Judge rules against destruction of residential school records

 By Kathleen Martens

 APTN Investigates




WINNIPEG – A Toronto judge has agreed to lock up sensitive residential school student testimony for 15 years.


Justice Paul Perell of the Ontario Superior Court ruled in a decision
released yesterday (Aug. 6) that the records will be destroyed after
that time period unless survivors individually decide they want theirs
saved.


What is not up to survivors, however, is whether the names of alleged
abusers are blacked out. The judge ruled those names will be redacted
whether survivors want them identified or not.


Those alleged abusers are people who worked at the schools or other students.


Survivors’ records would be kept at the National Research Centre on
Residential Schools at the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg.


Perell’s decision comes after two parties in the Indian Residential
Schools Settlement Agreement (IRSAS) asked him for direction last month.
They were: the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), which wants
all the information saved for a complete record on the legacy of
residential schools; and the Indian Residential Schools Adjudication
Secretariat (IRSAS), which wants the testimony destroyed.


The judge said survivors can opt in or opt out of the record keeping.
He then charged the TRC with collecting survivors’ responses.


The TRC had asked the judge for a 30-year waiting period, while IRSAS
wanted survivor testimony destroyed immediately. Its senior adjudicator
Dan Shapiro said survivors were guaranteed confidentiality so they
would reveal as much information as possible to prove their financial
claims for abuse.


Both parties have different mandates under IRSAS: the TRC’s is to
gather survivors’ stories publicly and use them for educational and
historical purposes, while IRSAS is to process abuse claims under the
Independent Assessment Process (IAP).


IRSAS says it has accumulated about 800,000 pieces of information
from nearly 38,000 IAP claims. These include IAP forms, transcripts and
audio recordings of hearings, decisions, and tens of thousands of
supporting medical, education, employment, corrections and other
personal records.


Justice Perell is one of the nine supervising judges of the IRSSA.




As APTN Investigates has reported in this story,
some survivors favour saving their stories so their suffering is not
forgotten. The entire 68-page decision can be read on the website of Ontario lawyer, Julian Falconer.


Shapiro responded to the decision in a written statement, saying he was pleased with Justice Perell’s decision.



Investigates |
07. Aug, 2014
by tlamirande