Federal official blocked residential school survivor group's effort to identify missing children
CBC
A federal official blocked a request by a survivor's organization seeking access to a key register in a search for 100-year-old records they hope could identify four children who died at the Shingwauk and Wawanosh residential schools in Sault Ste. Marie, Ont.
After exhausting all research avenues, the Children of Shingwauk Alumni Association wanted to search the government's Indian status register for the names of two boys and two girls who died while attending the institutions in the early 1900s.
Their bid was blocked this month by the official in charge of the register, citing privacy laws to deny a request to search the records.
"The information contained within the Indian Register System is personal and, as such, is limited to disclosing solely with consent or in compliance with the Privacy Act," wrote John Gordon, the Indian Registrar, in a March 16 letter.
"It is not possible to grant you access for the purpose of conducting research."
Irene Barbeau, 78, president of the alumni association, has since written Indigenous Services Minister Patty Hajdu and Crown-Indigenous Relations Minister Marc Miller asking they use their authority to grant the group access.
"It's frustrating, it's disappointing," Barbeaeu said. "We thought there would be more reconciliation from their part, because they are the ones who created the mess we are in right now."
The letter to the ministers states that the association is only seeking to search records dated between 1900 and 1920 held by the register and any other internal departmental databases.
"The only way left to identify these children is with the co-operation of the departments you lead," said the March 24 letter.
"We cannot heal, and they cannot truly rest in peace, until their names are known."
The Crown-Indigenous Relations department sent an emailed statement to CBC News last fall saying the federal government would be open to providing "access to information and records to help support reconciliation," but that it was subject to the restrictions of the federal Privacy Act.
Miller and Hajdu's ministerial offices issued a joint emailed statement to CBC News Tuesday that said the government had a "moral obligation to survivors to pursue the truth and ensure access to documents and records."
The statement said the two ministers would work with their departments "to find a solution so that the Children of Shingwauk Alumni Association can continue their important work."
Meagan McLean, a departmental spokesperson for the two departments, said in an emailed statement that officials plan to reach out to the association to obtain "additional information," because previous searches "had been unsuccessful."
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