“Death was a constant companion”: residential school and Holocaust survivors share their stories

APTN National News
Dean Linklater is a residential school survivor, one of many at a recent event in Winnipeg where survivors of the Holocaust and of the residential school system shared their stories of pain and healing.

“I think that only people who have been through such events or trauma can come up with the solutions they need to heal,” said Linklater at the event, hosted by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

Robbie Waisman, who spent six years as a child in the Buchenwald concentration camp, agreed, saying that “one heals better to share the pain with others”.

APTN National News reporter Meagan Fiddler was at the event,  and has the story.

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1 thought on ““Death was a constant companion”: residential school and Holocaust survivors share their stories

  1. hinotes says:

    I had 6 members of my family in WW11.  One of my brothers joined, when he was seventeen.  Down the road, he got the duty of burying concentration camp victims with a bulldozer. He had thoughts of, who are these people, what are their names. How do we let their family’s know, of the deaths of their loved ones.  He said it slowly sunk in, their family’s were all dead too.  That boy came home, a very changed man. He eventually became an alcoholic. The WW11 F.N. Veterans, were not even acknowledged.  They were very proud to fight for Canada. Shame on Canada for not recognizing, the service the F.N. did for this country.  They bled, were blown up, and they died too.

    That’s why those poor F.N. children, in those wretched residential schools, have my sympathy forever. When I hear people making cruel remarks such as, the F.N. are drunks, drug users and lazy, that makes me boil. I usually end up giving those people a blast. If I had to go through what those poor kids went through, I would drink too. It is also true. F.N. People are always the last ones to be hired. Mining jobs that were promised to the F.N. go to others, such as the Chinese, who are bringing their own people to work the mining jobs.

    The F.N. kids to-day, need a better education system. They deserve to be able to go to University, College or Trade schools, just as our kids can. They also deserve to have, hockey rinks, baseball, softball, and soccer fields. They should be able to have music lessons, art lessons and every opportunity our kids have.

    My impression of the F.N. is.  They want to work, they want an industry. They are fighting for a better life for their children.  The number of F.N. kids committing suicide to me, is heartbreaking.  They can’t see a better life for themselves. They are without hope. AND, this is not right. Especially in a country like Canada…there is no excuse, for any of that to happen.

    I thank God, for the F.N. efforts to stop the pollution. For protecting the wildlife, protecting our marine life, our lakes, rivers, streams and the land.

    The F.N. People, do not deserve our hate, they deserve our help.

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