NATIONAL RECONCILIATION DAY JUNE 11, 2009
CALL IN SHOW ON WAWATAY RADIO 1:00 - 4:00PM CST
On June 11, 2008 the Prime Minister of Canada, the honourable Stephen Harper, stood before parliament to apologize to the native people of Canada for the abuses that they endured in the church-run government sponsored Residential Schools. To mark the anniversary of this event NAN Residential School Project is planning a live radio program with survivors. There will be guest speakers who will comment on the issue of the apology.
We would like to invite all survivors to participate in this program and we encourage you to have someone with you during this broadcast as comments may trigger memories and flashbacks. Numbers for counselling will be announced throughout the program.
Former Residential School students are encouraged to tune in to the program and offer their comments and views.
RECONCILIATION DAY ON MOUNT MCKAY LOOKOUT JUNE 11, 2009
NAN will be hosting a gathering on Mount McKay to recognize National Reconciliation Day.
The following is a brief agenda of the day's events:
5:45AM Sunrise Ceremony hosted by Elder Josias Fiddler - Breakfast to follow
10:45AM Opening Welcome
NAN Grand Chief, Stan Beardy
Fort William First Nation Chief, Peter Collins
11:00AM Moment of Silence in memory of victims of Residential Schools
11:05AM Speakers - Elders, Dignitaries, Church Leaders
Minister Michael Gravelle
Sharla Knapton, Constituency Assistant to Bill Morrow
Margaret Rea, Constituency Assistant to John Rafferty
12:00PM Honour Service - honouring our Residential School Survivor Guests
12:30PM BBQ
1:30PM Opening of our AV & PP Presentation
2:00PM Call-In Radio Program begins on Wawatay with Sam Achneepineskum
5:00PM Radio Program ends
Reconsideration processing got underway on February 20th. However, Service Canada has indicated the response letters will not be available until March 2nd and so, although IRSRC can process through the system, supplemental payments will only start being released in March. We expect that some responses and payments will start to go out in March, April and May. The majority of reconsideration requests will be processed within 90 days. However, a minority of the more complex files will only be processed in June
and July.
The Courts have directed and the Government policy is clear which is to NOT decline any Common Experience Payment applications due to the lack of records. In some cases where the Government does not have all of the records required to determine Common Experience Payment eligibility, we may require some additional information from the former student.
This input does not require the former student to locate their records;
instead, we are asking former students to share with us any information about their experience while at residential school.This information can be verbal and is used for researchers to confirm residence and years of residence.
We recognize some of the claims are not easy to process and we acknowledge that each application represents a unique set of circumstances requiring highly-skilled research, due diligence and the greatest respect for each applicant.
Some CEP applications are not eligible and are being declined under the court negotiated Settlement Agreement, and these cases may include day students and students who resided at residential schools not on the list of recognized institutions. However, many of these former students are eligible for other individual and collective initiatives under this Agreement.
CEP eligibility criteria and the detailed protocols to validate applications were agreed to by all parties to the Settlement Agreement, approved by the courts and the research and validation continues to be monitored on an ongoing basis.
Also, the Settlement Agreement explicitly cites that CEP is calculated based on residence at an Indian Residential School during any school year, or part of a school year and not a calendar year. Once a CEP application is fully processed, applicants receive a detailed letter explaining their assessment and how to proceed if they are not
satisfied with the government's decision. This is their opportunity to have their application reconsidered. Following reconsideration, if the applicant disagrees with the decision, an appeal process, administered by all the parties, is available.
