From an article of Betty Ann Adam \u2022 Saskatoon StarPhoenix
\nPublishing date: Oct 11, 2017 \u2022 October 11, 2017 \u2022<\/p>\n
Canada \u201clost a significant amount of truth\u201d about the worst abuses at Indian residential schools with last week\u2019s Supreme Court of Canada decision that records should be destroyed, says the director of the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation. \u201cThe truth is powerful but easily suppressed,\u201d Ry Moran said Wednesday in Saskatoon.<\/p>\n
The Supreme Court ruled that survivors who told detailed accounts of horrific physical and sexual abuses at Indian residential schools in an assessment process to decide financial compensation were told their stories would be kept private and signed confidentiality agreements.<\/p>\n
Many survivors and the federal government argued that the records should be preserved at the National Centre, which houses the documents gathered by the 2009-15 Truth and Reconciliation Commission and which is tasked with making the complete history available to all so that the cultural genocide committed in the schools will always be part of Canada\u2019s history.<\/p>\n
The court agreed that people who now want their stories preserved will have that option. The stories of people who have already died and those who fail to opt in will be destroyed.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a blow to the country\u201d last Friday morning when the court decision was released, Moran said.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs of Thursday night, we actually knew, as a country, the full extent of the horrors inflicted upon children in residential schools. We knew that. We had it. As of Friday morning at 8:45 a.m. we lost it,\u201d Moran said.<\/p>\n
\u201cDestruction is actually happening right now. The Government of Canada and all the churches that hold this collection of information are actually under a court order to start destroying. So this destruction is not in 15 years from now. It\u2019s happening as we speak, in this present moment.\u201d<\/p>\n
Eugene Arcand who represented Saskatchewan on the national survivors\u2019 committee, said he is angry about the decision.<\/p>\n
\u201cCanada\u2019s darkest secret has been opened up. It scares me when they try and do things like destroy records,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Survivors who went through the independent assessment process we were victimized again by adjudicators who questioned them on the veracity of their recollections despite an assurance they would be given the benefit of the doubt, he added.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was sickening. I don\u2019t need those people protecting me, and my fellow survivors don\u2019t need those people protecting them,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Of the 38,000 files, 32 per cent involved student-on-student abuse; 68 per cent told of abuse by staff, including the clergy.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s time for Canada to create the National Council for Reconciliation that was called for by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, Moran said.<\/p>\n
badam@postmedia.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
From an article of Betty Ann Adam \u2022 Saskatoon StarPhoenix Publishing date: Oct 11, 2017 \u2022 October 11, 2017 \u2022 Canada \u201clost a significant amount of truth\u201d about the worst abuses at Indian residential schools with last week\u2019s Supreme Court of Canada decision that records should be destroyed, says the director of the National Centre […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":10380,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10379","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-new-room"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/ustooadvocacy.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/image-scaled.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustooadvocacy.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10379","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustooadvocacy.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustooadvocacy.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustooadvocacy.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustooadvocacy.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10379"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ustooadvocacy.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10379\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustooadvocacy.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/10380"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustooadvocacy.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10379"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustooadvocacy.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10379"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustooadvocacy.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10379"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}