Time has run out on rez school suits. (News).

The Manitoba Court of Appeal's ruling against two former residential school students Oct. 26 upheld a 30-year statute of limitations that the court determined had run out before the claimants' action against the Roman Catholic Oblates order of Manitoba was begun.

The decision has the effect of wiping out nearly all claims for compensation by residential school abuse victims in the province. More than 1,000 claimants could be denied their day in court if the ruling stands.

The Assembly of First Nations has issued a statement by national chief Matthew Coon Come calling on all levels of government across Canada to amend their statutes of limitations and "make them uniform when dealing with cases of physical and sexual abuse. It is absolutely unfair to think that thousands of victims will not be able to seek redress and justice because of the differences in provincial legislation."

Vic Savino, the lawyer for the claimants who lost this case, said his group, Canadian Lawyers for the Advancement of Survivors (CLAS), "met with the (justice) minister (Gordon Mackintosh) literally within one week of the decision of the Court of Appeal."

The minister had referred the matter to the Law Reform Commission. He told the CLAS lawyers he would make his position clear by the end of October.

Savino is very optimistic that the law in Manitoba is going to change.

"In fact," he said, "my read of where the minister is at right now is it's more a matter of how and when--i.e., the November session or March session, and the exact wording of an amendment, rather than 'if'."

He added that CLAS has "been putting a lot of pressure on (Deputy Prime Minister Herb) Gray's office in getting the mess with the churches sorted out.

Gray's office has been designated the special office of residential school resolution.

The two issues, so far as the Native side is concerned, are that the churches and government should "stop arguing about who is responsible for what proportion and make an agreement on that. And the other is to put into place alternate dispute resolution processes [ADR] that are going to be effective," said Savino.

On the second score, the government has only established a few alternative dispute pilot projects, and it has mandated strict limitations on the types of claims that will be dealt with in any ADR process that it will support. It will consider only claims for physical and sexual abuse, not cultural damage of any kind.

Savino has 90 days to decide if he will appeal his case to the Supreme Court of Canada.

Bill Percy, a Manitoba lawyer representing about 250 residential school claimants, said the federal government has indicated it may not enforce the provincial statutes of limitations, but that isn't guaranteed. He wants Manitoba to follow the lead of provinces such as Ontario, which have struck down the statute in residential school cases.

Percy said that in Manitoba only about 60 claimants are involved in an ADR pilot project.

The pilot projects are moving slowly. The Manitoba Oblates pulled out of the ADR process in February 2000, after they failed to get a response from the federal government regarding a blanket proposal they drew up to settle their residential school claims in Manitoba, Saskatchewan and northwest Ontario. The Oblates are taking the position that money spent on a pilot project for 60 people is wasted when they have approximately 2,000 other claimants to settle.

"The bureacracy and the delay of the federal government ... it's shameful, frankly," said Percy. He said both government and churches are compounding their original errors by not coming to an agreement between themselves on their respective apportionment of blame.

A recent court case, he said, attributed blame 75 per cent to the government and 25 per cent to the church.

Israel Ludwig, a lawyer who represents about 350 of the approximate 1,500 Manitoba residential school claimants, has a few clients in an ADR pilot project. He has received an undertaking from the government that the Limitation of Actions Act would not apply to them.

He said, however, that the government has to approve clients for the pilot projects and as the numbers are so low, the Manitoba Court of Appeal ruling affects "about 99 per cent of all people in the province that have potential claims, because most of them are well beyond 30 years from when they left school. The last school in Manitoba closed in 1974 that we've been able to find out."

He has met with the Minister Mackintosh, and Mackintosh is "concerned that Manitoba is the only province where there is this kind of a problem and he doesn't want to see the citizens of Manitoba face, in effect, discrimination versus the rest of the country on this problem. He's certainly very seriously looking at what he can do to change the law to remedy the situation," said Ludwig.

"We're hoping to hear by the end of the month," he said.