Reform school abuse survivor David McCann invested into Order of Canada

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David McCann thought he was possibly being pranked when he received a call in October from someone purporting to be with the governor general’s office, and so, after the call ended, he hung up, looked up the GG’s number and dialled.

Yes, he was told, it was true: He was being made an officer of the Order of Canada.

It was certainly a long road that brought the 78-year-old McCann to that moment, considering that his journey in fulfilling the Order’s motto — “desiderantes meliorem patriam,” or “they desire a better country” — began in December 1958, when, only 12 at the time, he was sent from his home in Kingston to St. Joseph’s Training School for Boys, a reform school in Alfred, Ont., where he was sexually, physically and psychologically abused by the De La Salle Brothers who ran the school.

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McCann went public with those experiences in 1990, leading to an inquiry and a victims-led negotiated reconciliation settlement, the first of its kind in Canada.

His search for restorative justice didn’t stop there, however. He subsequently travelled to Rome, for example, to seek a meaningful apology from the Pope. Two months ago, meanwhile, his years-long effort to obtain permission to erect a memorial headstone at the adjacent St-Victor Cemetery in Alfred, where three St. Joseph’s students were buried without ceremony or markers, was finally realized.

Now a businessman in Vancouver, his advocacy for human rights has filled his life and extended well beyond the 35-year battle he’s fought on behalf of victims at St. Joseph’s and St. John’s, the latter a similar reform school in Uxbridge, Ont.

So, while many recipients of the Order of Canada might view the honour as a crowning achievement capping a lifetime of doing good, McCann sees it instead as something he can use to do even more.

“When the story of what happened (at St. Joseph’s) broke over 30 years ago, it changed my life. It was a chance to redeem myself, and, with the unwavering support of so many people, it changed the direction of my life,” he says.

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“Being inducted as an Officer into the Order of Canada is simply a public validation of a decision so many of us made to turn our pain into hope for a better future, not only for ourselves, but for so many others. It’s a story of redemption.”

The Order of Canada is more than simply validation, however. McCann believes the weight it carries will lend him greater gravitas. “People have told me that I now speak with the authority of the Crown and the government of Canada, that I’ve been recognized as one of the few people in Canada — in Canada’s history — to have dedicated his life to reconciliation and healing.”

In other words, McCann’s street cred has broadened into establishment cred, allowing him to flex his philanthropic and community leadership in higher circles.

He’ll use that for numerous causes he believes in, including another shot at Rome. McCann is one of many Canadians who were dissatisfied when Pope Francis came to Canada in 2022 and issued what was criticized as a less than full-throated apology for the church’s role in the Indian Residential Schools.

“He didn’t apologize for the physical, sexual and psychological abuse that the church inflicted,” McCann says, “so I’m going to tell the Pope that I will give him my Order of Canada if he’ll give us an apology. I’m thinking I might leave it on St. Peter’s tomb, or at least one of the pins.

“But I’m going back now with a different voice.”

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