No more residential school cover ups

No more residential school cover ups

Feb 10 2007 Kuper Island residential school survivor Elmer James suffered repeated sexual, physical and emotional abuse as a child at the school. He remembers being given extra treats from the abusers — payment for keeping quiet. You can imagine how a federal gag order preventing him from speaking about his out-of-court settlement with the government must sit. Residential schools are Canada’s greatest shame of the 20th century. They are the greatest shame of the churches that operated them and the governments that sanctioned them. It’s time to stop hiding. The public needs to know how widespread the residential school evils were and what their government is doing to redress them. More importantly, what people like James need most of all is closure. For some, that certainly would be aided by a full accounting of what they went through and an apology from the government and the church. Instead, the government scurries through a series of low-key secret hearings seemingly aimed at taking care of this problem as quickly and quietly as possible. Certainly, not everyone will want to share their experience publicly. But that decision should be theirs to make. After years of hiding his horrific experience, and letting it consume his life, James decided to speak up. In the process, he’s freed his soul, cut the string that tied him to those dark days and brought back his smile. That is an opportunity that should be afforded to anyone and everyone involved.