the Catholic Church operated ~70% of the 130 residential schools that operated in Canada between the 1880s and 1996... the ~30% remainder were operated by the United Church, the Presbyterian Church and the Anglican Church.
on behalf of Canada, {former} PM Harper issued an official apology to residential school survivors in 2008... the United Church did so in 1998, the Presbyterian Church in 1994 and the Anglican Church in 1993. The Catholic Church has not issued an apology despite it being a 'call to action point' of the findings from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. In the letter refusing an apology for residential schools, Bishop Lionel Gendron, president of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops, said while Pope Francis took the matter seriously, he had still decided not to apologize - stating further that he {the Pope} felt that he could not personally respond.
=>2007 settlement:
The court-approved compensation scheme arose out of a comprehensive class-action settlement in 2007 involving survivors, the federal government and churches that ran the schools. The Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement included a Common Experience Payment for all students who attended the schools, a five-year endowment for the Aboriginal Healing Foundation, and the Independent Assessment Process (IAP) to adjudicate claims from students who had suffered abuse at the schools.
Under the IAP, claimants were entitled to up to $275,000 each, based on the nature and level of abuse suffered.
In all 38,276 claims were received, with Saskatchewan having the most claimants. Adjudicators awarded $2.14 billion in compensation to 23,431 claimants while another 4,415 claimants received compensation directly from the federal government.
Overall, the government paid out $3.23 billion in compensation and other costs. The process itself cost another $411 million.
=> Nov 2017 apology/settlement to residential school survivors in Newfoundland & Labrador (per Macleans):
Stephen Harper’s 2008 apology to residential school survivors was considered a historic, if largely symbolic, step towards reconciliation with Canada’s First Peoples. In making the gesture, however, Harper failed to acknowledge the Innu, Inuit and NunatuKavut people of Newfoundland and Labrador. Why? Because residential schools in the province were set up before Newfoundland and Labrador joined Confederation. The five residential schools that operated in the province—the last closing in 1980—weren’t federally run, and so the Harper government evidently felt no need to recognize the thousands of survivors who attended them, nor their families or communities.
The decision was seen as a particularly glaring flaw of the apology—one that translated as a distinct lack of sincerity and empathy for Canada’s Indigenous people. A class-action lawsuit ensued and, last year, the Liberal government agreed to distribute $50 million to Indigenous survivors who were left out of the original apology and settlement.
On Friday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau moved further to make up for the previous government’s omission with a tearful apology delivered to hundreds of former students and their families in Goose Bay. “Saying that we are sorry today is not enough. It will not undo the harm that was done to you. It will not bring back the languages and traditions you lost. It will not take away the isolation and vulnerability you felt when you separated from your families, communities and cultures,” the Prime Minister said. “We share this burden with you by fully accepting our responsibilities—and our failings—as a government and as a country.”
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