Burden of Proof: First Nations Girl Kidnapped by a Nun

Canada continues to attempt to right the wrongs it has done to Indigenous people. Debbie Paul, a Mi’kmaw woman from Nova Scotia, grew up with no control over her own life: sent to an Indian Residential School as a child, then effectively kidnapped and taken to the US by a malevolent nun, only to be sent home again unannounced when she experienced abuse in the US. Left without documentation, she couldn’t prove any of it happened to the Canadian authorities - even though it was their own system of segregating Indigenous people for schooling that set Debbie on her painful journey. When she applied for compensation, the government argued she had no evidence. Debbie’s plight caught the attention of a team of CBC Indigenous journalists, who embarked upon a process of talking, listening, and thinking about how to tell her story without reopening old wounds. Together they went to the US to piece Debbie’s story together. During the filming process, a special relationship developed between them. Debbie confided, that she would have only told her story to other Indigenous women. The backstory can only be hinted at in this short piece; how the wrenching of children from their families continues to play out over the generations, and how far Canada still has to go before achieving any kind of truth and reconciliation.