CBC reported unverified abuse allegations against Indigenous students as 'facts,' says ombudsman
In 2022, CBC News reported on alleged crimes against Indigenous children who attended public school in Rossburn, Manitoba roughly 50 years ago. The state broadcaster has now been called out by its Ombudsman for reporting uncorroborated childhood trauma as 'fact.'
CBC News has been called out by its Ombudsman for reporting uncorroborated childhood trauma as fact.
On September 30, 2022, the state broadcaster reported on alleged crimes against Indigenous children who attended public school in Rossburn, Manitoba roughly 50 years ago.
The story, compiled by reporter Joanne Roberts, sourced five former students who claimed to have been beaten, molested and kept in freezing trailers at Rossburn Elementary School. The former students sought “an apology and compensation,” said CBC News.
Members of Waywayseecappo First Nation say they attended the school in the late 1960s and early 1970s, where they allegedly faced daily abuse by staff members.
The federal government paid $99,973 to the Rossburn school district to accommodate the additional students. Indigenous students who studied at on-reserve schools in Manitoba suffered higher dropout rates than those attending public schools, according to a 2021 audit by the Department of Indigenous Services.
In the agreement, both parties agreed to "ensure there will be no segregation in the schools by race or colour," reads a document found by Valley of the Birdtail authors Andrew Stobo Sniderman and Douglas Sanderson (Amo Binashii). Reported allegations of racial segregation at the school have yet to be independently verified.
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Ombudsman Jack Nagler first acknowledged that Robert’s “made reasonable efforts to corroborate the facts.” However, he questioned why the publication did not clearly differentiate between allegations and indisputable facts, reported Blacklock’s Reporter.
The advisory followed complaints that the story unfairly depicted Rossburn as ‘cruel’ and ‘bigoted’ on Truth and Reconciliation Day.
Rossburn residents with knowledge of the former teachers disputed the accounts, calling it “a serious slight on our community and on our former staff.”
“It is not fair that this article was printed without making sure it was factual,” wrote one complainant.
“We are at a time when articles like this are printed but rebuttals or in this case the truth won’t be,” wrote a Rossburn resident. “Even the small-town newspapers are afraid of the repercussions for simply printing the truth.”
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Melanie Verhaeghe, managing editor of CBC Manitoba, concurred that ambiguities existed in the story that required further clarification. “I believe our article could have been clearer about the extent to which we were relying on the perceptions of children 45 years later,” wrote Verhaeghe.
“I understand why the reporter and editors would see this as an important issue to explore but with little to no documentation it would not be easy to corroborate the memories of the students,” wrote Nagler.
The story “was not the first time, nor will it be the last time, that a reporter would face the dilemma of how to handle allegations that can’t be fully verified,” he said. But “it was important to signal what the reporter knew and what she didn’t.”
At the time of publication, Superintendent Stephen David said in an email to CBC News that allegations of abuse have not been reported to the division since it was established in 2002, when the Pelly Trail and Birdtail River school divisions merged.
He could not comment whether the other school divisions prior to the merger received reports of abuse.
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