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NEWS
BRIEFS
By FP staff
Ted Hughes appointed Chief Adjudicator for res school claims
Former Saskatchewan Court of Queen's bench judge Ted Hughes will head the federal government's Alternative Dispute Resolution process recently announced by Ralph Goodale, Minister responsible for Indian Residential School Claims.
The appointment is part of a move by the federal government to help deal with the huge volume of abuse claims stemming from the operation of Indian residential schools.
Of the 11,500 claims of physical and/or sexual abuse in the courts, only a handful have been concluded thus far, which Good ale says prompted the government to initiate a full-scale Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) process.
The ADR proposes to include existing litigation procedures, pre-trial settlements, voluntary out of court agreements and other individual ADR processes to be made available to all claimants at their option.
Hughes appointment comes after widespread criticism from some lawyers representing residential school survivors that the integrity of the ADR process must be established and maintained.
He will be responsible for the scheduling of ADR cases, managing the workload and oversee the work of 32 full-time independent adjudicators and will hear and decide on all complaints regarding the ADR process.
Hughes' appointment comes after extensive consultations with litigants, their lawyers and church representatives.
NAAF receives $12 million endowment fund
The National Aboriginal Awards Foundation has received a $12 million endowment fund for post-secondary scholarships from the federal government.
Minister of Heritage Sheila Copps announced the establishment of the fund late last month saying the government wanted to broaden the educational opportunities for aboriginal youth by encouraging them to pursue post-secondary studies.
NAAF president and founder John Kim Bells, says the fund will be used to assist Inuit, Metis and First Nations' post secondary students engaged in fields of study that support and contribute to aboriginal and economic self-government.
Court decision on illegal fishing angers UBIC
A decision by a B.C. judge to grant an absolute discharge to 40 non-native fishermen convict5ed for illegal fishing during a closed aboriginal fishery last year has angered Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs leader Stewart Phillip.
"This ruling smacks of the same racist attitude of how officers of the Department of Oceans and Fisheries stood idly by and monitored the situation last August when 139 boats of the Fisheries Survival Coalition fished illegally while disrupting the Musqueam and Tswawassen legally sanctioned fishery."
Tensions between aboriginal and non-aboriginal fishermen have been on the rise lately since to recent federal and provincial reports concluded that the Aboriginal Fisheries Strategy be abandoned, said Phillip.
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