The Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement and the 2015 Court Case: Court Files

This featured collection focuses on the 2015 court case decision Fontaine v Saskatchewan (Attorney General), 205 SKQB 220, which released the Catholic Church, or more accurately the Corporation of Catholic Entities Party to the Indian Residential School Settlement (CCEPIRSS), from its obligations under the 2006 Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement (IRSSA). It also contains records related to CCEPIRSS' compensation obligations under the 2006 Settlement Agreement and the media’s summer 2021 application to gain access to the 2015 court case files.

Read the Background Note on these records from the Academic Director of the Indian Residential School History and Dialogue Centre, Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond (Aki-kwe).

While this collection provides access to some of the documents from the 2015 court case, the Centre does not have access to all of them. We invite submissions of missing documents (irshdc.info@ubc.ca).

Fontaine v Saskatchewan (Attorney General) had its origins in 2013 when the Attorney General of Canada submitted a Request for Directions (RFD#1) seeking guidance from the Court of Queen’s Bench for Saskatchewan on interpreting the terms of IRSSA. This RFD focused on whether or not CCEPIRSS' deduction of administrative fees, including legal fees, from its financial payments under the Settlement Agreement, was permissible.

During the subsequent negotiations, disagreement emerged over whether CCEPIRSS and Canada had reached a new settlement agreement, specifically that $1.2 million would release CCEPIRSS from their obligations under IRSSA. CCEPIRSS filed its own Request for Directions (RFD#2) in 2014 and the Honourable Mr. N.G. Gabrielson decided that a settlement had been reached. Canada began the appeals process, but ultimately withdrew the appeal on November 10, 2015.

As per media reports, the court files for this case were not sealed or under a publication ban. Nonetheless, these files did not become part of the public record. In the summer of 2021, The Globe and Mail and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) made a formal application to the Court and were given access to files selected by these outlets. To learn more about the Indian Residential School Settlement Agreement and Fontaine v Saskatchewan (Attorney General), see the full collection.