That all changed when he was six years old, and those warm words turned ice cold when he was sent to the Kamloops Indian Residential School. The priests and nuns who were tasked with looking after him constantly berated him, beat him, barred him from speaking his language and practising his culture, and sexually assaulted him.

“I didn’t know what I was getting into when I got there,” he said in an interview on Parliament Hill in front of the Survivors’ Flag, which is meant to honour and remember survivors of residential schools.

To read the full article, including comment from Assistant Professor of History and Indigenous studies, Dr. Sean Carleton, please visit The Canadian Press.