The Photos Say So Much

This posted piece contains a sample of the photos collected by former IRS staff and other concerned Canadians that show how terribly simplistic and distorted is the narrative of 150,00 IRS students experiencing abuse, cruelty and misery.

Perhaps you’ve seen pictures like these heading up stories about the sufferings of students attending an Indian Residential School.

Sombre young people overseen by a grim-looking nun.

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But displayed below are just a few of the IRS student photographs that somehow never seem to find their way into stories that the media so often present to the Canadian public.

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Sure, IRS staff members didn’t go around taking photographs of students who were frightened and miserable, but the above pictures and others like them make it very clear that story of the Indian Residential Schools is far more complex and far more human than the narrative so repeatedly presented to the Canadian public.  A refusal to admit this complexity erodes the trust that is so important in a solid and beneficial relationship.