Residential school settlement hearings reach Alberta

A Calgary judge has begun reviewing a $1.9-billiondealthat would compensatetens of thousands of aboriginal Canadians forced to attend residential schools.

Under the federalsettlement package reached last year, any former studentwill beoffered a lump sum of $10,000, plus $3,000 for each year spent in the schools.

Former students can seek more compensation if they can prove sexual or physical abuse.

But the package must be approved by judges in six provinces and three territories. Hearings similar to the onetaking placein Calgary this week will be held across the country this fall.

More than 100 aboriginal peoplepacked a Calgary courtroomThursday as the hearing began at the Court of Queen's Bench.

On Friday,some hada chance to voiceobjections to the deal.

Shocked by allocation for legal fees

Graham Courtoreille, who is from the Tallcree First Nation in northern Alberta,said outside court thatthe up to $100 millionset asidefor lawyer feesis the most shocking part of the settlement.

"Who's really being abused?It's us again. And what's a judge going to do about it? People misunderstand and figure we're getting a pile of money. We're not."

Jane Ann Summers, a lawyer with a firm that represents more than half of all former students, said the settlement ensures more money will end up in her clients' hands sooner. If thousands of cases ended up in court, lawyers would have stood to make hundreds of millions of dollars, she said.

Calgary is the only city in Alberta holding hearings.

Thepayments will only go topeople who were alive on May 30, 2005,when the agreement was reached, said Summers.

"Unfortunately, even with the government of Canada, there's a finite pot," she said."We want to put as much money as we can into the hands of the living."

If the package is ratified, the federal governmentplans to start taking applications from people next spring.