Notices to Counsel | Completion strategy visits

July 22, 2014

To all IAP Counsel,

As per our notice in March 2014, the Chief Adjudicator submitted a report to the Supervising Courts in January 2014 entitled "Bringing Closure, Enabling Reconciliation: a plan for resolving the remaining IAP Caseload" (known as the Completion Strategy). The Completion Strategy provides estimated timeframes for completion of the IAP and describes the remaining challenges that we will face in completing this important mandate. The Strategy estimates completion of all first claimant hearings by the Spring of 2016.

On July 15, 2014 The Honourable Justice P. Perell of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice approved two important documents associated with the Completion Strategy which will allow for the resolution of the remaining Independent Assessment Process (IAP) caseload. The Incomplete File Resolution (IFR) procedure and a Lost Claimant Protocol outline measures to resolve the more difficult cases that we have been unable to make progress on.

As a result of this court approval, we will be contacting law firms to arrange for in-person visits to discuss the Completion Strategy, provide updates on initiatives we are undertaking to ensure that we have hearing ready files in place, and to discuss issues or timelines for file completion. As we will be unable to make individual visits to all counsel, we will first be concentrating on firms representing the largest caseloads in the IAP. Please note that staff from the Indian Residential Schools Adjudication Secretariat will be contacting many of your firms in the coming weeks to make arrangements for these visits.

For your information, the Notice to Counsel of March 6, 2014, provides a more detailed description of each of the approved documents. In addition, there are links to each of the documents on our website.

We look forward to meeting with many of you. If you have any questions please contact Stacey Lambert at 604.666.6687 or Stacey.Lambert@irsad-sapi.gc.ca.

Shelley Trevethan
Executive Director
Indian Residential Schools Adjudication Secretariat