THUNDER BAY — Sam Achneepineskum was happy to hear a deal is in place to compensate survivors of abuse at 33 healthcare facilities across Canada known as Indian hospitals, including two in Northwestern Ontario.
The agreement between the government and the plaintiffs to settle a $1.1 billion class action lawsuit was announced last week.
Starting in the 1930s and until as late as 1981, the government operated substandard, segregated hospitals for Indigenous people to stop the spread of tuberculosis.
Survivors have told stories of mistreatment including verbal, physical and sexual abuse, prolonged isolation in hospital rooms, and being deprived of food and water.
Based on the severity of the abuse, claimants will receive between $10,000 and $200,000 each.
The settlement, which must still be approved by the Federal Court of Canada in June, also provides for $150 million to support healing, wellness, reconciliation, protection of languages, education and commemoration services.
In addition, there will be a $235 million commemoration fund to support research and education regarding Federal Indian Hospitals, the preservation of their history, and the location of burial sites associated with them.
Achneepineskum said he appreciates what the survivors went through to achieve a settlement.
"I'm glad they took it upon themselves to bring that into the open," he said in an interview Tuesday.
The Thunder Bay resident was born 72 years ago at the Sioux Lookout Indian Hospital, and had a fish bone removed from his throat there as a young boy.
He doesn't recall any abuse, but said it still bothers him that services at these facilities were not at the same level as other Canadian hospitals.
"I guess that's the way things were back then. They had separate hospitals, separate schools, everything was separate for native people, segregated services and institutions. The services weren't up to part with the rest of the country, and they're still not."
The Sioux Lookout hospital operated from 1949 to 1981, and the Squaw Bay hospital operated on the Fort William First Nation from 1942 to 1953.
Ann Cecile Hardy, originally from Fort Smith, NWT, is the representative plaintiff in the court case.
She was sent to the Charles Camsell Indian Hospital in Edmonton for five months in 1969 because she had TB.
"I was supposed to heal. But instead, I experienced fear, isolation and trauma that has stayed with me for decades," Hardy said.
She said it has taken most of her adult life to come to terms with what the government did to her when she was a child.
"I did not start this class action to get paid. I started it because I needed Canada to acknowledge what it did to us."
Crown-Indigenous Relations Minister Gary Anandasangaree said "We acknowledge and profoundly regret the abuse and the destruction of culture that Indigenous peoples experienced in these hospitals. This proposed settlement marks a significant milestone in Canada's effort to resolve historical Indigenous claims and represents continued progress towards renewed partnership and healing."
The settlement covers two sets of eligible classes:
- Primary Class - all persons who were admitted to a Federal Indian Hospital while operated by the federal government from Jan. 1, 1936 to Dec. 31, 1981
- All persons who are a spouse or former spouse, child, grandchild or sibling of a member of the Primary Class and the spouse of a child, grandchild or sibling of a member of the Primary class
More information is available online.
