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Results: 76 - 90 of 154
Daniel Quan-Watson
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Daniel Quan-Watson
2021-06-10 11:29
Perhaps I could ask Monsieur Reiher, who has followed this file closely for a long time, to jump in.
Martin Reiher
View Martin Reiher Profile
Martin Reiher
2021-06-10 11:30
Thank you, Deputy Minister.
If I may, Mr. Chair, I would add to the answer that churches had obligations to disclose documents in the context of the litigation that led to the Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement. Under that agreement, and with the legal power the government would have at this time to compel the Catholic Church to produce documents, would be to file a request for direction with the supervising court to compel the production of documents. If documents were located outside of Canada, of course, that becomes much more complicated in terms of jurisdiction.
Thank you.
View Marcus Powlowski Profile
Lib. (ON)
Just to clarify that: You say that on the previous litigation there was a requirement to disclose documents, and those documents can still be accessed now through that previous litigation? I'm just not sure what the response meant.
Martin Reiher
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Martin Reiher
2021-06-10 11:31
Thank you.
The documents that were disclosed as part of the litigation were gathered, and under the settlement agreement, a lot of research was done both by the federal government and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Over five million documents were gathered and transferred to the NCTR. There is already a lot of historical information that is available. This is the document collection that I was referring to. There are other documents that exist that were not disclosed. Maybe the legal power that we would have would be to go through the court, through the processes under the settlement agreement, to compel additional disclosure.
Martin Reiher
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Martin Reiher
2021-06-10 11:31
That is the power that we would have at this time under this settlement agreement, the Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement. Documents relating to Indian residential schools had to be disclosed, and if not all have been disclosed, that is the recourse that we would have.
View Marcus Powlowski Profile
Lib. (ON)
Minister, we have set aside $27 million for further investigations to see if there are—and, certainly, there will be—other graveyards or bodies found. Can you tell us...? It hasn't been that long since the bodies were discovered in Kamloops, but so far, have other indigenous groups come forward to ask for funding to look for further sites?
View Carolyn Bennett Profile
Lib. (ON)
Yes, unfortunately, Marcus, in Kamloops there had been that “knowing” for over 20 years, and they had begun that work. I think that we are already seeing requests coming from Saskatchewan and from Six Nations, and that this is, unfortunately, very prevalent. As we go across the country and see even the marked graves with the small crosses there in the cemeteries adjacent to where the schools were, it is heartbreaking, but as the Truth and Reconciliation Commission said, there are just thousands, probably, of unmarked graves and remains that have yet to be discovered.
View Mumilaaq Qaqqaq Profile
NDP (NU)
View Mumilaaq Qaqqaq Profile
2021-06-10 11:41
Thank you, Chair.
Thank you, Ministers, for being here and for your speeches and answers.
The Prime Minister has stated that your government has the tools and processes to force the Catholic Church to disclose the residential school documents that remain. The Prime Minister has also said that he would only use these tools when it is necessary.
Minister Bennett, why don't you view this as necessary now, when indigenous children have been found dead?
View Carolyn Bennett Profile
Lib. (ON)
We are asking the Catholic Church to release the documents, if there are any documents that have not been, as Martin said, released already as part of the settlement agreement class action. We need to know what might be there to be able to proceed. This will be essential in being able to identify the lost children.
View Mumilaaq Qaqqaq Profile
NDP (NU)
View Mumilaaq Qaqqaq Profile
2021-06-10 11:42
I'm specifically asking why your government isn't viewing it as “necessary”. As an indigenous person, Minister Bennet, it's really insulting that you are deciding what is necessary when indigenous people across the nation and I are telling you that this is necessary.
Do you believe that family member records are the family members' property? These documents are not the church's, nor the government's. These are ours—indigenous peoples'. Why are you, as a non-indigenous person, deciding what is necessary in terms of our documentation?
View Carolyn Bennett Profile
Lib. (ON)
I agree with you totally. As a physician, I know that records belong to the patient. That is hugely important. Now some of the churches are voluntarily giving over documents, and if there's anything left that hadn't been given previously, we are hoping they will do that. However, I believe that families and survivors expect everything to be there for the examination to be able to do the extraordinarily important work of identifying the children.
View Mumilaaq Qaqqaq Profile
NDP (NU)
View Mumilaaq Qaqqaq Profile
2021-06-10 11:44
Last week, Minister Bennett, you said that the government had already earmarked $33 million in 2019 to, as the CBC notes, “implement the TRC's burial-related recommendations”. However, that $27 million has not yet been spent. Why hasn't this money been spent since the 2019 budget?
View Carolyn Bennett Profile
Lib. (ON)
Some of the money has been earmarked for the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation for their ability to keep comprehensive records of deaths and burials in cemeteries that families can access. The advice given to us was that we must design a program that would meet the needs of all of the possible communities and survivors' families, and that is the work we did. It has resulted in a very flexible program that communities will be able to apply to for research, gatherings and commemoration—whatever the community needs. We now have a program that will be able to meet those needs and help them unlock the healing and move forward.
View Mumilaaq Qaqqaq Profile
NDP (NU)
View Mumilaaq Qaqqaq Profile
2021-06-10 11:45
Let's also be extremely clear that finding the remains of these children was not an initiative set out by the federal government. It was an initiative funded by the provincial government. How much longer would we have been waiting if that didn't happen? This didn't happen because the federal institution cares. This happened because a provincial government cares. This was brought to light because of a provincial government, not because of the federal government.
Why is it suddenly such an urgent matter to distribute this money? Why was this not a priority of your department? It took the B.C. government's funding to uncover the mass grave in Kamloops. Do you think it is the federal government's responsibility to fund these searches?
Results: 76 - 90 of 154 | Page: 6 of 11

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