CANADA
Gander Beacon
James McLeod
Published on October 05, 2015
An Inuit man broke down sobbing and wailing on the witness stand this morning at Newfoundland Supreme Court in St. John’s as he recounted physical, emotional and sexual abuse at the residential school in Northwest River, Labrador.
Toby Obed described being beaten with a strap for speaking Inukitut, and a worker at the school forcing two older children to have sex, and younger students being made to watch.
“I didn’t want to watch,” he said, sobbing.
The testimony Monday morning is part of a class-action lawsuit which represents more than 1,000 survivors of five residential schools in this province who were not included in a federal settlement in 2007 for survivors in other parts of Canada.
Mediation this summer failed, due to lack of instruction by provincial and federal governments.
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