HOBBEMA, Alta. – The Truth and Reconciliation Commission is hearing from residential school survivors in Hobbema, a central Alberta community wracked by the drug trade and deadly gang violence.
The hearings are being held at the site of the former Ermineskin residential school, which opened in 1894 and by 1980 was the largest Native school in Canada.
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Former student Flora Northwest told the commission of a happy childhood ruined by religious officials who took her from her parents, cut her hair and forced her to speak English.
She says the school destroyed her ability to parent her own children later in life – she yelled at them day and night like she was yelled at in school.
Chris Frenchman’s voice broke as he told the commission that he questions why he is still alive when so many of his fellow students aren’t.
The commission is in Hobbema for two days.
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