When RCMP Const. Calvin Swustus got the call to travel to B.C.’s Lower Mainland for a week of training in 1995, he knew was being asked to join some sort of specialized task force, but that’s about it.

“When I arrived, I looked around and realized that all the First Nations police members were there,” Swustus recalled in a recent interview with the IJF. “After the first day we realized that, ‘Oh we're going to be taking on investigating residential school crimes against our people.’”