Demise of Aboriginal Healing Foundation decried May 4, 2011 Share Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share on Reddit Share on LinkedIn Email By: Alexandra Paul Posted: 04/5/2011 6:24 AM The Conservative government’s decision to wind down the Aboriginal Healing Foundation — which addressed the legacy of physical and sexual abuse suffered by residential school survivors — could become an election issue. “We are going to call on all the parties that are running and ask them what are their plans for the Aboriginal Healing Foundation,” Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak Grand Chief David Harper said Monday. He said the mandate is far from finished. “The suffering of our people is a stain on Canada,” Harper said, adding restoring dignity after centuries of injustice is a slow process and can’t be wrapped up on an arbitrary timetable. “Communities still need the support of such an entity for the well-being of our people.” Meanwhile, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission will pick up some events the foundation will abandon when it wraps up this spring. “The TRC has a small community-event fund to encourage communities to come together. We’ve said that any event that includes survivor support would have our support,” TRC chairman Justice Murray Sinclair said Monday. But the commission’s help is limited, the TRC head warned. “We’re just providing one-time funding,” for aboriginal communities the commission visits. The TRC is also working with Health Canada to provide more ongoing support. The commission is taking testimony from residential school survivors on the impact of assimilation policies, and abuse, and commissioners are hearing about the impact of the foundation. “When the funding was lost it left a vacuum in the lives in survivors that they haven’t bee able to fill,” Sinclair said. The foundation was set up in 1998 with a one-time grant of $350 million, in response to the findings of the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples. In 2008, following the agreement for the $1.9-billion residential school settlement, the foundation was extended another two years with an additional $125 million grant. Last year, Ottawa announced funding would not be renewed. Former minister of Indian affairs Chuck Strahl said mental health and emotional support services would be provided through a $199-million Health Canada fund. However, the new funding isn’t designed to replace the foundation’s work. alexandra.paul@freepress.mb.ca