Wednesday, October 7, 1998

By Leo Torgaton
Peninsula News Review

or more than 30 years,
EK Gregory Williams drank
_-in excess, trying to hide in
a bottle from the demons that
threatened to consume him.
~ He tried several times to end
his life, unable to live with the
nightmares that still to this day
creep into his slumber each
night,

Now, Greg is ready to stand
and fight. He’s ready to face the »
demons’ — the men he says
took from him everything he could have lived for.

“I have lived, but I have never had alife,” says Greg, a seyear-ol Saanich
First Nations member.

Greg liveda good life, he says, up until he enteral his teenage years,

in 1964, at the age of 13, Greg — like generations of native children before
on ra was sent to Mission, B. C. to attend St. Mary’s Residential Catholic

hoo J

At first, he looked forward to the sojourn. He would be joining many fam-
ily and friends already attending the school... :

~_», Within weeks, he was living a nightmare with no way Out:
According to Greg, he was first sexually abused by the dorm supervisor, =
and later by a lay Brother of the Catholic Church for the remainder of the
three years he attended St. Mary's. ~

His voice shaking with emotion, Greg recalls the late night visits i the

“-man of the cloth and the sordid details 7 sexual abuse that have haunted him
since the nightit began...

oa “twas awful, Moreso than words can describe = and Ihad no one to turn |

to,” Greg says.

Greg listened to the lessons taught by the church as he and other chidents were told not to speak

out against the priests, or the Oblate Brothers. ‘To do so would invite a trip to hell and eternal damn
tion, <=

“Those teachings helped guarantee his silence; he says.

ae giveness for his deeds. ns

> At night Greg was living in fear. - “ coe
+ And he wasn't the only one, Greg believes that dozens of his school frends, now vving in Cowichan
“ Bay and the Fraser. Valley, were also abused.

“Residential school abuse happened everywhere, to males and females. I how. there are other
who'suffered as I did,” he says. . anes
cal 2d him back hom quac

Shortly after his ‘16th birthday, Greg’ 8 parents y back
‘He returned, thinking he' was escaping the | horro that had waited for him in his bed each nigh

WOH
jow.there j hi
Y; ons are ioe lame, a

‘And he urges thos survivors to he sorornelive in their own cases

delisted
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g For Greg Williams, the time has come to start talking about how he, like
hundreds of other native children, was abused at residential school |

‘By day, he would pray for release from his torment, while the} Brother, he says, would i for for- |

- control over, “I no longer blame myself. 1 blame’ my abusers; 1: have. learned that I only, here yen
: : life, and it’s.time to make most of the life I have left," he said. - =
ay “Start hounding the investigators; Be forceful; tell them enough is enough, start asking for ane
oe ewer, lt fe time tp bring. thesea abusers to the forefrontto deal with them and to start healing from

PENINSULA NEWS REVIEW

as the clock ticked ominously to-
~ ward pre-dawn hours.

By now, his heavy drinking
was interfering with his lifestyle.
He eventually quit school, got

-ynarried, and had a daughter.

Between months of alcohol
abuse, Greg returned to school
for his Grade 12, went on to
study criminology, and received
his Bachelor of Arts degree from
Simon Fraser University.

But every time he attended a
family gathering — a dinner,
wedding, or funeral — he was
forced to face his abuser.

The lay Brother had become a priest for the Catholic Church and, to
Greg’s horror, moved to the Saanich Peninsula. He was later welcomed into
the band’s longhouse, an honor reserved for a special few.

For 20 years, Greg attended almost every family or community event
“drunk as a skunk,” unable to face his tormentor without visibly shaking.
_-. The drinking, coupled with the physical and mental abuse Greg admit-

tedly imposed on thase close to him, eventually cost him. His marriage
ended, and many family members no longer wanted anything to do with him.
They. didn’ t know at the time that he was lashing out at others for the pain he
fell inside.

Tt wasn’t until the ries had moved on that Greg was. able to disclose the
abhorrence he had lived with for 30 years.

It all happened New Year's Day, 1997. \ —

Hung over from partying the night before, Greg was ‘avidlessty watching S
television when former hockey player Sheldon Kennedy came on air, telling
the world about the abuse he'd suffered at the hands of a hockey coach.

Even after all the years hearing about other abuses at residential schools,

it was Kennedy’ s story that prompted Greg to come forward with his own,
> That was 19 months ago.

Oblate Brothers, the Catholic Church, the dorm super visor, the priest, and the federal gov-
ernment in a civil suit. A criminal case may yet arise, Hall said... a
It may take years before Greg faces his abusers i in court and that, he believes, is partly due to his

: G reg’s Victoria Jawyer, Scott Hall, filed a writ in Victoria Supreme Court i in ‘April naming 5 the

~ Native f heritage.
 “Ttis my: belief that riative: ‘Indians live’ in second and third world order when it comes to the} jus

“tice system. Non- Indians scream sexual abuse in cases 20 and 30 years old, and the abuser is brought.
to court within months,” he says, adding, as a former court clerk and liaison worker ‘between the 28
courts and native offenders, he should know,» "» :
Still; he thanks good friends Sharon, Bill aad Vivian for helping him through what i is one of the.
ult times of his life, and apologizes to those he. zmnay hurt by. going public. :
3 ue he. says. “The cries 0 f the children need to be heard

ent school attendees — su
( ifficult for these survivors not to feel some sort d he
ae to. blame ¢ abuise they suffered. They need to understand tha th
tis the abusers who did the wrong,” he'continued,
~ Since’ disclosing his abuse, Greg has learned to quit feeling ashamed of something he adn

{hope other survivors of sextial abuse find courage oy. reading ot t my, story, I
them the he erent to come forwards "he sald. é

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