Canadian Government Withholding Documents Concerning the Torture of Native Children
by alethoBy Dave Dean | Vice | July 20, 2013
A class picture from St. Paul's Indian Industrial School in Middlechurch, Manitoba. via WikiCommons.
In
the early 1990s an affiliation of Cochrane, Kapuskasing and James Bay’s
OPP detectives were assigned to investigate one of the largest claims
of sexual and physical abuse against children in Canadian history. The
testimony they amassed by talking to hundreds of survivors of St. Anne’s
Residential School in Fort Albany Ontario was horrifying. Residential Schools were a form of genocide—and
the OPP’s special investigation into St. Anne’s provided 7,000 pages of
stories that wouldn’t be out of place in memoirs of concentration camp
survivors, or of individuals trapped in a country where ethnic cleansing
is a government policy.
The
accounts of physical and sexual abuse are brutal and numerous—hetero
and homosexual child rape, children being stropped and beaten with
rudimentary whips, forced ingestion of noxious substances (rotten
porridge that children would throw up, then subsequently be forced to
eat), sexual fondling, and forced masturbation… the list goes on and on.
But one of the most appalling and debasing examples of the indignity
and the abuse suffered by children at St. Anne’s is that of being
strapped down and tortured in a homemade electric chair—sometimes as a
form of punishment—but other times just as a form the amusement for the
missionaries, who, while committing these acts, were supposedly the ones
“civilizing” the “Indians”.
Edmund
Metatawabin was the chief of the Fort Albany First Nation in the 1990s,
and the man who first brought these allegations to the attention of the
OPP. Both he and his peers had been strapped down in the electric chair
and he recalled the experiences as such:
“Small boys used to have their legs flying in front of them… the sight
of a child being electrocuted and their legs flying out in front was a
funny sight for the missionaries and they’d all be laughing… the
cranking of the machine would be longer and harder. Now you’re inflicted
with real pain. Some of them passed out.”
In 1997, the OPP concluded its investigation,
and seven former employees of St. Anne’s were charged and convicted of a
variety of assaults. The victims were never compensated, and the 7,000
pages of investigative evidence collected by the OPP was locked away
somewhere in Orillia. Now, the victims are seeking compensation, and the
federal government—which has subsequently become the defendant in a
case involving the sexual abuse and torture of children by an electric
chair—is attempting to keep those 7,000 documents from ever seeing the
light of day, thus preventing the possibility of any recompense. The
government is citing “privacy reasons” for their lack of transparency.
I
corresponded with Fay Brunning, an Ottawa-based lawyer who is
representing the victims of St. Anne’s in their compensation claims.
“In
refugee claims in Canada,” says Fay, “the Federal Government accepts
that electric shock is a form of torture. It was torture, according to
many of my clients, to be strapped into that chair and electrocuted.”
Fay
has been in contact with Detective Constable Greg Delguidice, an OPP
officer who worked tirelessly on this case throughout the 90s, and who,
in a ‘Will Say’ document (meaning it describes what Delguidice will say
in court) Fay provided to me, Delguidice’s testimony corroborates the
disturbing claims of the St. Anne’s survivors. But it also indicates
that the federal government is not disclosing the most crucial evidence
of abuse at the school: “None of this evidence is disclosed in the
Federal Government disclosure package about St. Anne’s, which is
supposed to reveal all the documents about sexual or physical abuse at
the school while it operated.”
I
called up Delguidice directly, at his office in Kapuskasing to see if
he’d be willing to provide a comment or perspective on the case, but he
respectfully declined, saying it’s “in the middle of a civil process
right now” and that their “corporate communications is dealing with the
matter.”
These
documents—that the government is withholding—are vitally important to
the process, because without some form of official record, the claims of
abuse by these victims are easily dismissed as being based solely on
abstract words and memories. As Fay Brunning told me, “I take the
position that the Federal Government should admit liability to those
former students who were electrocuted… Former students should not have
to go in, on their own, and each of them convince the adjudicator there
was an electric chair. Furthermore, there should be no doubt that
compensation should be granted to those people who were electrocuted.”
Seeing
as the government is the defendant in this claims case, it seems
totally bogus that they should have any legal say on what evidence may
or may not be presented. “The fact is,” says Charlie Angus, Member of
Parliament for Timmins-James Bay, “that the federal government is the
defendant in the case. So, do we allow perps in any kind of sexual rape
case decide what kind of evidence comes forth? No.”
I
called up Charlie to get some civil and political perspective on just
why the government feels that it’s worth still trying to hide these
thousands of documents of abuse evidence that are, at this point,
essentially common knowledge in northern Ontario. Although not
surprisingly—for an outspoken NDP critic of Aboriginal Affairs and
Justice (who also hates Twitter)—he
was candid on the matter, which was a refreshing departure from our
often precious and handle-with-kid-gloves members of Parliament. In his
words:
“They’re doing a lot of weaseling, legal weasel stuff that they always do with First Nations… To have the federal government not bother to tell these survivors when they’re coming in and having to prove their case, that, ‘yeah, we know where the evidence is, we’re just not going to provide it’""This is a government that talks about standing up for the victim all the time and they’re going to be tough on criminals. Well, are they telling us that there’s two classes of victims in this country? Native and non-Native? And that Native victims are just going to have to make do with less, and have their rights interfered with—have evidence of sexual torture and abuse of children suppressed. What, to save some dollars? I find that absolutely appalling. That they knew this, that they knew these documents were there and they made no evidence to supply them is mind-boggling.”
From
there, I asked Charlie if he thought the government could redeem
themselves—if they could turn this around and make good to the victims
of St. Anne’s, on their Residential School apology, and on the
commitment they made to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
“They can. The timing is important. They have to supply these documents soon. I know that at the provincial level we have people who are willing to help, we know the OPP are willing to help. People want justice done. Who would side with covering up or denying child victims of sexual and physical torture? It takes a special level of hardened depravity to want that. So, I expect this Justice Minister is going to do the right thing and they will turn those documents over. I’m sorry, They’ve been outed. The light’s shining on them. It’s time to do right, whether they want to or not. We’ve got to drag them into the daylight kicking and screaming, but we want justice.“
To not immediately release these documents shows that the current government was dishonest in their apology that First Nations groups say yielded no significant change
for their way of life in Canada. Obviously it was a hollow gesture. And
now, to deny the claims and withhold evidence of what amounts to
torture from child survivors is, well, fucked up. Stephen Harper
relished the moment to deliver an historical apology. Now it’s time to
actually do something, and make things better for Canada’s Native
victims.
Follow Dave on Twitter: @ddner
Horrifying! Shockingly horrifying!
ReplyDeleteTo realize that the same creatures that were supposed to bring "civilization" to the "UN-civilized" were able subject the "UN-civilized" to practices that indeed would not be out of order at the concentration camps of the nazis, or for that matter the Abu Graibs of the modern war-fare, is not only shocking, but also again proof of the wickedness, the foulness, the evilness, and especially the mental sickness of those who prided themselves to be better then others, en then especially the ones who they deviled with the label of being UN-civilized!
It is even moreso shocking to realize that a government that prides itself on standing up for human rights and dignity refuses to cooperate with a commission that already has exposed the mentally most inhumane practices that were performed on human beings, on minors, by making public documents that possible can expose why, who, when and were, and that can identify with name, rank and position probably those who were, and still are for that matter, of these atrocities!
I think it is a scandal of the most highest importance that the Canadian government gives not free those documents that are requested, demanded and needed for further clarification and proof!
I feel that the Canadian government, by refusing to cooperate with the referred to commission makes itself conspiratory guilty to the crimes against humanity against the "UN-civlized" minors, and I think the Canadian government should be held accountable for the practices by the "missionaries" as well, as long as they do not produce the demanded documents!
I therefore would call upon the Canadian government to produce the demanded documents within the reasonable period of one month, or be indicted at the responsible court of law with jurisdiction, were I also will forward available information to the sections and departments with jurisdiction of and at the United Nations, as well as the International Court of Justice, ICJ, at the Hague, the Netherlands, with the request to minimally take note and follow the matter.
Apart from the above I will contact Her Majesty the Queen, by and through Her advisory, in Her position as Head of the Commonwealth and as Head of State of Canada.
This matter should and must be cleared, and all those responsible and accountable must be brought to justice, regardless of standing, position and or any other matter!