Applications and Canada’s decisions under Article 12

Terms and conditions

The Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement (IRSSA) defined “Indian Residential Schools” as:

Institutions attached as Schedule “E” (“Residential Schools”);
Institutions listed in Schedule “F” (“Additional Residential
Schools”) which may be expanded from time to time in
accordance with Article 12.01 of this Agreement; and,
Any institution which is determined to meet the criteria set out
in Section 12.01(2) and (3) of this Agreement. (s. 1.01).

Article 12 (Additional Indian Residential Schools) of the IRSSA permitted any person or organization (Requestor) to request that an institution be added to Schedule F, in accordance with the criteria set out in Section 12.01(2), by submitting the name of the institution and any relevant information to Canada (s. 12.01(1)).

The criteria for adding an institution to Schedule F were:

The child was placed in a residence away from the family
home by or under the authority of Canada for the purposes
of education; and,
Canada was jointly or solely responsible for the operation
of the residence and care of the children resident there (s. 12.01(2)).

The indicators that Canada was jointly or solely responsible for the operation of the residence and care of children there included, but were not limited to, whether:

The institution was federally owned;
Canada stood as the parent to the child;
Canada was at least partially responsible for the administration of the institution;
Canada inspected or had a right to inspect the institution; or,
Canada did or did not stipulate the institution as an Indian Residential School (s. 12.01(3)).

Within 60 days of receiving a request to add an institution to Schedule F, Canada was to research the proposed institution and determine whether it is an Indian Residential School and was to provide both the Requestor and the National Administration Committee (NAC, set out in Article 4) with:

Canada’s decision on whether the institution is an Indian Residential School;
Written reasons for that decision; and
A list of materials upon which that decision was made;

provided that Canada could ask the Requestor for an extension of time to complete the research (s. 12.01(4)).

Should either the Requestor or the NAC dispute Canada’s decision to refuse to add a proposed institution, the Requestor could apply to the Appropriate Court, or the NAC could apply to the court of the province or territory where the Requestor resided for a determination (s. 12.01(5)).

Where Canada added an institution to Schedule F under Section 12.01(4), Canada might provide the Requestor with reasonable legal costs and disbursements (s. 12.01(6)).

Applications and decisions

Canada issued detailed updates (PDFs) of its decisions regarding applications under Article 12. We have recovered seven of these updates (one or more for every year 2008-2013), mainly from Internet Archive captures of the residential schools settlement website (https://www.residentialschoolsettlement.ca) and a related class action services website (http://www.classactionservices.ca/irs/updates.htm):

We are publishing the last available update (March 28, 2013) as a machine-readable, Tab-Separated-Value file.

For an analysis of this update, see Analysis of applications and Canada’s decisions under Article 12 (March 28, 2013).

Canada reported that a total of 9,471 Requestors had applied for 1,531 institutions to be added to the IRSSA between September 2007 and the closing of applications under Article 12 in July 2015.¹

Canada agreed that six of these institutions had operated as Indian Residential Schools for set periods of time:

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

Courts ordered Canada to recognize four more of these institutions as Indian Residential Schools:

Institution	Province/Territory	Start Date	End Date
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

Together with the original list, these additions meant that 141 Indian Residential Schools were covered by the IRSSA.

We are publishing these 141 Indian Residential Schools as a machine-readable, Tab-Separated-Value file.

For a discussion of Canada’s confusing – and sometimes inconsistent – claims about which institutions were Indian Residential Schools under the IRSSA, see Canada’s recognition of Indian Residential Schools under the IRSSA.

Breadcrumbs

This concludes our review of applications and Canada’s decisisions under Article 12. For anyone interested in exploring some of the mechanics of this process further, we offer these additional breadcrumbs:

An online form to “Request Additional Residential School Be Added To List Of Recognized Schools” was available on the class action services website by June 28, 2007, several weeks before the implementation of the Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement in September 2007. It’s unclear when the online form was made known to the public.

An updated version of this online form was captured on August 28, 2011, along with the only capture we have found of Canada’s periodic posts of “schools and hostels [that] are currently under review and have NOT yet been approved for inclusion in the settlement.”

An update for October 10, 2007 on the official court website identified three means of submitting a request under Article 12: “You may request that a school be added to the list by contacting the Administrator at 1-866-879-4913, by submitting your request via the website, or by sending your request by mail to the Administrator at Residential Schools Settlement, Suite 3-505, 133 Weber Street North, Waterloo, ON N2J 3G9.”

The update explained that “The list of approved schools on the website at www.residentialschoolsettlement.ca will be updated approximately 60 days after the Implementation date of September 19th, 2007 for any school requests received before to September 19th, 2007. Requests received on or after September 19th, 2007 will be reviewed in the order they are received. You will be contacted once your request has been reviewed.”

The update also offered the first window into the actual filing of applications under Article 12: “If you wish to review the list of schools that have already been suggested, you may visit the website at https://fmwa.classactionservices.ca/IRS/phase2/add_suggest.lasso#List.” Unfortunately, as we noted above, our first and only glimpse of this particular listing was captured on August 28, 2011.

An update for January 9, 2008 on the class action services website explained more about the Article 12 process, including how to question or appeal Canada’s decisions: “If you would like to find out whether or not a school that you have suggested has been added to the list of approved schools, please visit the website at www.residentialschoolsettlement.ca to view the list of decisions. If the decision regarding the school that you suggested says ‘decision pending’ that means that a decision has not yet been made regarding that school. We do not know when the decision will be made, but please check back to the website periodically as decisions will be posted there as we become aware of them.

“If you received a decision letter from IRSRC advising you that your school could not be included in the settlement and you have questions about that decision or how to appeal that decision, please contact David Russell, Director of National Research & Analysis at Indian Residential Schools Resolution Canada by mail, fax or email only.

By mail: David Russell, Director of National Research & Analysis, Indian Residential Schools Resolution Canada 300 – 1166 Alberni Street, Vancouver, BC V6E 3Z3.
By fax: 604-666-6651.
By e-mail: russelld@irsr-rqpi.gc.ca.

“These are the only methods by which to contact Mr. Russell: you cannot reach him by telephone.”

An update for May 7, 2008 on the class action services website explained the test that applied under Article 12: “In order for an institution to be added to the settlement, Article 12 of the Settlement Agreement requires that the institution satisfies both parts of the following two-part test:

“The child must have been placed in a residence away from the family home by or under the authority of Canada for the purpose of education; and

“Canada must have been jointly or solely responsible for the operation of the residence and care of the children resident there (e.g. the institution was federally owned; Canada stood as a parent to the child; Canada was at least partially responsible for the administration of the institution; Canada inspected or had a right to inspect the institution; Canada stipulated the institution as an Indian Residential School).

The test focuses on the residential component of the institution. The institution must have a residence, and Canada must have been jointly or solely responsible for the operation of that residence [all original emphasis].”

By June 6, 2008, the class action services website was reporting that “There have been 13,000 requests to add 1,300 schools to the list of eligible schools under the Settlement Agreement. Thus far, the following two schools have been added:

St. Paul’s Hostel, Whitehorse, Yukon for the years: September 1920 to June 1943
Anahim Lake Dormitory, Anahim, British Columbia for the years: September 1968 to June 1977″

On September 11, 2009, this website was still reporting 13,000 requests to add 1,300 schools, but noted that “Cote Improved Federal Day School, Kamsack, Saskatchewan for the period September 1928 to June 1940” had become the third institution recognized as an Indian Residential School under Article 12. This web page was unchanged from this point through to its capture in April 2021.

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.