(Winnipeg) A charge has been laid following an investigation that began a decade ago into allegations of abuse at a residential school in Manitoba.
Posted at 8:35 p.m.
The province confirmed Thursday that a person has been charged with one count of indecent assault on a girl in connection with the investigation into the former Fort Alexander residential school, northeast of Winnipeg.
Manitoba RCMP have not commented on the charge.
The school was opened in 1905 in the community of Fort Alexander, which later became Sagkeeng First Nation, and closed in 1970.
RCMP say officers from the Major Crimes Unit began investigating the school in 2010 and a criminal investigation began the following year.
Police said the investigation involved reviewing archived school records, including student and employee lists.
Officers also interviewed more than 700 people across North America.
Officials said last year that the RCMP was awaiting advice from provincial crown attorneys on the charges.
Sagkeeng First Nation recently discovered 190 anomalies while searching near the Fort Alexander residential school using ground-penetrating radar.
Initial data shows the irregularities meet some of the criteria for unmarked graves, but community leaders said more information is needed.
The Fort Alexander boarding school had a reputation for abuse.
Survivors told the Truth and Reconciliation Commission about starvation and harsh discipline. Children from nearly two dozen First Nations attended the residential school for approximately 10 months of the year.
According to the commission’s final report, Phil Fontaine, former Grand Chief of the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs and National Chief of the Assembly of First Nations, put residential school experiences on the agenda at the nationwide in 1990 when he disclosed that he himself had been sexually abused at the Fort Alexander residential school.