CANADA
Kamloops This Week
By DALE BASS
Staff reporter
Nov 25 2005
As the First Nations community celebrated a settlement package announced by the federal government for residential school survivors, Evelyn Camille wasn't feeling very satisfied.
The survivor of the Kamloops Residential School said she is unhappy the agreement-in-principle doesn't help the families of survivors who have died.
"They still matter," she said of those who are ineligible because of death. "Their children should continue to fight for their rights because what happened affected everyone in the family. They've also had to live with what happened to their parents."
Camille lived at the Kamloops school run by the Roman Catholic Church from 1945 to 1955 and said she endured many indignities. Her braids were cut, she was doused in a chemical "to supposedly kill bugs," beaten and sexually assaulted. The insistence by school staff that the children only speak English and adhere to non-First Nations customs "took our language and our culture."