Ten years after the report into abuses at Canada’s Indigenous residential schools and five years since Sept. 30 became a national day of recognition, a school survivor gave his testimony in front of hundreds who gathered to mark the day at UBC.

Sam George, an elder from Squamish Nation in North Vancouver, standing with the help of a cane, recounted his experiences, which included getting the strap, being served meagre meals and watching children getting beaten for speaking their native language.

He recalled how on the first day of school at St. Paul’s in North Vancouver, he watched two boys speaking in their own languages being hit by a nun with a yardstick and being punched while being ordered to speak only English.

“That was my very first day at school. Trauma and fear,” said George,

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