Earlier this week, Edmund Metatawabin, a member of the Order of Canada and former chief of Fort Albany First Nation, traveled hundreds of kilometers from his home in Peterbeck, Fort Albany. His destination is Ottawa, where he will appear before the Senate Standing Committee on Indigenous Peoples.
This scene was repeated many times. Dr. Metatawabin is part of a dwindling group of St. Anne's Aboriginal residential school survivors. They very often find time to fly to Toronto or Ottawa, often at their own expense, to relive the violence they experienced as children. Seeking justice for the abuses perpetrated against them at Catholic institutions along the Albany River. In Ottawa, he was accompanied by fellow survivor Evelyn Korkmaz and lawyer Faye Branning.
For more than 20 years, St. Anna's survivors have been fighting for the truth. But Canada's Department of Justice has fought them every step of the way, and this is an unnecessary, shameful and expensive move that infuriates all Canadians. The federal government has the power to stop this madness once and for all, to end the countless hearings and obstacles it has set up, and for the soul of this country we call Canada, we must do so. Must be.
Dr Metatawabin told the committee he joined St Anne's Hospital when he was six years old and remained there for eight years. He chronicled his stay there in his memoir, Up Ghost River, which was a finalist for the 2014 Governor General's Literary Award. But apparently that wasn't enough – he had to say more. “Genocide is not necessarily a one-time event. In the case of the 'Indians of Canada' it is a process of reduction that has been occurring over a long period of time,” he told the committee.
As he has done many times before, Dr. Metatawabin outlined St. Ann Survivors' longstanding commitment to justice. The effort began after a 1992 reunion where many people shared stories of abuse. The following year, the Pietabek Kewei Keekeiwin Association (PKKA) survivors group was formed. Subsequently, an investigation by the Ontario Provincial Police resulted in the indictment of seven staff members at St. Anne's Hospital, and five were ultimately convicted. In 2012, when Ottawa was reviewing compensation claims for residential school survivors, Branning discovered federal lawyers had examined thousands of documents, including testimonies of abuse from 700 people. did. At one point, the survivors were told there was no evidence that sexual abuse occurred at the school.
This is the core of the problem: Canada's rejection of the truth.
He said federal lawyers have accused St. Anne's survivors of “frivolous and self-serving legal proceedings that are not in the broader public's interest.” The issue of status is used against the PKKA to deny the traditional collective approach common in indigenous societies. ” Surprisingly, he added: “The same lawyers argue that force ingesting one's own vomit is not harmful because it is one's own bodily fluids. We wonder how they know that. Masu.”
Dr Metatawabin went on to describe the shocking experience in which he and other children were forced to sit in a homemade electric chair made by the Goulet brothers, “much to the amusement of staff and visitors”. He described the whip as “20 millimeters long, 7 millimeters wide and 2 millimeters thick, to which six small ropes were attached, with a metal nut tied to the end of each rope.” I explained the harsh details. He talked about sexual predators coming to his dormitory at night.
For the survivors of St. Anne's, justice has been excruciatingly slow. Last October, a 97-year-old Ottawa woman became the third nun and eighth St. Anne's Parish employee to be charged in connection with sexual assault in Ottawa.
“These are resilient, dignified and honorable people,” Branning, who has given so much of herself to represent them, told the committee. “We cannot thank them enough for what they have done for themselves, for the youth of the region and for the public, and for all of us who want honesty and truth to prevail in the end. She also called for a proper investigation to “pull the curtain back” on what happened in the justice system to allow this to happen.
Dr. Metatawabin said this pursuit of justice is no longer for survivors, but for young people, and to teach them to be proud of who they are and where they come from. Stated. To this end, he called for the establishment of an “Institute of Elders” where they could operate together and pass on their language and other teachings.
That, and believing in their plight, is the least Canada can do for these brave survivors.
