LONDON (UNITED KINGDOM)
Daily Mirror [London, England]
May 17, 2022
By Russell Myers
Community leaders have in recent years demanded apologies and reparations from the Anglican Church which ran 36 residential schools in Canada, the most of any religious denomination apart from the Roman Catholic Church
The Queen should apologise for the brutal treatment of indigenous children at Canadian residential schools at the hands of the Anglican church, campaigners have said.
A scandal involving the removal of children from their communities before placing them into national schools raged from the late 19th Century.
Community leaders have in recent years demanded apologies and reparations from the Anglican Church which ran 36 residential schools, the most of any religious denomination apart from the Roman Catholic Church, and operated more than 150 Indian day schools between 1820 and 1969.
“There’s so much healing that is needed,” Caron said.
“We need basic human necessities in our communities and it stems from colonisation. It stems from assimilation and some financial reparations are absolutely helpful in helping us move forward.”
Royal sources confirmed that Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall will on the first day of their royal visit to Canada acknowledge the treatment of indigenous people in Canada’s residential schools.
Caron said she plans to deliver her request for the queen to formally apologise ( Image: Getty Images)
Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall will acknowledge the treatment of indigenous people in Canada’s residential schools, sources say ( Image: PA)
Within hours of landing in the Commonwealth country in Newfoundland and Labrador in the east of the country, the couple will take part in a “solemn moment of reflection and prayer” in a garden dedicated to indigenous victims of the school system – which saw thousands die or be abused.
Caron said she plans to deliver her request for the queen to formally apologise when she meets the royal couple later this week on the Ottawa leg of their tour.
Canada has been coming to terms with the grim discovery last year of hundreds of human remains in unmarked graves at former church-run schools – institutions to which indigenous children were forcibly relocated for generations.
The Anglican Church ran 36 residential schools — the most of any religious denomination apart from the Roman Catholic Church — and operated more than 150 Indian day schools where thousands of children were mistreated and died.
From the 19th century until the 1970s, more than 150,000 indigenous children were forced to attend state-funded Christian boarding schools in an effort to assimilate them into Canadian society.