
Files documenting worst abuses at residential schools to be destroyed unless survivors ask otherwise
Files documenting the worst abuses at residential schools are set to be destroyed in 2027 and, despite a multi-year outreach, some survivors say they didn't know they could opt to have their files preserved.
Christina Kitchekesik, a member of Tataskweyak (Split Lake) Cree Nation, attended Guy Hill residential school near The Pas, Man., where she endured physical, mental, spiritual and sexual abuse.
As an advocate for survivors, Kitchekesik ,74, has shared her own experience at residential school with others over the years to help promote understanding and healing.
She also shared her experience in the Independent Assessment Process (IAP) which was created by the Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement alongside the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC).
The TRC heard 6,700 survivors speak about what happened to them at residential schools. The IAP provided survivors like Kitchekesik the chance to be compensated for the abuse they suffered at school, and 38,000 came forward.
Their IAP files contain their testimony, along with documentary evidence of their time at residential school, with items like medical records documenting physical abuse.
Despite her advocacy work and her regular contact with people at the National Council for Truth and Reconciliation (NCTR), which stores the records from the TRC, Kitchekesik says she did not know that she could have her IAP file preserved as part of the historical record at the NCTR.
Order for destruction
Of the 38,000 people who filed claims with the IAP, 90 per cent had a hearing or settlement negotiation, according to the IAP website.
The process was made confidential so survivors would be comfortable sharing painful and personal details. It also meant that any people associated with the schools who were accused of abuse would not have those details made public.
The question of what to do with the files afterward arrived at the Supreme Court in 2017. The NCTR and the Canadian government opposed the destruction of the files, while many Catholic organizations, lawyers who acted for IAP claimants and the Assembly of First Nations supported destroying them.
The AFN was not available for an interview.
The court ruled the IAP files must be destroyed by Sept. 19, 2027. The court's ruling established a program to notify survivors about the deadline and to let survivors know they had options — they could request their files for their own keeping or consent to have them sent to the NCTR to be preserved, or both. If they chose to give their files to the NCTR, they could choose to have identifying information removed from the documents.
Marie Pelletier, 74, attended four different residential schools in Manitoba throughout the '50s and '60s, including Pine Creek, Fort Alexander, Sandy Bay and Assiniboia.
She wasn't aware she could give her IAP files to the NCTR.
"I heard nothing about that," she said.
Pelletier, who is Ojibway from Peguis First Nation in northern Manitoba, has had her file for many years, but isn't sure where it is.
She, like Kitchekesik, said she would be interested in sharing it with the NCTR with her personal details included — if she can find it.
Both women say they think it's good for survivors to share their stories with their children and grandchildren so they can understand why survivors behaved the way they did.
But on top of the benefits for their descendants, they say Canadians have a lot to learn from the files.
"There's still many people that don't believe [what] happened in residential schools, they think we're all lying," Kitchekesik said.
Protecting survivors' privacy
IAP adjudicator Kathleen Keating, who started with the IAP when it began in 2003 (then called Alternative Dispute Resolution) and was there until it finished processing survivors' claims in 2021, said she spoke with hundreds of survivors who were afraid their testimony would become public.
She said adjudicators would often travel to meet survivors outside of their communities to preserve their privacy and remembers reassuring survivors by demonstrating her password-protected tape recorder, highlighting security measures taken with her filing cabinet and even explaining how her paper shredder worked.
"I can remember people who threw up in a waste basket in the hearing room at the thought of sharing these stories," she said, adding she personally promised people their testimony would stay confidential.
"I just can't imagine betraying those people."
Keating said the Supreme Court ordered a two-year multimedia campaign to let survivors know what they could do with their IAP files. The campaign included print, television, radio and social media ads, as well as information phone lines and a website.
Additional efforts to reach survivors included information packages and posters sent to band offices, friendship centres, correctional facilities and other stakeholders. Since 2021, the only part of the notification program still operating is the website.
"If you look at the notification program, I don't know what else could have been done," Keating said.
The point of notification, she said, was not to persuade people one way or the other but to tell them their options. Keating said she expects the number of survivors who have shared their files with the NCTR is probably "quite small."
"I never met a single person who was anxious to share their story widely," Keating said.
Files 'generationally unprecedented'
Raymond Frogner, the NCTR's head of archives, said the NCTR has received just 96 IAP files from the 38,000 survivors who took part.
While the NCTR already has thousands of TRC documents, Frogner says the IAP files are "generationally unprecedented."
"We'll never again see this kind of a tribunal do this in-depth, profound research," he said.
Additionally, other countries like the U.S. have nothing close to the information that has been gathered in Canada, Frogner added, so the documents hold global significance, too.
Word of mouth from elders has been the most successful method of getting survivors to share their documents, Frogner said, and the NCTR is continuing that outreach.
Frogner said he regularly sees a lack of awareness when he attends conferences with community members and discusses their IAP file options.
"The overwhelming response is surprise and shock," he said.
Laura Arndt, who is Mohawk from Six Nations of the Grand River, said she understands how sacred survivors' stories are from both her personal and work experience.
Arndt, the lead at the Survivors Secretariat which is leading the investigation into unmarked burials at the Mohawk Institute, said her aunt Mary took part in the IAP after suffering medical neglect while attending the Mohawk Institute.
Her aunt has since died, and since the files can only be accessed by the survivor themselves, Mary's file is permanently out of reach.
"The hardest part in all of this is the only history that this country has is the history that's written in black ink. The IAP process, including my aunt's file, is black ink," she said.
"I appreciate those records carry such pain and such trauma that the need to handle them as sacred documents is critical. But to destroy them is to destroy the truth of what really happened."
Although she doesn't often speak with survivors about their IAPs, when it does come up Arndt said many are not aware of their options.
Arndt said knowing that records will be destroyed is heartbreaking, especially because she has seen many government and church records from residential schools — like showing what materials were purchased to repair the school or how much cutlery was purchased — but says survivor testimonies are "the most critical information."
Arndt said she believes that survivors' files could contain details about times, locations and other information that could help with the search for unmarked graves.
"In destroying the records, the evil doers of this genocide get protected," she said.
Survivors who went through the IAP can request their files for themselves and/or have them sent to the NCTR by filling out the request form or consent form (or both) and returning them by email, mail or fax before Sept. 19, 2027.
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


CTV News
37 minutes ago
- CTV News
Ottawa Catholic School Board eyes $16 million in new expenditures as OCDSB looks for $20 million in cuts
Math will be on the agenda tonight for Ottawa's two largest school boards, as the 2025-26 budgets are presented to trustees. While trustees at the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board have been told they will need to find $20 million in savings to balance the books, the Ottawa Catholic School Board's budget for the new school year will include $16.8 million in 'new permanent and one-time enhancements' using operating surpluses and reserves. A report for the Ottawa Catholic School Board meeting shows the board will receive $797.8 million in grants and operating revenues for the 2025-26 school year, and the preliminary expenditures are $786.6 million. Staff recommend the board add another $10.5 million in permanent expenses to the 2025-26 budget using the grant and operating revenues, and $6.3 million in one-time expenditures using the accumulated surplus. The $16.8 million in additional spending includes $9 million for staffing salaries and $4.3 million in enhancements. According to the report, the $4.3 million in new 'non-salary expenditures' includes $375,000 for AI softwares, $500,000 for school budget increases to address inflationary budgets, $500,000 in one-time cash to support school initiatives, $500,0000 for furniture and equipment, and $500,000 to refresh sports and arts equipment in schools. The board will use its accumulated surplus to fund $2 million in investments in skills trades initiatives, a $2 million investment in inclusion and well-being through the Lens of Deep Learning and $1 million for play structure renewal. Staff say the board 'enjoys a healthy balance,' and there is 'sufficient' funding to fund 'valuable system needs.' The Ottawa Catholic School Board budget calls for 5,606 staff members, including 4,559 teachers, in 2025, up from 5,339 employees in 2024. Ottawa-Carleton District School Board The draft budget for the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board (OCDSB) will be tabled tonight, with trustees warned they need to find $20 million in savings to balance the books. Trustees have already approved a plan to cut more than 150 teaching and administrative positions. Staff have said the OCDSB is facing multi-million-dollar cost pressures, including $20 million to support the maintenance of underutilized schools, $16.8 million to cover costs for replacing staff and $12 million in inflation pressures. The Ministry of Education is investigating the OCDSB's finances.

CBC
42 minutes ago
- CBC
Asked about the U.S., Supreme Court of Canada chief justice says rule of law is 'under attack' worldwide
Asked about U.S. President Donald Trump's contentious relationship with parts of the American judiciary, Supreme Court of Canada Chief Justice Richard Wagner said Tuesday "the rule of law and judicial independence is under attack" around the world. Speaking to reporters at his annual news conference on Parliament Hill, Wagner said if a government attacks the media, judges, lawyers and universities — as Trump and his associates have done in recent weeks — there's a good chance it's "a dictatorship" and an "autocratic government." Wagner said Canadians must be "prudent" and preserve their institutions, including a judicial system where rulings are respected by elected officials. "We have to be careful, but be optimistic as well. "In Canada we have a strong legal system," he said. "We have to defend those institutions. We should not take anything for granted." Wagner said, throughout his cross-country travels, "everybody asks me the same question" about whether what's going on in the U.S. courts system will bleed over into Canada. What's different in Canada, Wagner said, is that the "main stakeholders" here "respect separation of powers and judicial independence and are happy to live in a country where the rule of law will prevail." "Canada is not a superpower. But it is a democratic superpower. In this country, the rule of law is non-negotiable," he said. In his second term as president, Trump is pushing an ambitious but constitutionally dubious agenda that has been held back by some judicial rulings. The president has slammed some judges on social media — complaining about a "radicalized and incompetent court system" in one recent post — and threatened others with impeachment or removal from office. When one federal judge ordered a temporary halt to the deportation of alleged Venezuelan gang members, Trump said it was the actions of a "radical left lunatic of a judge, a troublemaker and agitator" who should be off the bench. In hundreds of cases before the U.S. court system, judges have delayed or stymied his efforts to close some federal agencies, pursue mass layoffs of federal workers, block foreign aid, end birthright citizenship for people born on American soil, deport undocumented migrants and slap tariffs on countries such as Canada. After the U.S. Court of International Trade struck down parts of Trump's tariffs regime, saying the president overstepped his constitutional authority by imposing sweeping levies on global goods, one of his top advisors, Stephen Miller, said, "The judicial coup is out of control." Trump has had some legal victories, especially at the U.S. Supreme Court, which includes three justices appointed by him. Late last month, the top court let Trump's administration revoke the temporary legal status of hundreds of thousands of Venezuelan, Cuban, Haitian and Nicaraguan migrants living in the United States, bolstering the Republican president's drive to step up deportations. A Trump official said that ruling was "a victory for the American people."


National Post
43 minutes ago
- National Post
Feds awarded ArriveCan firm nearly $100 million in contracts, despite issues: AG report
OTTAWA – Another report, this time from Auditor General Karen Hogan, blames the federal government for repeatedly violating procurement policies by awarding dozens of contracts to the IT company that built the ArriveCan application. Article content The auditor general found that 31 federal organizations issued 106 contracts worth approximately $92.7 million to GCStrategies from April 2015 to March 2024. About $64.5 million was ultimately paid out by the government according to the report. Article content Article content Article content Over that period, the Canadian Border Services Agency gave four contracts worth $49.9 million to GC Strategies, while the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation gave one contract worth nearly $12,000. Article content Article content But Hogan also found that in 54 per cent of contracts examined, federal organizations had evidence to show that all services and deliverables were received and in 46 per cent of contracts examined, they had little to no evidence that deliverables were received. Article content The AG underlined that federal government officials are required to certify that all services and deliverables in the contract were received prior to release of payment to a contractor. Evidently, it was not always the case. Article content 'There are no recommendations in this report because I don't believe the government needs more procurement rules,' said Hogan on Tuesday. Article content 'Rather, federal organizations need to make sure that the rules that exist are understood and followed,' she added. Article content Article content Moreover, about a fifth of the contracts the auditor examined showed a lack of documentation on file that showed valid security clearances for contract resources. Article content Hogan noted that organizations 'frequently disregarded government policies in this area.' For instance, it included not having records showing who performed the work, if they had the required experience and qualifications, and what work was completed. Article content Federal organizations are required to monitor the work performed by contractors. Article content GCStrategies is an Ottawa-based staffing company in the information technology that provided the feds with 'services that included technology support.' Article content However, the contractor that received about a third of ArriveCan funding was found to be a two-person shop. Article content Their work with the feds led to 'multiple' RCMP investigations last year, and an exceptional reprimand from the speaker of the House of Commons when the company's co-founder Kristian Firth became the second private citizen and first in 111 years to be called on the floor of the House. He had to go through this extraordinary procedure because he had previously failed to answer questions on his role in the ArriveCan debacle.