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Today’s announcement by the federal government for an Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) process for residential schools survivors is a start, but must be expanded into a comprehensive plan that provides healing and compensation, says Assembly of First Nations National Chief Phil Fontaine.

"Any attempt at redress must recognize the diversity of the survivors and their individual experiences. This includes not only financial considerations, but mechanisms by which we can learn to deal with their experiences, overcome the effects and begin to heal", said the National Chief.

To date, the government of Canada has only been willing to deal with incidents of physical and sexual abuse in its ADR process. Yet many research studies (including those by the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples) have documented the tremendous impacts of the residential schools including the loss of language, culture and identity of First Nations survivors, and the subsequent inter-generational impacts that further erode culture and identity. These impacts can lead to dysfunction at the individual and community level.

Over 60,000 residential school survivors and their families suffer from after-effects of the system.

"For many survivors, compensation is only one part of the answer", said the National Chief. "What we further need is an approach that allows survivors, Elders, counselors and communities to be involved in the healing process."

The National Chief stated that it is up to each individual survivor to decide if they want to pursue the federal process. The AFN and its Working Group on Residential Schools will work to ensure survivors are fully informed of the federal approach and process, and will continue to advocate and lobby for a process that addresses the cultural and inter-generational impacts. Residential schools survivors should have a central role in this work.

"ADR is a good approach and certainly much better than the courts which are adversarial and time-consuming", said National Chief Fontaine. "Yet, the approach announced today is incomplete and will remain incomplete until it deals with issues of culture and identity. We have put forward a number of proposals that address these issues and we’ll continue to press the government to move towards a more comprehensive, effective approach."

The Assembly of First Nations is the national organization representing First Nations in Canada.