Tasting Freedom

At the Edmonton Indian Residential School in 1961, a teenaged student named Helen Campbell Johnson was starving. And she was angry. On top of enduring relentless, daily abuse, the 147 kids at the school that year were hungry all the time. Helen worked in the cafeteria. And she knew that while she and the other kids ate meagre rations of inedible canned pork and lumpy oatmeal, the teachers and staff enjoyed a full spread. One Saturday, standing in that cafeteria, something in her snapped, and Helen took action. This is the true story of a group of kids who -- at enormous risk to themselves -- tasted freedom one unforgettable day 60 years ago.