THE first cheques of an estimated $140 million in residential school payments are starting to pour into Manitoba -- as are offers on how to spend it.
By Christmas, the biggest payout to individual aboriginal people in Canadian history will be in the hands and bank accounts of some 5,000 First Nations people in Manitoba.
Even before people see the money though, retailers are approaching them at home to offer big-ticket items like cars and trucks, a practice condemned by Manitoba's senior aboriginal leader who said chiefs had seen this coming months ago.
"It's a shame," Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs Grand Chief Ron Evans said, "to see marketers taking advantage of people."
First Nations residents report getting cold calls from aggressive salespeople.
The money is part of a $5 billion settlement, mostly to middle-aged and elderly aboriginal people who attended Indian residential schools as part of a federal assimilation policy. The century-old practice was finally scrapped after horror stories of abuse and mistreatment forced the schools to close.
An estimated 80,000 aboriginal people in Canada are eligible for the payments.
No one appreciates the aggressive sales tactics.
In Alberta, tribal officials are condemning marketers for besieging low-income First Nations with their big-ticket credit sales.
In Manitoba, the calls are the butt of jokes on the street.
The joke making the rounds here goes: "Bad credit? Go to residential school? Noooo problem!"
Behind the laughter, there's outrage.
"I told him I didn't have a cheque yet," said Albert Bittern, 59, indignant over a car dealer who tried to sell him a new vehicle last spring in a phone call to his fly-in community of Poplar River First Nation.
Bittern reported the call to his lawyer and his community.
"I told him I didn't need any vehicle," Bittern said. "I wasn't the only one. A friend of mine got a call too."
Evans said reports of calls like that are all too common.
"This (residential school era) was a historic injustice and to capitalize on it? We're already suffering. Let people heal. And let people move forward with the compensation they receive. This is not a time to harass people," the grand chief said.
Bittern is one of an estimated 5,000 survivors eligible for compensation in Manitoba.
The average cheque is $28,000, based on $10,000 for the first school year and $3,000 for every year after that. The total cash infusion is expected to add up to $140 million.
Lawyers in Manitoba say they expect cheques to flow any time.
Federal officials are also trying to get cheques into the hands of seniors first.
"They're going to give priority to people who are 65 years and older," said Bill Percy, a Winnipeg lawyer who represents an estimated 500 residential school clients.
Services Canada, a federal agency working with Indian Residential Schools Resolution Canada to get the cheques in the right hands, is mailing out them within 35 days of the Sept. 19 deadline for applications.
Everyone who is eligible for the payment had to apply for it with a birth certificate or two other forms of identification.
"They've had 55,000 applications as of today," Percy said Thursday.
Cheques are drawn on a $1.9 billion federal fund set up to compensate survivors for the loss of culture, language and family. Every student gets a so-called common-experience payment based on the number of years in school.
alexandra.paul@freepress.mb.ca
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