Opposition backs calls for Sask. residential school apology



The Saskatchewan NDP wants the provincial government to apologize for its historic role in the devastating legacy of residential schools.

“It is long past time that both orders of government fully take responsibility for their respective roles in the abuse, neglect, loss of language and culture, and violence that many First Nations and Métis people were subjected to in these institutions,” said Betty Nippi-Albright, NDP critic for Truth and Reconciliation, First Nations and Métis Relations.

The province should apologize and provide compensation for children who attended Timber Bay Children’s Home and Île-à-la-Crosse residential school, where hundreds of First Nations and Métis children attended, she said.

Those who attended the schools — founded by the Northern Canada Evangelical Mission and the Catholic Church, respectively — were denied the Indian Residential School Settlement because the institutions weren’t directly government-run.

Calls for the province to recognize them have re-emerged since the shocking discovery of the remains of 215 children at the site of a former residential school near Kamloops B.C.

“It’s unfortunate that it takes an incident of this magnitude to bring something to the forefront,” noted Leonard Montgrand, a former student of the Île-à-la-Crosse residential school.

“We’ve been banging our fist on the table and trying to get recognition. All of a sudden, it’s an issue that has to be dealt with.”

Montgrand said he is working through a lengthy, “frustrating” process with the federal government, attempting to secure compensation for Île-à-la-Crosse school survivors. It’s been underway since 2019, when a committee of survivors, the Métis Nation—Saskatchewan and Ottawa signed a memorandum of understanding.

He said the province shares fault with the federal government and the Catholic Church for what survivors have endured. As they age, the case for an apology and compensation grows more urgent, he added.

Video: Saskatchewan First Nation remembering lives lost at residential schools (Global News)

“The province needs to come to the table” as an early step to help bring healing to the community, said Île-à-la-Crosse Mayor Duane Favel.

NDP Athabasca MLA Buckley Belanger said he believes there may also be burial sites at the residential school site in the community, but the search process hasn’t begun. He wants the provincial government to release school records to get a clearer picture of the children who attended.

The tragic findings at Kamloops have also resurfaced calls from the Prince Albert Grand Council and Lac La Ronge Indian Band (LLRIB) to recognize Timber Bay as a residential school.

In 2017, LLRIB exhausted its legal options when the Saskatchewan Court of Appeal ruled Timber Bay wasn’t directly government-run, and wasn’t eligible for residential school status.

PAGC Grand Chief Brian Hardlotte recently said the tragedy at Kamloops creates an opening to directly lobby the federal government, outside of the legal system.

In a prepared statement, a provincial government spokesman said the province has not been contacted by either LLRIB or PAGC to support their efforts with Ottawa.

He said there’s active litigation against the Saskatchewan government regarding both the Timber Bay and Île-à-la-Crosse schools, launched respectively in 2001 and 2006.

“Given the legal status of these files we are unable to provide further comment at this time,” he wrote.

Nick Pearce, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, The StarPhoenix