The Survivors Speak

160 • Truth & Reconciliation Commission
Robinson said, “As a little boy, you don’t know a whole lot. When you are a five-year-old
boy and you are placed in this place, and the priest takes a liking to you, and then things
start happening, and then you don’t realize it at that age, but you are being sexually abused,
in fact, you are being raped.” 575
Many students thought they were the only children being abused. Clara Quisess said
she was abused by a staff person at the Fort Albany school.
There was no support, no one to tell that this is all happening in this building. A lot
of girls must have experienced it, what the priest was doing and you’re not to tell
anybody. I always hate that priest and then I had to live like that for two years, even
though I didn’t want to. It’s like I had no choice, put myself in that situation. Him,
putting his hand underneath my dress, feeling me up, I felt so disgusted. Even though
I didn’t have no words for what I was feeling. 576
This confusion made it difficult for students to describe or report their abuse. Lynda
Pahpasay McDonald said she was sexually molested by a staff member of the Roman
Catholic school in Kenora.
And this woman, what she did to me, and how she molested me as a child, and I was
wondering why I’ll be the only one being taken to this room all the time, and to her
bedroom and stuff like that. And I thought it was normal. I thought it was, you know,
this is what happened, like, to everybody, so I never said nothing. 577
Helen Harry did not speak to other students about being abused at the Williams Lake
school. “I thought that I was the only one that it was happening to. I always felt like it was
just me.” 578
Abusers often told their victims never to speak of what had happened. Larry Roger
Listener, who was abused when he attended residential school in Alberta, said a priest told
him that “‘God’s going to punish you if you say anything.’ I always fear God. All these years
I never said anything. I still kind of fear God because I never forgot what that priest told
me. He going to punish me.” 579 Mary Vivier, who was abused at the Fort Frances school,
was told she would “be in purgatory” for the rest of her life if she spoke of her abuse. 580
The staff member who sexually abused Elisabeth Ashini at the Sept-Îles, Québec, school,
told her she could never speak of what he had done to her. He said “‘You have to keep it
to yourself, because little Jesus will be angry, he won’t be happy.’” As a result, she did not
report the abuse. 581
In some cases, school officials took immediate action when abuse was reported to
them. Norman Courchene said he was sexually abused by a supervisor while he was on a
field trip from the Fort Alexander school. When he told the principal about the abuse, the
supervisor was fired. 582
For many other children, however, the abuse was compounded by the disbelief they
met when they spoke about what had been done to them. Amelia Galligos-Thomas said
she was sexually abused by a staff member at the Sechelt, British Columbia, school. “I