Yesterday's piece of Canadian bullshit

Prime Minister apologizes for residential schools

Monday June 16, 2008

Hundreds crowded into the Samson Bingo Hall in Hobbema, to hear Prime Minister Stephen Harper apologize for the aboriginal residential school era.

The residential school era in Canada began in the 1870s when the objective of missionaries and government was to assimilate aboriginal children into mainstream society. About 150,000 children were shipped to boarding schools located throughout Canada away from their families, language and culture.

“The treatment of children of residential schools is a sad chapter in our history. In the 1870s, (the goal) was to remove and isolate children from their home and assimilate them into the dominant culture,” Harper said. “This policy was wrong, caused great harm and has no place in our country.”

It also had a lasting and damaging effect on aboriginal culture and language and left children victims to emotional and sexual abuse.

“To the approximately 80,000 living former students, the Canadian government recognizes it was wrong. (Residential schools) gave raise to abuse and neglect.

“As you became parents, you were powerless from protecting your own children from the same fate.”

Harper added the cornerstone of the settlement agreement will be a Truth and Reconciliation Commission, an opportunity to educate Canadians on the residential schools system.

Opposition leader Stephane Dion was even more eloquent in his apology. “The residential school system is even older than Confederation. Parents and children were made to feel worthless.
“Today, we lay the first stone in building a monument dedicated to truth.”

Dion said the apology will be a first step in moving forward.

“Today’s apology is about a past that should have been different. It must also be about moving forward, trying to find in us the courage of those who have survived.”

Mary Moonias, a Louis Bull teacher and the first person in Canada to receive a residential school cheque, was in Ottawa to witness the apology.

Elder Leena Small formally accepted the prime minister’s apology. Her Cree words were paraphrased by radio deejay Wilson Okeymaw.

“Canada has done great harm. I cried many times with no one to say, ‘You are a good person.’

“We must be kind and love one another because the people who went through residential schools never had that.”

Assembly of First Nations Chief, Phil Fontaine, responded to the apology.

“This day is testimony to the achievement of the impossible. Never again will this House consider us a problem just for being who we are.”

He said the apology marked a new day in Canada and aboriginal relations.

“Today is something which shows the righteousness of our struggle, a new dawn between us and the rest of Canada. I reach out to all Canadians in the spirit of reconciliation.”

Bert Bull, acting chief of Louis Bull, explained the importance of the day and how it was testament to First Nation’s survival.

“I’d like to wish everyone a memorable day. They tried to take our Indian way totally away, but they did not succeed,” he said.