Discharged-puzzled as to student loans

Marriage breakdown-became a single mother on low income. Had to declare bankrupcy due to debt incurred by my ex on my credit card. Was recently discharged (after a longer than normal period- 2-3 years) in bankrupcy (due to a serious health problem, was not paying attention and it seemed easier simply not to be discharged).

Student-loans-Although I included them on the notice of creditors, I received a call from Quebec recently.  My friend called them back and told them I was in bankrupcy and I never heard from them again. Shortly therafter I was discharged. This Quebec  loan was incurred before 1990.  I also have another student loan incurred here in B.C. in 1996 (I paid off one portion a long time ago--possibly the provincial portion) and have the other portion remaining.

I am now in better health, and ready to assume full financial responsibility with the hopes of building up a good credit rating. However my income is still low as I am taking care of two young children and only working part time. My questions are:

1) The trustee could not tell me if my student loans would be discharged or not, but it seems to me that my Quebec loan, being over ten years old, might be.  How do I find out without triggering some kind of frightful process involving payments I may not be able to afford.

2) It seems to me that I must still pay the Federal portion of my student loan since it was under the 10 year rule making it not exempt from the bankrupcy. However, they havn't contacted me. Do I contact them?  What about interest? Has it been accumulating all these years? And will this once again trigger a frightful process involving payments I can't afford?

Do they make any allowances for a person's circumstances? I am not working full time as I have two young children to look after. 

I realize it is better to know and be clear than to not know and be afraid of what I might possibly owe. And I read something on this site about not answering a questionaire, or admitting to a debt. This seems like a safe place to ask these questions to prepare me to take some action on this.  I just don't want to awake the sleeping deemons if I don't have to. On the other hand, the prospect of huge amounts of interest accumulating doesn't thrill me. Also, I want to rebuild my credit rating which was always fine before my separation and am afraid this may once again damage my credit rating if I don't take care of it.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated! Nona 

Hi eshelton,

Thanks very much for your reply.  In retrospect, I think my trustee may have done me a favour by not sending proofs of claims to the loans departments of Quebec and Canada, or sending them to the wrong address because I know by the fact that Quebec loans called me that they hadn't received anything from the trustee. And since I have had so much stuff going on in my life recently (compared to which this is only a minor problem), I can't remember what I said or if I acknowledged the loan of not on the phone.  So maybe this is a really dumb question but here goes: How do I find out if my status is "acknowledged/statute barred" without acknowledging the loan or triggering my re-entry into the active system?

Also, I have read some more stuff on this great site and now think I remember receiving some sort of notice that my loan went from the bank into a different department of the government (i.e. I defaulted during my bankrupcy, of which they were unaware, and they sent my loan to a collection department, except it had amore official ring to it, a department with 4 letters as an acronym.  Now, if that were the case, wouldn't they have tried to garnishee my income tax refunds which were going to the trustee (the trustee started sending me the refund cheques eventually so I know they didn't do that). And also, now that I am discharged and filing my own returns, will they now try to garnishee those?   

Do these governments report this stuff to the credit bureau? Isn't that a violation of the privacy act or something?

Because if they don't, then I think my best course of action would be to sit tight and do nothing and hope it goes away. I have had some harrowing stories to tell over the last few years about my circumstances as I was trying to raise my children on my own, and perhaps somewhere along the line someone took pity on me and sent my file into deep storage.

I managed to obtain a car loan and am about to apply for a secured credit card to try to rebuild my credit, though, so do these departments check the credit bureau. Maybe they just couldn't find me before now as I had moved 5 times in 6 years (a long harrowing story).  

Speaking of interest, would this really have continued to accumulate during this time, and if so what would be the rate? Was there some sort of variable rate, or is it still accumulating at the interet rate of 10 years ago?  

Wow, what a complicated can of worms I have oppened. But your site has at least given me a place to start thinking about these things. Unfortunately, the more I think about it, the more confused I am getting.

I think I need professional advice. I have no idea of the amounts of these loans, even. Could someone recommend any specialist in this area who could do some digging on my behalf?

Thanks.Nona