Personal Reflections on the Indian Residential Schools Compensation Process: a lesson in advancing equality, diversity, and inclusion

Michael Bay, a former adjudicator with the Indian Residential Schools Adjudication Secretariat, speaking in his personal capacity.

Lawyer Michael Bay spent a decade adjudicating the sexual and serious physical abuse claims residential school survivors. He heard over 600 cases from Vancouver Island to the Northern tip of Baffin Island. In preparing for each case, he received voluminous archival materials on each school as well as a lifetime of health, education and other records of the Claimant. A full day was set aside for him to question the Claimant about their life before residential school, their experience at school including the abuse, and the effect that that experience had on them, their family and their community.

Prior to his residential school work, Mr. Bay was the founding Chair of the Consent and Capacity Board. He is also an experienced adult educator, has published dozens of journal articles and delivered many hundreds of presentations in professional setting in Canada and abroad to health care professionals, judicial officers, lawyers and police. He is an associate professor (PT) in the Department of Psychiatry and Neurosciences at McMaster University and adjunct professor of nursing at the University of Toronto.