[LINK] [OT] "we say sorry"

[Rick Welykochy]

Jan Whitaker wrote:

> BUT that doesn't mean that it wouldn't be cheaper to have one, even if 
> there were a few directly removed people, NOT their descendents, who got 
> some money that would be spent as 'legal system welfare'. Why clog up 
> the courts for this? Give all 50,000 or whatever number, many of whom 
> have already passed, $10,000. Make it that only a living person can 
> collect. Say there were 2000 cases brought, then at $2mil/case = $4bil. 
> Say 10,000 claimants are still living, $100mil.

This is from the Sorry FAQ available at getup.org:

Case Study: Canada's ‘Common Experience Fund’

Canada’s Indigenous population shares some of the experiences of Indigenous Australians. From
the early 1880s, Indigenous Canadian children were removed from their homes on the basis of their
race and placed in church-run, government funded residential schools. From 1920 until early 1970
this removal was experienced by practically all Indigenous children. These schools were created to
encourage assimilation and to suppress Indigenous culture and language.

The United Church of Canada recently apologised for this “horrendous period of Canadian history”
and the Canadian Government also extended a formal apology in the form of an action plan. The
action plan included a statement of reconciliation in which the Canadian Government recognised
and apologised for “the single most harmful, disgraceful and racist act” in their history.

The apology led to a range of lawsuits and helped Ottawa’s Government to come to a settlement
with First Nation representatives. As a result of the settlement, the Canadian Government provided
a $1.9 billion compensation fund for the ‘common experience’ of all people who were affected by
the removal of Indigenous children. All residential school survivors are entitled to apply for the
‘common experience payment’. If the applicant is successful they receive a standard $10,000 in
compensation and a further $3,000 for each year they were placed in the school. The Government
has also provided an extra $3 billion in compensation to survivors who suffered sexual and physical
abuse in the residential schools.

Currently 85,080 applications for the ‘common experience’ payment have been received. Of that
number, 56,625 have been processed with 46,910 being successful.





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_________________________________
Rick Welykochy || Praxis Services

Tis the dream of each programmer before his life is done,
To write three lines of APL and make the damn thing run.