• Stirland Lake High School (also known as Wahbon Bay Academy) was established in 1971 by the Mennonite organization Northern Youth Programs Inc., funded by Indian Affairs. The residential school was established to educate and house twenty (20) Aboriginal boys; students attended and lived at the school for ten (10) months of the year. It was located at the remote location of Stirland Lake in Northwestern Ontario, approximately 170 miles north of Sioux Lookout Ontario.
• Cristal Lake High School was later established in 1976, to house Aboriginal girls sent there for their education. It was located in an equally remote area as Stirland Lake High School, and like Stirland High Lake School, was only accessible by float plane.
• As the years passed, the number of students enrolled increased in the two schools.
• Both Stirland Lake and Cristal Lake were funded by Indian Affairs to provide high school education to aboriginal children in a residential school located far away from their homes and communities.
• In 1986, Stirland Lake and Cristal Lake High Schools merged operations, and Stirland Lake continued as a co-educational residential school for aboriginal children.
• Stirland Lake operated like any other Indian residential school in Ontario, with a strong Christian religious presence.
• All of the students who attended were removed from their homes and communities, and flown to a remote setting for the purpose of obtaining an education in a residential school.
• Around 1991, Stirland Lake High School closed its doors.
• In October 2007, Windigo First Nations Council, supported by Nishnawbe Aski Nation (NAN), formally requested that the Stirland Lake and Cristal Lake Residential High Schools be recognized under the Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement (IRSSA), following a resolution unanimously endorsed by NAN Chiefs-in-Assembly in August 2007.
• In the spring of 2008, the request for recognition by Windigo and NAN was rejected by Canada.
• In December 2008, Windigo and NAN filed a motion to the Superior Court of Justice of Ontario, asking the Court to exercise its power under the IRSSA by adding the two (2) schools to the list of recognized Indian Residential Schools within the meaning of the IRSSA.
• Written arguments were filed with the Court setting out the respective positions of Windigo and NAN, and also Canada, in great detail. Formal affidavits containing sworn evidence and documents were also filed, and cross examinations on the affidavits were conducted over the course of the last two years.
