Canada signs +$1B settlement with survivors of ‘Indian hospitals'
Kathleen MartensAPTN
Canada is offering more than a billion dollars to settle a class-action lawsuit seeking damages for mistreatment of former patients in federal 'Indian hospitals', APTN News has learned.
The proposed out-of-court settlement is to be announced Thursday by Crown-Indigenous Relations Minister Gary Anandasangaree and representative plaintiff Ann Cecile Hardy in Ottawa.
Details shared with APTN show more than a billion dollars – because there is no cap – would be made available to compensate an estimated 100,000 Indigenous survivors of the segregated medical and tuberculosis-treatment facilities.
There would be $150 million for healing, wellness, reconciliation, protection of languages, education and commemoration, as well as $235.5 million to support research, education, and preserve the history of the hospitals and locate burial sites connected to the hospitals, according to a news release.
Indigenous Services Canada would also receive $150 million to extend existing mental health and wellness supports to Hardy class members.
'It's exciting,' said Marilyn Buffalo, who is Cree from Alberta, of the proposed settlement. 'This could lead to healing.'
Buffalo's grandmother and great-grandmother were patients at the Charles Camsell Hospital in Edmonton, one of 29 federally operated hospitals that treated First Nations and Inuit patients for TB and other conditions during the first half of the 20th century.
The proposed settlement still requires Federal Court approval and would recognize 33 hospitals and tuberculosis sanatoria, including some that began as federal institutions and ended as provincial entities.
Inuk Sarah Arragutainaq, whose Nunavut family saw several members sent to southern Canada for treatment, said news of a settlement is bittersweet.
'It's about time,' she said. 'At least there is something being done about this.
'People are dying.'
It's a sentiment echoed by lawyer Steven Cooper of Cooper Regel in Alberta, one of three firms suing the federal government on behalf of former patients and their family members.
'People have died,' said Cooper, 'and are aging. Lawsuits aren't perfect but hopefully this will bring some closure.'
The class-action was certified in 2020.
Academic Mary Jane McCallum of the University of Winnipeg has done extensive research on the Indian hospital-system that began as Christian missions on reserves and was closely linked to residential schools. She said the federal Indian hospitals operated between 1945 and 1981.
'When I speak about it people are surprised,' she said. 'We really don't know the history of segregated hospitals.'
The medical facilities were, in fact, established to isolate Indigenous patients from non-Indigenous patients during TB outbreaks, she said.
'People were worried about getting TB from (Indigenous people).'
The hospitals operated on the cheap and so did the burials when patients died, McCallum added.
'The federal government didn't want to pay to ship bodies (home) so the cheapest option was to bury them on reserves nearby.'
Finding missing patients to reunite families will be the next wave of unmarked grave searches in Canada, she predicted.
TB, which is highly contagious and spreads quickly in close quarters, is now treated with antibiotic drugs. But originally doctors prescribed bed rest in a sanatorium – often for years.
Patients lost contact with their families, language, culture and communities. Many say they were emotionally, physically and sexually abused.
Author Gary Geddes documents some of the shocking experiences of Indigenous patients in his book 'Medicine Unbundled'.
Such as the 17 years Joan Morris, who is Songhees in B.C. said her mother spent in the Nanaimo Indian Hospital on Vancouver Island.
'(Joan) is the real hero of this class-action lawsuit,' said Geddes, 'having spent over 30 years fighting to tell the story and get justice for her people.'
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau apologized in 2019 for the way Canada managed TB involving Inuit.
Arragutainaq noted elders are still traumatized by the treatment.
Buffalo says her stepfather remembers digging graves at Camsell when he was a student at the nearby Edmonton Residential School.
'These are people who suffered,' said Cooper.
TB is still prevalent in a number of Nunavut communities.
This story contains information that may be upsetting for some readers. The Hope for Wellness Help Line provides immediate, toll-free and online chat-based emotional support and crisis intervention for all Indigenous Peoples in Canada. The service is available 24/7 in French, English and, upon request, Cree, Ojibwe and Inuktitut. Call 1-855-242-3310 or online at www.hopeforwellness.ca.
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