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29 April 2016

The Government Has Been Forced to Hand Over Documents About Abuse of Native Children at St. Anne’s Residential School

The Ontario Superior Court of Justice has ruled that the Federal Government disclose thousands of police documents concerning the torture of native children at St. Anne’s residential School in Fort Albany, Ontario. The infamous school—where children as young as six were disciplined in an electric chair—is, at least to this date, perhaps the most egregious example of the abuses inflicted upon children who were forced into the residential school system.
The government has been withholding transcripts and documents related to an Ontario Provincial Police investigation that looked into these abuses when a group of former students got together and filed their complaints in the early 90s. The Harper government and Aboriginal Affairs Minister Bernard Vaillancourt has cited “privacy concerns” (whose privacy?) as reason not to produce the documents, although it appears they may simply want to avoid the possibility of having to pay any compensation to the aging survivors.

http://www.vice.com/en_ca/read/the-government-has-been-forced-to-hand-over-documents-about-the-abuse-of-native-children-at-st-annes-residential-school