'It's still a lot of hurting': Survivors of former North Vancouver residential school return to the site
Survivors of a former North Vancouver residential school were among hundreds who gathered at the site for a pilgrimage Friday.
St. Paul’s Indian Residential School ran from 1899 to 1958, on what is now the parking lot of St. Thomas Aquinas Secondary School.
For survivor Gloria Guss, her time at the school is still too painful to discuss.
"It's still a lot of hurting, it's kind of hard right now,” Guss said.
Guss and three of her sisters came to honour their father, Ernest “Boydie” Guss.
“He went to the residential school in Mission, him and his brother, until they both ran away,” Guss told CTV News.
For the family full of survivors, it’s been a tough road. Guss said the trauma she and her relatives experienced attending residential schools and day schools impacted future generations. "It was hard on all of our kids and grandkids,” Guss said.
Guss and her sisters then joined the large crowd to walk over eight kilometres to the Tseil-Waututh Nation.
It’s a walk survivor Stan Thomas made every Friday, when students were sent home for the weekend.
"I just remember not learning my language. It being a Roman Catholic school, I knew more Latin than our traditional language,” Thomas said.
His daughter Jennifer Thomas, who’s currently the Chief of the Tseil-Waututh Nation, says her father had never spoken about his time at St Paul’s until last year’s walk.
"Last year was a really good day for him,” she said.
"We don’t pressure him to talk about it with us but it has opened him up – the walk has made him feel supported.”
Her father described seeing so many strangers coming out to support him as “overwhelming.”
While their may be a long road to go on the path to reconciliation and healing, Stan Thomas is encouraged with what he’s seeing.
“I was out at White Spot last night and even the little school kids had orange shirts on early,” he said.
“Even that meant a lot, that they were teaching their young children about residential schools.”
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
BREAKING Alice Munro, Nobel literature winner revered as short story master, dead at 92
Nobel laureate Alice Munro, the Canadian literary giant who became one of the world's most esteemed contemporary authors and one of history's most honoured short story writers, has died at age 92.
Latest updates on air quality alerts, and when the smoke may reach Ontario and Quebec
Wildfires have led Environment Canada to issue air quality advisories for parts of B.C., Alberta, Manitoba, Saskatchewan and the Northwest Territories, as forecasters warn the smoke could drift farther east.
Are these Canada's best restaurants? Annual top 100 list revealed
The annual list of Canada's top restaurants in the country was just released and here are the places that made the 2024 cut.
Attack on prison van in France kills 2 officers, inmate escapes
Armed assailants killed two French prison officers and seriously wounded three others in an attack on a convoy in Normandy on Tuesday and an inmate escaped, officials said.
Steal a car, lose your driver's licence for 10 years under new Ontario proposal
Repeat car thieves may face lengthy licence bans under proposed changes to Ontario’s Highway Traffic Act.
$1.6B parts plant for Honda electric vehicle batteries coming to Niagara Region
A Japanese company has announced it will build an approximately $1.6-billion plant in Ontario's Niagara Region that will make a key electric vehicle battery component as part of Honda's supply chain in the province.
B.C. brings in law on name changes on day that child killer's new identity revealed
The BC NDP have tabled legislation aimed at stopping people who have committed certain heinous acts from changing their names.
Manitoba premier to visit areas impacted by wildfire
Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew will get a close-up look at the devastation from a large wildfire burning in northern Manitoba Tuesday.
1 killed, 3 injured including toddler, after Hwy. 417 crash in Ottawa
Ontario Provincial Police are responding to a fatal collision involving two vehicles on Highway 417 in Ottawa's west end on Tuesday morning.