Files documenting worst abuses at residential schools to be destroyed unless survivors ask otherwise

Files documenting the worst abuses at residential schools are set to be destroyed in 2027 and, despite a multi-year outreach, some survivors say they didn't know they could opt to have their files preserved.

Christina Kitchekesik, a member of Tataskweyak (Split Lake) Cree Nation, attended Guy Hill residential school near The Pas, Man., where she endured physical, mental, spiritual and sexual abuse.

As an advocate for survivors, Kitchekesik ,74, has shared her own experience at residential school with others over the years to help promote understanding and healing. 

She also shared her experience in the Independent Assessment Process (IAP) which was created by the Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement alongside the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC). 

The TRC heard 6,700 survivors speak about what happened to them at residential schools. The IAP provided survivors like Kitchekesik the chance to be compensated for the abuse they suffered at school, and 38,000 came forward. 

Their IAP files contain their testimony, along with documentary evidence of their time at residential school, with items like medical records documenting physical abuse.

Despite her advocacy work and her regular contact with people at the National Council for Truth and Reconciliation (NCTR), which stores the records from the TRC, Kitchekesik says she did not know that she could have her IAP file preserved as part of the historical record at the NCTR.

Order for destruction

Of the 38,000 people who filed claims with the IAP, 90 per cent had a hearing or settlement negotiation, according to the IAP website. 

The process was made confidential so survivors would be comfortable sharing painful and personal details. It also meant that any people associated with the schools who were accused of abuse would not have those details made public. 

The question of what to do with the files afterward arrived at the Supreme Court in 2017. The NCTR and the Canadian government opposed the destruction of the files, while many Catholic organizations, lawyers who acted for IAP claimants and the Assembly of First Nations supported destroying them.

The AFN was not available for an interview.

The court ruled the IAP files must be destroyed by Sept. 19, 2027. The court's ruling established a program to notify survivors about the deadline and to let survivors know they had options — they could request their files for their own keeping or consent to have them sent to the NCTR to be preserved, or both. If they chose to give their files to the NCTR, they could choose to have identifying information removed from the documents. 

Marie Pelletier, 74, attended four different residential schools in Manitoba throughout the '50s and '60s, including Pine Creek, Fort Alexander, Sandy Bay and Assiniboia. 

She wasn't aware she could give her IAP files to the NCTR. 

"I heard nothing about that," she said. 

Pelletier, who is Ojibway from Peguis First Nation in northern Manitoba, has had her file for many years, but isn't sure where it is.

She, like Kitchekesik, said she would be interested in sharing it with the NCTR with her personal details included — if she can find it. 

Both women say they think it's good for survivors to share their stories with their children and grandchildren so they can understand why survivors behaved the way they did. 

But on top of the benefits for their descendants, they say Canadians have a lot to learn from the files. 

"There's still many people that don't believe [what] happened in residential schools, they think we're all lying," Kitchekesik said. 

Protecting survivors' privacy

IAP adjudicator Kathleen Keating, who started with the IAP when it began in 2003 (then called Alternative Dispute Resolution) and was there until it finished processing survivors' claims in 2021, said she spoke with hundreds of survivors who were afraid their testimony would become public. 

She said adjudicators would often travel to meet survivors outside of their communities to preserve their privacy and remembers reassuring survivors by demonstrating her password-protected tape recorder, highlighting security measures taken with her filing cabinet and even explaining how her paper shredder worked.

"I can remember people who threw up in a waste basket in the hearing room at the thought of sharing these stories," she said, adding she personally promised people their testimony would stay confidential. 

"I just can't imagine betraying those people."

Keating said the Supreme Court ordered a two-year multimedia campaign to let survivors know what they could do with their IAP files. The campaign included print, television, radio and social media ads, as well as information phone lines and a website. 

Additional efforts to reach survivors included information packages and posters sent to band offices, friendship centres, correctional facilities and other stakeholders. Since 2021, the only part of the notification program still operating is the website. 

"If you look at the notification program, I don't know what else could have been done," Keating said. 

The point of notification, she said, was not to persuade people one way or the other but to tell them their options. Keating said she expects the number of survivors who have shared their files with the NCTR is probably "quite small."

"I never met a single person who was anxious to share their story widely," Keating said.

Files 'generationally unprecedented'

Raymond Frogner, the NCTR's head of archives, said the NCTR has received just 96 IAP files from the 38,000 survivors who took part. 

While the NCTR already has thousands of TRC documents, Frogner says the IAP files are "generationally unprecedented."

"We'll never again see this kind of a tribunal do this in-depth, profound research," he said.

Additionally, other countries like the U.S. have nothing close to the information that has been gathered in Canada, Frogner added, so the documents hold global significance, too.

Word of mouth from elders has been the most successful method of getting survivors to share their documents, Frogner said, and the NCTR is continuing that outreach. 

Frogner said he regularly sees a lack of awareness when he attends conferences with community members and discusses their IAP file options. 

"The overwhelming response is surprise and shock," he said. 

Laura Arndt, who is Mohawk from Six Nations of the Grand River, said she understands how sacred survivors' stories are from both her personal and work experience. 

Arndt, the lead at the Survivors Secretariat which is leading the investigation into unmarked burials at the Mohawk Institute, said her aunt Mary took part in the IAP after suffering medical neglect while attending the Mohawk Institute. 

Her aunt has since died, and since the files can only be accessed by the survivor themselves, Mary's file is permanently out of reach. 

"The hardest part in all of this is the only history that this country has is the history that's written in black ink. The IAP process, including my aunt's file, is black ink," she said. 

"I appreciate those records carry such pain and such trauma that the need to handle them as sacred documents is critical. But to destroy them is to destroy the truth of what really happened."

Although she doesn't often speak with survivors about their IAPs, when it does come up Arndt said many are not aware of their options. 

Arndt said knowing that records will be destroyed is heartbreaking, especially because she has seen many government and church records from residential schools — like showing what materials were purchased to repair the school or how much cutlery was purchased — but says survivor testimonies are "the most critical information."

Arndt said she believes that survivors' files could contain details about times, locations and other information that could help with the search for unmarked graves.

"In destroying the records, the evil doers of this genocide get protected," she said. 

Survivors who went through the IAP can request their files for themselves and/or have them sent to the NCTR by filling out the request form or consent form (or both) and returning them by email, mail or fax before Sept. 19, 2027. 

A national 24-hour Indian Residential School Crisis Line is available at 1-866-925-4419 for emotional and crisis referral services for survivors and those affected. 

Mental health counselling and crisis support are also available 24 hours a day, seven days a week through the Hope for Wellness hotline at 1-855-242-3310 or by online chat.