This former N.W.T. civil servant says he told Jean Chrétien about abuse in residential schools in 1972
CBC
WARNING: This story contains distressing details.
A former civil servant in the Northwest Territories says he personally told former prime minister Jean Chrétien about abuses in residential schools during a trip by the then-minister of Indian Affairs to the N.W.T. in 1972.
Robinson worked in the N.W.T. from 1969 to 1974 as the Northwest Territories first director of curriculum development for schools.
In an opinion piece he wrote in the Chronicle Herald newspaper Thursday, he said during his tenure, information came to Yellowknife about children trying to make their way home from residential schools in Churchill, M.B., only never to be seen or heard from again. He said that information was forwarded to Chrétien in Ottawa but never acknowledged.
Robinson, 83, who now lives in Dartmouth, N.S., said he also attempted to raise the issue with Chrétien while he was visiting the territory for the opening of the Chief Jimmy Bruneau School in 1972.
"The comments, of a rank, junior civil servant, which I was, are not to be taken seriously. That's just the way the system works," he told CBC News.
"When you indicate that children are dying, I mean, you can't talk about that. You shouldn't talk about that. Because that reflects on a system that was, well to say it wasn't working is to understate the case. It was failing the majority of the population living north of the 60th parallel. And that's not right."
During an appearance on Radio-Canada's Tout le monde en parle, Chrétien said none of his officials ever told him about abuse at residential schools while he was minister.
Robinson does not believe him.
"Chrétien had to know when he was minister, that things like this were going on," he said.
"It dismayed me. It angered me."
Attempts to reach Chrétien through a family spokesperson Thursday were not successful.
In 1972, Chrétien visited the N.W.T. for the opening of the Chief Jimmy Bruneau School in Edzo, a neighbourhood community of Behchokǫ̀, N.W.T., about an hour northwest of Yellowknife.
Robinson was there, and said he had the opportunity to briefly meet with Chrétien. Robinson and his colleagues had set up a display of some of the curriculum they had developed, including textbooks in the Dogrib language. Robinson said they were trying to create curriculum that reflected the people of the territory, in their own language.
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