TIB elders to hear day-scholar lawsuit arguments

CANADA
Kamloops This Week

By: Cam Fortems in Courts, First Nations, News March 20, 2015

Four elders from the Tk’emlups Indian Band (TIB) will accompany Chief Shane Gottfriedson and band councillors to Vancouver next month when lawyers begin arguing to certify a class-action lawsuit on behalf of thousands of First Nations students who attended residential schools.

Gottfriedson told reporters at a press conference on on Friday, March 20, that local corporations and others have donated to a special fund to allow the elders — day scholars themselves — to be in Vancouver to hear arguments in Federal Court for one week starting on April 13.

While First Nations people who lived at Indian residential schools were given compensation by the federal government, Ottawa has refused to compensate those who attended the schools only during the day.

Gottfriedson said those students suffered many of the same sexual, physical and emotional abuses as those who lived in dormitories.

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