CANADA
APTN
Julien Gignac
APTN National News
OTTAWA – Marilyn Simon-Ingram was not forced into the school by the Catholic church, the circumstances found at home did.
She left home with three other siblings to allay fears of starvation experienced by the rest of her family who lived in extreme poverty. Fears would persist, however, after spending four years within the walls of the residential school system.
Simon-Ingram, now in her 80s, was standing outside of the Delta Hotel in Ottawa Monday posing for a photo and raising a “Stop Harper” sign towards the lens, the word “survivor” scrawled on the sleeve of her blouse.
Abuse she endured at the Shubenacadie residential school in Nova Scotia in the 1930s, along with the testimony she gave, echoed 7,000 additional stories collected by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission during a six-year probe into the school system.
Survivor testimonies are included in the final report of the commission released Tuesday.
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