Skip to main content
Subscribe nowSave 25%.
Investigative Journalism Foundation
Indigenous

Access denied: The fight to get inside a database of historic residential school records

‘The federal government is offloading work that it has already done and paid for,’ says researcher

Chantelle Bellrichard
Chantelle Bellrichard

8 Apr 2025 • 4 min read

Copied to clipboard!
A black and white photo shows about two dozen Indigenous children posing together inside a room in a residential school. Some of their faces are blurred because of movement.
Students at Alberni Residential School in Port Alberni, B.C., pose for a photo in the 1930s. Researchers trying to identify children who died at the school have been fighting for access to a database that would allow them to search for records about individual children. (British Columbia Archives).

Chantelle Bellrichard
Chantelle Bellrichard

Chantelle Bellrichard is a Vancouver-based journalist with an interest in investigative stories. She spent nearly a decade at the CBC and has also worked with media outlets that include Gimlet Media, NBC and VICE News.

Democracy needs you.

Subscribe today to support independent Canadian journalism.

Subscribe now

Dig Deeper

Our databases turn public records into public power. Dig in to find the real story on lobbying, donations, contracts, access to information releases and more.

Search

Related Articles

More on Indigenous