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	Residential School Payments Hit $2.8b By Jason Warick The Leader-Post December 17, 2011 http://www.leaderpost.com/Residential+school+payments/5875251/story.html Payments to former students of Indian residential schools have reached nearly $2.8 billion, but that amount doesn't even come close to compensating the tens of thousands students harmed, says a survivor. "These were genocidal practices," said Eugene Arcand, who attended schools in Duck Lake and Lebret. "If your kids were taken from you for 10 or 11 years, is $43,000 enough (compensation)? Is that fair for what it cost me? My family? Of course it's not fair." Roughly one-third of all residential school students attended Saskatchewan schools, Arcand said. The total compensation could climb much higher before next September's deadline for abuse claims, known as the independent assessment process (IAP), Arcand and others predicted. Nearly $1.2 billion in IAP funds have already been paid out to students who suffered physical or sexual abuse. Many have not yet filed, either because they were intimidated by the process or wanted to make sure they were emotionally prepared for the lengthy, often graphic process. Arcand and others have helped host workshops where they've encouraged survivors to not rush into a claim. "Many more will file, including myself. Saskatchewan will have a lot," said Arcand, a member of the Residential school survivor committee advising the national Truth and Reconciliation Commission. One deadline has already passed. A total of $1.6 billion has been paid out of the common experience payment (CEP) fund. Anyone who could prove he or she attended a school received $10,000 for the first year in school, plus $3,000 for each subsequent year of school. Arcand said CEP claims in Saskatchewan and around the country have been rejected or only partially recognized because the school records have been lost. Arcand said survivors were told early on that they would be given the "benefit of the doubt" if records had been lost, but that hasn't been the case. "We didn't keep those records. That's what happens when the perpetrators are adjudicating the agreement," Arcand said. Lisa Abbott, a Saskatoon lawyer representing roughly 130 claimants in northern Saskatchewan, said the process "is not quick, but it is what it is." She encourages her clients to seek counselling and other services before moving ahead with a legal claim and to see any payment "as one step in the healing process." When an abuse claim is filed and is evaluated to warrant a hearing, the claimant tells his or her story to one of more than 100 independent "adjudicators" across Canada. There is no cross-examination and at no time does the claimant have to face the alleged abuser. If the claim is deemed to have merit, the claimant will eventually receive payment. The average payment for the 77,406 students who proved they attended residential schools was $20,594. More than 22,000 were rejected. The average payment for the nearly 10,000 students who have proven sexual or serious physical abuse is $120,347. Approximately 3,000 have been rejected.
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