CANADA
Montreal Gazette
MONTREAL – Many non-aboriginal Canadians remain all too ignorant of the shameful history of Canada’s residential schools, whose damaging legacy continues to be felt in aboriginal communities across the country. The Montreal hearings of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, which got underway Wednesday and are to continue until Saturday, are part of the process of moving forward, not only for those who choose to testify, but for all Canadians.
At these public hearings, which are being held in seven Canadian cities, survivors of the residential school system are getting an opportunity to recount their experiences. Over the course of more than a century, tens of thousands of First Nations, Métis and Inuit children were wrenched from their families and communities, and sent away to boarding schools run by religious groups and funded by the federal government. Though the schools were winding down by the 1970s, the last of them did not close until 1996.
More than merely a well-intentioned effort to educate children, the policy was frankly designed to assimilate aboriginals — “to take the Indian out of the child,” according to one bureaucrat of the day. Students were forbidden to speak their own languages, and their traditional beliefs were denigrated and characterized as sinful. And all too often, the children were also subjected to physical and sexual abuse. No wonder, then, that the schools have left a painful legacy, one with which survivors, their descendants and their communities are still struggling. The commission’s work is part of a healing process that also includes monetary compensation, and has seen a 2008 apology from the federal government.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.