#CoverUp at #KuperIsland : B.C. task force came too late for abused runaways.
When #clergy members at a #BritishColumbia #ResidentialSchool were accused of sexually abusing children in 1939, they were shuffled out of the province. Sixty years later, investigators smelled a cover-up.
The six young #Indigenous boys were reported missing from the notorious institution at 11:30 p.m. on January 8, 1939. They’d taken canoes to escape across the water to their family homes near the town of #Chemainus on #VancouverIsland.
The now-defunct British Columbia Provincial Police opened an investigation into the students’ claims, but after two Catholic clergy were transferred out of province and one staff member was dismissed, no charges were laid.
For a very long time, it looked like the story was finished. But at the end of the century, the #RCMP #Native Indian Residential School Task Force reopened the 1939 case file.
https://theijf.org/cover-up-kuper-island
#TruthBeforeReconcilliation #ChurchAbuses #ChildAbuse #Injustice #ChildrensRights #Canada #JusticeForChildren #Colonialism #NativeKids #IndigenousKids #FailureToProtect #StolenChildhoods
