On Feb. 26, the Tseshaht First Nation joined the B.C. Supreme Court class action lawsuit Gottfriedson el al v. Her Majesty the Queen. This lawsuit is commonly called the Residential School Day Scholars lawsuit. The Tseshaht First Nation has joined the lawsuit as a Band Class claimant.
The Federal Government reached a settlement in another Residential School Class Action Lawsuit several years ago. However, the federal government specifically excluded Day Scholars and First Nations from that settlement. The Church Defendants in that lawsuit also consented to excluding the Day Scholars and First Nations from that lawsuit.
Dayscholars are those First Nations students who attended Residential School during the day, but did not sleep there and went home after their school day. Tseshaht had dozens of Day Scholars who attended the Alberni Indian Residential School. In addition, the Tseshaht First Nation suffered losses as well. Losses to language and culture were suffered by the Tseshaht forced to attend the school. The First Nation also has to address the intergenerational problems caused by Residential School.
“This lawsuit will go a long way to settling the claims of all those who suffered in Residential School,” Tseshaht Chief Councillor Hugh Braker said. “The lawsuit will hopefully address the claims of Day Scholars who, in many ways, suffered just as much as the students who slept at the schools,” Braker added.
Braker explained that all people who attended Residential School as a Day Scholar are automatically covered in the lawsuit. The Tseshaht First Nation has joined that lawsuit in the band class of claimants. The Tseshaht First Nations has suffered damages, Braker said, arising from the attempted extinguishment of languages and culture.
In addition, the First Nation has to attend to the many social problems caused by the intergenerational effects of attendance at Residential School. “It’s time that the issues of loss of language and culture, abuse of students in Residential Schools and institutional racism were fully addressed,” Braker added.
“Tseshaht continues to face the problems today.”
