Critics of residential school agreement emerge.

The deadline for deciding whether or not to opt out of the Indian residential school settlement agreement passed on Aug. 20.

Tom Oleman has already said "no thanks." He and others are recommending that the children and grandchildren of those who attended the schools do the same.

He, along with two Gitxsan Nation men, Sii' Haast (Willie Blackwater) and William Matthews, sent out press releases in early August in an attempt to get people that they believe will not be well-served by the agreement to keep their legal options open.

Blackwater was the lead plaintiff named in the Blackwater (Barney) case, launched in 1998 in British Columbia Supreme Court, which went all the way to the Supreme Court of Canada.

He said he has chosen to speak out for those who are hesitant to speak out. Matthews is the founding president of the Gitxsan Spirit Survivor's group.

All three said they intentionally waited until close to the opt out deadline to speak out.

"I did not want to influence anybody who's going to be taking the money and I was desperately trying to find a human way to get to the children of survivors. That's my main focus," Oleman said.

"I myself am OK. I've already opted out and I've got my letter from Ottawa saying I will receive nothing for this and I don't have the right for healing, blah, blah, blah. But at the end of the day I can still have the lawsuit going, which I will do on my own behalf and on behalf of my children and grandchildren. This probably won't even get into court by the time I die. I'm 61 years old now. To start a Supreme Court action against the government and the church this late in the day, I'm hoping I can get enough stuff down on paper with a good law firm that some time in the future my children will be mitigated and there'll be a future for my grandchildren."

With an unmistakable tone of profound, soul deep sadness in his voice, Oleman said the attempts by the churches and the state to hide from accountability are the most painful and offensive parts of this ordeal for him.

"I tell my friends that," he said, pausing briefly to keep his emotions in check, "I would settle for one dollar. I would settle with a public, recorded apology from the prime minister admitting all of the things that I've lost ... and ensuring an economic recovery for my family."

Blackwater also emphasized the importance of an apology in a statement he issued jointly with Matthews.

"We are truly devastated that there is no apology in this deal. That is what we were seeking when we initiated our lawsuit in 1998. It wasn't mainly about money. It was about acknowledgement, and making sure the abuses don't happen again to anyone," he said.

"As the lead plaintiff in [the Blackwater (Barney)] case I demand, in the strongest possible terms, a full and formal apology from the prime minister as the political head of Canada."

Oleman said he will also seek an apology from the Catholic Church that ran the school he attended.

"I believe that the governments and churches who apprehended me and assisted in the removal of my identity and history owe me an apology. They both have the responsibility to assist my children, my grandchildren and the others who are coming, in the recovery of a sustainable and healthy lifestyle that was previously enjoyed by the grandparents and most certainly my great-grandparents. The government and the churches are accountable to the world for the irreparable harm that they have directly inflicted on me and on my family," he said.

The value of the residential school agreement is close to $2 billion. Oleman said it's not nearly enough.

"A lot of people that I'm talking to now think it's a pretty low offer, to start. When you take a look at the damages suffered by many of the people that went, it wouldn't even be a year's salary. It wouldn't be tuition for a good school," he said.

"My amount, if I had chosen to go through with it, would be $23,000. I'm telling my friends it wouldn't even be a good party for me when I was going hard. But the reality is many of our people are older and they're desperate and they're just happy to get something and I support them. I don't know if they've really taken a look at what they're signing because we are giving Canada and the churches carte blanche on everything they've done."

The Assembly of First Nations has had workers travelling the country meeting w ith survivors. Oleman and the others said they've been promoting the agreement to survivors rather than, neutrally explaining it.

"[Survivors] are being pushed very quickly to accept something," he said.

All three men repeatedly emphasized that they do not judge anyone who accepts the offer.

"I believe we'll be lucky if we get 2,000 or 3,000 that will opt out because they've been waiting a long time," Oleman said.

"We know some survivors may feel their compensation is blood money--paid to hush them up," Matthews and Blackwater said in their joint release.

"We want you to know that the money you will be receiving through the settlement agreement is not hush money: it is compensation for harms you suffered in residential school. We want survivors to know that you deserve to be compensated."

Oleman said that the children of survivors had to grow up without emotionally healthy parents and they will feel the consequences of that as the years go by, if they haven't already, and therefore they should be directly compensated for the damage the residential school policy did to them. He said the agreement doesn't do enough for them and doesn't do anything at all for others who were harmed.

"We never, ever addressed the issues of the ones who never made it. The ones that committed suicide; the ones that drank themselves to death; the ones that died in accidents; the ones that were murdered," he said.

The Assembly of First Nations did not respond by press time to Windspeaker's request for a response to the critics of the residential school settlement agreement.

By Paul Barnsley

Windspeaker Staff Writer

VANCOUVER