Federal government will soon hand over more residential school records: Miller
CBC
Canada's Crown-Indigenous Relations minister says the federal government will soon release a volume of the residential school records it's been criticized for withholding to a national archives centre.
Marc Miller also says there's no evidence the Liberal cabinet, including former justice minister Jody Wilson-Raybould, was told of a 2015 decision to drop a court case that freed the Catholic Church from compensating survivors.
"Knowing what we know today — it doesn't seem right," he told The Canadian Press in a recent interview.
In October, the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation said Ottawa had yet to provide key documents detailing the specific histories of each government-funded, church-run institution that made up the residential school system.
The statement came in response to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau telling Indigenous leaders in Kamloops, B.C., that the federal government had turned over all of the records in its possession, a claim the Winnipeg-based centre said wasn't accurate.
Among the missing records, it said, were what's known as school narratives — reports compiled by Ottawa outlining an individual institution's history, including its administration, statistics on the number of Indigenous children forced to attend, as well as key events such as reports of abuse.
There are eight such timelines for schools that operated in British Columbia and Alberta that Miller says the government has so far refused to disclose based on third-party legal obligations it had with entities of the Catholic Church. The government has now decided to release them, he said.
"It's our obligation towards survivors first and foremost to take precedence over that obligation," said Miller, noting the collection will be "voluminous."
The minister says the reports will be provided to the centre within 30 days.
The centre says Ottawa has 12,000 residential school records in its possession, which include documents from the Catholic Church.
It says it will take staff time to catalogue the incoming records to make them available to survivors and their families, noting it's not fully aware of what the documents will contain.
"The (centre) has been in contact with Minister Miller's office to outline the records still needed and (is) hopeful to see a comprehensive set, including all school narratives," it said in a statement Monday.
"This release is a significant moment for survivors and for Canada and a major step towards accountability and a stronger understanding of the legacy of residential schools."
The Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops has also been notified of the upcoming disclosure, but has not yet commented on the government's plans.
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