"Living a Lie" The Edmonton Residential School 1950 to 1960 - A Story of Sexual Abuse by a United Church Minister and the Response by the Church of the Time

Abstract

Using hermeneutic inquiry with a critical theory lens, I sought to document and unconceal the involvement of the United Church of Canada in a case of sexual abuse of children at the Edmonton Residential School during 1950 to 1960. Through analysis of the archival data, I sought to understand how the discourses created by the UCC in documents and policies reveal factors at play which normalize practices, attitudes and beliefs resulting in harm, a legacy which affects the First Nations Peoples of the Tsimshian Nation of Lax Kw’alaams, British Columbia. These factors at play are: patriarchy/sexism; colonialism /settler mentality; racism; and Government/Church relations. I utilized critical analysis of the current literature to examine the structures and systems that supported the abuse at the Edmonton Residential School. I, as a United Church minister, and a lifelong member of the Church, am deeply and emotionally connected to this inquiry through my own personal and professional relationship to the United Church of Canada and to the people of Lax Kw’alaams. I aspire to contribute to a better understanding of the past that informs all of us within the United Church of Canada to develop a polity that contributes to reconciliation with Aboriginal Peoples. I do so with the deeply felt belief that without truth telling there can be no reconciliation.