Letter to the editor: Mother died before payout deadline

The government, churches and the Assembly of First Nations decided on a timeline (for residential school claims) so future inheritance claims could not be filed.  Just because my mother’s time of death didn’t fall into the timeline shouldn’t erase her time spent in the residential school.  Being taken away against your will and assimilated into another culture is against human rights and in today’s rules that is kidnappin

 I was sent information about where she was sent and how long.  My mother was born on May 3, 1932.  She was taken away from her family in 1935 and placed in Spanish girls school – shouldn’t that account for something?

The parties mentioned above should not be allowed to dictate the human rights of others. 

My mother had her self-esteem and rights taken away at an early age and that oppressed and altered her behaviour and also my behaviour.

This experience affected her life by not admitting she was First Nation in fear of being looked down on and ridiculed, and that affected me that way also.  I had been in a lot of fights as a kid because of not knowing how to deal. 

The fact that my mother passed away on Nov. 17, 2003, instead of 2005, shouldn’t make any difference on me receiving or inheriting her claims on her behalf.

I am hoping that anyone else in this situation will be made right. 

Editor’s Note:  The Common Experience Payment portion of the Indian Residential School Settlement Agreement  applied to former students were alive on or after May 30, 2005 and did not opt out of the Indian Residential School Services Agreement and who lived in a hostel while attending a school in the List of Schools under the care and control of the Federal Government.