Former residential school student fights to qualify for payment

While tens of thousands of Canadians have received compensation for the time they spent in Indian residential schools, one former student in the Northwest Territories says he is still trying to qualify for the payments.

Albert Nitsiza of Whati, N.W.T., said he has been trying for more than a year to have Chief Jimmy Bruneau School added to Ottawa's list of residential schools that qualify under the compensation agreement.

Only those who attended any of the 132 recognized schools on the federal list can qualify for the lump-sum compensation known as common experience payments. Fifteen of those schools are in the Northwest Territories, including Akaitcho Hall in Yellowknife, Lapointe Hall in Fort Simpson and Grollier Hall in Inuvik.

"Chief Bruneau School should be added because it was like a hostel," Nitsiza told CBC News in an interview.

"I'm kind of frustrated because we are kind of left alone and we're kind of being pushed on the side.… There must be, like, 100 of us [who] went to school, went to Chief Jimmy Bruneau back in '70 to '74."

The Rae-Edzo-based school opened in 1971 as a kindergarten to Grade 9 residential school. It continues to operate as the area's high school.

Indian Residential Schools Resolution Canada, the federal department in charge of the residential schools agreement, says it has received requests from people across the country to add 68 schools to the approved list.

A school must meet two criteria to be added to the list, said David Russell, director of national research and analysis with Indian Residential Schools Resolution Canada.

"First, it must look at the authority of the government of Canada to place a child away from their home and into an educational residential environment," Russell said.

"Secondly, was the institution run jointly or solely by the government of Canada, and was the government of Canada responsible for the care of the child living there?"

Nitsiza says Chief Bruneau School fits both criteria. He said he is willing to do what it takes — including going to court — to have the school added to the approved list.

About 64,400 former residential schools students from across Canada have received common experience payments since September, according to the federal department's website.