Residential school survivor Marjorie Flowers has mixed feelings about Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s trip to Labrador Thursday, November 24 to deliver the residential schools apology left out of former PM Stephen Harper’s 2008 Parliamentary apology, which excluded Newfoundland and Labrador from the residential schools compensation package.
Flowers attended Lake Melville High School in North West River, a remote community in central Labrador. She lived there from 1974 to 1977 and was only allowed to visit her family in the summer and at Christmas. Her experience left a deep scar.
“I feel it every day,” Flowers says from her home in Goose Bay, Labrador.
“I won’t discredit the value in an apology,” Flowers continues, “but I’m puzzled at how the same government is perpetrating a disaster against the environment and our culture.”
Flowers is referring to the massive Muskrat Falls hydroelectric project, which she says “is putting our lives in peril.” Last summer, Flowers spent 10 days in maximum security lockup at Her Majesty’s Penitentiary in St. John’s for taking part in peaceful protests trying to stop the project.
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