, May 16, 2022 Campbell River BC
Barney Williams is the recipient of the 2022 Courage To Come Back Awards’ addictions category.
As a six-year-old boy, Williams was forced from his home in Opitsaht, on Meares Island, and sent to Christie Residential School. He spent 12 years at the school, where he was physically and sexually abused by priests, nuns and older students.
Those early life experiences drove him to alcohol, which he used to numb the pain. There were periods he would drink for 90 days straight, waking up in a hospital bed or jail cell, unable to remember how he got there. Eventually, he had had enough and committed to sobriety when he was 26 years old. Williams was still living in Opitsaht at the time.
