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Results: 121 - 135 of 154
View Sylvie Bérubé Profile
BQ (QC)
Given everything happening right now and the 2019 and current budgets, how do you plan to help the communities affected at this time?
Daniel Quan-Watson
View Daniel Quan-Watson Profile
Daniel Quan-Watson
2021-06-03 11:29
The minister announced yesterday that $27 million was available. She also committed to providing more resources if necessary.
Clearly, communities across the country will want to take a variety of approaches. Some will want to take extremely comprehensive steps. In other cases, there will likely be a great deal of discussion within the communities. The necessary investments may ultimately be more modest, even though the outcome is as important as any other project that communities might undertake in different parts of the country.
View Rachel Blaney Profile
NDP (BC)
Thank you, Chair, and thank you to everyone for being here to testify.
I want to start off by saying that I think it's important for all of us to recognize that what we're seeing across Canada in indigenous communities is not a call for remembrance or commemoration. It's a call to acknowledge genocide, and to acknowledge that there are crime scenes across our Canada, that there are graves of indigenous children across our country. I want to acknowledge that as I start my questioning.
My first question is, how many nations is the department currently working with to identify possible burial sites?
Daniel Quan-Watson
View Daniel Quan-Watson Profile
Daniel Quan-Watson
2021-06-03 11:31
If I could just pick up quickly on the first point you made, some of the most heart-wrenching conversations I've had in the last week have been with indigenous people who are frustrated with the reaction of Canadians, from the perspective, they said, that six years ago this issue was laid bare in black and white for every Canadian to read. Why is it a surprise now? I would just pick up on the comment you made there.
We are working with every community that wishes to engage on this issue. We have made communications to every single community in the country. It's on our website. We'll be sending out an email blast to everybody. We are prepared to work with anyone on this front. It is their choice. These are very difficult conversations, as you can imagine, and many communities have in their priorities things that are not related to these issues at this moment in time. We will respect the time frames in which they want to raise them and whether or not they want to raise them, but we are open to working with everyone. Again, there are a number of communities where we're having specific conversations, but we're open to working with absolutely everyone.
View Rachel Blaney Profile
NDP (BC)
Justice Sinclair has told the world that when he started this process, when he was part of that commission, they didn't expect the number of stories they received from survivors who were talking about children killed, children who died and children who never returned. They weren't sure what happened to them, indicating very clearly that there was something serious happening here that we should have been looking into and, of course, that wasn't studied the way it should have been.
I'm just wondering if you could tell us how many requests the department has received, how many have been dismissed and how many have been followed up with, and if the stories of survivors are enough for an investigation.
Daniel Quan-Watson
View Daniel Quan-Watson Profile
Daniel Quan-Watson
2021-06-03 11:33
I'll ask my colleague Martin Reiher to speak to some of the specifics and the requests we have had.
I'm not aware that we have denied any requests from different groups that might have come forward to us. Obviously, we were waiting for the money. We expect many requests to come in now that it's out there. The groups we work with have known that this money was coming. They were waiting for the details of it. It's now out there.
You're quite right, obviously, that these stories have been told many times. I think one of the reasons people have stopped talking about them is that, throughout history, parents have gone and asked school administrators, and parents have gone and talked to police forces. People asked all sorts of government agents what had happened to their children, and they were ignored time and time and time again. In some instances, they were lied to. In some instances, documents were withheld that should have been given to them. People got to the point where they didn't talk about it publicly and, as you point out, it came out in significant volume during the hearings process.
Perhaps my colleague Mr. Reiher could speak to the engagements we have had where people have sought resources to this point.
Martin Reiher
View Martin Reiher Profile
Martin Reiher
2021-06-03 11:34
Indeed we have not denied any request for funding. We are actually keeping track of the requests we have received in the last few days in particular, and we will follow up with the first nations, in addition, of course, to making the information available to present requests in the future.
The second part of the question was with respect to what survivors had to say and whether that is sufficient to launch the work. Obviously the information that survivors recall and have shared is critical as a starting point for that type of work. Additional work will be required—historical research and archeological research, obviously, in order to locate potential burial grounds.
View Rachel Blaney Profile
NDP (BC)
Thank you. I'm sorry to interrupt, but I just have a quick few seconds left.
Are there support systems that are going to be available for communities, should a cite be identified? We need to see trauma-informed care given onsite for elders, knowledge keepers, community members, survivors and their families. I'm just wondering if those resources are also part of this package.
Valerie Gideon
View Valerie Gideon Profile
Valerie Gideon
2021-06-03 11:36
I can speak to that.
In budget 2021, we were able to obtain renewal of the Indian residential schools resolution health support program, to continue to extend those mental health and cultural supports to communities across the country until 2024. There are additional mental health resources also that were included, so the total is close to $600 million over three years. That's in addition to the other base programming that we have in the department, such as non-insured health benefits.
View Marcus Powlowski Profile
Lib. (ON)
Thanks.
I listened to a statement by former senator Sinclair about the Kamloops discovery. One of the things he stated was that when the Truth and Reconciliation Commission was having its hearings, I guess at the end it requested more money to look specifically into deaths in residential schools. That was denied.
This was a number of years ago, but can you say why that was denied? Would the government and the ministry reconsider this, should the indigenous community want to do it at this point?
Daniel Quan-Watson
View Daniel Quan-Watson Profile
Daniel Quan-Watson
2021-06-03 11:43
I'm not able to speak to the details of why the decision might have been made at that point in time. I know that, obviously, the request was made and the decision was made not to provide the funds.
This issue is certainly one we are committed to addressing and resolving. There is a significant amount of resources that are available to deal with it. The minister has committed that she's prepared to seek more resources if they are required. We would certainly entertain any request in this area seriously.
View Marcus Powlowski Profile
Lib. (ON)
Deputy Minister, you've already kind of touched upon this. Former senator Sinclair has also talked about lists. I've heard from other sources as well that quite a few people seem to believe the church kept very good records, and that there are lists out there as to the names of people who died.
Does the government have such a list? What, if anything, has the government done to try to get hold of such lists?
Daniel Quan-Watson
View Daniel Quan-Watson Profile
Daniel Quan-Watson
2021-06-03 11:44
The federal government has turned over all the documents it has and made them available. Those are part of the records that are currently being held.
Other parties have lists that haven't been shared. Obviously, those would be in their possession, not our possession. If they had been in our possession, we would have turned them over. We are certainly—along with the former commissioner and the report of the commission—strongly encouraging the call to make sure that information is shared.
Perhaps Monsieur Reiher can speak a bit about the communications we've had on that front. There was obviously a take-note debate the other evening that addressed some aspects of related issues here. These are some conversations we've been having with a number of players over the years to strongly encourage them to do as the federal government has done, which is to turn over the records.
View Marcus Powlowski Profile
Lib. (ON)
Mr. Reiher, you might want to respond, but maybe in responding you can also answer this: Does the government have any legal power to require the other parties, such as the churches, to hand over any lists they have?
Martin Reiher
View Martin Reiher Profile
Martin Reiher
2021-06-03 11:45
As part of the implementation of the Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement, we established an all-party table involving the churches, and we have continued discussion with churches in the development of the response to calls to action 74 to 76. As part of these discussions, they have all indicated around the table that they are prepared to collaborate and share information in their archives.
We will continue to facilitate the sharing of this information in the context of specific projects, and I anticipate that there will be great collaboration.
In terms of a legal capacity to impose sharing, we do not have that authority.
Results: 121 - 135 of 154 | Page: 9 of 11

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