Île-à-la-Crosse boarding school survivors reach $27M agreement with feds

Antoinette LaFleur waited most of her life for this day.

The Île-à-la-Crosse boarding school survivor and elder was on hand Monday to hear the federal government had signed a $27-million agreement in principle with survivors of the school.

"I endured because I was able to tell my story that had been hidden for so many years," LeFleur said at a news conference in Île-à-la-Crosse.

LaFleur said she never told her children about the abuse she suffered at the school.

"I've waited 77 years for this time to happen."

The agreement also comes with a personal apology from the federal government and an additional $10-million legacy fund to be used for cultural, language and treatment programs.

The Île-à-la-Crosse Boarding School, in the village of Île-à-la-Crosse about 460 kilometres north of Saskatoon, was one of the oldest of its kind in Canada and operated from the 1860s to the mid-1970s.

Île-à-la-Crosse students were denied the Indian Residential School settlements that others received, on the basis that the school was run by the Roman Catholic Church with no federal funding.

Louis Gardner was sent to the school when he was just five and was there from 1961-69.

Gardner said he is happy the agreement comes with a personal apology.

"They used to force us to go to confession and tell your sins. Now we're saying the same thing to them. You tell us your sins now."

Survivors have been fighting for an apology with the federal and provincial governments for the past 20 years.

Gardner said with many survivors dying, it was imperative to get an agreement done.

"We're losing the survivors at a rapid pace, and so we just feel that it's time to at least honour some of our survivors and look after them the way we should be looking after them," he said.