Residential school survivors can proactively preserve documents: Bennett
OTTAWA — An effort is underway to tell residential school survivors their records can still be preserved if they choose, says Crown-Indigenous Relations Minister Carolyn Bennett — comments that follow a recent Supreme Court of Canada ruling that said documentation on the abuse of former students can eventually be destroyed.
Earlier this month, the top court unanimously upheld a lower court ruling that said the sensitive material collected for independent assessments should be destroyed after 15 years.
Bennett, who expressed her personal disappointment immediately following the court’s decision, has told The Canadian Press she now fears researchers will not be able to explore central questions about the residential school legacy if the documents are destroyed.
The federal government argued before the court that survivor accounts are a critical part of Canadian history that should be maintained.