Sask. survivors renew calls to declare children's home a residential school

Former residents of a Northern Saskatchewan children’s home have renewed calls to declare it a residential school site.

Yvonne Mirasty was nine-years-old when she was taken from her home and put in the Timber Bay Children’s Home.

"It wasn't a very happy place for me. I used to cry every night waiting for my dad," Mirasty said in an interview on Friday.

The Northern Canada Evangelical Mission and later the Brethren in Christ Church ran the home near Montreal Lake from 1952 to 1994. Children stayed at the home, while they attended school elsewhere.

Mirasty said she often went to sleep hungry and was forced to do hard labour. She alleged a supervisor took her to his office where he sexually assaulted her.

"He would touch me all over, and he'd say, ‘Kiss daddy, kiss daddy’," she said.

While her experience is similar to survivors of residential schools, the federal and provincial government does not consider it one because it does not fit into the legal definition under the Indian Residential School Settlement Agreement.

“It’s important to consider it one because the home had all the hallmarks of a residential school," said Chief Tammy Cook-Searson of the Lac La Ronge Indian Band.

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The Saskatchewan Court of Appeal ruled children were not placed in the home for the purpose of education, and the federal government wasn't responsible for the care of the children.

One Timber Bay Children’s Home survivor doesn’t agree with the ruling because he alleges the federal and provincial governments provided funding.

"It was supported and paid for by the Department of Northern Education. The Treaty people were paid for by the federal government, and the Metis people were paid for by the provincial government," John McCullough said.

In a statement to CTV News, the Ministry of Justice and Attorney General said it cannot comment because of ongoing litigation with the children’s home.

“The Government of Saskatchewan recognizes that residential schools are a tragic chapter in Canada’s history, and is committed to ongoing reconciliation,” the statement said.

CTV News reached out to Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada but did not receive a response by publishing time.