St. Anne's survivors quit talks with church, government

The Peetabeck Keway Keykaywin Association (PKKA) has called off negotiations with the Catholic Church and the federal government.

February 6, 2003: Volume 30 #02

PKKA represents survivors of the former St. Anne's residential school in Fort Albany and negotiations were part of a settlement of claims of physical and sexual abuse at the school.

Ed Metatawabin, negotiator for the group, said the main stumbling block was the desire to include the loss of language and culture as part of the claim.

"The question has always been about the release they want us to sign," he explained.

"You sign a release absolving them of all liabilities and all actions including language and cultural loss."

"It's really hard to sell your birthright for a few dollars."

Interpretation of the reconciliation process is also a stumbling block for the negotiators.

"The survivors' understanding of reconciliation is that the reconciliation was to last as long as the school did," said Metatawabin.

"We've endured 70 years of language and culture loss."

Unless the government gives us an indication they're willing to listen to our concerns, we will not meet, he said.

Language and cultural loss are seen by the survivors as a significant component to the reconciliation and healing process; in fact dealing with those issues are the main objectives of the PKKA.

However, "The issue of culture (loss) is not recompensable to the government and they say has not been proved in court," Metatawabin said.

"The government does not want to acknowledge the viability, the relevance of our spiritual philosophy, what it means to First Nations people," he continued. "To young people it is lost. From kindergarten they are taught in English and at 16 or 17 they don't speak our language, they can't communicate with elders."

"The younger member begins to feel isolated, lost. There is a big wall between the young and the old."

In the PKKA's view, reconciliation means more than monetary compensation; it means healing and restoration.

"We took the word reconcile to mean restore, to put things back that were destroyed," said Metatawabin, "You cannot cure physical and sexual abuse without language and culture. You have to put it together somehow."

"Giving $50,000 or whatever is not going to cure that person."

Ron Caza, legal counsel for the Catholic Church, said the discussions with PKKA were about physical and sexual abuse only.

"The alternate dispute resolution was to deal with issues of physical and sexual abuse," Caza said. "Those have always been the parameters. Abuse claims only"

"I can tell you it has been clear that this process would not be dealing with loss of language and culture. Everybody knew that from the very beginning; we knew that, Ed knew that. We're not dealing with that in this process."

Caza also said the church is open for negotiation and always will be.

"We were very close to having a deal realized when we heard the PKKA had decided they no longer wanted to participate," Caza said.

"We've always been willing to participate in meetings and invested in the process costs. We wanted to be fair to all parties involved."

Nicole Dakin, departmental spokesperson for the Indian Residential School Resolution of Canada, said the government's commitment is for valid claims of physical and sexual abuse only.

On the issue of language and culture loss, Dakin said the government's response was the recent announcement of $172.5 million for an Aboriginal languages and culture centre.

"It is an issue important to the government but we are only compensating for valid claims of physical and sexual abuse," said Dakin. "No court in Canada has ever compensated for loss of language and culture."

"It is unfortunate they (PKKA) decided not to continue," added Dakin.

PKKA president Andrew Wesley said the main reason his group is turning away from negotiations is the requirement that victims sign the release before going into the alternative dispute resolution process.

"We could have signed the agreement and let the victim decide," he said, "but we would not have recommended it."

It would have affected the victim's family and future generations, he said.

Wesley added that the government is not even considering making small changes to the release.

In the end, Wesley said, PKKA decided to listen to their elders and fight for the acknowledgement of the loss of language and culture.

"Right now we're not moving, and we are being pressured by the government."

Going through the current alternative dispute process involves what Wesley termed "a grid system" that relies on medical records of survivors' abuse and measures their suffering in dollar values. "It dehumanizes them," said Wesley.

Added Metatawabin: "Yes, compensation should be considered but money can't be used as an indicator that one person's pain is greater than another."