Delay in seating committee members

Indian residential school survivors will have to wait longer than initially anticipated before they can make presentations for seats on the 10-member Indian Residential Schools Survivor Committee.
With the resignation of Chief Commissioner Justice Harry LaForme throwing a wrench into the Truth and Reconciliation process, the IRS Survivor Committee has also been overrun with applications.
The committee was to be established by the end of August, but with over 150 applications received, the selection process was delayed and selection is now expected to conclude somewhere between mid- to late-November, said Kimberly Phillips, spokesperson for IRS Truth and Reconciliation Commission. ÝAs long as the commission can continue to operate as the two remaining commissioners have sworn to do.
Representatives from the Assembly of First Nations, the Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, the Métis National Council, the Presbyterian, Anglican, United, and Catholic churches are assisting the TRC in the selection process.The majority of the members of the committee will be survivors and the committee will serve as an advisory body to the TRC for the duration of its five-year mandate.
Says Phillips, "The committee will ensure that the voices of survivors are represented, heard, and accurately reflected when providing advice and recommendations to the commission."
The Indian Residential Schools Truth and Reconciliation Commission was created as a result of the Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement that was negotiated between legal counsel for former students, legal counsel for the churches, the Government of Canada, the Assembly of First Nations and other Aboriginal organizations. The commission was established in June as an independent body. Commissioners were present in the House of Commons when Prime Minister Stephen Harper delivered the formal apology to former students of Indian residential schools.
The delay in establishing the IRS Survivor Committee has had a ripple effect on other work to be carried out.
Money cannot be awarded through the Commemoration Initiatives until criteria have been developed. That development, as well as guidelines and principles for the Commemoration Initiative, is to be undertaken by the IRS Survivor Committee with assistance of the TRC Secretariat. Separate project funding of $20 million has been allocated over five years to support regional and national Commemoration Initiatives.
"This initiative is an opportunity to honour, educate, remember, memorialize and pay tribute to former residential school students, their families and communities," said Phillips. She notes that once the process is in place, proposals can be submitted by survivors, their families, communities, groups and organizations acting on behalf (of former students. Proposals will be received by the TRC, but the IRS Survivor (Committee will complete evaluations. Funding recommendations will be made by the chair and commissioners to Indian and Northern Affairs Canada.
As well, until the IRS Survivor Committee is established regional liaisons cannot be appointed. Regional liaisons will provide a link between the national body and communities to co-ordinate national and community events. They will also provide information and assist communities as they plan their truth and reconciliation events as well as help coordinate truth-sharing in different regions.
National events are also part of the mandate of the TRC. The first of seven such events is scheduled for January 2009 in Vancouver. The events will be held throughout Canada and their locations will be based on the history and demographics of the Indian Residential School system.
Explains Phillips, "(These) events will engage the Canadian public and provide education about the IRS system, the experience of former students and their families and the ongoing legacies of the institutions within communities. There will also be opportunities to celebrate regional diversity and honour those touched by residential schools."
Community events will also be held. These will be designed by the communities to respond to the specific needs of their former students, their families and others affected by the IRS legacy. (TRC is one part of the negotiated Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement reached in September 2007. The Common Experience Payments is another component.
At the beginning of October, 93,000 applications had been received through CEP. More than 83,000 have been processed with $1.4 billion in payments handed out.
Those who were turned down for all or partial payment, said Patricia Valladao, a spokesperson for Indian and Northern Affairs Canada, may have applied for a calendar year instead of a school year; may have been a day student and not a residential student; or may have attended a residential school not eligible for compensation under the court negotiated agreement. However, she notes, many of those who did not have their CEP approved, may be eligible for financial compensation through other individual or collective initiatives under the IRSS agreement.
Applicants receive "detailed letters" outlining the payment they have received or if they have been denied, said Valladao. Those denied can appeal the decision and the appeal process was included in the letters they received.
She adds, "We do remain committed to processing the Common Experience Payment as efficiently as possible."
Eligible applicants may receive $10,000 for the first school year (or partial school year) of residence at one or more residential schools, plus an additional $3,000 for each subsequent school year (or partial school year) of residence at one or more residential schools. Eligible recipients will receive a one-time payment of their full CEP entitlement.
Residential students have until Sept. 19, 2011, to apply for CEP.