Close X
Wednesday, November 13, 2024
ADVT 
National

Gord Downie To Release Album And Graphic Novel Inspired By Residential Schools

The Canadian Press, 09 Sep, 2016 11:25 AM
    TORONTO — Just weeks after fans bid what they feared could be a final goodbye to beloved Tragically Hip frontman Gord Downie, the terminally ill singer has revealed he will release a new solo album with an accompanying graphic novel and animated film inspired by the tragedy of Canada's residential school system.
     
    "Secret Path" tells the story of a 12-year-old First Nations boy in Ontario named Chanie Wenjack, who died in 1966 after running away from the Cecilia Jeffrey Indian Residential School near Kenora, Ont.
     
    The album and book will be released on Oct. 18 and the film will air on CBC on Oct. 23.
     
    "I never knew Chanie, but I will always love him," Downie said Friday in a statement. "Chanie haunts me. His story is Canada's story. This is about Canada. We are not the country we thought we were."
     
    In May, Downie made the shocking announcement that he has terminal brain cancer. Tickets for the band's "Man Machine Poem" summer tour, which many feared could be their last, sold out almost immediately, leading to CBC picking up a national broadcast of the final tour stop in Kingston last month. The concert quickly became a national event as millions tuned in across the country.
     
    During that final show, Downie called out to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who attended the concert, to help fix problems in northern Canada in his last scheduled live performance with his band.
     
     
    "It's maybe worse than it's ever been, so it's not on the improve. (But) we're going to get it fixed and we got the guy to do it, to start, to help," Downie said onstage.
     
    In Friday's statement, Downie said he learned the story of Chanie Wenjack, who was misnamed Charlie by his teachers, from a 1967 Maclean's magazine article.
     
    Downie recounted in Friday's release how the boy died beside railroad tracks after escaping the school and trying to walk to his home more than 600 kilometres away.
     
    "All of those governments, and all of those churches, for all of those years, misused themselves," Downie said. "They hurt many children. They broke up many families. They erased entire communities."
     
    For more than 100 years, the federal government funded church-run schools across the country to eliminate parental involvement in the intellectual, cultural, and spiritual development of Aboriginal children, according to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada. The last school closed in 1996.
     
    More than 150,000 First Nations, Metis, and Inuit children were placed in these schools often against their parents' wishes, which led to an apology from then-Prime Minister Stephen Harper in 2008.
     
     
    Downie began "Secret Path" as 10 poems that were turned into the 10 songs for the album, which was recorded over two sessions near Kingston in late 2013.
     
    Proceeds from the album and graphic novel will go to the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation at the University of Manitoba, which is dedicated to preserving the history of the residential school system.

    MORE National ARTICLES

    B.C. Government Will Not Reconsider Tax On Foreign Homebuyers, Says Premier

    B.C. Government Will Not Reconsider Tax On Foreign Homebuyers, Says Premier
      Clark told reporters Tuesday that her government will not reconsider the 15-per-cent tax that is intended to calm what she called a "distorted market."

    B.C. Government Will Not Reconsider Tax On Foreign Homebuyers, Says Premier

    Final Man Charged In 2008 Killings Of Mission, B.C., Couple Pleads Guilty

    Final Man Charged In 2008 Killings Of Mission, B.C., Couple Pleads Guilty
    British Columbia's Criminal Justice Branch says Tom Holden entered a guilty plea for one count of conspiracy to commit murder in a New Westminster courtroom on Tuesday.

    Final Man Charged In 2008 Killings Of Mission, B.C., Couple Pleads Guilty

    Coquitlam Man, 54, Identified As Pilot Killed In Powell River Plane Crash

    Coquitlam Man, 54, Identified As Pilot Killed In Powell River Plane Crash
      He was 54-year-old David Tetarenko of Coquitlam, B.C.

    Coquitlam Man, 54, Identified As Pilot Killed In Powell River Plane Crash

    Toronto Area's Home Sales, Average Prices Hit Record Highs In August

    Toronto Area's Home Sales, Average Prices Hit Record Highs In August
    The Toronto Real Estate Board said its members had 9,813 sales in August, a 23.5 per cent increase from the same month last year, though there were two more working days this year.

    Toronto Area's Home Sales, Average Prices Hit Record Highs In August

    $3 Million In Jewels Missing From Drake, Future Tour Bus

    $3 Million In Jewels Missing From Drake, Future Tour Bus
    Police Sgt. Vince Lewis says the theft occurred Tuesday night at the Talking Stick Resort Arena in downtown Phoenix, where the men were performing.

    $3 Million In Jewels Missing From Drake, Future Tour Bus

    Calgary Judge In 'Knees Together' Case Has Worked Hard To Change: Mentor

    A Manitoba judge says she was initially appalled by the comments a Calgary judge made to a sex-assault complainant but agreed to mentor him.

    Calgary Judge In 'Knees Together' Case Has Worked Hard To Change: Mentor