Most of Canada to receive emergency alert test today
The federal government will test its capacity to issue emergency alerts today, with the exception of Ontario, where the test will take place on May 15.
When Elizabeth Sackaney first read the news of the discovery of 215 children’s remains on the site of a former residential school in Kamloops B.C., she sat up and cried.
“My partner said ‘what's the matter, what's going on?’ then I gave him my phone to see what's going on he said ‘Oh my God’,” she told CTV News Channel on Monday. “It brought me back many years again, it opened up everything that I went through.”
As a survivor of the St. Anne’s Indian Residential School on James Bay, Sackaney has a clear idea of the conditions faced by the children in Kamloops. St. Anne’s was the subject of an Ontario Provincial Police investigation in 1992 that led to interviews with hundreds of abuse victims and witnesses. Ultimately, seven people were charged and five were convicted, while the federal government spend millions fighting a lawsuit by survivors in court.
“We got a lot of abuse, sexual abuse, all different kinds,” she said. “I got sick one time.. they forced me to eat all my oatmeal and I vomited it. There was nuns that held me down and pushed it in my mouth.”
As with many survivors, the impact of the experience continued to affect Sackaney’s life long after she left the school.
“I’ve lost two girls. One suicide because of this residential school and my other girl overdosed because they couldn’t handle the residential school issues,” she said.
Sackaney has been speaking about her experiences for years. She speaks with other survivors and testified in court as part of the St. Anne’s lawsuit, when many dismissed the truths being told about the residential school system.
“I've been fighting with government since it was 2005 when I went for my interview,” she said. “We are all trying to get healing and I'm happy a lot of people are starting to understand what we went through in that residential school.”
What Sackaney wants now is healing, and as part of that would like to see an apology from Pope Francis over the role of the Catholic Church in administering the residential schools.
“I was thinking how cruel a man that believes in God creator would be like that. They taught us in St.Anne’s school to pray all the time. Why is it so hard for him to apologize and say ‘I’m very sorry this went on’?” she said.
Sackaney said she wants Canadians to believe survivors and that she’ll talk to anyone who wants to listen. The discovery of the remains in Kamloops reveals more truth, which she acknowledged can be a positive thing.
“Yes it does (give help), but it really hurts. In your heart it hurts,” she said.
The federal government will test its capacity to issue emergency alerts today, with the exception of Ontario, where the test will take place on May 15.
Prince Harry, the Duke of Sussex, has made headlines with his recent arrival in the U.K., this time to celebrate all things Invictus. But upon the prince landing in the U.K., we have already had confirmation that King Charles III won't have time to see his youngest son during his brief visit.
An Ontario man found out that a line of credit he thought was insured actually isn't after his wife of 50 years died.
After more than a century, Boy Scouts of America is rebranding as Scouting America, another major shakeup for an organization that once proudly resisted change.
A first-of-its-kind Canadian research study is working towards a major medical breakthrough for a brain disorder, believed to be caused by repeated head injuries, that can only be detected after death.
In March, Indonesian officials and local fishermen rescued 75 people from the overturned hull of a boat off the coast of Indonesia. Until now, little was known about why the boat capsized.
With Donald Trump sitting just feet away, Stormy Daniels testified Tuesday at the former president's hush money trial about a sexual encounter the porn actor says they had in 2006 that resulted in her being paid to keep silent during the presidential race 10 years later.
An Ontario woman said it would have been impossible to buy a house without her mother – an anecdote that animates the fact that over 17 per cent of Canadian homeowners born in the ‘90s own their property with their parents, according to a new report.
Canadian immigrants threatened by hostile regimes are urging parliamentarians to quickly pass the 'Countering Foreign Interference Act' so they can feel safe living in their adopted home.
A chicken farmer near Mattawa made an 'eggstraordinary' find Friday morning when she discovered one of her hens laid an egg close to three times the size of an average large chicken egg.
A P.E.I. lighthouse and a New Brunswick river are being honoured in a Canada Post series.
An Ontario man says he paid more than $7,700 for a luxury villa he found on a popular travel website -- but the listing was fake.
Whether passionate about Poirot or hungry for Holmes, Winnipeg mystery obsessives have had a local haunt for over 30 years in which to search out their latest page-turners.
Eighty-two-year-old Susan Neufeldt and 90-year-old Ulrich Richter are no spring chickens, but their love blossomed over the weekend with their wedding at Pine View Manor just outside of Rosthern.
Alberta Ballet's double-bill production of 'Der Wolf' and 'The Rite of Spring' marks not only its final show of the season, but the last production for twin sisters Alexandra and Jennifer Gibson.
A mother goose and her goslings caused a bit of a traffic jam on a busy stretch of the Trans-Canada Highway near Vancouver Saturday.
A British Columbia mayor has been censured by city council – stripping him of his travel and lobbying budgets and removing him from city committees – for allegedly distributing a book that questions the history of Indigenous residential schools in Canada.
Three men in Quebec from the same family have fathered more than 600 children.