Isabell Muldoe- There Were Many Rules
The boys were more… they had more freedom than we did. They were able to wander around in the fields, in the bushes, and whatever, but we were fenced in like a bunch of cows. We were not allowed to go beyond the wire fences, and they were wired fences. If we were caught outside those fences we were punished, severely, strapped or else you had to do extra, extra work, along with your duty monthly duties.
We were always hungry. When we got there, our clothes were taken away, they were put in little cubicle boxes. We all had a number, and we immediately had our clothes marked by numbers. Only on Sunday could we wear our clothes that we brought along. We had to wear school clothes and by the time half of the year came along, we couldn’t fit those clothes anymore, that we brought along.
We were not told the rules when we got there. Of course, there were many rules. We learned from the others, or we learn by the mistakes that we made, while we were there, and we got punished. I don’t know if the students that were there already, who knew the rules already, might have enjoyed watching us suffer being punished because we didn’t know the rules… but, we weren’t, the rules weren’t shared.
We never went anywhere, like I said. If you were lucky enough to be in a group called CGIT which was run by United Church, the girls that were in it were lucky enough to go on an outing, and that wasn’t very often. The door doors were always locked. Locked going upstairs to the dorm, to the sewing room, every door was locked. And today, well lately I’ve been wondering… what would have happened if there was a fire? We would have been trapped. I don’t know if they ever thought of that.
The only reason we knew that a supervisor was coming was because each had a big ring of keys we’d hear them jangling, then we behave ourselves for whatever wrong we thought we were doing. We’d sit there and stand there or whatever, and act innocent- from what? I don’t know. What wrong could we do? We were locked up.
Decisions were always made for us. We never had a choice. You had to line up, you had to go to church, you had to do this, you had to do that. We had chores, and if we didn’t do them, like I said we were punished. Even today, I find it hard to make a decision.
– Isabell Muldoe
Notes:
Isabell Muldoe Testimony. SP205_part06. Shared at Alberta National Event (ABNE) Sharing Panel. March 29, 2014. National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation holds copyright. https://archives.nctr.ca/SP205_part06
