More alleged victims have come forward after news of an arrest in connection with historical abuse at a Manitoba residential school.
Manitoba RCMP confirmed to 680 CJOB that there have been further reports made to police since the news broke Friday that Father Arthur Masse, 92, had been charged with indecent assault.
Police said they will look into every report they receive, but won’t be providing numbers or further specifics at this time. RCMP also did not clarify if the reports were about Masse in particular or other alleged residential school abuse.
Masse, a retired priest who was employed at the Fort Alexander Residential School, which was located northeast of Winnipeg on Sagkeeng First Nation, was the subject of a decade-long investigation by RCMP.
The offence he has been charged with took place when the victim was 10 years old and a student at the school between 1968 and 1970, police said.
According to information compiled by the Societe Historique de Saint-Boniface, an archive in Manitoba, Masse was born in Ferland, Sask., in 1929.
He was first posted at the Fort Frances residential school in northern Ontario, where he stayed until 1957, before working at a number of other schools. He later returned to Fort Frances in 1970 and oversaw the student residence until it closed four years later.
Minegoziibe Anishinabe First Nation Chief Derek Nepinak said Masse also spent time at the Pine Creek Residential School northwest of Winnipeg and was “notorious” there.
Masse is scheduled to appear in a Powerview, Man., court on July 20.
The Indian Residential Schools Crisis Line (1-866-925-4419) is available 24 hours a day for anyone experiencing pain or distress as a result of their residential school experience.
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