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.
The kid who confronted his abuser at residential school (via See You in Court)
Host Falen Johnson interviews Willie Blackwater about his courageous fight for justice against his residential school abuser, inspiring a movement for Indigenous survivors.
27 Oct 2025
Introducing | Forged: The true story behind the Norval Morrisseau art fraud
Rock star Kevin Hearn of the Barenaked Ladies is doing rock star things — like buying paintings. And what better painting for an iconic Canadian rocker to buy than one by Norval Morrisseau, one of the most iconic Indigenous artists in Canada? But when Kevin’s Morrisseau painting is featured in an exhibit, it gets taken down because the head curator says it’s “questionable.” Kevin tries to get some answers but every answer leads to more questions. Host Adrian Stimson traces Kevin’s dogged quest to find out the truth about his painting — and learns how this one painting is the key to cracking a whole underworld open. Forged is a six-part series, from CBC in Canada and ABC Australia, host Adrian Stimson, an artist from the Siksika Nation, travels from Thunder Bay to the Northern Territory of Australia, to reveal what's believed to be the largest art crime fraud in the world. More episodes of Forged are available here: https://link.mgln.ai/ForgedxKI (https://link.mgln.ai/ForgedxKI)
8 Oct 2025TRANSCRIPT
The custody case from the 80s that still affects Indigenous kids
The stories behind the legal battles that changed Canada — and the unlikely people who made it happen. Some were sh*t disturbers, some were convicts, and some were just regular folks dragged into a fight. Each week on See You in Court, host Falen Johnson teams up with a journalist to dig into a case that challenged the status quo, and asks: what kind of person takes on the law? What are the costs? And what would our lives look like if these cases never happened? Because let's be real, just because a case is closed doesn't mean the story’s over. More episodes of See You in Court are available here: https://link.mgln.ai/syic-ki (https://link.mgln.ai/syic-ki)
21 Jun 2024
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 (https://link.chtbl.com/mytJJc-H)
20 Feb 2024
Kuper Island Introduces: Crime Story
Fraud. Abduction. Murder. Every week, Crime Story host and investigative journalist Kathleen Goldhar goes deep into a tale of true crime with the storyteller who knows it best. From the reporter who exposed Bill Cosby, to the writer who solved one of Australia’s most chilling cold cases — Crime Story guests include: Gilbert King (Bone Valley), Eric Benson (Project Unabomb), Carole Fisher (The Girlfriends), and many more. In this episode, Duncan McCue joins Kathleen to go deeper into the reporting that went into the creation of Kuper Island, the lack of accountability in the way our criminal justice system works, and the importance of honouring the stories that were shared with Duncan for the series. More episodes of Crime Story are available at: https://link.chtbl.com/AJQF9AKR
5 Jul 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
28 Jun 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
21 Jun 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
14 Jun 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
7 Jun 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
31 May 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
24 May 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
17 May 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
9 May 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.
Inside a recent episode
The kid who confronted his abuser at residential school (via See You in Court)
Published 29 Sept 2026 · Transcript excerpt
[…] ¶¶ Willie is one of more than 150,000 children who went to Indian residential school. These kids were taken away from their communities, forbidden to speak their language, or practice their culture. And it all started with the first church-run school in Brantford, Ontario, back in 1831. Yes, that is a place I know well, the Mohawk Institute. That is where some of my family went. There really isn't an Indigenous person that hasn't been touched by this, and that's by design. It was an official policy that Canada would fund these church-run schools. At the time, the Secretary of State said, In order to educate the children properly, we must separate them from their families. […]
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