Aboriginals Face Canada's 'Dark Past' at Hearings

By David P. Ball
24 Hrs
September 17, 2013

http://vancouver.24hrs.ca/2013/09/17/aboriginals-face-canadas-dark-past-at-hearings

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission begins four days of hearings in Vancouver Wednesday into residential school abuses.

Hundreds gathered around False Creek Tuesday to witness a flotilla of ocean-going canoes paddled by aboriginal youth and non-aboriginal supporters.

It was part of a week of reconciliation for Canada's residential schools, in which roughly 150,000 students were placed in church-run schools, many abused sexually and physically.

Watching the boats arrive, Irene Stevens recalled the day authorities arrived at her home to take her to Lejac Indian Residential School at Fraser Lake, B.C.

“They had a gun in their hands,” Stevens told 24 hours. “They told my dad that if none of us children went to the residential school, they were going to take (social support funding) away from him.