Kuper Island

4.7 (983)
TRUE CRIME
WEEKLY SERIES

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An 8-part series that tells the stories of four students: three who survived and one who didn’t. They attended one of Canada’s most notorious residential schools – where unsolved deaths, abuse, and lies haunt the community and the survivors to this day. Hosted by Duncan McCue. For the best in true crime from CBC, ad-free, visit apple.co/cbctruecrime.

05/09/2022

Introducing: Kuper Island

Long after the Kuper Island Residential School was torn down, the survivors are still haunted by what happened there. Investigative reporter Duncan McCue exposes buried police investigations, confronts perpetrators of abuse and witnesses a community trying to rebuild — literally on top of the old school’s ruins and the unmarked graves of Indigenous children. Episodes release Tuesdays, starting May 17.

3 min
05/17/2022

E1: A School They Called Alcatraz

Duncan McCue travels to Penelakut, an island off the coast of B.C., and the site of the Kuper Island Residential School. The community has torn down the reviled building, but the dark memories of what happened at the nearly-century old institution linger. Survivors James and Tony Charlie give a tour of their old school grounds, and we look into the mystery of what happened to one boy, Richard Thomas, who did not make it out alive. For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/podcastnews/kuper-island-transcripts-listen-1.6622551

32 min
05/24/2022

E2: Nights on the Boys’ Side

What was it like to be a student at one of the most notorious residential schools in Canada? Survivors James and Tony Charlie share their own account of recurring sexual abuse at the hands of their teachers, starting with a fateful trip to Montreal's Expo '67. Their stories speak to how abuse rotted all facets of school life — and how at Kuper Island, no child was spared. To find transcriptions for episodes of Kuper Island, please click here: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/podcastnews/kuper-island-transcripts-listen-1.6622551

39 min
05/31/2022

E3: Sink or Swim

Survivor Belvie Brebber tells us about her five years at Kuper Island Residential School, a time filled with fear, cruelty and sexual violence. Belvie makes it out alive, but her younger brother Richard Thomas does not. She describes a terrible phone call that shattered her family forever, and why she never believed the school's story that her beloved brother died by suicide. For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/podcastnews/kuper-island-transcripts-listen-1.6622551

36 min
06/07/2022

E4: What happened to Richard?

Richard Thomas was smart, kind and well-loved. He was having no problems in school and he wanted to go further in education. Then inexplicably, days before his graduation, he’s found dead in the Kuper Island school gym. His death was ruled a suicide — with no further questions as to why. We piece together a portrait of the teenager through his own writings, and find an old coroner’s report that raises more questions than answers about how Thomas died. For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/podcastnews/kuper-island-transcripts-listen-1.6622551

44 min
06/14/2022

E5: Feeding the Dead

An archaeologist uses the stories of survivors and a ground-penetrating radar machine to pinpoint where children who died at the Kuper Island school were buried, sometimes in places where no one ever wanted them to be found. And we explore how the Hul'qumi'num people honour their ancestral dead, and why this work is important when it comes to unsettled spirits and unmarked graves. For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/podcastnews/kuper-island-transcripts-listen-1.6622551

37 min
06/21/2022

E6: It Didn't Feel Like Justice

We explore what really happened during a 1990s RCMP task force investigation triggered by the high number of allegations of sexual abuses at the Kuper Island Residential School, and track down a former staff member who witnessed the horrors firsthand. We learn one of the abusers at the school, Brother Glenn Doughty, is still alive. We try to reach him and learn troubling information about his whereabouts. For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/podcastnews/kuper-island-transcripts-listen-1.6622551

37 min
06/28/2022

E7: Hurt People Hurt People

The children who attended Kuper Island Residential School faced a terrible aftermath trying to process what happened. The abuse they suffered there often coloured their relationships with family and community — with devastating results. Meanwhile, the team learns one of the perpetrators from the school spent his later years being taken care of in relative comfort — all paid for by the Oblates. They demand to know why. For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/podcastnews/kuper-island-transcripts-listen-1.6622551

46 min
07/05/2022

E8: Every Child Matters

The team tracks down the last person to ever see Richard Thomas alive at Kuper Island Residential School. Donnie Sampson was just 10 years old at the time and has disturbing memories of the day — that include a familiar and problematic name from the past. Host Duncan McCue takes the results of the investigation back to Richard’s sister Belvie who must decide what to do next. In Penelakut, the community rallies around their children — the new generation, the adult survivors still healing, and all the ones who never came home. For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/podcastnews/kuper-island-transcripts-listen-1.6622551

52 min
JUN 21

Bonus: How to celebrate National Indigenous People’s Day all summer long

Today we have a special bonus episode for you from our sibling show Unreserved, a fearless space for Indigenous voices. Host Rosanna Deerchild is ready to Indigenize your summer with a tastemaker’s guide to the best books, movies, podcasts and more. More episodes of Unreserved are available at: https://link.chtbl.com/mytJJc-H

52 min

TRAILER

Introducing: Kuper Island

Long after the Kuper Island Residential School was torn down, the survivors are still haunted by what happened there. Investigative reporter Duncan McCue exposes buried police investigations, confronts perpetrators of abuse and witnesses a community trying to rebuild — literally on top of the old school’s ruins and the unmarked graves of Indigenous children. Episodes release Tuesdays, starting May 17.

05/09/2022

•

3 min

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4.7

out of 5

983 Ratings

I can’t find the words

Dec 5

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I, myself am still feeling the consequences of the catholic priests. I am 36 years old. I have my own trauma, but became curious about how and or why I was raised the way I was by a “loved one, a parent”. Never had I ever heard anyone else say that they had to hold back tears out of fear. I thought I was the only one and wondered how the person responsible to raise me, my parent, could come up with such an idea…. That a child shouldn’t cry while getting beat. Crying, flinching, or any move resulted in more whooping. By the time I was in middle school.. I could take a whooping without a problem. Instead I would unintentionally laugh, which still led to more whooping. I turned into a mad child. I am the product of these priests’ behavior. My first baby came two months after I turned 21! I could never imagine hurting my children. I wondered how my parent could do this to me. I learned a lot trying to get an answer. I can’t be mad at my parent. My parent must have had it worse than myself. Thank you for sharing♥️ This podcast is helping me heal from all my unanswered questions. 🫶🏼 Part 2 This is my second time listening to this podcast. It breaks my heart even more this time around. My people are native to Central America and many parts of southern Texas and Mexico. My family also were victims of the catholic missions. With that I lost all connection to what is my right to Native ways generations later. I know that my people got killed for wearing Native clothing or if they spoke their Native language. I lost all their knowledge and natural ways of healing. Even their Native ways of making meals were banned, not like they had much of a choice anyway after their lands were taken and transformed into farms that my people didn’t benefit from. My culture is lost.
Moving, a vital history, incredibly well done

Nov 27

Rhebius

A difficult story of native peoples’ genocide that is professionally produced, well-written, and most importantly includes many voices of former residents of a Catholic residential institution rife with abject abuse, sanctioned by church and government. This is a rare program voiced by an empathetic, native person whose voice rings with truth and compassion. I usually binge a series in one or two days while doing chores or crafts, but this one stilled my hands and demanded my full attention. Incredibly told.
You are an if you could this shirt anything less than five stars!

Nov 14

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This is truly a heartbreaking story. The host is an incredible storyteller, and I could listen to him all day Man, John is incredibly moving. I felt the exact same anger as he was feeling while speaking. He has this rare ability that very few people have. He is able to place listener right into his, and his family’s shoes simply through his words and nothing else.
Searing and devastating … and required listening.

Sep 30

NYer who loves to travel

On this National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, I’ve just finished listening to the Kuper Island podcast. It is fitting that I listen today, a day dedicated to speaking and hearing the truth about the genocide perpetrated at Indian Residential Schools, and to finding a path forward as a nation. This podcast does justice to its devastating subject matter. It speaks a brutal, unflinching truth. But it does so with incredible compassion, and importantly, in service of accountability, and healing. Bravo, Duncan and team. I think this it should be required listening for adults, and in Canadian schools, for children at an appropriate age. The only path forward together will be lined with truth and undoubtedly with tears.

An 8-part series that tells the stories of four students: three who survived and one who didn’t. They attended one of Canada’s most notorious residential schools – where unsolved deaths, abuse, and lies haunt the community and the survivors to this day. Hosted by Duncan McCue. For the best in true crime from CBC, ad-free, visit apple.co/cbctruecrime.