Survivor wants Timber Bay Children’s School recognized as residential school

Survivors have described Timber Bay Children's Home as a residential school for Indigenous children; the federal and provincial governments have not designated it as such.

Yvonne Mirasty was nine years old when she was taken.

“When my mom got home from work, we were gone.”

Along with her siblings, Mirasty was placed in the Timber Bay Children’s Home, which the Northern Canada Evangelical Mission and later the Brethren in Christ Church ran between 1952 to 1994.

The home in the northern Saskatchewan hamlet of Timber Bay near Lac La Ronge, was used for children who attended school elsewhere. Most of them were First Nations or Metis.

Survivors have described it as a residential school for Indigenous children, even though the federal and provincial governments have not designated it as such.

“It wasn’t happy memories at all. I don’t remember anything good out of that place,” says Mirasty, 60, a teacher in Pelican Narrows, Sask.

She says children at the Timber Bay home were treated like prisoners, forced to do hard labour, and would get punished if they didn’t memorize Bible passages.

Many times, Mirasty says, she went to sleep hungry and had to take cold baths.