Legal misstep lets Catholic Church off hook for residential schools compensation

[rug]

Lorna Standingready, left, is comforted during the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s closing ceremony in Ottawa last June.
(BLAIR GABLE/REUTERS)

GLORIA GALLOWAY
OTTAWA — The Globe and Mail
Published Sunday, Apr. 17, 2016 10:06PM EDT
Last updated Monday, Apr. 18, 2016 5:37AM EDT

A miscommunication by a federal lawyer allowed the Catholic Church to renege on its obligation to try to raise $25-million to pay for healing programs for the survivors of Indian residential schools.

Of that amount, the Church raised only $3.7-million, and a financial statement suggests less than $2.2-million of that was actually donated to help former students cope with the trauma inflicted by the residential schools.

The legal misstep occurred when Ottawa was pressing the Church to pay the entirety of a related cash settlement stemming from the Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement, the largest class-action deal in Canadian history.

The failing fundraising effort by the Church, which represented almost a third of its obligation under the settlement, was playing out as the Truth and Reconciliation Commission was travelling the country hearing gut-wrenching stories about what occurred behind the walls of the institutions that operated in Canada for more than 100 years.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/legal-misstep-lets-catholics-off-hook-for-residential-schools-compensation/article29657424/