KEVIN ANNETT

Co-producer,  Unrepentant

Heyoka Magazine: When you first arrived at your new parish and were invited to conduct a wedding ceremony at the native reserve; you asked a native man by the name of Danny Gus - why there were no natives showing up for mass on Sunday. He turned around and said "because they killed my friend, he is buried up in the hills behind the church".

What was your initial reaction when you heard this?
 

Kevin Annett:  Disbelief. I wanted proof but didn't know where to look for it.

HM: When these natives started coming forward with their stories, did it have some kind of a snowball effect and inspire others to do the same?

Kevin Annett:  Yes, many natives began sharing similar stories, in and outside of church.

HM: What was the atmosphere like inside the church while this was going on? How did the white parishioners react?

 

Kevin Annett:  Their reaction was the same as it is now: denial, anger, claiming that I've made the whole thing up, and that I'm "besmirching the reputation" of white missionaries.

 

HM: Did any of these people express concerns or fear of coming forward and telling their stories?

 

Kevin Annett:  Yes, sometimes, but in their tradition, an invitation to speak is taken seriously. Words haven't lost their meaning to them, as they have to us.

HM: Were most of the residential schools that were involved in murdering these children from the United church?

 

Kevin Annett:  No, over half of the schools were run by the Catholics. The United church ran about one third of them across Canada, the Anglicans the rest.

HM: The way some of these children describe these residential schools sounds like something out of a German concentration camp; being given numbers etc. Did they ever talk about their diet, the kind of food, sleeping quarters etc.?

 

Kevin Annett:  Yes, the conditions were universally bad: rotten food, if any, unheated conditions, etc. This is all discussed in my book Hidden from History (see the text of it on pdf version at: http://canadiangenocide.nativeweb.org

Pope Benedict

HM: Did you approach any other churches like the Catholic church in Rome to inform them of what you had discovered?

 

Kevin Annett:  I sent the results of my research and our 1998 Tribunal to governments, churches, UN human rights groups, and published it on the internet. No reply came, from anyone.

HM: After you were fired from the United church, how did this United church go after your wife and did they threaten her or your children's welfare in any way?

 

Kevin Annett:  They offered Anne money to pay for her legal costs if she divorced me, which she did. They also encouraged her to make my life as difficult as possible; for example, she sued for divorce the same week that I had led the first demonstration against the United Church for its crimes in the rez schools (December 1995).

 

HM: Did you have problems with your wife before this point?

 

Kevin Annett:  That's too personal a question, but just suffice it to say that my firing caused irreparable damage to our relationship.

HM: Why do you believe your wife co-operated with these church lawyers and officials?

 

Kevin Annett:  I have no idea.

 

 

HM: What exactly happened to Maisie Shaw?

 

Kevin Annett:  She was kicked to her death down a flight of stairs on the night of Dec. 24, 1946 by Alfred Caldwell, Principal, at the Alberni Indian Residential School run by the United Church.
 

HM: Do you know if these 50,000 murdered native children were mostly buried, cremated or left out for the wild animals to take care of their remains?

 

Kevin Annett:  A combination of all of those, but mass burials and cremation were the common method.

 

HM: At what point did you go to the police and what did they say to you?
 

Kevin Annett:  I reported the Maisie Shaw death the day I learned about it, in December 1995, and they (the RCMP) told me they wouldn't investigate it. They had the same response to any of the deaths I reported, year after year. Complete refusal.

 

Murder at the Alberni and Ahousat United Church Schools
-Accused murderer of both Maisie Shaw and Albert Gray. Principal Rev. Alfred E. Caldwell (Ahousat, 1935-40, Alberni 1944-1953)

Site of Killings and secret burial sites at the Aberni UC School
-Looking west of the school site into the hills where numerous children are reported to be buried.

HM: Exactly how much native land was stolen from the natives by this church?

 

Kevin Annett:  Thousands of acres, on the west coast alone. Probably millions across the country.
 

HM:  Do you think the main reason for the murder of the 50,000 children was the theft of the land in order to sell it to the logging companies; or was it simply Canadian policy to exterminate these Natives?

 

Kevin Annett:  Both. The whites wanted the land and resources, and they had to depopulate the area of Indians quickly; but they also wanted to do so out of a genocidal religious philosophy called Christendom that says that non-Christians have no inherent right to live and should be eliminated.

HM: In the film you show how biological warfare was used like smallpox and tuberculosis on the Natives. Do you know what year these biological agents were first used on the children in the residential schools.
 

Kevin Annett:  As early as the 1860's on the west coast, 1740's on the east coast. Smallpox was used long before the residential schools, but tuberculosis was used as the main weapon in the schools.

HM: Did you ever find out who and why these German doctors were conducting  experiments on the children in 1939?

 

Kevin Annett:  It was connected to a joint research agreement between Canada and Nazi Germany that continued after World War II thru Project Paperclip.
 

HM: What is this Canadian Indian Act about and is it still in affect in any way? 

Kevin Annett:  The Act is still in power and reduced Indians in Canada to a lesser legal status, as non-citizens who have the same status as mental patients or children, ie, those dependent on the state. They are referred to in the Act as "wards of the state in perpetuity", ie, forever. All native land is owned by the government.

 

HM: What happened when you took this information of genocide to the United Nations?

Kevin Annett:  They ignored it.

 

Child with small pox

From the Passion of the Christ.  Directed & Copyright  Mel Gibson

HM: What I found interesting are your beliefs about Jesus Christ and how you said he was a revolutionary who took the side of the poor and the oppressed; how organized religion has done the opposite for the last few hundred years and taken sides with the rich, politicians and corporations etc. Have you seen any positive signs of transformation taking place in these churches?
 

Kevin Annett:  No, just superficial, cosmetic changes in response to the bad publicity they've received. They are spiritually dead institutions run by lawyers and PR specialists. Their "apologies" didn't happen years ago, but only after they began to be sued.

HM: As a minister and believer in Jesus Christ, why do you believe that anyone would want to have anything to do with a church, Catholic, Anglican, Methodist, United church or whatever, that has been allowed to get away with this sort of genocide for so long?
 

Kevin Annett:  I don't. I think anyone who really believes in Jesus' teachings should stay right away from Christian churches responsible for these crimes. Organized Christianity has everything to do with Empire and nothing to do with Christ.

HM: You mention the leper complex and how you were a banned person and described it as being like in South Africa and apartheid. Is this ban still going on?

 

Kevin Annett:  Yes, it is. Constantly. The attacks will undoubtedly increase in response to this film.

 

HM: When this story first broke, was the pedophilia by the priests and nuns talked about in the Canadian media?

 

 Kevin Annett:  Occasionally, and briefly. Not anymore.

HM: How were the native lawyers and native politicians making money off these people's pain?

 

Kevin Annett:  Most of the healing money goes to native politicians to administer. Barely 5% of the money reaches survivors. Lawyers take as much as 50% of any final settlement.

HM: What did you mean when you said healing is a word from the dominant society to make money off other people, and that people do not heal from this because it's not only so traumatic but systematic in the culture?

Kevin Annett: Just what I said. You don't heal from sodomy or torture at the best of times, and when it keeps happening to you, nothing changes. If you try speaking about this stuff on your average Indian reserve, you disappear one night.

Survivors and Their Supporters
- Investigator Rev. Kevin Annett (third from left), with Alberni school survivor Dennis Tallio (fourth from left) and Harry Wilson (third from right), in August of 1998. Annett, Tallio and Wilson have all been the target of death threats and other harassment since the IHRAAM Tribunal of June 1998.

Modern Day Pedophile Ring - Vancouver, BC
- The rear entrance of the Vancouver Club, where children are delivered, usually between 1 am and 3 am.

for more info visit

www.hiddenfromhistory.org

 

HM: What are these modern day pedophile rings that are being operated today with church officials and lawyers. How do you know this is really going on?

 

Kevin Annett:  I have first hand testimonies of people who have been used in these rings; from reporters who documented it and were forced to back off; and by cops who faced the same thing. I have names and even pictures of the perpetrators.

HM: Where can people purchase your book hidden from history, that you printed yourself and have any publishers shown an interest since then?
 

Kevin Annett:  The books and film can be obtained directly from me, through my website: www.hiddenfromhistory.org . No publisher has shown any desire to produce my work.

 

HM: You mentioned Krishnamurti and what he said about God hiding himself  in the most broken among us etc. What would you say you have gained from going through this experience?

Kevin Annett: Knowledge of this truth; a greater sense of who I really am and how nothing can destroy my essential being. A sense, finally, of God in me.