We all must accept - and regret - that there is documented evidence of abuse and other wrongs at Indian residential schools across Canada, but isn’t it time we applied some honest historical and unvarnished perspective to these issues?.Except for the ten years between 1930 and 1940, the Cross Lake, Manitoba Indian Residential School (IRS) (St. Joseph’s) operated from 1915 until 1969 when it was taken over by the provincial education system. The National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation (NCTR) website lists 30 children who “died at or went missing from” the school during those years, twelve of them in the early morning of February 25, 1930..Fast forward 92 years. At 5:45 am. on June 3, 2021 a security officer noted the building housing the Cross Lake Health Department was on fire. The RCMP suspected the fire was deliberately set. It occurred just a few days after the announcement that unmarked graves were found near the former Kamloops, B.C. Indian Residential School (St. Louis). During that period, many churches, statues and public property across Canada were vandalized or destroyed. The Health Department building at Cross Lake was formerly an Indian day school associated with the Cross Lake Indian Residential School..In the freezing early morning hours of February 25, 1930 the residential school was set afire, burning to ashes the little bodies of eleven girls and one boy*, and one of their teachers, Sister Superior Margaret Marie. Four other sisters were hurt as they tried to save the children at the school. Many were saved; twelve were not..Two students at the time of the fire, George Payne, 17, and Nelson Hughes, 18, were later convicted of arson and conspiracy respectively. Payne confessed and was sentenced to life imprisonment at Stony Mountain Penitentiary..Of the June 2021 health department fire, Pimicikamak Cree Nation Chief David Monias said, “Even though we changed the function of that building, people still call it IRS. That's evidence that there's still connection to the residential school, the experiences and the trauma that are associated with that building.”.It is interesting how Chief Monias’ reflection on the fire in 2021 is so different from the feelings of Cross Lake residents in 1932 (the people who were there 90 years ago), only two and a half years after the tragedy of 1930. On August 15, 1932, approximately 100 Cross Lake reserve area treaty Indians and “half-breeds” petitioned the Department of Indian Affairs in these handwritten terms:. “We the undersigned treaty Indians of the Cross Lake Reserve of Manitoba regretting the loss of our residential school given to us by the Department of Indian Affairs and considering the great loss we have made for the education of our children since two years and for the future wishing that a good education will be still given to our children and our grandchildren, we the undersigned are wishing and begging from the department that considering our great desire of education for our children this same department will agree to our petition for the rebuilding of our Residential school as soon as possible so that our children won’t be deprived any longer from a good education. So in faith of which we give our signatures. The Treaty Indians and half breeds of Manitoba.” (Emphasis mine.). Letter .A second petition was submitted in 1935. It was not until 1940 that a new school was built. It is very likely many of the petitioners - and certainly their children - had attended the school before it was destroyed by two student arsonists - criminals. By their own words in their plea to the government, the petitioners were parents, concerned as parents are about the future of their children - and grandchildren.. Letter1 .Which is more credible, today’s reconstruction of past events by “knowledge keepers” and people’s “knowings”, or contemporary documented evidence? In criminal trials, judges always ask police officers’ giving sworn testimony in court if their notes were made at or near the time of the investigations being recounted. This is so the judges can better determine the reliability of their evidence. What notes “made at the time” are the “knowledge keepers” and “knowers” using?.Documented evidence produced at the time of the Cross Lake event is clear that a mass homicide took place. Payne and Hughes may have disliked their experience at the school, but that is no justification for murdering twelve little ones and a nun..It has recently been alleged the nuns and priests didn’t try very hard to save the children of the school, despite news articles and other reports at the time reporting on their efforts, at considerable risk to themselves. Manitoba assistant fire commissioner J.L. Fuller reported on March 8, 1930 that the nuns’ efforts to save the kids were “little short of miraculous”. Five nuns were hurt; Sister Jeanne de Chantal suffered a broken spine, another nun a broken leg and still another, frozen feet as she guided children out of the burning building. Two others were hospitalized in Winnipeg..The school had been operating since at least 1915, and the local people were aware of how it was operated. They were also aware of the efforts of the staff at the school and the steps taken by many people to ensure the surviving children were fed, clothed, housed and educated..The people who were there at the time wanted their school rebuilt. That is a fact, and facts matter. .James C. McCrae is a former attorney general of Manitoba and former Canadian citizenship judge
