The Canadian Press
OTTAWA-The Supreme Court of Canada says records detailing the abuse of former residential school students can eventually be destroyed.
The unanimous high court ruling today brings clarity to an issue that pitted the privacy of victims against the importance of documenting a dark chapter in Canada’s relations with Indigenous Peoples.
Students provided accounts of physical, sexual and emotional abuse as part of an independent assessment process to provide compensation – a program that flowed from a major 2006 settlement agreement.
The Supreme Court upheld a lower-court ruling that said the material should be destroyed after 15 years, though individuals could agree to have their stories preserved at the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation in Winnipeg.
The federal government unsuccessfully argued the documentary record must be fully preserved to ensure what happened at the residential schools is never forgotten.
It said federal laws governing access to information, privacy and archives provide the proper balance for safeguarding the records of historical value while protecting individual privacy and confidentiality.
these records should be stored and preserved to ensure our racist government can’t ever deny its existence. one more bs angle our corrupt political system wants so it can hide its history. they removed native kids from native parents because they were native. no wonder they want to destroy these records. why are east indians holding positions in our gov after almost no history with Canada and yet can someone name one native indian who holds a gov position. I’m so fuckin sick of what we call our gov.
This leans towards cultural-genocide too, does it not?
I understand privacy concerns and the agreements that were made with regards to confines and privacy, but these records survived this long without damning anyone but the government, to me that leans towards a responsible system for maintaining the current levels of privacy and safe guarding while the case went through the legal system. So those whom did the good job, of securing the data all this time, could be expected to continue as such, until a newer agreement could be had by those who’s testimony is at risk of destruction.
As an outsider, these are just my ideas on the matter. as for my context and drive; I have had an encounter with a text, a text that contained quoted material from an actual residential school environment, the words and violence made my skin crawl, but it also deepened my understanding and empathy towards the need to reconcile these acts of injustice. –Acts of injustice, is putting it mildly, very mildly.– and bring Canada’s Canadianness to bear upon its’ own people, and by Treaty Right the very people who have been hosting the party were sacredly promised and reassured a share in the benefits, and that share was to be proportional to amount of resources generated from the treatied lands from then and into the future.
Dismay: The settlers rather then share and honour their legal system’s tradition of “honour of the crown” the settlers, near instantly, turned bully, outlawing our culture, the same law they upheld for Treaty, they hijacked and unilaterally inflicted the Indian Act and it’s non elected Indian agents whom set the corruption-bar high; “honour of the crown” means consultation and accomodation no indian alive on all of north or south america would consent to that racist document haveing sweeping powers over your soverign land but those fathers of confederacy did not uphold the “honour of the crown” despite swearing to upon being elected, nay, these bullies, began to Scoop our children removing them from their culture, banning our ceremonies meant midwives were now illegal *sniff* smells like genocide, Starving indigenious peoples by killing the buffalo MacDonal’d thought that one up, destroying indigenious fishing wiers thats three criteria met, for Genocide, MMIW’d our women for far too long, and heinous of all from Mac Donald to Harper nasty words like, Feesimple, assimilation, extinguishment, imminent domain, and Doctrine of Discovery these English words that not many Canadians have to worry about, sure have had a negative effect on the overseas people legally referred to as Status and non status Indians, Inuit and Metis who never spoke much English until the 1900’s those words have been so painful for Turtle Islands First nations of which the Anishinabek is one that i am all to proud to stand up for and sat these words for the sake of saying the Shinobe’ spoke out before another of our stories is wiped out..
Just another injustice to the natives
The supreme court is simply saying that it can use its jurisdiction over first nations because they are under Canadian law due to the stupidity of its “native”leadership signing away all rights that could been protected by an “Indian Tribe”.