CANADA
Toronto Star
By: Bruce Campion-Smith Ottawa Bureau, Published on Tue Jun 02 2015
The release of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s report brought hundreds of residential school survivors to Ottawa, each with their own emotional tale of how that time had affected their life. The Star spoke to a few of them about their time in the residential schools, what the work of commission has meant and how it felt to gather with fellow survivors.
Shishigo Gijig, 61, of Toronto
Attended residential schools in Thunder Bay and Fort Albany, Ont.
“We experienced real bad trauma up there . . . the first part of my life I ended up covering all my pain and hurt with the consumption of alcohol . . . . Then I started going to healing ceremonies, I started learning about myself being a native person and that’s when my life changed.”
Lawrence Houle: “You can see the happiness here today.”
Lawrence Houle: “You can see the happiness here today.”
Lawrence Houle, 76, of Winnipeg
Attended residential school in Manitoba
“When I come to this place, it makes me feel energized. You can see the happiness here today. It’s so powerful. It’s overwhelming to some people because they didn’t know what happiness is . . . most of the time they cried all their lives because of the psychological hurt, the emotional, physical hurt.”
Delores Charles: “These same things are passed down so I took my children out of my community to break that cycle . . .”
Delores Charles, 62, of Georgina Island
Attended Indian day school on Georgina Island
“The alcohol got a hold of a lot of our people. These same things are passed down so I took my children out of my community to break that cycle . . . . We have to make changes and we have to start with ourselves first and our families.”
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