Residential school impacts still seen at Kenora jail

Inmates in the Kenora District Jail were able make statements about their residential school experience when the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada (TRC) visited the prison on Aug. 8 and 9.
TRC Chair Justice Murray Sinclair said Canadian correctional institutions house a disproportionately high number of Aboriginal inmates.
In March 2011, 85 per cent of the male prison population in the Kenora jail was Aboriginal while 100 per cent of the female population was Aboriginal. TRC puts the current Aboriginal population at 93 per cent overall. The jail services the Kenora district, which has about 30 First Nations communities.
“There’s perhaps no other group of individuals in this country that better exemplifies the schools’ tragic legacy,” Sinclair said in a media release.
The Kenora jail is the first visit to a correctional institution for the commission. Ry Moran, director of statement gathering, said going to a prison to gather statements has been something the commission has considered for some time.
“We were actually approached by the Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services (to go to the Kenora jail),” Moran said.
While Moran noted most inmates in the jail are too young to have attended a residential school, he said they have likely suffered the experience indirectly through difficult relationships with parents, a loss of culture, cycles of violence and drug and alcohol abuse.
“They are impacted by the residential school system too and we wanted to give them an opportunity to share their story as well,” he said.
The commission conducted private statement sessions in which inmates spoke to a statement gatherer one-on-one. Inmates had the option to record their statement using video or audio, of which they would be given a copy. Health workers were on site to provide emotional support. Moran estimates the commission gathered at least 20 statements during the two-day visit.
The commission plans on visiting other correctional facilities in the future. Moran said in September, the commission heads to a correctional facility in Yellowknife, with plans to go to more across the country.