Residential school buildings still stand on the Sugarcane Reserve outside Williams Lake

Near the end of August, I saw the remains of a residential school for the first time. In spite of the fine weather and the beauty of the surrounding countryside, looking at it gave me a chill.

In 1887, a short distance from Williams Lake on Mission Road, the Oblate Brothers of St. Joseph, a Catholic order, established this residential school to convert aboriginal children to Christianity. The adjoining ranch land was farmed to generate income for the school. The church was made responsible for recording births and deaths in the area, and established a cemetery. Built in 1895, the white wooden church stands as a mute witness to the past.

In 1967, I graduated from a Canadian public high school having been taught nothing about the residential school system that was still running institutions across the country. Like many other Canadians, I would remain almost totally unaware of the terrible abuses that took place at such schools until the press began reporting the stories many years later.

The marker in the cemetery contains two apologies. Signed by former Prime Minister Stephen Harper, the one from the Canadian government is dated 2008. Beginning with the admission that “the absence of an apology has been an impediment to healing and reconciliation,” it ends with an apology for “Canada’s role in the Indian residential school system.”

On July 24, 1991, the year the school closed, the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate went on record to say “We deeply and very specifically apologize to every victim of (physical and sexual) abuse and we seek help in searching for means to bring about healing.”

May the healing continue.