Documents suggest the Catholic Church has failed to honor its ‘in-kind’ commitments

(ANNews) – The Catholic Church appears to have broken its legal commitment to provide $ 25 million in “in-kind services” to residential school survivors, according to documents obtained by The Globe and Mail.

The records contain an “in-kind diary” of services provided by Catholic entities, which were mandated under a national settlement reached by Indigenous groups, residential school survivors, the federal government and religious groups in 2006 .

The journal was last updated in September 2011 and includes training for pastors, unspecified “community work”, outreach services, and a Bible studies program. The documents do not indicate whether these services were provided specifically for indigenous peoples, or whether the church has already provided them without regulation.

Of 192 diary entries, almost half mention “community service and the presence” of a pastor or nun.

Other entries include a bishop and two priests attending a healing pilgrimage, attending a conference, and supporting a pilgrimage to the Vatican.

“This is totally against the spirit of the settlement agreement, which was supposed to be about reconciliation,” Aideen Nabigon, former director general of policy and partnerships for the Settlement Agreement for residential schools.

Mike DeGagné, former executive director of the Aboriginal Healing Foundation, told The Globe that the content of these documents warrants a full review of the Church’s past obligations.

“I am certainly in favor of taking these activities further to see what was a real attempt to provide healing services and what would normally be an activity of the Catholic Church,” he said.

The documents were obtained via an access to information request the Globe made on August 24, requesting that the Justice Department deal with the Catholic Church as part of the residential school settlement, including a copy of the list of services in kind and the list of cash commitments. .

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The list of in-kind services was a point of contention in a 2014 Saskatchewan court case between the federal government and the organization created to administer the Church’s portion of their residential school settlement.

Under the deal, a group of dozens of Catholic Church entities agreed to make three forms of payments: $ 25 million in in-kind services to enhance healing and reconciliation efforts, $ 29 million cash dollars and a national $ 25 million fundraising campaign to benefit survivors. The fundraising campaign ultimately raised $ 3.7 million.

The federal government raised questions about the church’s accounting practices in a brief to the court.

However, the case was settled in 2015 and the Church was released from all remaining obligations of the settlement agreements, including questions about the nature of its in-kind services.

Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond, professor of law and academic director of the Center for Residential School History and Dialogue at the University of British Columbia, told The Globe there needs to be a thorough review of how payment obligations were established, how they were fulfilled. and why the government released the Church from its obligations.

“What did the survivors get? Turpel-Lafond asked about in-kind services. “What did the communities get? Did they get any records? Did they get the services they wanted? Did they receive thanks, apologies and reconciliation activities related to residential schools? This is a difficult question.

Jeremy Appel, Local Journalism Initiative reporter, Alberta Native News