Opposition parties call for the day school settlement agreement to be reopened

The federal NDP and the Green Party are urging Ottawa to reopen the multi-billion-dollar federal Indian day school settlement agreement.

The opposition lawmakers issued the call in response to a CBC News report about day school survivors who say they were re-traumatized by the compensation process and shortchanged.

"I know that what they're saying is completely true," said Lori Idlout, NDP MP for Nunavut.

"There are many more [survivors] that we need to make sure are getting the justice they deserve, the compensation …  I'm sure that there have been so many more that just gave up because of how arduous the whole process is."

The settlement agreement is facing a challenge before the Supreme Court of Canada from a Cree survivor of a northern Saskatchewan day school who wants to resubmit her claim.

Jessie Waldron, who attended the Waterhen Lake Indian Day School in the 1960s and 1970s, told CBC News she couldn't reach the claims administrator Deloitte for help, or the law firm Gowling WLG, which was hired to represent survivors in a class action lawsuit against Ottawa.

Both firms were paid tens of millions of dollars by the federal government under the settlement agreement to help survivors fill out their claims.

"Survivors shouldn't have to go back to the courts to get access to money that's been set aside for them," said Jonathan Pedneault, deputy leader of the Green Party.

"The first priority certainly is to ensure that claimants have more time and have more support to fill out these claims."

Pedneault said the Greens will be pushing the Liberal government in the House of Commons to reopen the compensation process. 

"Jessie Waldron has courage, so much courage, to bring to light what the challenges have been with the Indian day school compensation," Idlout said.

She said she knows personally the difficulties faced by day school survivors because her mother, who attended the Sir Joseph Bernier Federal Day School in Chesterfield Inlet, Nunavut, applied for compensation shortly before her death. 

"My mom ended up not receiving her compensation by the time she died," Idlout said.

Idlout said her mother Carmen Idlout had trouble accessing documentation to indicate which years she went to day school. Now, Gowling is requiring more documentation before Carmen Idlout's children can receive their late mother's compensation.