E2: Nights on the Boys’ Side

May 24, 2022·39 min·3 clips

James Charlie hesitated at the gym door, unknowingly avoiding the scene of Richard Thomas's hanging the next day.

A teenager reaches for the gym doorknob. He is fifteen and on his way to play basketball at the Cooper Island Residential School, but something stops him. Twice, he hesitates. Then he turns away. The next day, the children get an explanation: a boy has hung himself in the gym, or that is what they are told. The episode does not smooth over that uncertainty. It sits with memory, silence, and testimony instead. James's account carries much of the weight. He remembers being taken in with his brother by Brian Dufour's family during the summer. Dufour's parents are described as devoted Catholics. The basement is described without decoration: a small bedroom, a hide-a-bed, and parents mostly upstairs. At first, it can pass for an ordinary arrangement. Then the sleeping arrangements change. The boys communicate with nods because speaking is not safe. From the outside, Brian Dufour looks respectable. James describes a public image built around devotion and helping poor Indigenous children. That image gave Dufour cover. The episode calls the pattern grooming, but it keeps its attention on what the boys endured. James says the parents did not know. By the end of summer, the boys are sent back to the Cooper Island school, while Dufour is moved elsewhere. A newspaper letter keeps the polished goodbye. James's testimony tells the harder story behind it.

As heard by us

A grave, steady account of abuse, memory, and the slow exposure of what was hidden.

Kuper Island starts with a small hesitation at a gym door and lets that moment widen into something much harder to shake. The episode stays close to place, memory, and consequence, and it lands best when survivors speak plainly about what happened.

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Why you'd press play

Press play if you want a Cooper Island Residential School story told with care and force.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

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