WINNIPEG — Ted Fontaine identified himself as a happy-go-lucky 7-year-old , until one day in September, 1948, when he was ripped from his home on Sagkeeng First Nation and taken to a residential school.
“I came from a life of beauty, and joy and loving family, and I ended up in residential school and became incarcerated for 10 years,” Fontaine explained.
READ MORE: Canada’s aboriginal residential school system was ‘cultural genocide,’ report says
Fontaine attended two residential schools in Manitoba. One of which was the Assiniboia School in Winnipeg.
“I suffered sexual, mental, physical and spiritual abuse,” Fontaine said.
The building still stands on Academy Road in Winnipeg. The residential school closed in 1973.
“The bombardment of being made to believe you were savage and you are not good enough. Being told your mom and dad, your grandma and grandpa were less than what you were. Those teachings took a toll on me.”
READ MORE: In their words: What residential school survivors told the Truth and Reconciliation Commission
He said, living in the school was a daily nightmare.
“You would hear activity in the bed next to you, in the bed in the next row. The hardest thing is to come to terms with the thing that one of those evenings is yours,” Fontaine described.
Nightmares that still haunt Fontaine after all these years.
“I don’t think it will ever go away, but I know when I wake up it’s not real. It was real when it happened but not now,” Fontaine said.
READ MORE: 5 things to know about the Truth and Reconciliation Commission
Fontaine says it wasn’t only sexual abuse. Fontaine and his classmates would sneak out of the fenced-in school yard, and take fruits and vegetables from neighourhood homes.
“We were basically always hungry. We could raid little gardens that they had, we were hungry. We’d steal potatoes, we’d steal bread, and it was survival basically, on being able to eat something,” said Fontaine.
When residential schools shut down, Fontaine, like many survivors, tried to suppress their feelings. He became an alcoholic, until the early 1970’s.
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission released Tuesday their findings on Indian Residential Schools. In the document were 94 recommendations.
READ MORE: Canadians urged to confront ugly truth of residential schools
“The wonderful service it has done with our people and the rest of Canada, it reminds us we were not perfect as a country,” Fontaine said. “No way I’m a survivor now, I’m a victor. I beat this stupid thing.”
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