IV.

While the money he received won’t make the pain go away, Obed said the settlement offers some hope.

His plan is to buy a house. For years he has been effectively homeless, spending a fair bit of time sleeping on a cousin’s couch. Most recently, he has been staying in an assisted-living facility.

Since he was taken from Hopedale at age three, Obed has lived in many houses. But he has never had a home, and you can hear the excitement in his voice when he talks about finally having a place of his own.

“Like holy shit, man, it’s crazy, I’m actually looking seriously to look at a house to buy, this is something … that I’ve always wanted to do,” he said. “Now that I am somewhat financially stable, I can do it. “

"I am just going to f--king drink, and when I’m tired of drinking, maybe I’ll stop."

The apology ceremony with Trudeau is being held in an arts centre about a 40-minute drive from the residential school in North West River. Obed will take the stage both triumphant and damaged.

He has won his apology, but his injuries from that night in the snow have left him disabled. He lost his language, his culture and contact with some of his family. He hasn’t seen his younger sister Sara in person in 37 years, when they left the residential school and were separated, each plunged into the foster care system.

Obed still drinks, and he doubts he will ever be able to stop.

“I tried treatment and I tried counselling, and all that craziness, and it only made it worse. So I said, f--k it, no more treatment centres, no more counsellors, no more bullshit like that. I am just going to f--king drink, and when I’m tired of drinking, maybe I’ll stop,” he said. “That’s where I am right now.”

Obed still harbours bitterness over being excluded from the initial apology, a feeling that hasn’t abated with a change in government and a seeming change in approach to Indigenous affairs. Obed is skeptical of Trudeau’s reconciliation agenda, calling it just “another word that they are trying to make fancy.”

“Bad enough after all these years that we’ve been left on our own to deal with our own demons and everything else,” he said. “Now we have to deal with reconciliation. Just another big old word.”

Underscoring all this residual anger is the fact that many of the survivors who were part of Obed’s class-action settlement might not be there when Trudeau formally apologizes. The federal government is only paying for about 50 people connected to the lawsuit to attend the ceremony in Happy Valley-Goose Bay.

Obed says the decision to limit the travel subsidies primarily to people who testified in open court will keep many residential survivors away. The only way to get to Happy Valley-Goose Bay from the isolated Inuit towns on the coast is by plane, and flights routinely cost more than $1,000.

His brother and two sisters were part of the class-action settlement, but they never testified in open court, so they didn’t get a plane ticket. That means Obed’s sister Sara, who lives in Ontario with her teenage daughter, won’t be there.

“I was eight, she was seven, that was the last time I see her. I would love to see her, and would love to see my niece,” he says. “I’m going to be without my family again.”

Happy Valley-Goose Bay was chosen for logistical reasons, but it means hundreds of Inuit survivors would have to pay out of pocket and leave their homes to hear an apology. It’s also not on Inuit land — Happy Valley-Goose Bay is the biggest town in Labrador, but it is a white settlement that wasn’t even founded until the Second World War.

“It will put a damper on my day,” Obed said.

Even so, hundreds of survivors are expected to attend the apology. The arts centre will be full. The adjoining high school will have a video feed to handle any overflow.

Obed may not know if he will accept the prime minister’s apology. But he is certain of the impact he wants it to have.

“We’ve been fighting our battles and demons and all this craziness for all these years in our lives, a lot of it stemming from the residential schools and everything else, and now, now it’s time to heal,” Obed said. “Now it’s time to say, OK, let it all rest, let the inner child rest. Let’s grow up now, let the adult be the adult.”