thepeel
Joined: 08 Aug 2004
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 Posted: Mon Sep 17, 2007 6:26 pm Post subject: Native compensation package a mixed blessing |
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Native compensation package a mixed blessing
OTTAWA � Nearly $2-billion in native residential schools compensation will be a mixed blessing, say frontline workers who fear major spikes in alcohol and drug use, family violence and exploitation.
Police forces are on alert across Canada as native bands and nearby cities brace for the cash injection.
About 80,000 former students can apply as of Wednesday for common experience payments � $10,000 for the first year they attended the once-mandatory network of church-run schools, and $3,000 for each subsequent year.
Cheques are expected to average $28,000 and will start arriving within a month.
RCMP Chief Supt. Doug Reti, head of national aboriginal policing services, believes most people will spend or invest the money wisely. But others will drink or shoot up payments that could also attract con artists bent on scamming the most vulnerable people, he fears.
�Most will deal with this extra money in a responsible way,� he stressed Monday. �But there's always those people that are easily taken advantage of, and fall through the cracks.
�We have a high rate of addictions, a high rate of suicide. One of my biggest concerns is the raised level of abuse of alcohol, drugs ... and the fallout from that type of thing. |
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