Sask. man who endured school abuse says compensation denied over technicality
A man who suffered years of abuse at a day school on Poundmaker Cree Nation says he had his compensation claim rejected on a technicality.
Under the terms of a class action settlement with the federal government, Indian Day School students were entitled to receive compensation for the damages and abuses they suffered.
When Melvin Sapp applied for compensation, he wrote the name of the school in his native Cree, Pîhtokahanapiwiyin, known in English as Poundmaker.
In May 2020, Sapp got a letter from the claims administrator Deloitte saying they received his application and that the federal government would clarify his eligibility within 60 days.
He didn’t receive another communication from Deloitte until two years later, only two months from the final deadline.
They said they had confirmed “with supplemental information provided by Canada” that he didn’t attend an eligible federally-run day school for the years he stated in the application.
Strange, because Poundmaker is on the official list of federal Indian Day Schools, Schedule K. Sapp thought they may have been confused because he wrote it in Cree, but that’s what they all called it when he was a kid.
“Nobody spoke English on the reserve, hardly, unless there was a white person around.”
In a statement to CTV News on Thursday, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Crown and Indigenous Relations said it was not a mistake of translation.
“The Poundmaker Federal Day School (eligible for compensation from 1879 to September 1, 1983) was operating as a Kindergarten only as of the 1974-75 school year as the students were attending the Pehtokahanopewin, also known as Pehtok, band-operated school,” the statement said.
The ministry says the federally-run day school on Poundmaker Cree Nation operated only as a Kindergarten until it was transferred to the band in 1983.
Mission schools, joint schools, provincial and band-operated schools are not eligible for compensation as Canada was not responsible for the administration of these schools, the spokesperson said.
“You can’t tell me the band ran the school with band money,” said Sapp. He says the federal government was still responsible for the school because the bands themselves were a federal creation and the schools were entirely funded by federal dollars.
Sapp says his little brother wrote “Pîhtokahanapiwiyin, aka Poundmaker” on his application and it was approved, although he only applied for the first level of compensation, which didn’t require a declaration. Sapp, who says he endured years of physical abuse at the school, applied for level two compensation.
Sapp was 10-years-old in 1974 when he was sent to Pîhtokahanapiwiyin on Poundmaker Indian Reserve. It served the adjacent First Nations of Poundmaker and Little Pine, where he’s from. The teachers and administrators were all settlers, he says.
“All of a sudden you’re put in a place where you have to speak English; was pretty traumatizing, because I didn’t even really know how to read the books either, and when you don’t read them and you say something wrong I used to get my hair pulled, being humiliated right in front of the class,” said Sapp.
“I kind of had a learning disability at the time, and I don’t know why they never seen that.”
The worst treatment came from his principal, he says. He was getting sent to her office for discipline on a regular basis, and Sapp says she would make him pull his pants down and bend over so she could hit him with a ruler.
When he was about 12 years old, Sapp says she accused him of making a mess in the washroom.
“She did beat me up in a washroom to the point of unconsciousness and just left me there. She pulled me by the ears and just banged me against the wall so my head was hitting the wall, and while she was doing that she was yelling at the same time, and I just heard that faint yelling and lost consciousness,” said Sapp.
It wasn’t an atmosphere conducive to learning. Sapp says he was repeatedly held back. When he left school at 15 years old, he hadn’t completed Grade 6. For years afterward, Sapp says he drank to try to feel better.
Now sober 14 years, Sapp was hoping to use the settlement to help his son pay for post-secondary education.
“He’s turning 15 next month … I want to make sure he doesn’t go through what I went through. I want him to have a successful future,” said Sapp.
Noel Blackstar went to school with Sapp in Poundmaker before returning to Moosomin. He received compensation based on his time at a day school on Moosomin First Nation. Their schools robbed them of an education, he says.
“We never got the chance to be a proper student anywhere. And to this day all of us are suffering from lack of education.”
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Doctors say capital gains tax changes will jeopardize their retirement. Is that true?
The Canadian Medical Association asserts the Liberals' proposed changes to capital gains taxation will put doctors' retirement savings in jeopardy, but some financial experts insist incorporated professionals are not as doomed as they say they are.
Something in the water? Canadian family latest to spot elusive 'Loch Ness Monster'
For centuries, people have wondered what, if anything, might be lurking beneath the surface of Loch Ness in Scotland. When Canadian couple Parry Malm and Shannon Wiseman visited the Scottish highlands earlier this month with their two children, they didn’t expect to become part of the mystery.
Fair in Ontario, flurries in Labrador: Weather systems make for an erratic spring
It's no secret that spring can be a tumultuous time for Canadian weather, and as an unseasonably mild El Nino winter gives way to summer, there's bound to be a few swings in temperature that seem out of the ordinary. From Ontario to the Atlantic, though, this week is about to feel a little erratic.
What do weight loss drugs mean for a diet industry built on eating less and exercising more?
Recent injected drugs like Wegovy and its predecessor, the diabetes medication Ozempic, are reshaping the health and fitness industries.
He replaced Mickey Mantle. Now baseball's oldest living major leaguer is turning 100
The oldest living former major leaguer, Art Schallock turns 100 on Thursday and is being celebrated in the Bay Area and beyond as the milestone approaches.
What a urologist wants you to know about male infertility
When opposite sex couples are trying and failing to get pregnant, the attention often focuses on the woman. That’s not always the case.
'It was instant karma': Viral video captures failed theft attempt in Nanaimo, B.C.
Mounties in Nanaimo, B.C., say two late-night revellers are lucky their allegedly drunken antics weren't reported to police after security cameras captured the men trying to steal a heavy sign from a downtown business.
Bank of Canada officials split on when to start cutting interest rates
Members of the Bank of Canada's governing council were split on how long the central bank should wait before it starts cutting interest rates when they met earlier this month.
Made-in-Newfoundland vodka claims top prize at worldwide competition
A Newfoundland-made vodka has been named one of the world’s best by judges at this year’s World Vodka Awards.