Will Catholic dioceses live up to promises made to residential school survivors after years of failures? – CP24
July 18, 2022
OTTAWA — When 48 Catholic church entities signed on to fundraise $25 million for survivors under the Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement, it was spelled out they would do so through their “best efforts.”
Ken Young puts it another way.
“It was a weasel clause,” the former Manitoba regional chief of the Assembly of First Nations said in a recent interview.
“And they used it.”
In total, that fundraising campaign raised less than $4 million. It made up one piece of the compensation package Catholic entities agreed to pay under the settlement struck in 2006 with Ottawa, former students and Indigenous leaders.
