Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement
The Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement (IRSSA) is an agreement between the Government of Canada and approximately 86,000 Native Canadians who at some point were enrolled as children in the Canadian Indian residential school system, a system which was in place between 1879 and 1996. The IRSSA recognized the damage inflicted by the residential schools and established a $2 billion compensation package for all former IRS students and, in particular, those who had been abused or otherwise harmed. The agreement, announced in 2006, was the largest class action settlement in Canadian history. As of December 2012 a total of $1.62 billion has been paid to 78,750 former students.
Indian hospital
At least one Indian hospital, the Fort William Sanatorium, served a dual use as a residential school, where TB-diagnosed children received education. Some rooms were converted for classroom use, and students who were bedridden received bedside lessons. This school received funding from the Department of Indian Affairs for its educational expenses. Reports indicate that "'at least one teacher provided education to Aboriginal children between 1942 and 1945'" and that it "housed a Provincial School starting as early as 1944 to as late as 1971, and an Indian Day School between 1950 and 1953." Survivors of Fort William petitioned to have their cases included in the Residential Schools Settlement, but were denied as the sanatorium was not accepting patients primarily for educational purposes.