Charge laid in decade-long investigation into Manitoba residential school
Posted June 16, 2022 7:19 pm.
Last Updated June 16, 2022 7:22 pm.
A charge has been laid following a decade-long investigation into allegations of abuse at a residential school in Manitoba.
The province confirmed Thursday a person was charged with one count of indecent assault on a female related to the investigation into the former Fort Alexander Residential School northeast of Winnipeg.
BACKGROUND: Manitoba RCMP have spent years investigating abuse allegations at residential school
Manitoba RCMP did not provide comment on the charge.
The allegations were raised in early 2010, and after speaking with hundreds of people, a criminal investigation was launched in 2011. Statements from 75 victims and witnesses were taken.
WATCH: Allegations of sexual abuse at MB residential school (from July 2021)
The school was opened in 1905 in the community of Fort Alexander, which later became the Sagkeeng First Nation. It ran for 66 years until 1970.
The Catholic Church operated the school, originally through the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate.
The Fort Alexander school had a reputation for abuse and children who ran away according to survivors who spoke to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission about abuse, starvation and harsh discipline.
RELATED: Two Manitoba First Nations find anomalies in ground searches at former residential school sites
The commission’s final report said Phil Fontaine, former Grand Chief of the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs, put experiences at residential schools on the national agenda in 1990 when he disclosed his own sexual abuse at the Fort Alexander school.
