Andrew Raven
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Aug 10/05) - The Assembly of First Nations launched a $12-billion lawsuit against the federal government last week demanding compensation for some 87,000 former residential school students.

The class action suit, filed Thursday, comes three months after the AFN and Ottawa agreed to pursue an out-of-court settlement. The deal could include a $10,000 lump sum payment for each former student and $3,000 for every year they attended the schools.

The latest lawsuit - one of several thousand currently before the courts - is not designed to derail those negotiations, National Chief Phil Fontaine said last week.

"This is in no way designed to be adversarial," Fontaine told the Globe and Mail. "What our action will accomplish is we will speed up the process of resolution."

100,000 attended residential schools

More than 100,000 aboriginal children attended residential schools across the country from the time of confederation until 1996.

The schools were infamous for their sometimes brutal treatment of students; many were sexually assaulted, prevented from speaking their native language and separated from their parents. "We want to ensure the Government of Canada provides a fair and just resolution for the abuse were endured... and the assaults on our culture," Fontaine said.

The lawsuit was designed to give the assembly a formal place at the negotiating table with the federal government, Fontaine said.

Former Supreme Court Justice Frank Iacobucci is leading the out-of-court discussions on behalf of Ottawa and is expected to present a settlement proposal to political leaders by March 2006.

Fontaine has said he expects any deal to include a $10,000 lump-sum payment and compensation for each year students attended residential schools.

The settlement would have far-reaching effects in the Northwest Territories where half the population is aboriginal.

While there are no firm estimates on the number of students who attended residential schools in the NWT, the institutions operated for decades in centres like Yellowknife, Invuik, Fort Smith and Fort Simpson.

Bill Erasmus, Regional Chief of the Northwest Territories for the AFN, did not return phone messages seeking comment.