97 Years Later Apology at Last On Behalf of All Canadians, Stephen Harper Will Say Sorry to Residential School Victims Such As 'Granny Wabano', by Anne McIlroy and Bill Curry, Globe and Mail, June 9, 2008

97 Years Later, Apology at Last
On Behalf of All Canadians, Stephen Harper Will Say Sorry to Residential School Victims Such As 'Granny Wabano'
By Anne McIlroy and Bill Curry
Globe and Mail
June 9, 2008

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080609.wapology09/BNStory/National/home

OTTAWA — Marguerite Wabano, 104, is known as Granny Wabano to everyone in Moosonee, Ont. On Wednesday, she and five other residential school survivors will be seated on the floor of the House of Commons to hear Prime Minister Stephen Harper apologize on behalf of all Canadians.

It will be a historic and personal moment for Ms. Wabano and tens of thousands other indigenous people who were taken from their families and sent to church-run boarding schools where they were forbidden to speak their own languages. Many were sexually and physically abused.

Indian Affairs Minister Chuck Strahl said that if the opposition parties agree, the House of Commons will set aside all other business on Wednesday for the formal apology for Canada's Indian residential schools policy, which will start at 3 p.m. Church and native leaders are urging Canadians across the country to stop in their tracks on Wednesday afternoon and turn on the nearest TV.

Marguerite Wabano, 104, the oldest survivor of Canada’s residential school system, will be given a chair on the floor of the House of Commons for the official apology.
Photo by Paul Lantz

"We hope that Canadians will pay attention and make time to hear the apology and to bring into mind the history that we're trying to learn about," said Rev. James Scott of the United Church.

Ms. Wabano is the oldest survivor. She speaks only Cree, but attended a residential school run by Roman Catholic grey nuns in Fort Albany, Ont., for two years when she was seven and eight years old, her daughter Madeline Blundon said.

Ms. Blundon said her mother wasn't abused, but she missed her parents and is glad the government is finally apologizing. "She told me 'forgiveness is the main thing in life. That is why I live so long,' " Ms. Blundon said.

Ms. Wabano lives in a seniors apartment in Moosonee, which is on Moose River south of James Bay. She likes to quilt and to sew doll clothes.

She and the former students from other residential schools will not be seated in the galleries where members of the public or honoured guests usually watch the politicians. Along with leaders of five national aboriginal organizations, they will have chairs on the floor of the Commons, where for decades politicians made decisions to support the residential schools.

"This is pretty much unprecedented," Mr. Strahl said in an interview yesterday. The apology has been crafted with consultation from former students and aboriginal leaders, and the minister is confident it will satisfy them.

"It will be a very emotional moment. Many people have waited a lifetime," he said.

Phil Fontaine, the National Chief of the Assembly of First Nations and one of the first native leaders to go public with his story of physical and sexual abuse at a residential school, said he is hoping for an event that will be as "incredible" as the apology by the Australian government in February to its aboriginal people.

Thousands watched TV screens on the streets of Sydney, cheering as Prime Minister Kevin Rudd apologized for Australia's similar treatment of its aboriginal population.

"Canada is now coming to terms with its dark past, a past that's been covered up and hidden from its own citizens," Mr. Fontaine said.

He said he is confident the Prime Minister will deliver a sincere apology on Wednesday that will help former students move forward.

"For first nations, it will restore our dignity because it will say we were unjustly wronged as a people over generations simply because of who we were," he said. "The apology will affirm that we are as good as anyone."

The boarding schools were part of an overall federal policy started in the first years of Canada's founding to assimilate aboriginals into the increasingly dominant population of European immigrants. Partnering with churches that were already established throughout Canada as part of their missionary work, Ottawa built the residential schools and paid churches on a per capita basis to take in native children and teach them a mix of agricultural skills and traditional schooling.

The archives of the time reveal a clear federal policy to encourage the children to abandon their native language and traditions.

That ensuing loss of culture and attachment to family was deemed enough of an abuse itself that Canada agreed in 2006 to compensate all former students who are still alive - about 80,000 individuals. Thousands who endured physical and sexual abuse at the schools must still go through a process of hearings for further compensation.

Mr. Strahl said he is not sure how many people will want to watch Wednesday's apology on Parliament Hill. There is room for several hundred people to follow it on big-screen televisions in several committee and meeting rooms. If need be, screens will also be set up outside on the lawn.

After the apology, Mr. Harper will meet privately with former students of residential schools who are not comfortable near television cameras or reporters. Then he will attend a ceremony, open to the news media, at which there will be a symbolic exchange of gifts and some traditional singing.

Roman Catholic Archbishop Gerard Pettipas, who will be among several church leaders in the House of Commons on Wednesday, said he is often struck by the lack of understanding many Canadians have of aboriginal history.

"I think it's going to be a good experience for Canada, for native people and for the mainstream of Canadian society," he said.