Government withholding Residental School documents about the torture of children
The Canadian Government Is Withholding Documents Concerning the Torture of Children
By Dave Dean
A class picture from St. Paul's Indian Industrial School in Middlechurch, Manitoba. via WikiCommons.
In the early 1990s an affiliation of Cochrane, Kapuskasing, and James Bay's OPP (Ontario Provincial Police) detectives were assigned to investigate one of the largest claims of sexual and physical abuse against children in Canadian history. The testimony they amassed by talking to hundreds of survivors of St. Anne's Residential School in Fort Albany Ontario was horrifying. The investigation provided 7,000 pages of stories that wouldn't be out of place in memoirs of concentration camp survivors, or of individuals trapped in a country where ethnic cleansing is a government policy.
The accounts of physical and sexual abuse are brutal and numerous-hetero and homosexual child rape, children being beaten with strops and rudimentary whips, forced ingestion of noxious substances (rotten porridge that children would throw up and then be forced to eat), sexual fondling, forced masturbation... the list goes on and on. But one of the most appalling and debasing examples of the indignity and the abuse suffered by children at St. Anne's is that of being strapped down and tortured in a homemade electric chair-sometimes as a form of punishment-but other times just as a form of amusement for the missionaries, who, while committing these acts, were supposedly the ones "civilizing" the "Indians."
Edmund Metatawabin was the chief of the Fort Albany First Nation in the 1990s, and the man who first brought these allegations to the attention of the OPP. Both he and his peers had been strapped down in the electric chair and he recalled the experiences as such: "Small boys used to have their legs flying in front of them... the sight of a child being electrocuted and their legs flying out in front was a funny sight for the missionaries and they'd all be laughing... the cranking of the machine would be longer and harder. Now you're inflicted with real pain. Some of them passed out."
In 1997, the OPP concluded its investigation and seven former employees of St. Anne's were charged and convicted of a variety of assaults. The victims were never compensated, and the 7,000 pages of investigative evidence collected by the OPP was locked away somewhere in Orillia. Now, the victims are seeking compensation, and the federal government-who has subsequently become the defendant in a case involving the sexual abuse and torture of children by an electric chair-is attempting to keep those 7,000 documents from ever seeing the light of day, thus preventing the possibility of any recompense. The government is citing "privacy reasons" for their lack of transparency.
I corresponded with Fay Brunning, an Ottawa-based lawyer who is representing the victims of St. Anne's in their compensation claims.
"In refugee claims in Canada," says Fay, "the Federal Government accepts that electric shock is a form of torture. It was torture, according to many of my clients, to be strapped into that chair and electrocuted."
Fay has been in contact with Detective Constable Greg Delguidice, an OPP officer who worked tirelessly on this case throughout the 90s, and who, in a 'Will Say' document (meaning it describes what Delguidice will say in court) Fay provided to me, Delguidice's testimony corroborates the disturbing claims of the St. Anne's survivors. But it also indicates that the federal government is not disclosing the most crucial evidence of abuse at the school: "None of this evidence is disclosed in the Federal Government disclosure package about St. Anne's, which is supposed to reveal all the documents about sexual or physical abuse at the school while it operated."
I called up Delguidice directly, at his office in Kapuskasing, to see if he'd be willing to provide a comment or perspective on the case, but he respectfully declined, saying it's "in the middle of a civil process right now" and that their "corporate communications is dealing with the matter."
These documents that the government is withholding are vitally important to the process, because without some form of official record, the claims of abuse by these victims are easily dismissed as being based solely on abstract words and memories. As Fay Brunning told me, "I take the position that the Federal Government should admit liability to those former students who were electrocuted... Former students should not have to go in, on their own, and each of them convince the adjudicator there was an electric chair. Furthermore, there should be no doubt that compensation should be granted to those people who were electrocuted."
Seeing as the government is the defendant in this claims case, it seems totally bogus that they should have any legal say on what evidence may or may not be presented. "The fact is," says Charlie Angus, Member of Parliament for Timmins-James Bay, "that the federal government is the defendant in the case. So, do we allow perps in any kind of sexual rape case to decide what kind of evidence comes forth? No."
I called up Charlie to get some civil and political perspective on just why the government feels that it's worth still trying to hide these thousands of documents of abuse evidence that are, at this point, essentially common knowledge in northern Ontario. Although not surprisingly-for an outspoken NDP critic of Aboriginal Affairs and Justice (who also hates Twitter)-he was candid on the matter, which was a refreshing departure from our often precious and handle-with-kid-gloves members of Parliament. In his words:
"They're doing a lot of weaseling-legal weasel stuff that they always do with First Nations-to have the federal government not bother to tell these survivors when they're coming in and having to prove their case, that, 'yeah, we know where the evidence is, we're just not going to provide it'"
"This is a government that talks about standing up for the victim all the time and they're going to be tough on criminals. Well, are they telling us that there's two classes of victims in this country? Native and non-Native? And that Native victims are just going to have to make do with less, and have their rights interfered with-have evidence of sexual torture and abuse of children suppressed? What, to save some dollars? I find that absolutely appalling. That they knew this, that they knew these documents were there and they made no evidence to supply them is mind boggling."
From there, I asked Charlie if he thought the government could redeem themselves-if they could turn this around and make good to the victims of St. Anne's, on their Residential School apology, and on the commitment they made to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
"They can. The timing is important. They have to supply these documents soon. I know that at the provincial level we have people who are willing to help, we know the OPP are willing to help. People want justice done. Who would side with covering up or denying child victims of sexual and physical torture? It takes a special level of hardened depravity to want that. So, I expect this Justice Minister is going to do the right thing and they will turn those documents over. I'm sorry, They've been outed. The light's shining on them. It's time to do right, whether they want to or not. We've got to drag them into the daylight kicking and screaming, but we want justice."
To not immediately release these documents shows that the current government was dishonest in their apology that First Nations groups say yielded no significant change for their way of life in Canada. Obviously it was a hollow gesture. And now, to deny the claims and withhold evidence of what amounts to torture from child survivors is, well, fucked up. Stephen Harper relished the moment to deliver a historical apology. Now it's time to actually do something, and make things better for Canada's Native victims.
Follow Dave on Twitter: @ddner
Previously:
The Wildly Depressing History of Residential Schools
By Dave Dean
+++++++
Residential school survivors need access to information
By Thomas Perry - July 19, 2013
TIMMINS - We don't always see eye-to-eye with MPP Gilles Bisson (NDP - Timmins-James Bay).
But when it comes to attempting to ensure that First Nation victims of sexual, physical and psychological abuse suffered at residential schools receive justice, we are definitely on the same page.
Mr. Bisson has written a letter to Attorney General John Gerretsen, published at the bottom of this page, urging that he take whatever steps are necessary to ensure that information gathered by the Ontario Provincial Police during investigations in the 1990s is made available to survivors as their claims are adjudicated.
In his letter, our MPP notes: "The conditions faced by children at St. Anne's were particularly brutal."
As part of its investigations, the OPP gathered nearly 1,000 witness statements and seized documents (more than 7,000 pages) with regard to the allegations.
None of that information, however, has been made available to the survivors who are taking part in the federal Independent Assessment Process, or the officials who are adjudicating their claims.
As Mr. Bisson rightly points out: "This is particularly important as the allegations regard the sexual abuse and physical torture of children as young as six."
He is quite correct, as well, when he asserts: "The failure to provide this information could undermine the ability of the claimants to obtain a fair hearing."
Regardless of the fact that the adjudication process is federal and the OPP falls under provincial jurisdiction, it is mind boggling to think that the process is already underway without such vital information.
Given the pain and suffering endured by the survivors of residential schools, such as St. Anne's, it is unthinkable that our two senior levels of government would not do everything in their power to ensure that they finally receive the justice they have so long been denied.
So, we would hope that Mr. Gerretsen will recognize the urgency of this matter and heed Mr. Bisson's call for a prompt response.
The information gather during the OPP investigations must be shared with the residential school survivors and those conducting the hearings as soon as possible.
++++++++++
THE WILDLY DEPRESSING HISTORY OF CANADIAN RESIDENTIAL SCHOOLS
By Dave Dean
Photo from a residential school off of Onion Lake in Ontario.
During the mid 1800's Canada's colonization was chugging along with the industrial age, and the thinkers of the day were turning their brainpower towards the pesky task of how to deal with the "Indian Problem." In 1841,Herman Charles Merivale, the British Secretary of State for the Colonies (who doesn't look like he would be a bad guy to smoke cigars and sip sherry with), established and executed a concoction of his four policies on the subject: Extermination, slavery, insulation and assimilation. All of these were wrapped tidily up in the Residential School system.
These government funded, church-run institutions, literally stole children from their families, brought them to places thousands of kilometres away from their homes, physically, mentally and sexually abused them, deliberately contaminated them with tuberculosis, and decimated their sense of self, their sense of heritage and culture, all in some backwards attempt to assimilate them into good, Christian Canadians.
Testifying in Fort Albany, a former female student at St. Anne's put it like this:
"I remember the day when we were taken away. These officials came from the government, and they would just come and pick up the children, not explaining what they were going to do to us... and to not know where we were going to go. There was children crying... yelling, screaming. It was a very difficult time. Especially when you're taken to a place... and to the people that you do not understand when they're speaking to you. Little did I know that what was going to happen in there, was going to effect my whole life."
This good Christian influence and forced civility upon the 'Indians' resulted in nothing but a legacy of sickness.3000 children were confirmed dead. Unmarked graves uncovered in locations from Cape Breton, toBrantford, Ontario, to Alert Bay, British Columbia. And in Alberta, the "sexual sterilization act", subjected Metis and native women to a policy of having their fallopian tubes removed.
Earlier this year, in Fort Albany, Ontario, a small community on the west coast of James Bay, 1000 kilometres north of Toronto, survivors gathered at a Truth and Reconciliation hearing to tell stories of having lived through an 'education' at St. Anne's Residential School.
Living in North Bay, I was hearing a lot on the radio about these hearings taking place in Fort Albany, and one particular image stuck with me. At St. Anne's, an electric chair was used on children.
Former Chief of the Fort Albany First Nation and victim himself, Ed Metatawabin, who in a 1996 interview with the Globe and Mail spoke of being put into the electric chair at 6 years old (to entertain visiting 'dignitaries'), chose to speak at the hearing.
Here is some of what he relayed happening at St. Anne's:
Girls were sexually abused and raped. Boys were forced to masturbate while wearing plastic skirts and showering together. Children were stropped, beaten with all manner of objects and were put in the electric chair; for punishment, for no reason at all and for simple entertainment. Children were forced to eat their own days old vomit.
There were one hundred and thirty residential schools in Canada. That is an account from one individual, at one school. One hundred and fifty thousand children went through these schools over a period of over one hundred and thirty years. The first school was opened in the 1830's, and the last closed its doors in the distant year of 1996.
In 2008, Stephen Harper read an apology from a piece of paper on behalf of hundreds of years of Federal Governments regarding their treatment of Aboriginal people. After a bunch of twattish preamble, patting himself and the Minster of Indian Affairs, as well as Jack Layton and a few others on the back, he then cites this as a "sad chapter" in Canadian history. Although decent and seemingly honestly written, Harper gives a dry, almost self-righteous delivery of the apology, switching between English and broken French, his dead shark eyes glancing from page to nothing, and back to nothing again.
Along with setting aside a billion and a bit dollars for a "common experience payment", meant for the 80,000 still living victims of Residential schools - with this apology came the introduction of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
Justice Murray Sinclair standing in front of some nice looking art.
Led by Justice Murray Sinclair, the commission seeks to record the experiences and consequences of Residential Schools in over 300 communities, with the objective of healing, but also to attempt to bring a more prominent awareness to Canadians of the horror inflicted by our leaders.
As Justice Sinclair said in his opening statement in Fort Albany, "Because Canada needs to have a mirror held up to it. To know what it is that it has done, and what it has tried to do."
With all the shit they have been forced to endure over the centuries, it's no wonder that the youngest and fastest growing population in Canada carries with it some of the most problematic social issues.
But this population, once subdued and systemically disenfranchised, is also becoming one of the most prominent, outspoken and active groups in the country. And, all things considered, the government and general establishment should probably consider themselves lucky that things have never gotten uglier, sooner. Put in perspective, Idle No More is an extremely civil show of unrest considering how inhumanely First Nations people have been treated for centuries.
Former Northern director of the CBC, and fellow Truth and Reconciliation Commissioner alongside Murray Sinclair, Marie Wilson, was quoted in Montreal last week as saying that Canadians are "comfortably blind", when it comes to facing our history of Residential Schools.
All you need to do is read the comments on certain mainstream newspapers stories on aboriginal affairs to realize the extent of the ignorance. Racism still exists in Canada. The overriding sentiment seems to be one of simply, "Get over it." But a problem that took hundreds of years to create cannot be reconciled with money and apologies.
The legacy of residential schools doesn't just belong to governments of the past and the First Nations who endured them. It belongs to all of us. And everyone needs to start acknowledging that.
Follow Dave on Twitter: @ddner
More Native issues Coverage:
Idle No More Is about the Environment, Too
Blockades Could Send Idle No More Over the Edge
By Dave Dean