President pleased out-of-court settlement for residential school survivors finally reached

Press Release

May 10, 2016

The Nunatsiavut Government is hoping that residential school survivors in Newfoundland and Labrador will be able to move on with their lives now that all parties to a class-action lawsuit against the Government of Canada have agreed on a settlement.

“We have always maintained that the Government of Canada has to take full responsibility for the injustices inflicted upon our people at the hands of the residential schools system,” says Nunatsiavut President Johannes Lampe.

Many of the survivors are Beneficiaries of the Labrador Inuit Land Claims Agreement who never received an apology and were excluded from Ottawa’s 2006 Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement.

“While we are pleased to finally see a resolution, it is disheartening to know that many former residents have passed on without an apology and without being compensated for the pain and suffering they endured,” says

President Lampe, adding that he’s hopeful a formal apology will also be made by Prime Minister Trudeau on behalf of the Government of Canada.

“Hopefully the wounds which separated Inuit in Newfoundland and Labrador from reconciliation with Canada can now begin to heal.”

In addition to the $50 million settlement, survivors will also receive $2 million for reconciliation and healing.

An approval hearing on the settlement is scheduled to be held in Supreme Court of Newfoundland and Labrador in late September, and a decision is expected shortly thereafter.

Media Contact:
Bert Pomeroy
Director of Communications
(709) 896-8582

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