Sask. Métis to be compensated over Ile-à-la-Crosse residential school

The Métis Nation of Saskatchewan (MN-S) celebrated what president Glen McCallum called a historic day Wednesday.

McCallum was on hand for a media conference at TCU Place in Saskatoon to announce the signing of a memorandum of understanding between the federal government and former students who attended a Métis residential school in Ile-à-la-Crosse.

“For decades, survivors and their families have advocated passionately and fiercely for recognition of the students who attended that school,” McCallum said.

Métis people were excluded from the residential schools settlement between the federal government and First Nations residential school survivors.

The memorandum of understanding announced Wednesday begins a process that will see a steering committee representing former students negotiate with federal officials on a compensation agreement that will put to rest a long-running class action lawsuit.

Leonard Montgrand said he was abused while attending the school, which was run by the Roman Catholic Church and operated from the 1880s to the 1970s. He is the area director for Northern Region 2 within the MN-S and is a member of the steering committee that will negotiate the compensation package.

“I never thought we’d get to this point in my lifetime, that we’d be able to see compensation,” he said Wednesday. “I feel for the previous survivors that have passed away, that they’re not able to share in this special moment for all of us.”

Montgrand said it was important to him that any agreement reached with Ottawa go beyond just financial compensation and include an acknowledgement of the history and a commitment to see that it’s never forgotten.

“The legacy and explaining to our children in the future that, ‘This is where we went to school and this is what happened,’ that has to be shared also,” he said.

The building that housed the Ile-à-la-Crosse residential school was demolished in 2016.