Kuper Island

Willie Blackwater is just 13 when he holds a knife to his rapist's throat, demanding an end to his recurring abuse. It’s the first time Willie stands up to his residential school supervisor, but it’s far from the last. Years later, after a fateful encounter with a cop, Willie decides to break his silence — joining a group of survivors that help convict Arthur Henry Plint of 18 counts of sexual assault. But for Willie and his friends, it’s not enough. And a risky idea starts to form. Can they take on the architects of the residential school system? 

Host of See You in Court, Falen Johnson and journalist Jackie McKay meet the man behind Blackwater vs. Plint, one of the first court cases where residential school survivors took their abuser to court, eventually paving a legal path for thousands of other Indigenous children forced to attend these schools. This episode is part one, part two is available here: https://link.mgln.ai/SYICS2xKIxEP2

Each week, See You in Court digs into a case that challenged the status quo, and asks: what kind of person takes on the law? What are the costs? And what would our lives look like if these cases never happened? Because let's be real, just because a case is closed doesn't mean the story’s over. More episodes of See You in Court are available here:  https://link.mgln.ai/SYICS2xKI  

Rock star Kevin Hearn of the Barenaked Ladies is doing rock star things — like buying paintings. And what better painting for an iconic Canadian rocker to buy than one by Norval Morrisseau, one of the most iconic Indigenous artists in Canada? But when Kevin’s Morrisseau painting is featured in an exhibit, it gets taken down because the head curator says it’s “questionable.” Kevin tries to get some answers but every answer leads to more questions. Host Adrian Stimson traces Kevin’s dogged quest to find out the truth about his painting — and learns how this one painting is the key to cracking a whole underworld open. Forged is a six-part series, from CBC in Canada and ABC Australia, host Adrian Stimson, an artist from the Siksika Nation, travels from Thunder Bay to the Northern Territory of Australia, to reveal what's believed to be the largest art crime fraud in the world. More episodes of Forged are available here: https://link.mgln.ai/ForgedxKI

The stories behind the legal battles that changed Canada — and the unlikely people who made it happen. Some were sh*t disturbers, some were convicts, and some were just regular folks dragged into a fight. Each week on See You in Court, host Falen Johnson teams up with a journalist to dig into a case that challenged the status quo, and asks: what kind of person takes on the law? What are the costs? And what would our lives look like if these cases never happened? Because let's be real, just because a case is closed doesn't mean the story’s over. More episodes of See You in Court are available here: https://link.mgln.ai/syic-ki

Today we have a special bonus episode for you from our sibling show Unreserved, a fearless space for Indigenous voices. Host Rosanna Deerchild is ready to Indigenize your summer with a tastemaker’s guide to the best books, movies, podcasts and more. 

More episodes of Unreserved are available at: https://link.chtbl.com/mytJJc-H

The team tracks down the last person to ever see Richard Thomas alive at Kuper Island Residential School. Donnie Sampson was just 10 years old at the time and has disturbing memories of the day — that include a familiar and problematic name from the past. Host Duncan McCue takes the results of the investigation back to Richard’s sister Belvie who must decide what to do next. In Penelakut, the community rallies around their children — the new generation, the adult survivors still healing, and all the ones who never came home. For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/podcastnews/kuper-island-transcripts-listen-1.6622551

The children who attended Kuper Island Residential School faced a terrible aftermath trying to process what happened. The abuse they suffered there often coloured their relationships with family and community — with devastating results. Meanwhile, the team learns one of the perpetrators from the school spent his later years being taken care of in relative comfort — all paid for by the Oblates. They demand to know why. For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/podcastnews/kuper-island-transcripts-listen-1.6622551

We explore what really happened during a 1990s RCMP task force investigation triggered by the high number of allegations of sexual abuses at the Kuper Island Residential School, and track down a former staff member who witnessed the horrors firsthand. We learn one of the abusers at the school, Brother Glenn Doughty, is still alive. We try to reach him and learn troubling information about his whereabouts. For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/podcastnews/kuper-island-transcripts-listen-1.6622551

An archaeologist uses the stories of survivors and a ground-penetrating radar machine to pinpoint where children who died at the Kuper Island school were buried, sometimes in places where no one ever wanted them to be found. And we explore how the Hul'qumi'num people honour their ancestral dead, and why this work is important when it comes to unsettled spirits and unmarked graves. For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/podcastnews/kuper-island-transcripts-listen-1.6622551

Richard Thomas was smart, kind and well-loved. He was having no problems in school and he wanted to go further in education. Then inexplicably, days before his graduation, he’s found dead in the Kuper Island school gym. His death was ruled a suicide — with no further questions as to why. We piece together a portrait of the teenager through his own writings, and find an old coroner’s report that raises more questions than answers about how Thomas died. For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/podcastnews/kuper-island-transcripts-listen-1.6622551

Survivor Belvie Brebber tells us about her five years at Kuper Island Residential School, a time filled with fear, cruelty and sexual violence. Belvie makes it out alive, but her younger brother Richard Thomas does not. She describes a terrible phone call that shattered her family forever, and why she never believed the school's story that her beloved brother died by suicide. For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/podcastnews/kuper-island-transcripts-listen-1.6622551