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	Severance Payments The Canadian Government Has Offered a Cash Settlement for Indigenous People Forced into Residential Schools As Children By Anne McIlroy The Guardian January 3, 2006 http://www.guardian.co.uk/elsewhere/journalist/story/0,7792,1677155,00.html They were plucked from their families as young children and sent to live in church-run schools where they were forbidden to speak their own languages. The idea was to prepare indigenous children for life in white society. Many were beaten, sexually abused and subjected to daily cruelties throughout their traumatic childhoods. It was, in the words of Phil Fontaine, national chief of the Assembly of First Nations, "the single most disgraceful, harmful and racist act" in Canada's history. Now Mr Fontaine has grounds for optimism. Late last year, on the eve of a federal election, Ottawa announced a $2bn (£1bn) legal settlement for the estimated 80,000 indigenous people who were forced to attend residential schools. The proposed settlement would offer students $10,000 each, plus $3,000 for each year they spent at one of the 130 schools. In exchange, they would have to agree not to sue the federal government or the churches for damages. A $60m truth and reconciliation fund will be used to build public awareness of what happened at the residential schools and their legacy, which includes lives destroyed by alcohol and drug abuse and violence. Most of the schools were closed by the 70s, having inflicted serious emotional damage on an entire generation and their families. The average age of the students is now 60, and the package includes a way for those over 65 to get compensation more quickly. The proposal - which must still be approved by the courts - is based closely on what many native leaders wanted. It did not offer a formal apology, but was still viewed by Mr Fontaine as a "major victory". He has been pushing for compensation for residential school students for years. More than a decade ago, he was one of the first indigenous leaders to publicly admit that he had been sexually and physically abused at his school. "Everything we learned about ourselves and our parents was negative," he said then. "We were convinced the only way we were going to survive was to become like they were. The results are still with us today." Other indigenous leaders are more cautious about the deal and say they will celebrate once the settlements are awarded and the funding designed to help the former students begins to flow. Former students interviewed about the proposed settlement all said that the money would not make up for the years of abuse. But it was a start, one woman said, and would go towards small luxuries that she had never been able to afford. Canada has a shameful history of racism towards its indigenous people and their descendants, who now number roughly 900,000. Years of misguided policies have left many members of the three officially recognised aboriginal peoples of Canada - the First Nations, Inuit and Métis - living on remote, overcrowded reserves without clean drinking water or sewage treatment. Their health has suffered. Infant mortality is three times the norm, and the rate of suicide is six times the national average. Most Canadians ignore them until a crisis, like the one in 1993 when six children from the Innu First Nations group were videotaped sniffing gas and screaming that they wanted to die. They often don't have enough land to hunt or trap as their ancestors did, but there are few other economic opportunities. The exceptions are bands that have negotiated land claims that give them control over natural resources like oil. The proposed settlement is a step towards righting past wrongs. So is the historic agreement that was reached late last year on $5bn for better housing, health care and schools for indigenous communities. The two deals are why Jeffrey Simpson, the Globe and Mail's national affairs columnist, chose Mr Fontaine as the most successful Canadian politician of the year. But they were hard-fought successes that were years in the making. With luck, they will improve the lives of the hundreds of thousands of indigenous people who live like second-class citizens.
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