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Update from Coordinator: November 30th, 2016

Healing one heart, one mind, & one spirit at a time!

Day Scholar Update by: Jo-Anne Gottfriedson,
Coordinator & Co-Chair Ttes –Sechelt –James Bay Cree Nation
Day Scholar Certified Class Action.

November 2016

Weyktp!

Tk’emlúps te Secwepemc, Sechelt First Nations, and James Bay Cree Paddling together for Justice, Reconciliation, Healing & Wellness for our Nations!

Ttes-SFN-JBC-Day Scholar was certified June 2015 under the Common experience with Three Classes:

  • Survivors: person who attended a federally owned and operated residential school during the day and returned home every night.
  • Descendants: the children (son or daughter of the day scholar only) natural, legally adopted or traditionally adopted by ceremony.
  • Band: a band with a residential school on or near their lands, or that had day scholars.

Plaintiffs: Each nation has 5 day scholars, one descendent and one band class representative. In 2011 we asked day scholars in each nation to participate and undergo interviews with our legal team to help support our class action. The day scholar plaintiffs were chosen by our legal team because they best qualified and met all the requirements for a class member that now represents every day scholar and their descendents across Canada.

The Day Scholar Executive Members have equal representatives from all three nations and we continue to work as a team with the hope that negotiations will proceed in a successful manner. We recognize that time is of the essence and we have agreed to go into negotiations with Canada however, we are also prepared proceed with litigation if negotiations continue to stall or if we are not fully satisfied with Canada’s offer.

As the Coordinator and Co- Chair I am pleased to announce that we are in the process of working with our expert and Canada to determine size of Survivor and Descendant class member which now is every day scholar and their descendants across Canada and the 98 Bands who opted into our band class. This data is vital for our negotiation process as it will quantify and support our legal requirements of the numbers of individuals of all three class members and the final outcomes of our negotiations. Right now there is no CHEQUE in the mail and we ask for your continued support and patience.

Legal update: As of October 24, 2016 the Honorable Minister Bennett has assigned a Ministerial Special Representative (MSR) this means that we are now going to proceed with negotiations and prepare for a day scholar settlement. The Settlement process will take from one to four years to settle.

Data Collection : We ask that if you take the time to fill out the day scholar forms as soon as possible. Kayla Steel is the Day Scholar Executive Assistant and she can be reached at 250-828-9766. The forms are available in our Day Scholar Office as well as our website. www.tkemlups.ca

The Day Scholar Future Community Update Schedule: we have scheduled four meetings a year to update our day scholars of our progress please see the schedule.

January 16, 2017
April 17, 2017
July 17, 2017
October 16, 2017

Tsucwmi’nte re xyum te sitq’t ne k’u’ltes re tqeltku’kwpi7! Merry Christmas!

For more information please contact:

Jo-Anne Gottfriedson
Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc Day Scholar Co- Chair & Coordinator
200-300 Chief Alex Thomas Way
Kamloops, British Columbia , Canada V2H1H1
Phone: 250-828-9788
Fax:250-372-8833 Email: jo-anne.gottfriedson@kib.ca

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