose what they paid Mahoney’s firm, but informed sources ballpark it at between $5-$7 million. The average estimated payment for an actual residential school alumni? $28,000.

A few mil is, Frank maintains, a small price to pay the Fontaine-Mahoney household to begin the healing.