Residential school students still want apology, compensation

Former residential school students in Newfoundland and Labrador were back in court Monday to fight for an apology and compensation they feel is long overdue.

Nicky Obed and Cindy Lyall join more than 1,000 people who claim they suffered abused and were systematically striped of their traditional cultures after being sent to live in residential schools in the province.

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Obed was born in Hopedale. but told CBC News he was sent to a residential school in St. Anthony after his mother died in the late 1950s.

"I was in St. Anthony from the year 1958 until 1966."

When he first arrived at the orphanage, Obedsaid hedidn't understand anyEnglish.

"I only could speak Inuktitut when I was a kid. That's the only thing I could understand."

The house mothers at the orphanage, hesaid, were "very unkind" to childrenwhospoke intheir native tongue.

Iwill never forgive him, because up to this day I still think about the sexual abuse, the unkindliness.- NickyObed, former residential school student

"After a couple of years I lost it and learned English, and I'm very sorry that today I can't speak Inuktitut anymore."

"As I got a little bit older, we [were] abused, sexually abused. I've been abused a number of times," he said.

Obed said at about 13, he left the Northern Peninsula to attendanotherresidential school in North West River, Labrador. Once again, he alleges, he was abused.

"It happened again. I will never forgive him, because up to this day I still think about the sexual abuse, the unkindliness."

Obed, now 59, said when he returned to his hometown years later he was ostracizedfor no longer being able to speak Inuktitut.

'She locked me in the coat closet'

Cindy Dwyer said she suffered physical, psychological and sexual abuse while she was a student in North West River.

From age five to 15, Dwyer said she and the other children were "terrified" of their house parents, a term forthose who lookedafter the children.

One woman in particular, she said, was especially abusive.

"[One day] she locked me in the coat closet and I didn't get to school that morning. I banged on the door all morning and couldn't get out, couldn't get out," said Dwyer.

"I ended up peeing on the floor in there, in my pants. I never got out until someone came home for dinner."

Another day, Dwyer said, the same woman physically assaulted her in a bathroom.

Dwyer feels an apology would be more meaningful if it came from the International Grenfell Association, or the IGA, the group tasked with hiring staff.

"An apology is really important to me but I don't trust an apology from Stephen Harper because I really don't believe anything that he says."

No apologies

When Prime Minister Stephen Harper apologized to residential school victims across Canada in the House of Commonsin 2008, Inuit and Innu people from Newfoundland and Labrador were excluded.

• A long-awaited apology for residential schools
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People from the province didn't receive any of the more than $4billion in compensation that was paid out to tens of thousands of residential school victims across the country.

According to the federal government, the five schools in question weren't created under The Indian Act and therefore weren't true residential schools.

Government also arguedthat it didn't operate the schools in Newfoundland and Labrador, rather theywere created before the province joined Confederation in 1949.

Too many similarities

Toronto-based lawyer Kirk Baerr said there are many similarities between residential schools that operated in Newfoundland and Labrador and those that existed in other parts of the country from the way theyoperated to alleged instances of abuse.

It's for those reasons, he said, that students like Obed and Dwyershouldreceive the same apology and compensation as former residential schoolstudentsin other parts of Canada.

About two dozen former studentsare prepared to testify in court in St. John'sabout the alleged abuse. Opening statements began on Monday.

Baert and other lawyers are calling for a quick settlement, after mediation failed this summer.

Obed and Dwyer signed on to the class action suit more than eight years ago.

Both saidthey wouldprefer to settle the matter out of court so they won't have totestify about their experiences and face cross-examination.