The residential school survivors Canada tried to forget

They suffered all the abuses of residential school — but a loophole means no official apology was ever offered

Tom wasn’t ready to speak about the things they’d done to him.

We arranged to meet for coffee at the old-age club in Val-d’Or last winter, but when the time came he was overwhelmed with the weight of those memories. So he drank until everything was numb and then he drank some more.

“I’m sorry, this is hard,” he said, his eyes never meeting mine. “I need t…