Thank you.
My name is Marc Levasseur. I am Canadian by birth, descended from Western and Indigenous ancestors from the Algonquin and Mi’kmaq nations. As an adult, I was traditionally adopted by an elder of the Atikamekw nation, and I have been living in relation to the Wemotaci community since then.
Among my accomplishments, I hold a master’s degree in theological studies with a concentration in Indigenous studies, and I am in the process of completing a bachelor’s degree in social work. I also worked as a correctional officer with the Correctional Service of Canada, as well as a spiritual and social worker within Indigenous communities.
Since 2017, I’ve been on disability due to the trauma I experienced during my childhood.
Section 43 has existed for 132 years in the Criminal Code with the purpose of protecting Western Christian ideological excesses that, for centuries, asserted that a child is born tainted by sin and must undergo punishment to atone for their faults.
While Western Christianity considers it morally justified to strike children, such a concept did not exist among First Nations. In Atikamekw, a young child is referred to as “awashish,” which means “the little being of light,” in reference to their purity. This is why, for Indigenous children who experienced educational violence in residential schools, the shock was so brutal.
From its inception to today, this section embodies the colonial legacy of educational violence in Canada. My biological parents told me about the educational violence they endured at school from teachers, and my adoptive mother was forced to attend Indigenous residential schools, where she was subjected to the regime of corporal punishment that prevailed in those institutions.
This section has a lot of blood on its hands and is an anachronism completely at odds with current culture and educational philosophies promoted in Canada. The legacy of this section dates back to a time when it was legal, enshrined in the Criminal Code, for men to have the right to use force to reasonably beat their wives, and when it was common to penalize adults with various forms of corporal punishment in prisons, including the use of a wooden paddle and the strap.
These abuses towards adults disappeared from practices and laws in the 1960s and 1970s, but they are still allowed for children. Our society has chosen not to give children the same level of protection as adults. It is time to correct this, because even today, despite the provisions of the 2004 Supreme Court ruling, thousands of children here in Canada are growing up in environments that promote educational violence with complete impunity, because the content and spirit of section 43 align with it.
For my part, since birth, I have faced an environment of systemic educational violence within evangelical Baptist communities. While some Christian groups put an end to the excesses of educational violence, evangelical Baptists, like others, continue today to defend these practices and are among those advocating to maintain and strengthen section 43.
In our families and within the church, we were taught that being hit on the buttocks with a wooden paddle or strap was normal and for our own good. For them, it is a divine mandate, and they believe that one who loves their child must punish them. As a society, we should consider hitting a child’s buttocks as an assault of a psychological, physical and sexual nature. Yet, this act is considered educational and still protected under section 43.
I endured these systemic abuses from my parents and church school staff. For various and trivial reasons, such as turning around in class, at the ages of four, five and six, I received paddle strikes in the church basement. There were about 90 students in this church school.
Receiving violence from people from whom I should have received love, security and kindness led to a breakdown in emotional bonds, attachment difficulties, a toxic view of myself, anger and violence I had to fight and still fight today. As a young adult, I struggled with substance abuse and homicidal ideation. I lived with symptoms of complex post-traumatic stress so intense that I required psychiatric care.
I have been in therapy for 10 years now and take medication every day.
I often dream about what my life could have been had I not gone to a school where violence was used and how I could have contributed to our society, instead of costing society money, given the treatment required for my condition.