We have been retained for the purpose of representing survivors of the schools excluded from the CURRENT Federal Day School settlement.
We are in the process of speaking to survivors and assessing which institutions/schools should be included in a class action against the federal, and potentially provincial, government and/or institutions.
We are very early in the process and can not give any reliable predictions in terms of possible compensation or timelines. We do expect it will take some time before we are able to file a claim and start settlement discussions with the government. The document that we are asking you to fill out is not a claim form. It is an information QUESTIONNAIRE to be used by us to create a database of information. This information will assist us in our discussions with the federal government and with experts that we retain.
At this point we are attempting to determine which school should be included, who ran those schools, the abuse that was suffered at the schools, how many people attended each school and the years that the schools operated as they schools. Our approach will need to be as inclusive as possible and not repeat the mistake of excluding schools that were operated in similar fashion to those days schools that were made part of the settlement. One of the steps we are taking is determining why some of the schools were not included in the day School settlement and we may apply to have certain schools added.
Currently, we represent the Unvalidated School Society, although we are speaking to many other groups as well. If the class action proceeds, we will represent the class not individuals, although any compensation would be payable to individual survivors.
We encourage you to join our database so that we can keep you informed. Kindly fill out the QUESTIONNAIRE and return to our office. We will do our best to keep you informed.