St Anne's School History:
Caution: The following section contains information regarding serious emotional, physical and sexual abuse as well as other trauma including death. This information has the possibility to trigger trauma or bring up experiences and emotions from the reader’s past.
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National Residential School Crisis Line at 1-866-925-4419
NAN Hope- Mental Health Additions and Support Program:
1-844- NAN- HOPE (1-844-626-4673),
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Development and Formation of the School
The St. Anne’s Residential School opened on July 1, 1906 and closed on June 30, 1976. The school was connected with the Roman Catholic Mission, involving the Oblates of Mary Immaculate and the Grey Nuns of the Cross, also known as the Sisters of Charity of Ottawa. The school also went by the names Albany Mission, Albany Mission Roman Catholic Boarding School, [Fort] Albany Indian Residential School, St. Ann[e]’s Residential School, and Fort Albany Student Residence.
St. Anne’s was first located off-reserve at Fort Albany Mission, on Albany Island, which is four to five miles from the James Bay coast, in the James Bay Treaty Region (Treaty 9). This site was owned by the Hudson’s Bay Company and rented by the Roman Catholic Mission. In 1911, the federal government and the Roman Catholic Mission (The Vicar Apostolic of Temiskaming) signed an agreement for the operation of the school. The Oblates then built a new IRS building with federal government funding, which finished construction in 1933.
In 1935, the Oblates obtained a License of Occupation, allowing them to use the provincially owned land near Fort Albany. The license stated that the use of the land was for “hospital site purposes,” but later, documents indicated that the land specified on the license was used for the IRS. In 1939, the school was destroyed by fire and the Oblates could not construct new buildings due to the federal government’s finances after the Second World War. But, the Oblates did begin construction on a temporary building to accommodate the children for the winter. In 1954, a new IRS building was constructed by the Oblates and it was occupied by children in September that year.
The Residential School system was created to assimilate Indigenous Peoples into settler society and was a deliberate attempt to destroy culture and family ties. Children were taken from their families, most often without their consent and with force. There they endured horrific abuse and subjugation. The residential school system is now recognized to be a form of genocide. To learn more about the history of Residential Schools, please visit the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation.
"...[the] young Indian living with his family will never attend regularly & if in spite of this he learns to read and write he will nevertheless live like his father by hunting and fishing only he will remain an Indian. To become civilized they should be taken ... [and] made to lead a life different from their parents and cause them to forget the customs, habits & language of their ancestors." Bishop Vital Grandin of St. Albert in a letter to Public Works Minister Hector Langevin (1880)
Operations and Administration of the School
In the 1950s, some preschool aged children in the Albany area in the foster system stayed at the IRS temporarily under the supervision of the Albany Roman Catholic Mission or the Albany Roman Catholic Mission Orphanage if foster homes could not be found for them. The orphanage was operated by Oblate Missionaries.
Even though the Roman Catholic Church owned the IRS, in 1965, the federal government took responsibility the employment of teachers and other educational parts. The classrooms were leased from the Roman Catholic Episcopal Corporation of James Bay, which is a corporation of the Oblates.
In 1966, the federal government began discussing the purchase of the IRS buildings from the Roman Catholic Episcopal Corporation of James Bay and on March 31, 1970, the IRS buildings were bought. The federal government took responsibility for the total operation of the IRS on April 1, 1970.
Recreational activities at the school included football and canoeing in the summer, and skating and snowshoeing in the winter. The IRS had two senior hockey teams – the Canadians and the Maple Leafs.
Statistics of enrollment at the school showed that the number of residents increased over time until June 30, 1976, when the school closed due to low enrollment.After the IRS closed in 1976, part of the former IRS building was used to operate a day school in Fort Albany in 1977 and a restaurant was opened in 1978. In 1981, the former IRS land and buildings became part of the Fort Albany Indian Reserve No. 67. The federal government leased part of the ground floor of the former IRS building to the OPP from November 1982 to October 1988.
Principals and Administrators of St Anne’s Residential School
Principals
1906 to 1908 - F.X. Fafard, O.M.I.
1908 to 1909 - Reverend Leo Carriere, O.M.I.
1909 to 1910 - Sister St. Hilaire
1910 to 1918 - Reverend Leo Carriere, O.M.I.;
1918 to 1922 - Reverend L. Ph. Martel, O.M.I.
1922 to 1925 - Reverend Leo Carriere, O.M.I.
1925 to early 1939 - Reverend A.R. Bilodeau, O.M.I.
June 1939 to November 1945 - Reverend Paul Langlois, O.M.I.
December 1945 to 1955 - Reverend Jules Leguerrier, O.M.I.
1955 to 1967 - Reverend Father Jean-Baptiste Gagnon, O.M.I.
February 1967 to April 1969 - Reverend Father Real Paiement, O.M.I.
Administrators
April 1969 to December 1970 - Reverend Father Real Paiement, O.M.I.
January 1971 to August 1972 - Marcel Paul Fillion
1972 to 1974 - Roland Harpe
February 1975 to July 1975 – Dorothy Freeman and Lauder Smith (served as an administrative team)
1975 to June 1976 - Gordon Bruyere
Caution: The following section contains information regarding serious emotional, physical and sexual abuse as well as other trauma including death. This information has the possibility to trigger trauma or bring up experiences and emotions from the reader’s past.
Impacts and Legacy
Former IRS residents also mentioned cases of physical assault on students by staff members while in school in 1914 and 1932. Tuberculous (consumption and scrofula) was a common disease at the IRS between 1908 and 1912. Between the 1930s and 1960s, former students reported sibling deaths, food poisoning, and student disappearances resulting from physical abuse as well as pulmonary tuberculosis, whooping cough and measles. There were also reports of lateral violence among IRS students happening in 1933, 1942 and 1943.
In August 1992, thirty former IRS students made statements reporting on abuse experienced at the IRS to a panel at the St. Anne’s Residential School Reunion and Healing Conference in Fort Albany, Ontario. The statements included sexual, physical and mental abuse, and allegations of suspicious deaths related to students’ disappearances from the school. The 1993 Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) investigation statements documented instances of disease outbreaks, student illnesses, and violence (sexual, physical, and lateral) at the school.
Several former staff members of the school have been charged and convicted for assault, indecent assault, indecent exposure, sexual assault, gross indecency and administering a noxious substance. These sentences ranged anywhere from probation and community service to 18 months in prison. Additionally, documents from the OPP investigation revealed that other allegations against former IRS staff members were reviewed but did not result in criminal charges. These allegations included physical assault, intimidation, forcible confinement, failure to supply necessities, and abduction.
