Survivor of former Lejac Residential School speaks out

Randolph John of the Nadleh Whut’en Nation attended the Lejac school from 1969 to 1971. It was only three years, but it left decades of trauma.

“Myself, I turned to alcohol to numb the pain. I drank for half my life time….I went to quite a few treatment centers before I realized what I was doing to myself with the alcohol. I was drinking, doing drugs, everything,” said John.

What’s left of the site is only an empty pit of dirt. But to John and others, it’s still full of pain and abuse.

During his time at Lejac, John says he was sexually abused by former school personnel Edward Gerald Fitzgerald. Back in the early 2000s, Fitzgerald was charged with 21 counts of sexual abuse against 10 children.

Fitzgerald soon fled to Ireland, a country that Canada does not have an extradition treaty with.

“He used to make all students take a shower then he would watch us. Then he’d get a ruler and point it to their private part and look at them. He was a predator. He preyed on all the weak ones,” said John.

John says that he’s part of a settlement claim for the years of abuse he faced as a child. For the last five years, John says he’s been waiting on a $16,000 payout from the government, but believes that they’re purposely delaying it.

“Justin Trudeau don’t want to do nothing [sic] for us natives. They just waiting for us to die off so they don’t have to pay out settlements,” said John.

But to him, no amount of money can ever heal the trauma he has. John says he wants the country to remember that the empty pit that sits now, was once the site of horrific tragedies that many Indigenous People endured.

John is retired now, living at home with his girlfriend. He still keeps in touch with other survivors. He hopes that a memorial is built at the site one day as a reminder to everyone of what once was.

by Oli Herrera

Survivor of former Lejac Residential School speaks out

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