Month: September 2020

An update letter from the MPCC

I received a letter today from the Military Police Complaits Commission dated June 19, 2020.

The letter informs me that the MPCC issued their interim report to the Canadian Forces Provost Marshal on June 17th, 2020 and that they are now awaiting the response from the Canadian Forces Provost Marshal.

How much hope am I holding out for this investigation?

Not much really.

The process that enables the Military Police Complaints Commission is contained within the National Defence Act.

This is similiar in a way to the school yard bully whose parents also happen to be the Principal and Vice Principal.

Sure, they may not outright vindicate their son, but they’re going to do everything they can to make sure that everyone understands that you were just as guilty as their son when their son beats you up and steals your lunch money.

The MPCC was created in the days of the fallout created by the release of the final report of the Somalia Inquiry.

An MPCC review is nothing more than a feel good exercise in futility. As I’ve mentioned before, during a review the complainant has absolutely no access to the documents placed before the MPCC by the Provost Marshal, so the complainant has no idea of the tale the Provost Marshal is feeding to the MPCC.

During an MPCC review the complainant has no access to the paperwork related to the investigation. The complainant is required to file an access to information request to get these documents.

Also, during a complaint review the MPCC cannot administer oaths, nor can the MPCC demand documents.

In otherwords, the complainant is at a severe disadvantage when making a complaint. This facet isn’t unique to the Military Police Complaints Commission though, most police review boards are designed to be like this.

What is problematic though with the MPCC is that the Department of National Defence is very resistant to Access to Information and Freedom of Information requests. Ottawa Citizen writer David Pugliese is very familiar with the delays one can face when requesting documents from DND and the Canadian Forces.

In my case, it took over 20 months for me to get my hands on the paperwork for the 2015 to 2018 portion of CFNIS investigation 2011-5754.

You have 12 months to request a MPCC review after the conclusion of a CFNIS investigation. 20 months is 8 months after this deadline.

It’s not that easy to request an extension.

And the slap in the face was the documents that the DND Access to Information office released to me were far more censored than the documents the Alberta Criminal Injuries Review Board released to me.

It was the documents from the Alberta Criminal Injuries Review Board that allowed me to see that the CFNIS in 2018 basically resubmitted the 2011 investigation to the Alberta Crown.

The CFNIS didn’t submit anything new to the Alberta Crown this time around.

What you really want to have is an MPCC inquiry. Only an inquiry has the ability to give a complainant equal footing with the CFNIS and the Provost Marshal.

Sadly, about the only way the an MPCC Inquiry can be initiated is by way of the Minister of National Defence. And Minister of National Defence Harjit Sajjan has already told me he considers my complaint regarding the sexual abuse I endured on CFB Namao as being nothing more than a “game”, and an “angle”.

So it’s safe to say that Minister Sajjan will not be requesting that the MPCC conduct an inquiry.

Another stumbling block with an MPCC investigation is that the MPCC only hires retired police officers to conduct the investigations. This alone has been flagged by numerous inquiries and commissions as being a bad move as the retired police investigator often views complainants as “trouble makers” and often views the officer that is the subject of the complaint as being a “brother in arms”.

The Provost Marshal has already let slip that he believes that my complaint is only about Sgt. Tenaschuk refusing to provide to me in writing a letter stating that the investigation was concluded.

This is not what my complaint was about.

My complaint was about the obvious and apparent overall interference in the investigation by the chain of command and that a significant conflict of interest existed by allowing the subordinates of the Minister of National Defence to investigate a matter that has the ability to find the Mininster of National Defence liable for civil damages.

Do I really expect anything different this time around?

Nope.

In fact, this time around the MPCC has already skipped the interview phase and has already tabled their report and is now waiting to see if the Provost Marshal agrees with the findings of the MPCC.

What are the findings of the MPCC?

I don’t know. I haven’t been informed.

Will the MPCC find in my favour?

Not likely. Remember, according to an August 2015 interview with Glenn Stannard, the fomer chair of the Military Police Complaints Commission stated that the MPCC really doesn’t understand the military police or the CFNIS.

How can an organization have the proper ability to investigate a particular agency if it doesn’t fully understand how that agency works?

Marguerite Waniandy

Just shaking the family tree to see what falls out.

Back in early 2019, I sent an email to the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation.
I was looking for any morsel of information that would show that my grandmother, Margret Anderson as I knew her, had in fact gone to Holy Angels residential school in Fort Chipewyan.

When I examined my father for Federal Court in 2013 he stated that his mother had gone to Holy Angels in Fort Chipewyan, Alberta.

When grandma was raising my brother and I her surname was Anderson. She had been married three times in her life that I am aware of.

She was first married to a man whom I’ve yet to find out the name of. This man was either Cree or Blackfoot.
This marriage produced my Uncle Norman. Norman died around 1985.
This marriage was over by at least 1944 / 1945

Her second marriage was to Arthur Herman Gill. Arthur was Irish.
This marriage produced my father Richard, as well as Doug, my uncle.
This marriage did not last very long.

Her third marriage was to Andy Anderson.
I don’t believe this marriage produced any children.

After sending in the information, I didn’t hear back from the NCTR and just assumed that maybe the school records at these schools weren’t easily searchable or just couldn’t be located.

Last week I received an email message from the NCTR asking if my mailing address was correct.

On Tuesday September 1st, I received my grandmother’s admission record for Holy Angels Indian Residential School in Fort Chipewyan, AB.

Even though I knew this information was coming to me, it was still shocking to see this information in black and white.

Translates to “Student Admissions – Holy Angels Indian Residential School, Nativity Mission
Fort Chipewyan, AB

Date of admission Oct 3rd, 1935
Date of leaving Mar 21 1938
D.O.B. June 18 1923
Margaret Waniandy daughter of Modeste Waniandy and Caroline Courtrelle.

Contained in the record was her father’s name, her mother’s name, and her date of birth.

My paternal great grandfather was Modeste Waniandy.

Modeste as I’ve learnt elsewhere was born in 1884 in Lac St. Anne, Alberta. He was a hard rock miner and he died in 1969 in Uranium City, Saskatchewan.

My paternal great grandmother was Caroline Waniandy nee Courtrelle.

My grandmother was born in 1923.

With a quick check of the Library and Archives I was able to find the 1926 Census for the Prairie region.

Geodess, Caroline, George, Marguerite, and Johnnie Waniandy from Fort McMurray Settlement
Geodess is indicated as “Cree Indian”, everyone else is indicated as “Indian”

In 1926 Modeste and Caroline were living in the settlement of Fort McMurray.

Modeste Waniandy was 31 in 1926

Caroline Waniandy was 24 in 1926.

The census indicates that Modeste and Caroline had 3 children.

George Waniandy was the eldest at 9 at the time of the census in 1926

Marguerite Waniandy was the middle child at 4 in 1926

Johnnie Waniandy was the youngest child at 13 months in 1926.

George Waniandy died in WWII on August 31st 1944

Excerpt from Library and Archives Canada.

My grandmother was 12 years old when she started school. She was enrolled on Oct 3rd, 1935. She was also going by the name Margaret at this time.

It doesn’t say what grade she was placed into, but from what I’ve been told grades didn’t matter much in the Residential Schools. The kids weren’t going to these schools for an education. The kids were going to these school to get the Indian beat out of them. She was apparently student #867.

Whatever education she received couldn’t have been much as she left school in March of 1938 at 14 years of age.

In 1985, my brother and I had been sent up to Edmonton to spend the summer with our grandmother. I remember watching her write a letter, and she would effortlessly switch back and forth between using her left hand and her right hand.

Year previous, when we lived up on Canadian Forces Base Namao, I begged my grandmother to teach me how to write cursive. I was 8 years old and I could handwrite far better than I could print.

In 1985, I pestered my grandmother to teach me how to switch hands so that I could write with my left hand too.

After much pestering she asked me if I wanted her to beat me like the nuns had beat her to make her stop writing with her left hand.

I didn’t understand what she meant, and she never explained it any further.

But nowadays we all know the hell on Earth that those residential school could be.

Both Richard and Grandma rarely spoke about our extended family.

So, it will be interesting seeing what else I can dig up.

And I know ever less about the maternal side of my family.

All I know about the maternal side of my family is that my mother is Quebecois and was from Hull in Quebec.

I don’t even know the names of my maternal grandparents.