Federal courts have approved the final settlement agreement in the Gottfriedson Indian Residential School Day Scholars Class Action suit.
Initially filed in 2012, the suit aimed to compensate those who were forced to attend residential schools during the day, but returned home at night.
Ottawa reached an agreement with the suit’s Survivor and Descendant classes to compensate individual families and survivors in 2021.
But they agreed to litigate with First Nations Bands separately to address the collective harms caused to each Nation as a whole.
In January, Ottawa and the 325 Bands who opted in to the Band Class litigation reached a $2.8 billion agreement in principle.
Now, the courts have approved the agreement, which will see each Band get an initial $200,000 to develop a funding proposal.
Those proposals will then be reviewed by a board, and will be used to determine future disbursement amounts.
Spending must support the core pillars of the deal, which include: revival, protection and promotion of languages, cultures and heritage, and community wellness.
You can find more information on the Class Action, and how to claim compensation, at this link.
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