Federal Indian Day School Survivor. Image credit: X/@GabbyWEUNV
CMEDIA: Indian day school survivor reportedly Jessie Waldron’s request to appeal a lower court ruling related to a multi-billion dollar settlement agreement has been dismissed by the Supreme Court of Canada leaving her and other survivors retraumatized.
Jessie, who attended the Waterhen Lake Indian Day School in northern Saskatchewan during the 1960s and 1970s asked the top court for the right to amend her compensation claim with additional evidence of abuse.
She added that she filed for the minimum $10,000 in compensation because she could never get through a legal hotline set up to help survivors.
Being unable to understand the compensation application and get advice on how to apply for the higher levels, hundreds of other survivors had filed for the lowest category of compensation.
Being eligible for five levels of compensation, ranging from $10,000 for verbal and physical abuse (Level 1) to $200,000 for repeated sexual abuse, survivors were required to provide more detail and corroborative evidence for each level of claim required.
Having set aside $1.27 billion for Level 1 claims, the lowest amount, the federal government agreed to pay all higher levels of compensation awards, also subsidizing a $200 million legacy fund to support wellness and cultural projects for survivors.
Day school survivors were shut out of the $1.9-billion Indian Residential School Settlement Agreement brokered in 2006.
Although day school students, unlike residential school survivors, remained in their communities and went home in the evenings, many of them suffered similar abuse and faced cultural assimilation.
