A School Custodians Dilemma: Trial By Water And Other Unusual Events

There are a lot of resources that we as First Nations people have to facilitate our own healing. Our traditional ceremonies, our connection with our own cultural identity need to be given the credibility they deserve quoted in Barnsley However, not only is the AHF an affirmative distributive remedy, but it is also a temporary remedy because it was given an eleven year mandate that ended in and closed its doors in September As a result, the government has not yet formally accepted the responsibility for the land theft and is silent on future plans to return the lands.

Without profound recognition of redistributive problems, land transfers will face infinite obstacles. Much like the SoR, the Gathering Strength report has been criticized as inadequate to resolve the injustices of colonialism and to promote new relationships between Indigenous people and the Canadian government through redistribution Serson Serson argues that this move is highly problematic and creates economic gaps between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Canadians, since it does not even account for Indigenous population growth and inflation.

In order to be considered an affirmative redistributive remedy, the SoR would need to, at the very least, make a commitment to provide compensation to individual IRS survivors. By withholding compensation and for various other reasons , the SoR was perceived to be meaningless by many Indigenous leaders who were in attendance at the ceremonial delivery of the Statement James This raises the question: In the sense, any type of restitution scheme, as Alfred argues, needs to look beyond IRS experiences and take into account the origins of colonialism, thus bringing under consideration the sustained and aggressive dispossession that Indigenous peoples have historically faced and continue to endure to this day.

Bonner and James , on the other hand, argue that there is a degree of agreement among Indigenous scholars as to what an adequate reparation model for IRS and broader colonial injustices would look like. Decoloniz[ing efforts] demands from non-Indigenous Canadians profound attitudinal change, a new sensitivity and openness to Indigenous cultures, a renunciation of paternalism, and a willingness to surrender some of the economic and political power unjustly seized through the colonizing process in which the residential schools policy played a central and longstanding part p.

Moreover, could they be considered transformative and make a contribution to decolonization? The process of submitting IRS claims to the ADRP was voluntary and one of its goals was to expedite the claims, thus providing a more speedy resolution alternative to civil courts Stout and Harp The ADRP was also less formal in that an independent adjudicator, instead of a court judge, would consider the claims. Although it was a seemingly favourable option for survivors, the ADRP failed for various reasons.

As a result, the government could unilaterally dismantle this system Stout and Harp Secondly, the ADRP placed a cap on the amount of compensation that the claimant could receive and dealt only with claims related to physical and sexual abuse, while ignoring systemic and institutional issues of discrimination, racism, and emotional and spiritual abuse. In addition, the ADRP was replete with denial on the part of the federal government, which was evident in claimants being charged with the onus to prove that the abuse did, in fact, occur, and was intentional. Many survivors found the process overly complicated and unreasonably lengthy, alienating, and burdensome and for some survivors, fighting against the bureaucratic ADR machine simply was not worth the effort Stout and Harp The government felt the apparent failure of the ADRP and began seeking negotiations with the AFN to develop a new process to address the residential school experiences.

The national apology appears, at least initially, to provide a deeper level of affirmative recognition to former students for the harm done than did the SoR.

In particular, it directly acknowledges the role of the government in developing and maintaining the IRS system. In addition, the apology, in contrast to the SoR, is intended for all students who attended IRS, and not only those who suffered abuse. In its other aspects, the apology seems to be less comprehensive than the SoR in its acknowledging the colonial past.

It does not make any references to the dispossession of Indigenous lands and destruction of Indigenous political systems that Indigenous nations continue to suffer to this day. To understand the language of the apology, it is important to consider the legal implication and the context under which the apology for the IRS experience was made.

That is, the apology was offered at the time when the guilt of the Canadian government was already established and accounted for under the IRSSA. As a result, one must question the recognitive potential of the apology since an admission of a wrongful act in this case would not give way to further lawsuits as compensation processes had already closed those avenues.

To challenge the firmly held beliefs of settler superiority and dominance, a transformative remedy would seek to enhance public education strategies that must be directed at dismantling racist ideologies. Although the CEP appears to be an affirmative distributive remedy for colonialism, it provides greater recognition than the failed ADR [8] process in that by virtue of being a student in a government-recognized residential school, the claim is considered eligible. While the CEP and IAP have their advantages, such as universal eligibility of survivors of residential schools, there are several problems with it.

Although initially both the CEP and IAP appear to fall under distributive remedies, a closer examination reveals that they intersect with recognitive remedies. As a result, a portion of former students is excluded from the compensation payments and therefore remains unrecognized as legitimate sufferers of the IRS experience. Lastly, many residential schools remain excluded from the IRSSA and although the list of eligible schools is constantly being reevaluated, students who attended these schools are currently ineligible to receive compensation.

To this end, the voices of survivors have now been transformed into manageable and convenient parcels of the residential school experience. Decolonization and redistributive, recognitive, and representative remedies. Susan Crean criticizes the apology for its lack of transformative distributive, recognitive, and representative potential.

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If these problems sound familiar today it is because many of them were outlined in the Gathering Strength report, but were never resolved appropriately. For Nadine Changfoot , the IRS apology serves as an inadequate remedy for the current political injustices Indigenous people are facing. Henderson and Wakeham , in turn, argue that Canadian government apologies, including the apology, leave unaddressed the issues associated with self-determination, both domestically and internationally.

For example, they refer to the lack of Indigenous control over Indigenous child welfare and education and the exclusion of Indigenous nations from political decision making in an increasingly globalizing world. Thus, an apology or any other type of mechanism of redress that leaves the deeper political injustices intact will be inadequate for challenging the colonial project.

James Igloliorte observes the importance of examining representation-related remedies though a redistributive and recognitive lens in the colonial context. While Aboriginal persons may eventually attain material standards of living commensurate with other Canadians, the full enjoyment of all their human rights, including the right of peoples to self-determination, can only be achieved within the framework of their reconstituted communities and nations, in the context of secure enjoyment of adequate lands and resources p.

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Scott Serson , in turn, points out that political injustices associated with colonialism can only be overcome through the redistribution of the stolen lands, treaty processes, and expedition of land claims. In particular, it considered the extent to which the Statement of Reconciliation, along with the Gathering Strength Report, and the Statement of Apology, accompanied by the Indian Residential School Settlement Agreement, could serve as recognitive, redistributive, and representative remedies for colonial injustices.

Although each of these mechanisms of redress approaches the issue of residential schooling from a different angle, none of them alone constitute an adequate means to challenge the policies that led to the establishment of IRS. At best, they serve as affirmative remedies. At worst, they entrench colonialism and situate the residential school system as an isolated injustice, an exception, in an otherwise healthy relationship between Indigenous peoples and the settler-colonial state.

In doing so, they tend only to reaffirm the identity of former students as victims and to solidify their status as survivors. This does not, however, empower Indigenous peoples socio-economically, politically, or culturally. Instead, these remedies appear to contextualize IRS injustices within a single policy of assimilation, thus denying colonial ideologies that gave rise to multiple injustices, one of which is the residential school system. Because transformative representation serves as a medium through which socio-economic and cultural injustices may be resolved, withholding transformative representation from Indigenous nations allows the Canadian government to effectively preclude the debates about transformative redistribution and recognition in a globalizing world.

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Daniel Duane Johnson (Author of A School Custodian's Dilemma)

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How to Win at Everything. How to Really Stink at Work. Boomers in Blue Jeans. The Lazy Man's Guide to Life. Life Behind His Shield. Bad Dogs Have More Fun. Out of the Ashes. The Rubber Knife Gang. I Now Pronounce You I went to school here during those years was a nice trip down memory lane from another's perspective definitely recommend. The author works in the district where I work. He autographed my book, which my students thought was really cool. A zany look at a high school through the eyes of someone who sees it all. Dan shares his stories of being in the first row as high school drama unfolds.

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He is a mentor, a friend, a person to lean on, a disciplinarian, a father figure, and "the man" to the students sometimes all in one day. Dan uses unique colloquialisms, and his writing style harkens back to a simpler time, taking the reader through a journey as he shares stories from very unique decades and into the 21st century where everything and nothing is private anymore. At times the book will have you laughing, saying "Can that really happen? Some moments are endearing and you can see him playing the roll of Andy Griffith to the students' Opie.

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