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	Group Threatens to Take Canada to World Court Wants to Hold Churches, Government Condemned for Residential Schools By Jorge Barrera Ottawa Citizen February 13, 2008 http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/news/story.html?id=dbe8728a-30c9-4ed2-8ccf-0b06c3c58412 A group representing a segment of residential school survivors says it is preparing to take the federal government to international criminal court and disinter bodies of native children. As part of a growing campaign to seek redress for crimes it claims were committed during a dark chapter in Canadian history, the Friends and Relatives of the Disappeared Residential School Children plans to disinter the bodies during a March media event at an unmarked gravesite in B.C. where members believe native children who died in a residential school are buried, said Kevin Annett, the group's spokesman. The group is also planning to file an application against the federal government and the Roman Catholic Church at the International Criminal Court in The Hague. It accuses the federal government of being complicit in crimes against humanity, said Mr. Annett, a former United Church minister who has been campaigning on the issue for more than a decade. The federal government recently reached a $1.9-billion settlement with residential school survivors and created a $60- million Truth and Reconciliation Commission in addition to the package, but Mr. Annett's group believes the commission lacks the teeth to settle the matter. The group wants criminal sanctions against individuals who staffed the schools and were connected to deaths. They are also looking to the international community for condemnation of the federal government and churches that created and operated the program to assimilate native children into white society. "We need a genuine inquiry and we need outside groups to monitor this," said Mr. Annett, who would like to see the UN set up a human rights tribunal and launch an investigation. "We need a body that has power to subpoena." The group has sent letters to the prime minister, the Queen, via Rideau Hall, and the Vatican, giving each 30 days to reveal the location of burial sites and causes of death of children who died in residential schools. The group has also staged high-profile demonstrations in Vancouver and Toronto. Mr. Annett admits it is unlikely there will be a response, but said the deadlines, which all expire by March 8, will trigger the disinterment and international court application. The group also plans to launch a series of civil disobedience actions, including occupying churches. Residential schools, run by the federal government with the United, Catholic and Anglican churches, existed for about 100 years from the late 1800s to 1986. Native children were rounded up in their communities and taken to schools scattered across the country. Many endured physical and sexual abuse. School conditions helped spread diseases such as tuberculosis, which killed many children. Others died from brutal beatings or froze to death while attempting to flee. It's difficult to determine how many children died in the care of church and state in these schools. A lot of key documents related to the schools were destroyed, sometimes on purpose, or disappeared over time, taking with them the names and burial places of an unknown number of children. Former minister of Indian Affairs Jim Prentice, who is now industry minister, created a department working group to attempt to give a hard estimate of the number of dead. Bob Watts, interim executive director of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, said he is heading the working group, which will give recommendations to the commission once it is up and running. "Members of the (working group) recognize the importance of addressing this issue in a culturally sensitive way that is respectful of former Indian residential school students and their families who have lost children or are still searching for burial sites," said Mr. Watts, in an e-mailed response to questions. Mr. Watts has also discussed with the RCMP the possibility of criminal allegations emerging during the work of the commission. "The issue of criminal allegations was raised as one of many topics discussed during my introductory meetings with the National Aboriginal Policing Services of the RCMP on general (commission) matters," Mr. Watts wrote in the e-mail. "We don't know what former students will choose to share with the (commission) once it is established. ... With regards to the commission handing over any possible information on criminal allegations to the RCMP, this is a complex issue. It is something that the commissioners, once appointed, will need to determine."
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