I’m speechless. Thank you for doing this series. Thank you for sharing these survivors’ experiences. I cannot even begin to imagine the atrocities done to these children, to these families, to this community. It’s hard to even put together words after listening to this series. Just, thank you.

What an incredibly atrocious and impactful dive into this one school and the repercussions. Thank you so much. I hope Glenn dowdy and others get put into prison Such a nightmare. I can’t imagine going to one of these schools and then being forced by the government to put my child in that same school

As an American who has spent a lot of time in BC, I was aware of the atrocities of the Canadian residential schools. At least I thought I was. I had no idea the profound history, and how recently these were operating. In my own life time. Shame on the catholic church and Canada for bringing so little peace to these First Nations families who deserve justice. Thank you for the care and detail put into this podcast to educate us, and make us all aware of how far we still have to go to even begin to try to make things right for indigenous peoples in North America.

So devastating and at times so hard to listen to. Your heart breaks for these innocent lives and the impact it carried for years. Beautiful storytelling, captivating and amazing.

What an incredible, heartbreaking history. Will be thinking about this one for awhile.

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.

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.

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.

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.

I binged this podcast in a day and I can’t find the words to describe how this moved me. This is such important history that is trying to be covered up.

I have to mention how touching this story is and how it talks about the horrors these children went through. It was amazing how previous attendees of the school talked about their experience very well to bring light to the horrible acts that took place there.

And necessary learning. We cannot live and love with responsibility in this world without knowledge like this. Hope for humanity lives with fortitude after hearing these First Nation people forging ahead. I salute this work.

I really appreciated this podcast for these truths about what’s happened in Canada to children in residential schools need to be spoken out loud, heard and held by all. I was a bit disappointed in the hosts response as the people shared their traumatic experiences ... the way he gasped and responded to his speakers. Made me wonder if the host had the capacity to really hold what happened. Gasping is all it takes sometimes to quiet people who have been traumatized as they can feel shame and be confused about do I have to take care of my listener now? Additionally, when one speaker says he hopes the abusers will be prosecuted the host responds and appears to to be questioning the speaker by pointing out the abusers are old… as if age should make a difference in accountability. The podcast host needs to learn more about being a witness to trauma before taking on such a project.

It’s hard to give a 5 star review to stories so horrific and unimaginable. Wonderful story telling, educational & eye opening to the ugly side of humans & greed. But a story of triumph, a story about a people so strong, years of suffering could not break them.

This is an amazing and horrific story of the horrors that went in in residential schools. It is well documented and researched. The light is shone on the terrible things religious men and women did to innocent children. The Canadian government and the Catholic Church need to own those crimes and owe these families more than money and more than that. As we have seen and heard in other news stories the Catholic Church let these abusers continue abusing. There are truly evil human beings in the world.

It’s so important that we have access to thoughtful journalism and storytelling like this that sheds light on these realities, these lives and stories. Thank you so much for this work and to all the people who participated in this project to share their painful truths.

This is the most important and devastating journalism. I learned so much and will never forget. It’s vital we all listen to the entire podcast.

A superb podcast in every way.

This is hard to listen to. I am not Canadian and if I were perhaps I would already know of Duncan McCue. He is an impressive interviewer. I am in awe of his ability to talk to the survivors of residential school. His skill to both follow and guide these people through their stories and to meet every horror reveled to him with such gentle and calm compassion is beautiful. The survivors are raw and brave and so strong. I do not recommend binging this podcast. Pace yourself but do listen.

This was tough. Tough to hear but even harder to understand. As a Catholic I find myself at a real crossroads with my faith. I will do as Duncan suggests and share this must listen to story with others.

Thank you to the team who made this stunningly sensitive and deeply respectful podcast. It’s our duty to listen.

Thank you for bringing to light these important issues that have so deeply affected indigenous populations. We must tell these stories so as to never forget them.

It isn’t easy to listen to but it is a MUST listen to!

Definitely a hard subject but Duncan does an amazing job at listening to the survivors and telling their story in a respectful way.

Obviously the topic of child abuse is not a lighthearted issue. Rightly so this story deserves to be told, possibly as a way to address the injustice these children and their families have faced and continue to endure. I throughly appreciated the thoughtful and thorough research that Duncan McCue and his team put into this project. However, it is heart wrenching to listen to these adults recall the terrible acts that they experienced as children at this ‘hellhole’, as one boy described it. I had to stop at the third episode…it was just too much. From a podcast production perspective, I wonder if it’s just that I’m not the right audience for this sort of storytelling or if there is a possibly a different way to present these stories without diluting the message. No one wishes to sanitize a truly dark period of how Canadian Indians/Native peoples were treated during this period, I hope that more can listen to this.

Incredible podcast, highly recommended if you are at a place in your life you can hear about some of the worst abuse ever committed by humans. As a Caucasian American, it was incredibly eye-opening. I heard about Kuper Island from Missing & Murdered: Finding Cleo, another investigative podcast by and about First Nations people, and the many lifetimes of suffering they experienced at the hands of white governments and well meaning Caucasians, highly recommended. This changed me. Even though it was very difficult at times and I cried throughout it, I’m glad I learned about it. It’s important. And it’s so far from being “done.”

I loved this podcast. It was at times very difficult to listen to, as I could begin to sense the pain of this community. I learned so much and am grateful I was able to witness.

We all need to learn and understand the lasting heartbreak the events in this, and many other similar stories, have caused.

I don’t normally write podcast reviews, but WOW. This story was told with such sensitivity towards the community involved and did a great job of honoring the victims and families. The last part of the last episode had me in tears.

Beautifully conducted but so very sad. I wish I had the stomach for it… but I don’t. Hopefully more awareness is an outcome of this podcast. Kudos to all involved in the production.

Superhero journalism at its best. Beautiful, heartbreaking stories from people who’s stories need to be heard.

Gut wrenching but beautifully and respectfully told.

Very sensitive approach to a story we need to know

While difficult to hear, process and fathom … these stories must be told and heard. Very well done.

A horrific story. Told with such grace and compassion. Fantastic investigative journalism.

Almost no one I talk to has heard of the deeply tragic story of Indian Boarding Schools in the US and Canada. This is so important for people to learn and understand and this podcast is a long overdue and tender examination of horrific crimes committed against innocent children and Native American people. Let others know!

I have no words but feel compelled to write a review. I’ve listened to a lot of podcasts especially in this genre (genre of unsolved violent crimes and the like) and this is the most well done with the most sensitivity and objectivity and…again I have no words. This is important and everyone should listen, if only for those who never had a voice.

(Spoilers) In episode 8, when the host is interviewing a man who was Richard’s junior, the 80-something year old man’s story stood in contrast with the report he gave as a ten year old. It also had some conflict with the photos of Richard’s body from the police report. And the host asked him to explain the different accounts, and he got a little worried and said “I can’t remember.” Then later the host concluded that the cops had lied and the 70 year old memory was clearly the truth. But like, that’s not how memory works. From the bits we retain and other details we hear, we construct narratives to link them together, often creating memories for events that didn’t happen. Likely the man heard reports, had some memories of what happened, and his mind connected the dots. But instead of just saying “it’s tough to know because memory is a tricky thing,” the host kind of pestered this old man and then jumped to the conclusion that there was a big coverup of the details around the event. Don’t get me wrong, obviously skepticism of any institution that had tortured and murdered indigenous children is healthy and so I can’t fault him for wanting to be skeptical of a police report when the police failed to hold Kuper staff responsible. But at the same time, it felt like he was making the man’s story into the story he wanted, and not acknowledging that memory gets distorted. It came on the heels of an interview he did with a priest who was trying to take thoughtful action in the church to protect people from the old abusers and acknowledging that the Catholic Church had done real harm. Felt like host just went into that interview imagining himself as like, the Brave Voice calling out the powers that be who would deny any wrongdoing to the bitter end, and not actually talking to the man in front of him. I’m grateful the story is getting investigated and told, I just also wish there were slightly less extra narration and cape wearing. I think the story is enough on its own.

Kuper Island is so thoroughly and sensitively reported. It tells a difficult and important story and should be required listening for anyone who cares about justice.

So well done and even though it’s sad and tough to hear that so many lives were stolen it is important to know our history as people we need to do better and be better ALL people deserve to be respected and the indigenous people need the public to rally and get them justice!!

Excellent job Duncan. This is a fantastic podcast.

This is important for more people to become aware of. The first person storytellers were so well spoken and articulate. Duncan is a warm and welcoming host. Thank you for this presentation.

Yet another “ everything was wonderful until the white people showed up.” This is a stupid story about ghost and goblins and nuns throwing babies in fire pits. It’s absolutely ludicrous that anyone could find this story entertaining. or true. It’s obviously about 99.9% exaggeration.

This is an important story people need to know. Well researched and the host was careful to not exploit traumatized people and treated his subjects with respect and dignity. Unrushed and not sensationalized but extremely compelling.

The story of these schools was not one that I was aware of. I think that people should learn about it and the affects it had on all the children who went there. It’s appalling what happened, and I’m disturbed that anyone could ever do what they did to children. Despite being a dark and disturbing story, it’s one that needs to be told, and you should absolutely listen to it. I’m so glad I did, as it has given me a new perspective, and new knowledge about the challenges indigenous people face and have faced throughout history. I’m deeply sorry to all of the people who were affected, and I would very much like to throw those who hurt all of you into the bottomless pit where they will fall for all eternity💖

While this was hard to listen to, it was so needed. It opened my eyes to something I didn’t know a lot about. This podcast worked hard to be insightful & investigate from many angles. I highly recommend.

Thank you so much for doing this podcast. Over the years I’ve read certain things and have heard certain things about schools and abuses from the Catholic Church. I am an American and this podcast proves that this kind of abuse happens everywhere. I thank you and all of the guests for being so open and honest with sharing this heart wrenching story. The pain and healing is generational and it seems that you doing this podcast was part of the process. I pray for all of those families and truly wish them the best because they deserve nothing less.

Tore at my heart with all the names at the end. Great podcast. Rest easy children 💜

This is a tough story to tackle, but it is done with finesse, compassion, and masterful investigation and storytelling. My heart hurts for all who experienced this trauma. My heart rejoices for the hope in renewal for the First Nations people of Canada and their children. I highly recommend.

This podcast was incredibly well done. The host was so empathetic in the telling of a painful, sordid history. I’m an American who lived in Canada for four years growing up. This story is about one school but, unless you’re burying your head in the sand, it’s about the history of both our countries and the unjust treatment of Native Americans and First Nation people that continues today. Thank you to CBC for covering this.