Residential Schools Chief Adjudicator to Resign

By Kathleen Martens
APTN
March 10, 2013

http://aptn.ca/pages/news/2013/03/10/residential-schools-chief-adjudicator-to-resign/


WINNIPEG – Canada’s chief adjudicator for the Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement’s Independent Assessment Process (IAP) has resigned, APTN Investigates has learned.

Dan Ish gave his written notice to the IAP’s Oversight Committee a few weeks ago, saying it will be effective in June.

Ish has been overseeing the multi-billion dollar program since being appointed for five years in Sept. 19, 2007.

However, the IAP has received triple the expected number of applications from former residential school survivors, something Ish cited in stepping down.

The deadline for applications expired Sept. 19, 2012, but the work is expected to continue for several more years.

Sources say Ish’s resignation was accepted “with regret” by the IAP Oversight Committee at its meeting in Vancouver last month. Ish was not immediately available for comment.

The meeting occurred only a week after Ish was once again before Vancouver’s Supreme Court seeking court approval to investigate a lawyer for a suspected breach of IAP guidelines.

Justice Brenda Brown rejected the request for a potentially lengthy, multi-million dollar investigation. She instead mediated an agreement for the Indian Residential School Adjudication Secretariat (IRSAS) to review the IAP casework of Vancouver lawyer Stephen Bronstein, with an option to order a full investigation down the road.

The IRSAS is probing Bronstein’s alleged connection to Ivon Johnny, a 62-year-old, convicted murderer who said he was doing IAP intake work for Bronstein while on parole. However, former students in the Chilcotin communities around Williams Lake, B.C., complained Johnny was extorting money from their compensation payouts.

Johnny’s full parole was revoked in January as a result of the complaints.

It was also complaints from former students that led to a $3.5-million investigation into Calgary lawyer David Blott in November 2011. Brown kicked Blott and others out of the IAP after investigators found he violated the trust of his vulnerable clients, wrongly provided loans against their compensation claims, and improperly charged them interest, penalties or fees.

Blott represented more than 4,000 claimants across Canada.

The compensation is for survivors who suffered serious physical and sexual abuse while young students at Canada’s notorious Indian Residential Schools.  The most recent statistics provided by IRSAS show $1.8-billion has been spent completing the claims of about 75,000 former students.

Contact: kmartens@aptn.ca