Missing Records, Missing Children

APPA Standing Senate Committee on Indigenous Peoples

Missing Records, Missing Children

Indigenous peoples continue to lack complete and timely access to historical records about Indian Residential Schools, despite legal obligations for those documents to be turned over. The report highlights the barriers to locating, accessing and reviewing records that may contain key information about the lives and deaths of Indigenous children at residential schools.

Content warning

This webpage contains information about violence related to the Indian residential school system, which may be distressing to some readers.

Safe and respectful mental health and emotional support services are available without judgment and in complete confidentiality:

National Indian Residential School Crisis Line: 1-866-925-4419
Hope for Wellness Help Line: 1-855-242-3310 or chat online
Kids Help Phone:
- Youth can call 1-888-668-6810 or send a text message to 686868.
- Adults can send a text message to 741741.

The Report

Read the report

Executive Summary

Despite progress on uncovering the truth surrounding residential schools, grey areas remain. The committee’s recent work found that many questions remain unanswered regarding the transfer of records about residential schools to the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation. As such, the committee decided to do a focused study to hear from federal, provincial, and territorial governments as well as from Catholic entities who have not yet fulfilled the requirements stipulated under the Indian Residential School Settlement Agreement to remit records.

Records are scattered across the country with no way of finding them other than traveling to a location and physically searching through dense linear feet of paper records. Indigenous families must conduct such searches to determine what happened to their children who went missing while attending the schools, or who went missing from health or social services institutions administered by provincial or territorial governments.

This report, entitled Missing Children, Missing Records, makes 11 recommendations to improve access to residential school records. The key message is that the Government of Canada needs to support Indigenous communities to locate and access residential school records. The committee believes the federal Documents Advisory Committee is an important initiative and recommends that its work be funded and supported by dedicated staff to ensure it can meet its mandate.

The report also highlights promising practices undertaken in Quebec, Ontario, Saskatchewan and the Northwest Territories to help Indigenous communities locate records. These practices include legislation unlocking state and religious records in Quebec, the establishment of a residential school death investigation team in Ontario, family liaison support in Saskatchewan and dedicated staff capacity to search for records in the Northwest Territories.

The committee held 10 meetings hearing from 39 witnesses. The committee takes note that several witnesses appearing before the committee located additional residential school records after receiving the committee’s invitation, in some cases right before their appearance before the committee.

While most witnesses eventually accepted the committee’s invitations to appear, others never responded or declined to appear, including the Provincial Archives of Alberta and vital statistics offices from Manitoba and Quebec. Unfortunately, the committee did not have the opportunity to learn about the work being done in these provinces.

Recommendations

RECOMMENDATION 1

That the Government of Canada compel Catholic entities to release records to the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation.

RECOMMENDATION 2

That the Government of Canada support and fund Indigenous-led approaches to coordinate national and regional efforts to locating and retrieving records across multiple jurisdictions.

RECOMMENDATION 3

That the Government of Canada, in cooperation and collaboration with its provincial counterparts, provide funding to the Société historique de Saint-Boniface and the Royal BC Museum and Archives for the translation, description and digitization of the Oblate records.

RECOMMENDATION 4

That the Government of Canada provide the Residential Schools Documents Advisory Committee with adequate funding in the next two years in order to expedite its work of locating and transferring documents to the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation; and

That each federal department and agency on the Residential Schools Documents Advisory Committee appoint a sufficient number of employees whose primary purpose is to coordinate the search and transfer the records.

RECOMMENDATION 5

That the Government of Canada increase funding to the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation so it can properly manage the additional records to be transferred from the Government of Canada; and

That the Government of Canada provide further funding to the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation to hire individuals for the translation, description and digitization of Oblate records.

RECOMMENDATION 6

That the Government of Canada in consultation with the Residential School Documents Advisory Committee should provide direction to Access to Information and Privacy offices across federal institutions of the common lexicon for terminology related to Indigenous peoples and residential schools, and the former federal policy of assimilation, once the work is complete.

Further, that the Government of Canada, in consultation with the Residential School Documents Advisory Committee, provide direction to departments and federal employees on records that must be provided to the public when requested through Access to Information and Privacy requests.

RECOMMENDATION 7

That Indigenous Services Canada fund the establishment of an Elder’s institute in the Fort Albany First Nation’s region to support healing and intergenerational learning.

RECOMMENDATION 8

That the Government of Canada adopt a formal policy to proactively disclose information pertaining to Indigenous peoples and residential schools and to prioritize negotiation and mediation to resolve conflicts rather than litigation.

RECOMMENDATION 9

That the Treasury Board of Canada, in consultation with Indigenous peoples, amend the Access to Information Act and the Privacy Act and produce a specific plan to align both acts to incorporate the rights as articulated in the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples; and to provide broader discretionary powers under these Acts to federal institutions to disclose records when warranted by public interest.

RECOMMENDATION 10

That the Treasury Board of Canada amend the purpose clauses of the Access to Information Act and the Privacy Act to reflect reconciliation with Indigenous peoples.

That the Treasury Board of Canada, in consultation with Indigenous peoples, amend the Privacy Act to:

Enable broader disclosure of personal information to Indigenous governments and acknowledging the various legal regimes under which they operate;
Proactively consult with the Office of the Privacy Commissioner making privacy impact assessments a legal obligation;
Grant order-making powers to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner, similar to the powers of the Information Commissioner under the Access to Information Act; and
Determine how best to recognize Indigenous peoples’ individual and collective rights under the Act.

RECOMMENDATION 11

That Library and Archives Canada review its holdings of death records from before 1967 to identify Indigenous children who may have died while at residential schools or in a federal hostel in the Northwest Territories.

Ottawa – Indigenous peoples continue to lack complete and timely access to historical records about Indian Residential Schools, despite legal obligations for those documents to be turned over, the Senate Committee on Indigenous Peoples has found.

The committee’s report, Missing Records, Missing Children, highlights the barriers to locating, accessing and reviewing records that may contain key information about the lives and deaths of Indigenous children at residential schools. Those barriers include a lack of information on where records for an Indigenous child, family or school are kept, and lengthy delays in accessing federal records.

Records are scattered across the country and searching them is a daunting prospect. The committee heard how one small non-profit organization that houses some of the historical records related to residential schools is processing 122 linear metres of records — approximately the length of 10 city buses. Indigenous peoples must also navigate federal and provincial jurisdictions, among others, to access records. Some of these records are restricted by the federal government’s access to information and privacy regimes or by provincial legislation. Other records have been destroyed or have not yet been disclosed.

The obligations to remit documents are set out in the 2006 Indian Residential School Settlement Agreement, which was related to a class action lawsuit brought by residential school Survivors against Canada and some Christian churches. Parties are required to submit relevant documents to the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation.

The report makes 11 recommendations, including that the federal government support and fund Indigenous-led approaches to locating and retrieving records across multiple jurisdictions. The recommendations reflect the principles that Indigenous peoples should have ownership, control, access and possession of records that relate to them.

Quick Facts

Following its July 2023 report, Honouring the Children Who Never Came Home: Truth, Education and Reconciliation, the committee agreed to hold additional hearings to better understand the reasons why governments and some Catholic entities have not transferred residential school records to the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation.

In 2023, it was estimated that 13 federal departments have 23 million records related to residential schools. Public Services and Procurement Canada alone has several warehouses of paper records that need to be reviewed for relevant materials.

Catholic entities operated the majority of the 139 federal residential schools in Canada. Among these, the Oblates ran more residential schools than any other. While some Oblate records have been turned over, the committee is still concerned that other Oblates records remain outstanding.

Under the terms of the Indian Residential School Settlement Agreement, all parties agreed to collect historical statements, documents and other materials related to residential schools. The documents should be housed at the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation, which has a mandate to promote public education and understanding of the history and effects of residential schools, including by maintaining a national register of children who died while attending these institutions.

Quotes

“It is unacceptable that Indigenous peoples continue to encounter so many barriers to accessing records related to the lives and deaths of our children at Indian Residential Schools. Canada has a duty to honour this history and address the lasting impact of residential schools on Indigenous communities. To properly do so, the federal government must urgently ensure we have complete and timely access to all relevant records, as well as the funding and support necessary to lead this difficult and emotional work.”

- Senator Brian Francis, Chair of the committee

“Indigenous people should not have to file access to information requests to learn about family and community members who went missing from Indian Residential Schools. These records ultimately belong to them; they have a right to know their histories.”

- Senator David M. Arnot, Deputy Chair of the committee