Missing records complicate residential school claims

A growing number of former residential school students in Nunavut — especially those who attended one school in Manitoba — say they are having trouble receiving compensation, as the federal government claims there was no record of them attending the institution.

Most of the former students affected, including Arviat resident Charlotte St. John, attended the Churchill Vocational Centre in northern Manitoba. The school provided academic and vocational training to about 1,000 to 1,200 Inuit youth from eastern Nunavut and northern Quebec.

Last September, a landmark compensation deal for an estimated 80,000 former residential school students came into effect. The federal government-approved agreement aims to provide nearly $2 billion to former students who had attended 130 schools.

The average payout is expected to be about $25,000. Those who suffered physical or sexual abuse may be entitled to as much as $275,000.

St. John said she was sent to the Churchill Vocational Centre for three years beginning in 1963 but received compensation for only one of those years. Government officials informed her they had no other record of her attendance there.

"They didn't pay me for the first year I was there or the last year I was there," St. John said.

"I'm hoping somebody will eventually work something out that we can fill out these forms and get the rest of our payment."

Lawyers involved in the residential school settlement process say records of Churchill students seem to be missing. In such cases, Edmonton lawyer Stephen Cooper told CBC News that students can use old yearbooks or photographs to prove they went there.

Former students can also vouch for each other — something Baker Lake resident Peter Tapatai of Baker Lake said he is willing to do.

"I'm very shocked to hear if records have been lost," Tapatai said. "There were a lot of students that went there."

Tunnuniq MLA James Arvaluk said he plans to investigate the problem, hoping to find out what happened and what affected former students should do next.

"I will be asking two levels of the government, and [Nunavut Tunngavik Inc.], if we can work something that will come to a satisfactory conclusion for those students who have been taken away from their parents and sent to the residential school," he said.

"Some of these former students have been abused, sexually or otherwise. Now they have lost their records."