Hundreds of Indigenous people in the Northwest Territories are taking a pro-active approach to the proposed Indian Day School settlement.
CKLB recently came across a poster on social media shared by Dene National Chief Norman Yakeleya advising people to contact the Department of Education, Culture and Employment for their day school records.
According to Jacqueline McKinnon, communications officer for ECE, more than 300 people have requested their documents this year. And so far, records have been found for all applications.
In an email, McKinnon said the department has enrolment forms, histories, attendance reports, class lists, promotion forms and high school transcripts. However, individual cases may not include all of these documents.
To all Federal Day Schools Students, call for your Federal day records. It will help with your official application once…
Posted by Norman Yakeleya on Thursday, June 6, 2019
Proposed settlement
Under the proposed Indian Day School settlement, anyone who attended day school can receive a minimum of $10,000, up to $200,000. There are five levels of harm that determine how much a claimant can receive. Getting school records can make it easier to sign up for the base level of compensation.
All of this is pending the settlement actually gets approved. Justice Michael Phelan heard the case in mid-May during a three-day proceeding in Winnipeg. During the proceeding, Gowling WLG, the law firm that would represent claimants, presented several amendments to the settlement, including extending the opt-out period from 60 to 90 days, extending the claims application period from one year to 2.5 years and prohibiting the use of paid form-fillers. Now both proponents and objectors await Phelan’s decision on whether to approve the settlement. There is no set deadline for the decision.
Getting your records
If you want to get your day school documents, McKinnon said all you have to do is fill out this form (also at the bottom of the page). She added that it takes about three weeks for the department to find the right records.
McKinnon said ECE isn’t responsible for the poster that has been circulating social media but that the department is distributing handouts and sharing the information in regional service centres.
To get more information or to make a request, contact student_records@gov.nt.ca, or 867-767-9353 extension 71265.
For more information on the proposed Day Schools settlement including a list of schools recognized in the settlement, visit http://www.indiandayschools.com/en/.
DaySchoolRecordsForm
