Canada’s Oldest First Nations Newspaper - Serving Nuu-chah-nulth-aht since 1974 Canadian Publications Mail Product Vol. 32 - No. 22 - November 3, 2005 haas^i>sa “ Interesting News ” Sales Agreement No. 40047776
AIRS case ends Supreme Court of Canada maintains damages and church liability By David Wiwchar Ha-Shilth-Sa Reporter Ottawa - When Leroy Barney took the witness stand in BC Supreme Court in Nanaimo in 1998, he held a single eagle feather in his tighly-clasped hands. With his head hung low, he slowly and softly recounted the horrific abuses he suffered at the hands of dormitory supervisor Arthur Henry Plint. Taken from his home in Ucluelet at the tender age of five, Barney suffered through five years of sexual and physical abuse at the Alberni Indian Residential School (AIRS). He told the court about being severely beaten if he refused Plint’s late-night advances, and after reporting the abuses to his mother, was strapped and threatened by both Plint and Principal John Andrews for “speaking badly about the people taking care of him”.
When Leroy Barney took the witness stand in BC Supreme Court in Nanaimo in 1998, he held a single eagle feather in his tighly-clasped hands. With his head hung low, he slowly and softly recounted the horrific abuses he suffered at the hands of dormitory supervisor Arthur Henry Plint. Today, the 48-year old former logger still carries the scars from being whipped across his back, and the deep
emotional scars from being so traumatized at such an early age. Now, after seven years, survivors of the Alberni Indian Residential School (AIRS) have received finality from Canada’s top court, but they remain dissatisfied. “The children were cut off from their families and culture and made to speak English,” the Supreme Court judges wrote in their decision. “They were disciplined by corporal punishment. Some, like the appellant Mr. Barney, were repeatedly and brutally sexually assaulted.” The AIRS case was the first Indian Residential School Case to go to trial in Canada when 29 former students launched a lawsuit against the United Church and Government of Canada for their role in the operation of the institution where many students were physically and sexually assaulted by people entrusted with their care. A few years earlier, Barney and more than a dozen other men faced Plint in a Port Alberni courtroom where he was charged with 16 counts of indecent assault of Aboriginal boys aged six to 13 between 1948 and 1968. Before sentencing Plint to 11 years in prison, B.C. Supreme Court Justice Douglas Hogarth said the former supervisor was a predator, “a sexual terrorist” allowed to prey unchecked. “As far as the victims were concerned, the Indian residential school system was nothing more than institutionalized pedophilia,” said Hogarth. “Generations of children
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Former Marine still fighting demons and bureaucracies By David Wiwchar Ha-Shilth-Sa Reporter The wounds are deep, but still close to the surface for Veteran Marine Joe Gray Thorne. Although it’s been more than 20 years since he was airlifted from the jungles of Vietnam, it only takes a brief thought of a fallen friend to make him stop, and wipe tears from his eyes.
Payne’s Treaty Act, First Nations people on either side of the border can be drafted,” said Joe, who served with the Marines from 1969 to 1973, spending 19 months deep in the jungles of Vietnam. “You only had two choices: go
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Although it’s been more than 20 years since he was airlifted from the jungles of Vietnam, it only takes a brief thought of a fallen friend to make him stop, and wipe tears from his eyes.
Charlie Thompson, Steve Rush, and Spencer Peters protest outside the Nanaimo Law Courts during the 1998 BC Supreme Court Hearings.
DFO was warned of concerns over Tsux’iit ........ Page 4 Uu-a-thluk brings optimism ................................. Page 5 Uppal gains Nuu-chah-nulth support ................. Page 8 Ucluelet Seniors Housing breaks ground ........... Page 12 Senate Committee visits Ahousaht ...................... Page 16 NEDC Business News ............................................ Page 20
Joe was drafted by the U.S. Marines Reconnaissance and Infantry Division, the toughest of the tough. At only 17 years old, called out of his home room at Cleveland High School in Seattle by a “big, burly Sergeant”, Joe was immediately shipped to the Marine Corps Recruit Depot in San Diego. “It’s still the only time in history the Marines drafted people, and under the
Veteran Marine Joe Gray Thorne. Top photo: Gray-Thorne when first drafted at age 17.
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