Almost 40K residential school records will be destroyed.
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records → destroy → ?
Not all survivors think they should be
'That's my story,' survivor who testified as part of settlement process says
WARNING: This story contains details of experiences at residential schools.
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story → think → schools
Geraldine Shingoose says she suffered a heart attack while testifying about the abuse she experienced at residential school.
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she → say → school
The Saulteaux Elder attended the Muskowekwan Indian Residential School in Saskatchewan from 1962 to 1971.
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Elder → attend → 1971
But it wasn’t until many years later, testifying in the Independent Assessment Process (IAP) as part of the Indian Residential School Settlement Agreement, that she first disclosed the extent of what had happened to her at the school.
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what → testify → school
“I'd never shared it before.
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I → share → it
And when I shared it, it was really hard on me,” she said.
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she → share → me
"It impacted me physically."
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It → impact → me
Years later, Shingoose learned that testimony could disappear.
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testimony → learn → ?
The Supreme Court of Canada ruled in 2017 that the almost 38,000 records of residential school testimony collected through the IAP will be destroyed in 2027, unless individual survivors request their own records be preserved.
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records → rule → 2027
In a unanimous decision, the top court said the collection of accounts for independent compensation assessment was meant to be a "confidential and private process" and that "claimants and alleged perpetrators relied on the confidentiality assurance."
Some survivors and people involved in the IAP agree that the records should be destroyed, as the survivors who testified were promised confidentiality.
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who → say → confidentiality
Others feel the records are an important part of Canadian history and worry survivors haven't been properly informed about the destruction.
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survivors → feel → destruction
The news came as a shock for Shingoose.
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news → come → Shingoose
“I was thinking, that’s my story," she said.
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she → think → ?
"It was like, they’re getting rid of my truth.
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they → rid → truth
"
'Like my story doesn’t mean anything':
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story → mean → anything
Shingoose
IAP records contain survivor testimony about sexual, physical and emotional abuse, along with transcripts, medical information and other documents.
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records → contain → transcripts
Shingoose said the process of testifying during IAP hearings was traumatic.
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process → say → hearings
She said survivors recounted highly personal and at times horrific experiences in graphic detail, only to be further questioned by IAP adjudicators, who at times seemed to doubt their stories’ credibility.
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who → say → credibility
“I don’t know how many times I broke down,” she said.
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she → know → ?
After going through that process, Shingoose said learning her testimony could be destroyed was devastating.
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testimony → go → process
“Almost like my story doesn’t mean anything.
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story → mean → anything
Like it’s not worthy, or important to Canada,” she said.
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she → ’ → Canada
Shingoose was able to retrieve her own record, as can any survivor who takes the steps to do so.
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who → retrieve → steps
But she said the plan to destroy the broader archive feels like another erasure.
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plan → say → erasure
“It’s almost like it’s going to be a secret again,” she said.
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she → go → ?
For Shingoose, the IAP records are a critical part of Canadian history that need to be shared.
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that → share → history
She noted some survivors who died before the Supreme Court ruling was announced "weren't given the choice.
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ruling → note → choice
According to the ruling, only survivors themselves, not their children, other family members or loved ones, are allowed to retrieve IAP testimonies.
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survivors → accord → testimonies
"The destruction of records that some claimants would have preferred to have preserved works a lesser injustice than the disclosure of records that most expected never to be shared," the ruling says.
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ruling → prefer → records
The promise of privacy
Not all survivors believe the records should be preserved.
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records → believe → privacy
Former Assembly of First Nations national chief Phil Fontaine said in a 2014 affidavit that, although he had spoken publicly about his own experience of abuse at residential school, he had never publicly disclosed the details contained in his IAP record.
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he → say → record
“This is because I consider my story to be private,” he wrote, explicitly requesting that his record be destroyed and warning that disclosure could perpetuate intergenerational harm.
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disclosure → consider → harm
“Within our communities, such knowledge even in future generations would continue the legacy of dysfunction and trauma that was created by the residential school.”
The Supreme Court acknowledged the conflict in 2017.
“A perfect outcome here is, in these circumstances, simply not possible,” the ruling said.
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ruling → continue → circumstances
Confidential by design
Daniel Ish, the IAP’s first chief adjudicator who now lives in Saskatoon, said confidentiality was fundamental to the process.
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confidentiality → live → process
The understanding had been that “the files for IAP claimants would not be maintained, full stop," he told the CBC.
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he → maintain → CBC
Ish said that, unlike the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), which collected testimony as part of its broader mandate for public education and healing, the IAP was primarily designed to compensate survivors.
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IAP → say → survivors
Survivors were promised confidentiality, he said.
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he → promise → confidentiality
Changing those terms after they had testified could be what he called “a gross breach of trust.”
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he → change → trust
Kathleen Keating, an IAP adjudicator who conducted more than 500 hearings across Western Canada and the North, remembers making the promise of confidentiality to claimants at their hearings.
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who → conduct → hearings
…and 16 more, not listed.
The Aporia
