AANDC’s “Recognized Institutions”

Applications and decisions

We have seen that Canada issued periodic updates of its decisions regarding applications to add institutions to the Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement (IRSSA) under Article 12. The last available update (March 28, 2013) concerns applications and Canada’s decisions regarding 1,502 institutions, which we analyze.

Recognized institutions

Canada also issued periodic updates of “Recognized Institutions” (maps and lists) to reflect the addition of successful applications under Article 12. We recovered three updates from Internet Archive captures of the Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada (AANDC) website:¹

Table 1. Canada’s maps and lists of “recognized institutions” under Article 12.
IRSSA Map	Earliest Capture of Related IRSSA List	Hi-Rez IRSSA Map
May 2009	October 13, 2011	May 2009
May 2012	April 19, 2013	May 2012
Sept 2012	June 2, 2013	Sept 2012

By Canada’s final account, a total of 140 Indian Residential Schools were covered under the IRSSA:

130 Indian Residential Schools included in the original IRSSA
7 institutions that Canada agreed to add to the IRSSA
3 institutions that courts ordered Canada to add to the IRSSA

Note: The last archive of the AANDC’s list of recognized institutions is dated November 15, 2020. The HTML source code indicated that the site had been modified last on May 25, 2015. The link was broken in the December 12, 2020 archive. For several months, the website has posted the following notice: “This website will change as a result of the dissolution of Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada. Consult the new Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada home page or the new Indigenous Services Canada home page.” It seems reasonable to imagine that the link to the list of recognized institutions was broken in the course of reorganizing the website to reflect the change in government departments.

Discrepancies and inconsistencies

One can spend a lot of time trying to resolve the discrepancies and inconsistencies in Canada’s accounts of Indian Residential Schools. Let’s consider two examples.

First, it’s indisputable that ten institutions were added to the IRSSA under Article 12:

Institution	Province/Territory	Start Date	End Date
St. Paul’s Hostel	Yukon	September 1, 1920	June 30, 1943
Anahim Lake Dormitory	British Columbia	September 1, 1968	June 30, 1977
Cote Improved Federal Day School	Saskatchewan	September 1, 1928	June 30, 1940
Battleford Industrial School	Saskatchewan	December 1, 1883	May 31, 1914
Fort George Hostels	Quebec	September 1, 1975	June 30, 1978
Wawanosh Home	Ontario	January 1, 1879	August 5, 1892
Stirland Lake High School (Wahbon Bay Academy)	Ontario	September 1, 1971	June 30, 1991
Cristal Lake High School	Ontario	September 1, 1976	June 30, 1986
Mistassini Hostels	Quebec	September 1, 1971	June 30, 1978
Kivalliq Hall	Nunavut	June 12, 1985	December 31, 1997

However, Canada’s claim to have agreed to recognize seven of these instititutions as Indian Residential Schools is disputable, as Superior Courts had to order Canada to add four institutions to the IRSSA: Cristal Lake and Stirland Lake, Ontario (2011); Mistassini Hostels, Quebec (2012); and Kivalliq Hall, Nunavut (2018).²

Second, Canada has created a lot of uncertainty about the identities – and even the number – of Indian Residential Schools, beginning with the original IRSSA. In all three recovered updates of “Recognized Institutions”, Canada refers to “the original 130 Indian Residential Schools included in the 2007 Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement.” By our reckoning, however, the original IRSSA covered 131 Indian Residential Schools. Even Canada’s own maps and lists of “Recognized Institutions” don’t support its reference to “the original 130 Indian Residential Schools.”

Canada’s May 2009 map identifies 138 Indian Residential Schools, including three institutions (Anahim Lake Dormitory, British Columbia; Cote, Saskatchewan; and St. Paul’s Hostel, Yukon) that were added under Article 12. In other words, Canada’s May 2009 map identifies 135 Indian Residential Schools supposedly covered by the original IRSSA.

Comparing Canada’s map of 135 institutions with our list of 131 institutions covered by the original IRSSA, we find six discrepancies:³

Commissions
1. Red Deer, Alberta
2. Sarcee, Alberta
3. St. Barnabas, Saskatchewan
4. Norway House, Manitoba
5. Wikwemikong, Ontario
Omissions
1. Onion Lake Anglican, Saskatchewan

One discrepancy (No. 4) is due to Canada’s unacknowledged addition of a second Indian Residential School at Norway House, Manitoba.⁴

Another discrepancy (No. 1) relates to Canada’s inconsistent handling of institutions that preceded or succeeded one another. The original IRSSA identified five pairs, comprising ten institutions, whose members were predecessors/successors of one another.⁵ The predecessors (Red Deer Industrial and McDougall Orphanage) in two of these pairs were not listed as Indian Residential Schools in the original IRSSA. Canada’s maps and lists of “Recognized Institutions” continued to omit the McDougall Orphanage,⁶ but unexpectedly added Red Deer to the IRSSA.⁷

Two discrepancies (Nos. 3 and 6) relate to Canada’s inconsistent handling of institutions that were connected to Prince Albert, Saskatchewan. The original IRSSA listed Prince Albert as an Indian Residential School and connected Prince Albert with four alternative names/associated institutions. Two of these (Lac La Ronge and Onion Lake) were also listed as Indian Residential Schools in the original IRSSA; the other two (St. Alban’s and St. Barnabas) were not. While Canada’s maps and lists of “Recognized Institutions” continued to identify Prince Albert and Lac La Ronge as Indian Residential Schools, they unexpectedly omitted Onion Lake. While Canada’s maps and lists also continued to omit St. Alban’s from the list of Indian Residential Schools, they unexpectedly added St. Barnabas to the IRSSA.

Finally, two discrepancies (Nos. 2 and 5) seem inexplicable. There is no listing – or even mention – of Sarcee, Alberta or Wikwemikong, Ontario in the original IRSSA. Yet Canada’s maps and lists of “Recognized Institutions” all identify Sarcee as an Indian Residential School. and accompanying list of Indian Residential Schools add Sarcee to the IRSSA. in May 2009 (and later). Wikwemikong also appeared in Canada’s map and accompying list of Indian Residential Schools in May 2009, but disappeared from Canada’s later maps and lists of Indian Residential Schools.⁸

Final tally?

By our reckoning, Canada identified (at some point, at least) a total of 146 institutions as Indian Residential Schools under the IRSSA:

The original IRSSA listed 131 Indian Residential Schools
Canada agreed to add 6 institutions under Article 12
Courts ordered Canada to add 4 institutions under Article 12
Canada added 5 institutions to one or more of its updated maps and lists of “Recognized Institutions”:
1. Red Deer, Alberta
2. Sarcee, Alberta
3. St. Barnabas, Saskatchewan
4. Norway House, Manitoba
5. Wikwemikong, Ontario

We are publishing these 146 Indian Residential Schools, as they appeared in the original IRSSA and the AANDC’s updates of “Recognized Institutions”, as a machine-readable, Tab-Separated-Value file.

Credits

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. If you use this work, please credit Paul Allen, paul@hartallen.com.