Indigenous and Northern Affairs Committee on Feb. 12th, 2009

[Jean Crowder, NDP, Nanaimo—Cowichan, BC]

You're saying 60 days, so in this particular case I'm talking about—

[Caroline Davis]

It has well exceeded that already.

[Jean Crowder, NDP, Nanaimo—Cowichan, BC]

And we do have numbers of cases that are in that—

[Caroline Davis]

Perhaps you could, as I said, pass me the list.

[Jean Crowder, NDP, Nanaimo—Cowichan, BC]

Just in that light, is there an MP contact for when we have questions concerning CEP?

[Caroline Davis]

There is the CEP line, which is a service line.

[Jean Crowder, NDP, Nanaimo—Cowichan, BC]

But is there an MP contact?

[Caroline Davis]

We haven't set that up specifically. If it's the wish of the committee, we could certainly look at that. In the meantime, I would suggest you give my office a call.

[Jean Crowder, NDP, Nanaimo—Cowichan, BC]

In terms of the schools, you've indicated that two schools have been accepted under the agreement. Is there a possibility of providing us with a list of all the schools that have applied for reconsideration?

[Caroline Davis]

We do have one here with us that we could leave with the committee. It's the original list. We could also provide one that's been updated to reflect the additional two. The information is on the Internet as well.

[Jean Crowder, NDP, Nanaimo—Cowichan, BC]

Is it the list of all the schools that have applied? Okay. We can access it on the Internet.

[Caroline Davis]

The list on the website has been updated as far as November 14, 2008. When we go back, we'll make sure it's up to date today.

[Jean Crowder, NDP, Nanaimo—Cowichan, BC]

When you have 1,200 schools, what's the process for looking at adding those schools or denying those schools? You've outlined the three criteria. Are those the only criteria that are used?

[Caroline Davis]

Yes, they are. We do have a lot of research that was actually done before the government entered into the agreement. There is a lot of research available on a large number of schools. We can go through that. We discuss carefully and apply the two-part test before we take the decisions.

Then, when a decision is made, there is a detailed explanation of the documents that we've looked at and the kinds of things that we read in the documents that support the decision. We make that available to the people who've applied.

[Jean Crowder, NDP, Nanaimo—Cowichan, BC]

Any appeal process for the school?

[Caroline Davis]

Yes, the appeal for a school could come from the claimant themselves, who could go to the court, or else the national administrative committee could take the case and go to court.

[Jean Crowder, NDP, Nanaimo—Cowichan, BC]

In terms of the IAP process, we've heard from quite a number of people that, in their view, their claims are rejected for seemingly minor reasons. For example, we've had some people say that they couldn't remember the name of the teacher who abused them when they were six years old, and that was the reason their claim was rejected. They're now in their sixties and seventies. It's not unreasonable, I think, that they couldn't remember the name of the teacher they had at age six.

What kinds of reasons are we seeing for the rejections of those claims? I mean, that seems a fairly simple reason.

[Caroline Davis]

Yes, it does. Again, speaking for my colleague, a very thorough research process goes on.

I think, with all due respect, the people who go to these hearings are very often, as I've mentioned already, in a fragile mental state--

[Jean Crowder, NDP, Nanaimo—Cowichan, BC]

Well, they're traumatized, and then they're traumatized all over again.

[Caroline Davis]

They're traumatized, and they get traumatized all over again. Their recollection of the process they go through, and the kinds of reasons we give, could be difficult for them to take in.

Again, it's very important that if you hear about one of these, you encourage them to work with their health support worker to try to work through this.

[Jean Crowder, NDP, Nanaimo—Cowichan, BC]

I don't know what the accessibility is in many remote communities to health support workers. When I hear about a crisis line, the reality is that many communities simply don't have telephones. So providing them with the option of a crisis line to deal with not only their own trauma but also intergenerational trauma is....

I mean, a crisis line in many ways simply is not culturally appropriate. It doesn't provide support on the ground in the community. So if that's what's being offered to people--

[The Chair, Conservative, Bruce Stanton]

You're out of time, Ms. Crowder.

[Jean Crowder, NDP, Nanaimo—Cowichan, BC]

--I just hope the department will look at some other options.

[The Chair, Conservative, Bruce Stanton]

Okay, we'll leave it at that. Thank you.

We'll proceed to Mr. Rickford,

I understand you'll be splitting your time with Mr. Albrecht--or whatever you choose to do; please go ahead.

[Greg Rickford, Conservative, Kenora, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you for coming here today. It's nice to see some familiar faces.

I have two questions. One deals with the Indian residential school process. The other one is just a comment on the Truth and Reconciliation Commission as a sort of pre-emptive comment on what we'll be hearing later on today.

First, was there any exercise or initiative to prepare or respond to or provide support for folks who got payments, either through common experience or the IAP--for example, to safeguard against certain kinds of exploitation and so on? Was there anything done in that regard?