Courage To Come Back: Addictions award recipient survived residential schools and alcoholism

He went from the horrors of Canada’s residential schools to the depths of alcoholism and still managed to come back out on the other side. Our look at the 2022 Courage To Come Back Awards continues with Barney Williams of Campbell River, the recipient in the Addictions category.

Barney was just six years old when he was sent away to the Christie Residential School in Tofino. His father was the head disciplinarian there, but young Barney learned quickly he would be treated just like everyone else.

“I remember [calling him] dad, right? Because he was my dad and then being punished for it. They said, ‘you can’t call him dad, you have to call him Mr. Williams.'”

“So no favouritism there?” CityNews asked.

“Oh, no. Absolutely not,” he replied.

Barney Williams of Campbell River is the 2022 Courage To Come Back Awards winner in the Addictions category. A survivor of residential schools, Barney turned to alcoholism to dull the pain. But he overcame that and has dedicated much of his life to now helping others.

Then, in his teen years, Barney was transferred to the residential school in Kamloops. The discovery of unmarked graves on the site in 2021 did not surprise him at all.

“No, no, not at all because we knew, right? Like, I was 15 when I was there and we knew there was stuff going on, but nobody was listening, right?”

There is one memory in particular that is especially heartbreaking.

“The one time, this little boy came up to us, he was about six years old. He was crying. He said, ‘I’m looking for my little friend. Can you help me?’ We said, ‘Sure. What’s his name?’ And so he told us and [they] never did find him. So, I’m sure he was one of those little guys that was part of those unmarked graves. So, those are the kind of memories I have.”

Like many who survived those residential schools, Barney turned to alcohol to numb the pain.

“Because I drank really hard. It wasn’t a couple of beers [either]. It was guzzle, guzzle, guzzle. And all of that was to get rid of the pain.”

He eventually found sobriety, but it came at a cost. Members of his own family shunned him for turning down alcohol. Barney remembers showing up to his family home for Christmas dinner in 1978.

“We get there, knock on the door, and my younger sister answers and said, ‘Well, if you come inside, you have to drink.’ I said no,” he explained. “‘I haven’t had a drink for a while so I’m not going to start now.’ She said, ‘Well, then you can’t come in.'”

Barney wouldn’t attend another family dinner until shortly before his father’s death in 2011.

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But out of his journey also came a desire to give back.

“Once I was sober, I started realizing I had a bit of a gift to help people. A lot of times people would call or come see me, we start talking, and I realized I had this gift of helping.”

Barney went back to school in 1973 to become a social worker, and his work would eventually lead him to be asked to participate in the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Even Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has sought his advice.

Today, at the age of 82, Barney still helps others, showing the Courage To Come Back.

“Life’s been full of challenges,” he said. “It seems like that the Creator has given me so many challenges, but at the same time has gifted me so much.”

CityNews 1130 is a proud sponsor of the Coast Mental Health Courage To Come Back Awards, which raise critical funds for British Columbians living with mental illness.