The Ghosts of Residential Schools Continue to Haunt the Federal Government...

I'm happy to hear that the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (set up in 2007 as part of the apology to First Nations people affected by residential schools) is still digging deeper to solve the horrible mysteries of Canada's past that many people would rather forget. The CBC announced today that Ontario's chief coroner (Dr Andrew McCallum) has been searching through Ontario's records and has found that at least 120 "missing children's cases" were actually deaths associated with the residential school system.

I don't know if my education was typical, but I first heard the word "residential schools" in first year university. I had NO idea that the Canadian government had treated its own children and families so brutally. I was taught in my public school education that John Cabot "discovered" Newfoundland in 1497. We did learn about the Beothuks, a aboriginal group that settlers legitimately killed off, some killed as game. But no one EVER told us that the Canadian government had forcibly taken away aboriginal children from their families, forced them to convert to Christianity, in many cases abused them physically and sexually, and forced them to forget their own languages and culture in a drastic "white-washing" effort. Maybe we didn't talk about residential schools because they still existed until the 1990s. When I was in elementary school, residential schools probably still existed in Canada.

 

 

 

Shanawdithit - Last of the Beothuks

I feel ashamed that this happened in my country for so many years. But the best thing we can do is to honor the people who are alive today and STILL living the repercussions of the residential school system. The more we talk about these children, many of whom ran away and died in their attempts to return to their families, the more people will understand why so many Aboriginal people today are dealing with decades of inter-generational pain and suffering. Aboriginal people have been through more than probably any other race. And they are still fighting today to retain their culture and languages. Hopefully the more residential schools are in the news, and in our school books, the more respect the survivors will be given by the general public. This isn't something that happened hundreds of years ago. This is something that the parents and grandparents of young people today lived and suffered through.