Ottawa agrees to pay survivors of Newfoundland residential schools

After a decade-long legal battle over whether indigenous people who suffered physical and sexual abuse at residential schools in Newfoundland and Labrador should receive federal compensation, Ottawa is agreeing to pay $50-million to the more than 800 remaining survivors, lawyers for the victims said Tuesday.

In choosing to settle the class-action lawsuit, which still must be approved by a judge, the Liberal government is hoping to close one of the darkest chapters in Canadian history and fulfill one of the 94 recommendations of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which called on the government to end its legal wrangling with those who were left out of a multibillion-dollar settlement for residential school survivors in 2007. Newfoundland and Labrador was the only province that was excluded from the deal.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/lawyers-propose-50-million-deal-for-residential-school-case/article29950670/