Episode 61: Kuper Island with Duncan McCue

Ahkameyimok Podcast with Perry Bellegarde

"We uncovered evidence of a police investigation in the 1930's at Kuper Island School where they interviewed dozens and dozens of children who had been sexually abused. That ended up going nowhere. The Catholic Church knew about it. The Department of Indian Affairs knew about it. The Attorney General in British Columbia knew about it. And yet no-one ended up being charged and the abuse continued. It's disturbing and shocking to find out these things could have been prevented."

Duncan McCue is one of Canada's leading investigative journalists. He is the host and creator of the CBC podcast series Kuper Island, and a proud member of the Chippewas of Georgina Island First Nation.

We're thrilled to have him on the podcast discussing his groundbreaking CBC podcast about the Kuper Island Indian Residential School.

Kuper Island has generated a huge audience in Canada and beyond and has topped multiple Best Podcasts lists for 2022. It is a smart, thoughtful, devastating and carefully reported story of one of Canada’s most notorious Indian residential schools.

The eight-part CBC series gives first person survivor accounts, and tells the stories of those who didn’t survive, as well as the stories of the men and women who carried out decades of systematic abuse against First Nations children forced to attend that institution.

This episode may be triggering for some listeners.

A national Indian Residential School Crisis Line has been set up to provide support for former students and those affected. People can access emotional and crisis referral services 24 hours a day, seven days a week by calling: 1-866-925-4419.

The Ahkameyimok Podcast is produced by David McGuffin of Explore Podcast Productions in Ottawa.

Our theme music is performed by the Red Dog Singers of Treaty Four Territory in Saskatchewan.