CANADA
MNAFN
Survivors of Indian residential schools are furious that their personal stories of abuse might become public, despite having been guaranteed confidentiality.
They shared excruciating details of their time at the schools in closed-door hearings as part of a claims process. Now, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission is asking an Ontario Superior Court whether it can include those stories as part of its National Research Centre.
Phil Gattensby went to a residential school and has worked as a support worker to other survivors in about 50 proceedings.For his part, he is comfortable telling his story to anyone as part of his healing. But he understands that others feel differently.
“One of them said that if he knew ahead of time people would be putting his story out into a public domain, or whatever you want to call it, that he wouldn’t have told his story,” Gattensby told CBC News.
More than 20,000 people have gone before an adjudicator in a quasi-judicial private hearing, encouraged by the commission to meet the problem head-on by telling their stories.
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