“There are still a lot of serious accounting discrepancies that shock Canada,” a document said, which was a 53-page federal “fact” summarizing the evidence in the 2015 court case.

The other churches that participated in the landmark Indian boarding school settlement agreement in 2005—the Anglican, the United Church, and the Presbyterian Church—are not involved in any of these practices. They all paid the full amount agreed many years ago without any accidents.

The Catholic Church has never finally had to legalize its activities. On the eve of a hearing on the matter in 2015, Saskatchewan Court Judge Neil Gabrielson approved the church’s controversial buyout proposal, and the case was closed.

Advocates of the survivors said they were disgusted and the Catholic Church must be held accountable.

Mary Allen Teppel-Lafont, a former Saskatchewan court judge and director of the History and Dialogue Center at the University of British Columbia Indian Boarding School in Vancouver, said: “This is unbelievable and absolutely rude. This is completely wrong.” She checked the files at the request of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.

“Why would anyone do such a thing?”

Any lawyer involved in the 2015 case could not be reached for comment on Wednesday.

The Conference of Catholic Bishops of Canada (CCCB) declined an interview request. An official pointed out that CCCB is not a party to the settlement. Individual parishes and orders created a company to oversee transactions.

However, the official stated that Canadian bishops are “committed to continuing to participate and listen.” She referred to the “historic delegation” that went to the Vatican in December this year.

That The delegation plans to invite Pope Francis to visit Canada He also apologized to the boarding school, which was the first call made by indigenous leaders, some bishops and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission several years ago.

The document lists where the church claims the money went

The facts and other documents obtained by CBC News form part of the court records of the 2015 case involving the federal government and the Catholic Church. A source directly involved in the case confirmed their authenticity. CBC News did not disclose the source of the information because they feared it would be affected.

The opening paragraph of the fact stated that the Catholic Church “violated its obligations under the Indian Boarding School Settlement Agreement.”

In addition to the failed fundraising campaign of $25 million, the church was also required to pay $29 million in cash and strictly abide by its usage standards. The church was also allowed to fulfill its final $25 million pledge through “service in kind.”

This fact was written by federal lawyers Alexander Gay and Anne McConville and listed the following expenses and deductions claimed by the church. Many of these details were also listed in the cross-examination of the Catholic Church accountants and were also obtained by CBC News.

For a cash payment of $29 million:

• US$2.7 million was paid to lawyers for legal work and unauthorized “representatives” not related to compensation agreements. Two of the law firms received 80% of the money, and there are lawyers on the board of the National Catholic Corporation that approved these fees. One of the lawyers paid legal and consulting fees for participating in the same event.
• US$2.3 million is used for administrative expenses. Although no other Christian churches claim administrative expenses, the Catholic agreement allows the federal government to reimburse “reasonable” claims. The government agreed to pay $1 million of it.
• US$1.6 million was used to donate to projects with “indigenous people” components outside of the approval process. No explanation or invoice is provided as evidence.
• Before reaching a settlement agreement in 2005, the church deducted more than $8 million in payments to survivors. This seems to be allowed in the agreement, but when asked about $29 million, church officials did not mention this publicly.
• It was not until 2012, five years after the agreement was signed, that the Catholic Church submitted its annual financial statements to the government as required.

For physical services worth 25 million USD:

• The Catholic Church accountant testified that services worth $25 million were provided, “Even if he did not audit these records and accounts, he did not have a basis for evaluating these services, and only relied on meeting minutes provided by Catholic officials.”

For the US$25 million fundraising event that raised US$3.9 million:

• The church accountant testified that many donations have a “conditional”, telling him where to put the money, which runs counter to the agreement. “Someone will pay $50,000 and say, well, $40,000 of that must be allocated back to this project,” the accountant testified.
• $1.8 million was lent from a $29 million cash account to the fund-raising department of the Catholic Church, and the private company signed a contract. Approximately $1.3 million of this was never repaid. The church agreed that funding should remain independent and did not obtain approval from the federal government to take this action.

This fact ended with a series of requests from federal government lawyers. It requires the judge to issue the following orders to officials of the Catholic Church:

• No additional fees may be accumulated or transferred without the prior consent of the government.
• Recover all payments made to the law firm whose lawyers have approved the payment at the board of directors.
• Explain to the court within 10 days what constitutes the unspecified US$2.7 million in “legal services”.
• Instruct investigators to review all administrative expenses.
• Declare that the Catholic Church is not fulfilling its obligations.

The judge ruled that the federal opposition to the deal was not clear enough

The hearing should begin shortly after the facts are submitted. The Catholic Church lawyer Gordon J. Kuski asked for an adjournment, and Gabrielson agreed for a month.

Kusky made a settlement proposal to federal lawyer Alexander Gay. When it became clear that the church only offered $1.2 million, Guy used phrases such as “we may have a problem” and “we did not reach an agreement on the terms of the settlement” in his email.

After several months of correspondence, there is still no written or oral agreement. Kusky said it didn’t matter, and when the case returned to court, he asked Gabrielson to announce an agreement.

Gabrielson sided with the Catholic Church, saying that Guy’s opposition to the proposal was not clear enough and that “sane people” would conclude that the agreement had been reached. The hearing was cancelled.

Catholic officials paid 1.2 million U.S. dollars and dissolved the company established to monitor the settlement agreement.

Court officials refused to release documents

This month, CBC News asked Regina court officials to provide 2015 documents. They refused, saying that a formal application and hearing are needed.

CBC News asked the Chief Justice of the Queen’s Seat Mattel Popescu to produce the document immediately. He also refused, saying that proper procedures were being followed, and once another judge intervened, he could not interfere.

The legal experts interviewed disagreed, saying that the document is public and should be provided immediately. The survivors said they had the right to see it. The Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Peoples, representing the First Nations in Saskatchewan, called on Popescu to resign on Tuesday.

Calling on Church boycott And revealed The church invested more than 300 million U.S. dollars In order to build cathedrals and churches during the same period, bishops across Canada have agreed to resume fundraising activities.

In recent weeks, CBC News has been asking Catholic officials across Canada about compensation agreements. They admitted that the fundraising activities did not meet expectations, but some touted $25 million worth of in-kind services, although no one could provide a complete list.

Others mentioned $29 million in cash payments, but no one mentioned the millions of dollars that were apparently spent on management, lawyers, or other expenses.

“The $29 million-paid by the Catholic diocese and the religious group that runs the boarding school-has been completed,” an official from the Archdiocese of Toronto said in an email to CBC News earlier this month.

The Bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Saskatoon, Mark Hagemoen, stated in an open letter last month that he had “disbursed $29 million in cash for projects under the supervision of Aboriginal organizations and services. and service.”

UBC’s Turpel-Lafond said that although it is important that the truth is finally revealed, the revelations feel like a “punch.”

She said this shows that the Catholic Church does not take its responsibility to survivors seriously.

She said: “This should be a sincere settlement, not another opportunity to increase expense reimbursement and billing time.”